I saw that just yesterday, real estate company Century 21 decided to quit producing and running TV ads. They were usually entertaining, and I’ll miss them.

One of my favorites was a humorous piece that illustrated a great a great sales point.

A real estate agent is showing a couple a house. He pulls in a driveway of one that looks exactly like the 20 others on the block. “How about this one?”

The wife says, “We said no ranches.”

He backs out of the driveway and pulls into one directly across the street. “This is more of a Colonial-inspired ranch.”

“No ranches,” they respond in unison.

So he then drives them across the street again to another identical house: “Well, this is a Tudor-inspired ranch.”

“NO!” the husband shrieks.

At that point the narrator comes on and states “Century 21’s Pledge Point #13. Century 21 agents will show only the houses you want to see."

Wow, what a novel concept, I say with my tongue firmly planted in cheek.

Why in the world wouldn’t that be the first thing that all new agents hear?

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to sales training. Our first point: show only homes that people want to see. Thank you and go get ‘em.”

Matter of fact, it should be one of the first things any new sales reps hears: talk only about what prospects or customers are interested in.

There you go. Follow that point. Live it. Make it an ironclad rule.

It will reduce or eliminate objections.

Matter of fact, one thing you should never hear is “We don’t need that.”

Here are specific action items to help you avoid hearing the “We don’t need it” objection.

Have a “Needs” Mindset
Never begin a call, or the planning of a call, from a product/service presentation perspective. Such as “I’m going to call today to present our new product line to customers.”

Instead, adopt the mindset of  “What needs, problems, and desires must my customers be aware of in order for our new product line to be of value?”

Take your product/service benefits and results and define what needs or problems must exist before the benefits truly would be of value. Then create questions you’ll ask. For example, a sorter/collator attachment for the prospect’s copy machine would only be of value if,

1) they don’t have one already;

2) they have—or anticipate—copy jobs that require sorting and collating; and,

3) they’re doing it manually and it’s taking the time of a person who could be doing something else, or they want to prevent that from occurring.

Embellish their Needs and Problems
The hungrier someone is, the better that scrumptious dish sounds, and the more desirous they become. You enhance their hunger with your questions so that when they hear your presentation, they’re listening from an open, receptive, salivating state of mind. This is the key to helping them want to buy instead of selling them.

Using the sorting and collating attachment example mentioned above, taking point 3, where the company had a person performing the tasks manually, embellishment questions would include,

“How much time are they spending?”

“How often?”

“What does that cost in terms of labor?”

“What other things could they be doing?”

Recommend AFTER Questioning
Only present after you’ve identified their needs, problems, and potential gains they desire. Make this an unbendable rule! It’s here that you ensure you won’t hear the “Don’t need it” objection.

Get Information Before You Give It
I define a “pushy” salesperson as one who presents something a person doesn’t want or need. Asking the questions first eliminates that possibility.

Know When to Leave
In some cases you’ll come up empty in the needs department. In that case, don’t hesitate letting go without a time-wasting presentation that would only create objections. You might, however, want to ask one more catch-all question to drag your net through the sea to catch anything you might have missed:

“Joe I’m not sure if what I have would be of any value to you. Could you see any possible circumstances changing where you would be expanding your assembly line?”

Again, a simple concept: talk about only what they have interest in. It’s the difference between “pitching,” and giving someone
what they want.