This is a common question in the Sweaty industry and one that I feel compelled to address. My advice to him in our Business Breakthrough was simple…I asked:“Are you selling the “What” or the “Why?”At first glance, he looked puzzled…but I went further to explain…I used to sell cars, and one of the best parts about working for a big dealership is they invested a lot into sales training, I learned a technique that still stays with me this day that I use in my House Painting Business, and that technique was based on finding and emphasizing the needs of the customer, instead of focusing on the actual car.To paint a picture for you, imagine you going into a car dealership, and an excited car salesman pops out and asks what type of car you were looking for…“What type of car would you like to see today, miss?”“I’d like to see something with 3rd row seating, please”“Great! Let me pull one up for you!”As the car salesman proceeds to showcase the car, he neglects the most important thing of the entire business engagement, the customer.“Check out this navigation feature!”“Look at how shiny the tires are!”“Don’t you love this paint! It comes with a protective coating!”As the customer begrudgingly smiles and nods at the car salesman enthusiasm, she’s mentally checked-out.His entire focus is on the WHAT (The car) not the WHY (Why she wants to buy the car)So, when it comes time for negotiation, there’s been no rapport built, and there’s no emotional connection to justify a difference in her paying MORE for this car, than the next competitor.So, how does this translate to the contracting business?As a contractor, I see this all the time. Guys will go into a house and start talking about the WHAT…“Ok, so we’re going to paint this trim here…and we’ll do this door with this paint, and we’ll make sure we sand down this…and do this”Although all of this is important, we have to understand that our competitors are mostly going to be doing this as well…so if all we’re doing is focusing on the WHAT, the playing field in the eyes of the customer is even…That means, we can easily be compared on paper…and when you can be compared on paper, you can be compared in price. (Which means, any logical homeowner will just go with the lowest bid! - why not, he has no reason not to!)But, the contractor that sells the WHY is the one that wins…let’s see what that looks like…“Hey Mr. Homeowner, I see that you would like your living room painted…we can get into the details of the scope later, but first, may I ask why you are wanting it done?”“Sure, actually Tanner, we’re looking to move, so we want to freshen the house up to sell it.”“Wow, that’s great! Where are you moving to?”“Well, we’re moving to Wisconsin to be with my elderly mother.”“That’s so nice, I’m sure she’s going to be super happy to have you up there…are you ready for the cold? It’s going to be quite the weather change from Florida”“Oh yeah! We’re from there originally…”“Oh how about that! I’m from up North as well, I definitely miss the climate up there… Can you believe ever since being down here I’ve become allergic to Pollen?!”“Ha, me too! I can’t stand it. We’re excited to breathe normally again!”You see how this dialogue is focused heavily on the WHY?Two things happened here:We found common ground, which means we’ve secured a foundation of trust - essentially, the customer sees that we have like qualities (I’m from up north, and we’re both allergic to pollen) people tend to trust people who are like them (wouldn’t you trust yourself?)I now know what is most important to him (Selling the house)As I shift away from the ice breaking conversation, I then shift my attention and focus to the “NEED”“So, with you moving it’s going to be really important for us to get in and get out, so you can list your house, get a photographer in here to take pictures, and more importantly get up there to see Mom!”(Notice how I haven’t mentioned ONE thing about the project yet!!)“Yes, definitely!”Now, we trial close:“Well, hypothetically speaking, if we did business, I have an opening coming up next week. I could fit you in, and have everything done fairly quickly. If everything lines up today for us financially, is that something that you’d be willing to move forward with?”99% of the time you’re going to get an “Of course!”Great!So now at this point there’s a new level of excitement about the project as a whole, I’ve found out what’s most important to the customer…something many contractors don’t do, or care about…again, they’re focused on selling the “CAR” and not focused on what is important to the buyer, or the “WHY”.Can you imagine if I went in there and simply just did what many contractors do?“Ok great, we’ll paint this, and that…and did you want to add this or that?”…”Ok, give me a few minutes, I’ll be out with a price for you!”No wonder people aren’t hiring you!So, this is what adding value means…and it’s as simple as asking the right questions, and focusing on what’s more important to the customer…If you like this topic, I did an entire podcast episode on it here.I also have videos and other sales education here. see hubwealthy.com/wealthy
0 comments:
Post a Comment