Qualifying and Setting Sales Leads, Part 2
Are you tired of pouring time and resources into leads that just don’t convert? Save time and money while closing more leads. It’s more manageable than you might think!
In this week’s episode of Cracking the Code, Weldon Long covers how you can improve efficiencies and see higher conversion rates. You’ll learn key aspects of appointment setting and communication strategies to properly set a lead and, most importantly, how to get to the ultimate goal: a closed sale.
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00:00:00:00 – 00:00:10:27
On today’s show, we’re going to finish up how to qualify and set leads for maximum sales result.
00:00:10:29 – 00:00:32:20
Last week, I began the conversation around qualifying and setting leads for maximum productivity. This week I’m going to finish that up. So if you haven’t seen last week’s episode, please go back and take a quick look at Make More Sense. Let’s dive into today’s content. Once we have kind of given the homeowner, the the opportunity, we start build a relationship.
00:00:32:22 – 00:00:49:06
We’ve kind of outlined what the process is. By the way, if you do home shows. I use this exact same script at home shows. We do home shows as often as we can. We probably do 6 or 8 a year in my company. We have a team of people that work the home shows for us, and typically they’ll set 25 to 30 sales appointments on a on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday home show.
00:00:49:09 – 00:01:02:19
And we use this exact same process. A lot of people go to home shows and they hand out brochures. They try to get too much information. When we go to a home show, we’re there to set leads. We don’t give a ton of information. We just use the same script. We give them idea of the process and any questions they have.
00:01:02:20 – 00:01:19:26
Our lead coordinators are trained to say, well, that’s a great question. And your sales advisor will have all the options and the information you need, right? So anyway, you can use the exact same, same process for for home sales, right. I’ve got to qualify the opportunity. There’s two things that define a qualified lead in my in my opinion.
00:01:19:27 – 00:01:41:02
Right. And I mean, not every situation is going to be perfect. But there are two things that I think qualify a lead officially. Number one, we have the time commitment. And if possible, we have both homeowners present. If you do this properly, you should be able to get both homeowners present roughly 60 or 70% of the time and on the ones you can’t.
00:01:41:02 – 00:01:58:17
Then we have another process for the comfort advisor to use to try to, you know, get both homeowners present. But at this point and the lead coordination part of this, we simply want you to make the effort. And you’re going to ask two times to try to get both homeowners present. I’ll show you how we do that. And, if you can’t get them there the second time, they just book the lead.
00:01:58:21 – 00:02:15:28
Then it’s on the comfort advisor to try to do what they can do to to have an opportunity to earn the business. Right. So we want to ensure that the homeowner understands the 60 to 90 minute time commitment typically will qualify for 60. We can always go 90 once we get in the house. And we want to make two requests to get all homeowners involved in the design process.
00:02:16:01 – 00:02:34:28
You never say decision making process. That’s a red flag. It will make people feel pressure. You don’t want to say we need everybody there for the decision making process. We want everyone there and the design process right the same way. If they had a, an interior designer come in, we want everybody involved in the design process because we want everyone to love the system.
00:02:35:01 – 00:02:53:18
So we need everybody involved in that process, right? So once we kind of explain what we’re going to do in the previous step and we, we, establish ourselves as the authority, we talk about the heat gain, heat loss calculation. We just go right into now, Mr. or Mrs. Homeowner or whomever I’m speaking to, depending on how long it takes to measure your home and depending on how many questions you have.
00:02:53:19 – 00:03:10:15
This process could take 60 minutes or so. Is that going to be okay? Right? Immediately they understand. Now this is not some Yahoo driving by to drop off a bid. There’s going to be a conversation. There’s a process of some sort. And of course there’s going to be an education process. Right? We don’t want them to think we’re just coming in.
00:03:10:15 – 00:03:26:23
That can be there 15 minutes. We want them to know it’s going to take some time because we want them to book a time that they have that time, right. It’s very important when a comfort advisor walks in the house, he or she has time to do their job. Then we’ll go into also because we offer our satisfaction guarantee, whatever your guarantee is.
00:03:26:25 – 00:03:45:09
It’s very important that we get all homeowners involved in the design process. The last thing we want to do is design the perfect system for you and have your husband, wife, significant other, whatever it is. Hey. Right. Then we would have to pull the system out, refund your money. Nobody wants to do that. So now I’m giving them a legitimate reason why they need to have both homeowners there.
00:03:45:09 – 00:04:04:16
Now, it’s not always going to work again. We’re shooting for 60 or 70% of the time to have both homeowners there. But I’m telling you something. If you got both homeowners present and the other companies are only talking to one of the homeowners, you’ve already improve your probability of getting that job just because you were smart enough to set the appointment with both homeowners and have enough time to do your job right.
00:04:04:19 – 00:04:19:29
So we explain that, and then we go in to say Mr. or Mrs. Homeowner. Buying a new home on our system is like buying a new car. There’s lots of choices. Like everything else these days. The technology is amazing. So given those two factors, the time involved and getting all homeowners involved in the design process, when is a good time?
00:04:19:29 – 00:04:35:12
We could all get together. I have a 2 p.m. and a 6 p.m. available. You have to give them an alternate choice. Clothes. Why don’t you say once a good time? I don’t know. I guess I got to talk to my wife. Blah blah blah. We have a 2 p.m. available and a 6 p.m. give them an alternate choice.
00:04:35:12 – 00:04:51:29
Clothes. Right. You win either way. And so that’s. Excuse me. That’s how we asked the first time. We asked the first time and just say, hey, we need to get all the homeowners involved in design process. It’s great for you. It’s better for us. It’s better for you. We don’t want to design a system that your spouse hates, right?
00:04:52:01 – 00:05:13:08
So you ask the first time when you explain the time that you need. You build a relationship with your homeowner and you ask for both homeowners present about half the time. Excuse me? About half the time your homeowners can say, okay, yeah, my my my wife can be here tomorrow night. It’s amazing if you just ask. The problem is, most companies aren’t asking.
00:05:13:10 – 00:05:31:23
They just send somebody out to drop off a bid. You have to ask. And about half the time you’ll get what you want. If the homeowner says no, if the homeowner says, oh, my wife can never be here, she travels a lot for her job, right? You have to ask a second time. Right. So if they say no, my wife just can’t be here.
00:05:31:23 – 00:05:48:16
She travels during the week. You got to come back and ask again and just offer a super convenient time. I understand that, your wife is busy, but we can come out at a time very convenient for her, either in the evening or even on a weekend. Which works better. I’ve got a 6 p.m. or a Saturday at 10 a.m..
00:05:48:19 – 00:06:07:21
It’s amazing. Sometimes when you just ask people a second time, they will say yes, like, okay, yeah, she can be here Saturday morning at ten. Just simply by asking a second time. And when you put both homeowners in front of your comfort advisors, they’re going to have so much more success. They’re going to have such a better probability of closing that deal.
00:06:07:25 – 00:06:32:04
Right. If they’ve got both homeowners present. So ask the second time, right. If they say no a second time, as you see there in the script, book, the damn lead. Don’t argue with them. If they say no, she just simply can’t be here. I understand, Mr. Homeowner. What’s a good time for you? Now, again, in our sales training, I train your comfort advisors what to do if they got a so-called one letter right and so they can deal with that.
00:06:32:04 – 00:06:51:19
You’ve done everything in your power at this point to try to put them in the best situation. You have to remember you control the process, which is this conversation. The homeowner controls the outcome, which is whether or not they’re both there. And so you have to make sure that you are staying focused on your process and let the chips fall where they may.
00:06:51:21 – 00:07:13:04
Right. And about half the time you’ll get a yes the first time, about 20% people, 20, 20% more people will say yes the second time. So now you’re looking at, you know, 60, 65% of the time, two thirds of the time you’re putting your comfort advisor in front of both homeowners. That simple fact will make them way more successful, simply because they have the opportunity to close the business.
00:07:13:04 – 00:07:31:23
And essentially, you eliminate the biggest objection we get, which is I got to talk to my spouse because the spouse is right there. Now, again, if you’re not successful in getting both homeowners present, that’s okay. You’ve done your best. You’ve you’ve you’ve executed the process and it didn’t work out. That’s perfectly fine. That’s perfectly fine. Now your comfort advisor and he has a responsibility.
00:07:31:24 – 00:07:53:08
She has responsibility to try to reschedule a second visit. But don’t worry about that right now. Right now, one of the most important things you have to keep in mind. Don’t ever give a price over the phone. It is a kiss of death. Don’t give your price over the phone. And in many cases, your homeowner is going to ask, well, how can you give me a ballpark, right?
00:07:53:09 – 00:08:09:01
You’ve got the script here. Well, Mr. Homeowner, buying a new home comfort system is like adding windows or a new roof. The investment can really get up there. When our design technicians come out, they’ll give you several options to choose from. They’ll design a system that fits every budget. Right. That’s what you want to try the first time, right?
00:08:09:04 – 00:08:28:17
You just don’t want to give a price because when we give a price, there is a tendency that we don’t want to offend people. So we end up giving a low number. And if you tell your homeowner what our system could be anywhere from 8000 to 28,000, when your comfort advisor walks in, they’re going to say, I’m expecting $8,000, right?
00:08:28:19 – 00:08:57:06
And the truth is, you probably don’t have an 8000 system anymore, especially with the CO2 pricing coming out, all this crazy stuff. Your basic system is going to be 10 or $12,000 anymore, right? It’s just the nature of the economy and where we’re at with the efficiencies. Right. So you don’t want to give a price, if they ask a second time and you’re going to give a price if you’re this is up to your manager or your owner at their discretion, that they say if they ask a second time, you can give a range, but you have to give a big range, and it has to be a high number on the bottom right.
00:08:57:06 – 00:09:14:05
So as here in the bottom, a new home come system. Mr. homeowner can run from 14,000 to 40,000 on the high end. There’s so many variable size technology efficiency. There’s lots of variables. When our design text come out, they’ll give you several options to choose from. They’ll find something in every budget at least then if you have to do it.
00:09:14:05 – 00:09:30:11
And you want to avoid this at all possible, if at all possible. But if you have to give a number, don’t give a number less than $14,000. You are going to screw your comfort advisor if you do. If you give a small number, the homeowner is going to try to hold them to that and your homeowners, believe it or not.
00:09:30:11 – 00:09:49:00
Sometimes they’ll say things that are true. You can say 10,000 and they’ll tell your comfort advisor, oh, the girl said the phone would be 8000, right? Give a high number. If you’re going to do it all, try to avoid it at all cost. Now the final step kind of a overarching thing to keep in mind. I wrote a book called The Power of Consistency.
00:09:49:00 – 00:10:06:19
It’s a New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and I highly recommend the book. In fact, I think you should by all your family members. The book on Amazon for Christmas, buy them several copies. Actually, but you should check out the book. In all seriousness, it is a book about the power of consistency and visualization and expecting awesome outcomes.
00:10:06:21 – 00:10:25:27
There’s something that happens when you expect good things to happen. It affects your energy. It affects your tone of voice. It affects your body language, which is reflected in your tone of voice and you and the volume of your voice. You have to expect good things to happen. So I hope that you’ll write this down. Or again, email us and we’ll give you a copy of this.
00:10:25:29 – 00:10:42:13
I want you to write down on a sheet of paper. I expect awesome results for myself. For my homeowners, I take the time to build strong relationships with my homeowners, and I established myself as the authority with my homeowners. And I want you to read that from time to time throughout the course of the day. It will remind you of what to expect.
00:10:42:19 – 00:11:04:25
It will remind you of what you’re going to do to be successful. And as you visualize good outcomes, amazing things happen. We don’t have time today on on this particular conversation, but I write in my books a lot about the power of the subconscious mind. Your subconscious mind is the most powerful problem solving supercomputer in the history of Earth.
00:11:04:27 – 00:11:22:24
It will solve any problem you get. It will make things happen for you just simply by keeping them in your subconscious mind. So you have to expect great results. You have to expect that things are going to work out. You have to expect that your homeowner’s going to to build a relationship with you. They’re going to take your advice and block out the hour that you need.
00:11:22:26 – 00:11:45:27
They’re going to take your advice and get their spouse involved in the process. You have to visualize these great outcomes. So again, just as a recap, Oracle Relationship Authority qualified. This whole process will take you about 3 to 5 minutes. It doesn’t take long, but it will make all the difference in the world properly setting your leads. You want to see something immediately drive sales performance.
00:11:46:00 – 00:12:09:24
Give the homeowner a better experience when they call your company right. Don’t just be okay. Did he do his hit him cheat? Okay, we’ll have somebody on Tuesday by. Oh, and by the way, I almost forgot to add that. Super important. If you’re the lead coordinator, the last thing you should do every single day before you leave the office is to contact the calls for the following day and confirm them, because people forget.
00:12:09:26 – 00:12:23:24
And when you confirm them, whether you’re talking to your homeowner or whether you’re leaving a voicemail, you have to send out a reminder the day before. And when you leave that voicemail, are you talk to that homeowner. Remind them of the condition. Hey, Mrs. Jones, I just wanted to remind you we’re going to be out of 2:00 tomorrow.
00:12:23:29 – 00:12:40:14
And I see here in my notes that, that, you know, it takes about an hour or so. And I see here that Mr. Jones will be there as well. Right. Remind him of the appointment and the conditions, because they will forget and if you remind them that all sudden, you know, the spouse comes home from work. Hey, honey, I got to have you at 2:00 tomorrow.
00:12:40:14 – 00:12:59:04
You got to be here, right? They will forget. You have to remind them. Be sure the night before every lead, you call and confirm it. And you confirm the time and that you want both homeowners present. This entire process takes about three minutes. It takes about 60s to confirm the lead, and you’ll be amazed at the impact it has on your sales advisors.
00:12:59:04 – 00:13:16:27
They will love you as the lead coordinator because they’re going to be on better appointments. There’s going to be better relationships. You’ve already broken the ice. You know the baby’s name. You know the dog’s name. The homeowner knows what to expect. We’ve got both homeowners present. We’ve got an hour to do our job. Great things are going to happen.
00:13:16:29 – 00:13:41:03
Awesome content right there. As always, be sure to share this on Facebook. And if you’re not a member, click the button below to get a free trial. I’ll give you access to all of our amazing content. Well, that’s our show for this week, folks. We’ll see you soon. And till then, bye bye for now.
