The Process of Elimination

As we approach March Madness it seems as everyone is obsessed with filling in their brackets for this annual basketball tournament. For me, I see a valuable sales lesson or reminder for us all during this time. What a perfect example of the Process of Elimination at work.

This month college basketball teams around the country will be competing in a championship tournament that will last for weeks and ultimately pronounce one team as The Championship Winner! With so many talented teams from across different divisions you would never be able to compare their true talent unless they went head to head against their competitors to determine a victor. The victor then advances to the next round, and so on till only one team has truly advanced as The Champion!

Essentially through the process of elimination and advancement the tournament is designed to determine the winner. To advance you must win, there are no second chances. Sometimes we forget that this same process affects us daily in the profession of new home sales. Our customers shop for homes using The Process of Elimination.

With so many choices for buyers today, they only way they can sort through the info and make a buying decision is to use the process of elimination. In the current market this process starts first online. A prospect searches online sites for a potential home fitting their needs of location, prices and other such criteria. They narrow down their choices to the homes and communities that they want to go visit in person.

Round 2, the prospect goes out to see the several properties that survived the online elimination. (Is your site designed to survive this online round?) In person the prospects start comparing homes and communities and through continued elimination, narrow down the list even more till they ultimately have the one they Purchase.
With this in mind, our goal is to survive to the next round and keep from being eliminated. Simple enough right, so what do we need to do to keep from being eliminated?

You may have heard that everyone who enters your model “is there to buy a home”, right? Truth is, they are there to buy a home all right, just not your home! At least that is the mindset I encourage sales professionals to have. By adapting this mindset it will force you to prove your value and encourage you to work hard & be kept from elimination.

Your job is to get the customers engaged in your homes, let them pretend what it would be like living in your community. You must give the prospects reasons to keep learning more about what you can do for them, why they should consider your offering and ultimately choose you. Don’t expect your prospect to recognize the value you offer; you must prove it to them.

If you will adopt this mindset and learn to present your homes & communities in a way that proves your value, you will advance without elimination. Ultimately making it to the championship where you get the sale. (and the customer is victorious too!)