Why a Receptionist for a Sales Organisation Needs to be a Gun Sales Person

superhero receptionistWe have tested over 400 receptionists through all the businesses we have worked with and the profiles of the ones the business owners tell us are very good, are identical to the sales people.

Yes, equal to the BETTER sales people, especially in specialist sales organisations like Real Estate offices. You’re surprised that this role is so important to your business achieving new sales? I’m not.

One of the characteristics with new business or ‘hunter’ style sales people is they are not focused on details as they are often working too quickly. The upside of that is they are willing to handle a million balls at once, which is the first reason you need a hunter at reception. That is, they don’t handle a lot of detail as a normal part of their work, but in a busy office they need to be good with volume and not get flustered.

The second reason is the reception deals with the most important people, your public, often in times of crisis and confusion and if they cannot calm, or stall, an unhappy caller before they are dealt with more fully, the caller will turn their distress at your business and most often never call back. You get one chance at the really important issues to make a difference and the front desk is the first person the public will deal with so they can make a huge difference in supporting your prospects and  clients before they are heard by the ultimate representative.

The third reason is that reception is the best way to give someone too young to sell or unable to work full-time a chance to learn the whole business while you wait for them to be ready to sell. Given how hard it is to find quality sales staff at any level why waste this role on someone who does not aspire to a career path inside your business.

If you are interested in a simpler more accurate way of finding sales staff who can sell, whether for reception, a listing agent or a BDM for new managements contact me at maya@salesinventoryprofile.com or call now on 0407 005 290

Wanting to grow your sales team? Have you considered growing your talent within?

Emotional Engagement during an Appraisal

Selling without emotion is hard work!

Emotion stimulates the mind 3000 times faster than rational thought. The brain is structured in such a way that the emotional processing (instinct) starts responding first and creates much stronger chemical reactions then the logical processes, which are triggered much later. The emotional processes are designed to turn on the flight or fight (or freeze) mechanism and are on a 24/7 hair trigger for anything that creates fear.

It’s an emotional world we live in. Many people say we live in a rational world but nothing could be further from the truth. Emotions drive our behavior; the world is driven by emotions. Rational thought leads customers to be interested but it is emotion that sells.

Capturing minds is one thing; capturing hearts is quite another.

The most successful sales involve strong emotional connections between people. People don’t actually make life decisions on clear logical grounds. We often decide first and rationalize second. We are emotion based creatures that are first and foremost run by our fears and instincts. Our brain has been designed so that logic cannot easily override our emotions, especially strong emotions.

The better you target that human instinctual connection with the vendor the easier the sales process that follows will be. You need to start targeting their emotions the second you walk across their threshold. Given we sell Real Estate at a very intimate, personal level (in their homes) you have the opportunity to connect with them not in a brash, blatant way but in a simple and very profound manner.

To maximize your chances of getting the listing you must first connect with their hearts then later you can rationalize with their minds. Remember that the fear emotion has the strongest effect on the decision making process. You need to connect very directly with their fears in a way that explicitly helps reduce their fears.

So what are you selling that you need to be emotional about before you get the listing? Until you have secured the listing you have just one product: YOU.

Who are you? (some standard stuff, you need to tailor this to you):
• A committed member of your local community.
• A professional real estate agent of XX years standing.
• A highly experienced sales person who knows how to sell the value in each and every property.
• XX years young, e.g. through your own midlife dramas with plenty of drive and ambitions (people want personal content i.e. who are you?)
• You’re a specialist with Blue Bay Real Estate.
• A Licensed Agent partnered with one of the area’s most successful agents.
• Educated and raised in this community.

BUT of what value is that to them? How do you meet their emotional needs?
How does that make you the right person to sell their castle? How can you reduce their fears? You have to translate these things into specific benefits to them, in their context.