What’s the sales process you follow when selling? Whether you follow the Sandler Selling Life Cycle, SPIN Selling, N.E.A.T. Selling, or the SNAP Selling System, you’ve more than likely experienced a sale or two that has fizzled right before your eyes.
We’ve got a tool that will help whatever sales system you use so your sales will POP! and not fizzle out.
The most important concept is to remember that while the SELLING system you follow is important, what’s more important is learning the BUYING process of your prospects.
How can you ascertain that and do it quickly? By educating yourself on the most common behavioral signals your prospects present at every step in the sale. Once you learn how to identify those behavioral signals, you can classify your buyers into one of 4 basic behavioral buckets and adjust your selling process to your prospects’ buying process. Once you do that you’re making more sales and closing more transactions!
So for today’s conversation let’s get on the same page as to 5 common selling stages.
Basic Steps Of The Sale
While there are tons of sales models to follow for the sake of this post let’s agree that most sales follow steps like these:
- Prospecting – finding qualified buyers
- Introduction – establishing rapport at first meetings
- Needs Discovery – determining what will make the buyer happy
- Providing Solutions – matching buyers’ needs with available inventory
- Closing The Deal – finalizing the transaction
The way you act at each step in the sales process will either resonate with your buyers and you’ll get their permission to proceed to the next step, or you might sabotage yourself by not taking the time to truly understand the type of buyer you’re working with.
The 4 Types of Buyers
There are 4 basic buying styles:
- D – Decisive
- I– Interactive
- S – Stabilizing
- C – Cautious
If you have had practice identifying prospects behavior and classifying them into their dominant DISC category, skip to the next section! If applying DISC to sales transactions is new to you, read this first.
Adjusting Your Selling Style To Prospects’ Buying Style
After you have mastered looking at your prospects through a DISC lens, by the time you have engaged with them through the first 2 steps of the sale, Prospecting and Introduction, you should have a solid handle on the type of buyer you’re selling to. And that knowledge lets you know the best way to connect with them and give them what they need to buy.
Let’s look at the subtle adjustments you can make at each step of the sale.
Prospecting
At the prospecting stage, you are looking to build a robust sales funnel. Real estate prospects can be gained by cold-calling, networking, referral gathering, and online marketing. Use the following techniques to locate different types of buyers:
- Appeal to Decisive or Dominant buyers with competitive pricing or exclusive property offers.
- Seek outgoing Interactive or Influencer-type buyers in networking settings when lead generating.
- Attract Stabilizing or Steady buyers through consistent and helpful online content.
- Entice Cautious or Compliant buyers by showcasing diligent market research.
Where you find a potential buyer can give you a clue to their dominant DISC personality type and you can confirm that during your first meeting.
Introduction
You only get one chance to make a favorable first impression so increase your odds of making a good one by establishing rapport from the get-go. Again tap into your DISC knowledge:
- Earn Decisives’ or Dominants’ trust by being straightforward about your expertise.
- Greet Interactive or Influencers energetically and focus on establishing rapport.
- Answer Stabilizing or Steady buyers’ questions patiently and provide detailed information.
- Prepare Cautious or Compliant buyers by providing well-organized listing details upfront.
After you have gotten on their page and gained their favorable attention, you can proceed to the next step in the sales process.
Needs Discovery
Adjusting the questions you ask and the way you ask them helps put you further into the good graces of your prospects and increases the odds they’ll make a positive buying decision.
- Get right to the point with Decisive or Dominant buyers by asking short, direct questions.
- Since Interactives or Influencers love to share, ask open-ended questions and give them space to talk.
- Stabilizers and Steady buyers need to feel that you can relate to their point of view.
- Be prepared with facts and figures as Cautious or Compliant buyers appreciate details and logic.
Asking the right questions the right way has gotten you permission to proceed to the next step.
Providing Solutions
Here’s where you get to showcase your listening skills. Have you matched what they shared in the needs discovery step to the inventory you have available.
- Highlight quality features Decisives or Dominants look for, like modern updates and unique characteristics.
- Encourage Interactives or Influencers to share impressions and visualize living in the home.
- Give Stabilizing or Steady-type buyers time and space to fully take in the property on their own, and be available for more questions.
- Offer Cautious or Compliant buyers comprehensive facts about the home and neighborhood.
Intensely watch your prospects behavior for buying signals at this stage.
Closing The Deal
Things get serious when the checkbook comes out, so make sure you know who you’re talking to and how best to approach them so you don’t blow it on the last step.
- Provide frequent status updates to impatient Decisives or Dominants. Be ready to stand firm if certain terms are dealbreakers.
- Leverage Interactives or Influencers’ flexibility to find creative solutions if needed, and celebrate with them throughout the administrative steps.
- Reassure Stabilizers or Steadies that you’ll represent their best interests and answer all of their questions thoroughly as they finalize decisions.
- Reference objective market data if Cautious or Compliant buyers get analytical, and take the time to ensure every detail is complete to satisfy their peace of mind.
Hopefully you’ve all made it to a satisfactory conclusion of the sale! Increase your likelihood of sales success and close more deals by effectively adjust your selling style to match your prospects buying style.
