Is Sales Really Just Selling?

When someone decides to join the ranks of sales professionals across the globe, most begin to think of the possibilities that this will bring to their life. Meeting new people, attending events to promote their products, and in most cases the opportunity of uncapped earning potential. We get blinded by all the exciting ideas that start to fill up our mind, as we start to think of how ultra successful we are going to be in sales because we love talking to people.

That is a great way of thinking as you start to launch your career in sales. I remember that when I began my career in manufactured home sales back in 2009, I was full of unbounded ideas and desire to do as much as I needed to in order to do well. You see, I had to because I was about to lose everything in my life after having taken the hit that was 2008 in the site-built industry as a new home designer and builder. I came in to that sales lot just South of San Antonio, Texas and I unleashed all my energy upon a stack of about 200 old leads that were handed to me on my second day to begin calling.

I was very fortunate to have somehow lined up four appointments my first week that showed up and two of them bought and from then on I was hooked! I made a little over $10,000 in commission my first thirty days in the business without any sort of real training. I know that money pales in comparison to what housing consultants make in today's market but back then for me that was great.

I rode that hunger that consumed me for a few months and then it happend. I wasn't selling at the same pace that I was those first five months in the business. I wasn't bringing in the same amount of leads I once was. I thought that since I was selling since the age of 10 years old when I used to go door to door selling subscriptions to the now defunct San Antonio Light newspaper, that I would be able to sell anything to anyone. I pretty much did, until I came into the manufactured home sales world.

That is when I discovered that sales is not just selling...depending on what it is you sell. In the case of manufactured home sales, I learned that it was going to take so much more than smooth talking and knowing my product better than anyone. It's always great to be as informed on the finance options and what you can and can't do to the homes we sell.

However, there is one thing that most housing consultants never really pay much attention to. I realized that this is the one industry in which most that come to look at the homes wants to buy a home they are just going to fight you the whole way through so as to not have to buy it. Go ahead, read that again. THEY WILL FIGHT YOU THE WHOLE WAY THROUGH!

So I might be exagerrating for enphasis when I say most clients will do that but it is a very good portion that do that. However I want you to consider the following. When a client goes to buy a site-built home, as long as they like the home and they get pre-approved, they are going to do all they can to get into that home. That statement is based on my almost 16 years in that industry designing and building single-family homes.

A manufactured home buyer is more likely to have so many more uninformed outside factors influening them to not go through with the purchase because it's a "mobile home". A lot of them are influenced by friends and/or family that are trying to convince them not buy because of envy. You couple that with the fact that the client is already nervous about buying a home and you have someone that is looking for that one reason to cancel the purchase. How many of you out there have expereinced that?

So how do we overcome that huge disadvantage? That is where you need to pay really close attention to the way people make their buying decisions, especially when it comes to homes. That is what I started to study back in 2010 and began to use in my career as I began to move up the ranks. That neuroscience based approach of selling has worked wonders for me in my professional career and in life.

Simply stated, it comes down to WANTING to learn about your client and their reasons for wanting a home and CARING enough to hep them get out of their own way. That type of empathy will make it so much easier to be able to take that client all the way through the sales cycle until funding. So how do we do that?

It's more than just asking the right questions and then hitting then just making it about price! It's about taking your time to build that trust in order to earn the right to ask the questions to get the information you need. You must also earn the right to ask for the business. And, you must also earn the right to solve their housing problem.

Selling in today's market is not just selling. Selling in today's market is about being that trusted professional that will lead the way all they while making the client feel as though they are the ones leading you.

As simple as that sounds, it's what housing consultants do less of because they never really learn it and they are never taught it as well. The reason for that has more to do with our perspective on training in our industry. That is a perspective that we should all work to eliminate daily because the market has changed and so has the buyer. We have a huge opportunity to take on so much market share as an industry, if we can do this right and it starts with us.

That is what we bring to the market at Manufactured Home Sales Mastery . All our consulting and training programs are based on the neuroscience of the limbic system and the effectiveness of using it in our sales approach from the way you market to buyers to how you take care of them when they come in to see you.

It's a new market out there and you're dealing with a new buyer. Selling in the manufactured home industry has evolved. Why would you stay the same?

PURPOSE DRIVEN | RESULTS ORIENTED