How Do You Know If It’s A Good Lead?
What makes a good lead when selling home improvements? In this video, I’m going to share what it took me to be in over 16000 homes and be in this business for 35 years to figure out. We will discuss what makes a good lead and how you can tell. Spoiler alert. Trying to figure out if it's a good lead or not, it's probably the worst thing you could ever do as a salesperson, the fact that you're watching this video based on the title could mean you're in trouble. Please listen to the end to understand how this affects your paycheck and what you can do about it.
My definition of a good lead is that they breathe, they own the home and they are lucid. Nothing else. When I train new salespeople I always teach them the secret handshake to tell if it’s a good lead or not. If I can feel a pulse it means it’s a good lead. 😊
The Problem with Talking About Leads
People in sales especially people selling home improvements always talk about the leads. Even talking about the leads is not what you want to do if you want to be successful in home improvement sales. Why? It’s because you rarely hear salespeople talk about the good lead that they blew and cost themselves and their company money. Most conversations involving leads are about how bad they are and what a waste of time it was. They use it to justify their failures. Not take responsibility and in general screw up their chances at success in this business. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again all the leads suck equally and the only difference between people making money and not making money is you. If you keep talking about the leads you will never do anything to solve the problem which is to make yourself a better salesperson.
Misconceptions About Bad Leads
Let's reverse this. Can you tell me what makes a bad lead to begin with? Here we’re not talking about no-shows or customers who want things your company doesn’t sell. We are talking about the leads you get when they open the door. Things like they just want the cheapest, these types of customers never buy, they’re just getting estimates, they’re not in any hurry, they don’t have any money. How would you know these things when you get there let alone before you even go there? I see people even do things like google the person or the house. What's the point of googling something? Does your company actually say, oh, if you Google and it's a bad lead then you don't have to go. I hope not so all you're going to do is create negativity when you really can't tell. Why worry about something you can’t control? The reality is that the poorest areas are where some of the easiest sales are made and the richest areas are the hardest sales to make. If you gave me a choice of going to the inner city or going to a million-dollar home I’d take the inner city lead any day of the week. It's the same reason that blue-collar people generally are easier to sell than white-collar people. They're more down-to-earth, they’re more real and they don't need to have a spreadsheet to make a buying decision. This may sound controversial but if you’ve gone into enough homes like I have you will know it’s the truth.
Why You Shouldn’t Prejudge Leads
Here's the truth: there are no good leads, there are no bad leads, they're just leads, they're people that you know that are not happy with their current situation and they don’t have a valid solution or you wouldn’t be there. There is no other reason that you would be there. Let me clarify unless they own a home improvement company and are trying to steal your selling methods. . Once you understand that your sales will start to go through the roof because you'll do your job 100% of the time versus what you do if you think you are in a bad lead. If you think it’s a bad lead it means you won’t do your job which is to give 100% in every sales call and give them an education on what you and your company do and how it could benefit that customer. That’s your job and doing that will make you sales. Not doing this and you won’t sell anything. The problem with you thinking it’s a bad lead translation and a waste of time is that salespeople tend to present to the level of the customer's desire or what they think is a good lead...For example, if the customer initially says oh do you have financing, or do I need to get my HVAC system done immediately because it’s not working then you go get all of your equipment and do all of the steps your company trained you to do. But if they say “Hey just want to let you know that I’m going to get 52 estimates, I’m not planning on doing anything for 10 years, and if your kitchen costs more than 5 dollars you’re wasting your time. The salesperson gets discouraged and just goes through the motions or in our business I call it quick pitching them. This is wrong on so many levels. One what does it say about you… I don’t think I can get money from you so I won’t do my job and two you are hurting your sales. Take it a step further …If what they were saying and acting like was actually true the one who needs the full presentation is the difficult one and the one you could quickly pitch is the lead you perceive to be the good one or laydown.
The other thing is that you really can’t tell. They are planning to resist you just like you are planning to sell them. When you go buy a car why do you tell them you are just looking even though you may drive for a living and need one today? Why would you not tell them that you just won the lotto if you did? Why do you tell your wife not to tell them you promised her a new car for her birthday? You get my drift. They say that someone is closed in every sales call and when you think it’s a bad lead they close you..
Changing Your Mindset
Here’s what will help you fight this feeling and get you more sales. Act like you get paid the same whether they buy or not and your job is to give them an education and give 100% effort into every sales call you do. This attitude will make you the most sales and is way better than you trying to sell them. Having this attitude of I don’t care if they buy and that you are just there to educate and help solve their problems will stop you from trying to judge the leads and will also be the right attitude for the customer to buy from you. Stop going in the home trying to make a sale and you truly won’t care whether you think they will buy or not. Nobody buys from someone who seems desperate. You can’t tell if it’s a good lead until you get to the end and they buy or don’t. The reality is that the ones I think are going to buy never do and the ones I don’t think are going to buy do. If you are experienced selling a home I am sure you have had the shock like I have of thinking something is going nowhere and then all of a sudden realizing ….This is a sale!
Thinking something is a good lead or not before and after you get there is just a form of another word that will cost you sales. I’m sure you have heard it. Prequalifying. There are no good and bad leads just good and bad salespeople. If you like this video please check out the video on attitudes and the playlist on closing I have above. Happy Selling
