Most sales professionals are motivated to do good follow-up with “A” prospects. The problem is that more sales occur with prospects who were originally rated “B” and “C”. Yes, most of these buyers have issues, but short-changing their follow-up costs you sales.
Let's dive deeper - Look carefully at the initial prospect ratings of customers who purchased your homes. It’s likely you will find that approximately only 1 in 3 customers who purchased were initially rated as an “A” prospect. This means 2 in 3 buyers likely received minimal initial follow-up.
“A” rated customers have the highest conversion but account for only 1/3 of total sales
|
Original Ranking |
% of Prospects |
% of Sales |
|
“A” |
11% |
33% |
|
“B” |
24% |
34% |
|
“C” |
65% |
33% |
For background, below is a simple prospect rating system:
“A” prospects are those who are ready, willing and able to make a home purchase in the price range offered by the builder For background, below is a simple prospect rating system:
“B” prospects are like “A” prospects except some item must be resolved before they can make a final decision on the purchase of their new home – i.e. they need to sell their current home.
“C” prospects include everyone else.
When reviewing the follow-up protocols with “A” “B” and “C” prospects, it is typical that “A” prospects received significantly greater attention from sales agents. It’s easy to understand as most agents are focused on “A” because these buyers can decide now and have no major issue to resolve in order to purchase. Our research supports the fact that most “A” prospects receive plenty of follow-up.
Ok you say, but what about the follow-up for the other 2/3rd of buyers? This is where the system often breaks down. Our examination shows agents are far less likely to do personalized follow-up with someone who is months away from a purchase decision or who has several issues to be resolved before they can commit to buying a new home. What often occurs is these buyers are subject to standardized CRM e-mail follow-up. You know the kind…. “Thank you for visiting xxxxxxx, our latest new home community located in xxxxxx.” Yes, sales agents get the check the box on follow-up, but most of these e-mails are never opened or end up in junk folders.
Great follow-up requires a system that measures and organizes follow-up around personalized phone and / or texts for all customers. Research shows that averaging an hour a day is likely all it takes to do comprehensive follow-up. Ask your sales agents, “if you spend one hour a day exclusively on follow-up and it resulted in a 20% increase in your commission income would you be willing to commit to a disciplined process every day?” If they answer no, you have larger sales problem than simply with follow-up.
The rules of personalized follow-up today have changed. With so much spam dialing, it’s unlikely that blind phone calls will get answered. No problem – the key is a short and to-the-point message. “I appreciate your visit today. Based on our conversation, it seems like our community could be a good fit. This is my personal cell phone number. Feel free to give me a call or text. I’m happy to sit down with you and see if we can work to find something that meets your needs.”
If texting is better suited for you and your customers, again think brief and to-the-point. “This is XXX from XXX builders. Enjoyed meeting you. I’d be happy to go any issues that concern you in a new home purchase. Let me know how I can be helpful.”
Its easy to spend time following up with your best prospects. They are the most likely to be interested in your community and are the closest to making a purchase decision. Elite sales professionals, however are the ones who follow-up with all levels of prospects. They understand that most buyers start as “B” or “C” rated prospects and that spending a little time up front pays big dividends in the end.
If you would like to learn more about John Rymer and his Sales Management & Training for your new home development team, just reach out!