How To Deal With Multiple People In The Home (Customers and and Third Parties)
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The fun thing about doing home improvement or in home sales is that you are walking into a different situation in a different house for every sales call you make. The common denominator is that you have to be able to take and stay in control of whatever the situation is. For example in most cases you are selling to just one or two people. Normally it would be a husband and wife or partner or just one person.
Dealing with Multiple Decision-Makers
Lots of times in our job you go to the home and you may have multiple people involved.
One example that could happen is when you go to the home and you have a single person there with his or her friend or neighbor.
They could be there to help them or a lot of times if it is a single women you are seeing they may be there just to make sure they are safe with a stranger in their home with them. Or you might have a retired couple and then they've got friends or their children over with them and they’re all involved.
Sometimes they are planning to be involved and sometimes they are not.
Ensuring Everyone Is Involved
Whoever and how many people there are I think the strategy should be the same. They should either be all in or all out. Ideally all in.
You try to get them all involved because the worst case is where they aren’t really all in or all out. They are sort of like sitting on the side where they may be partly in and out of your sales presentation. If you don’t do this when they're going to come in for sure is at the end and the only thing they see is the price and if they're weren’t totally involved they say OMG look how much money that is and then your sales gone. Anyone who is not involved can’t see the value of what they customer is buying and could potentially kill the deal. Imagine trying to sell someone where they only heard ½ of what you were saying.
Engaging Extra Participants
If it’s just one or two extra people there with the home owner usually I just say “ I‘m glad you’re here because it’s always easier and better to get other peoples opinion on things like colors and this is going to be a lot of fun” and keep them involved by talking to all people equally.
None of these are absolutes. Use your common sense. If the other party says “I want nothing to do with this and am going to be watching tv in the other room.” Then don’t force the issue.
Identifying the Decision-Maker
One thing I try to judge is who is stronger if there’s a customer with a friend over. If the friend seems stronger then I still would prefer they are involved because even if they are in the other room at some point…especially if I am writing up paperwork they will come in and could kill the order if they haven’t been there to see the value of what the product cost.
Managing Multiple Decision-Makers
Another thing that happens is that are a lot of decision makers such as 4 siblings who all own the house together and it is a mutual decision.
If this is the case you are trying to please everyone but there will be situations where you can’t and need to mediate compromises.
“If we go lighter like John wants, then can we put in the pantry cabinet that Mary wants?”
Handling Group Discussions
Another situation may be where you think there are one or two primary decision makers and a couple more you may be unsure about.
An obstacle that can happen in this type of situation is when they all start talking and they all want different things and it starts to get out of control.
Taking Control in Group Settings
When there’s a lot of other people involved really quickly what you want to do is take control to sort out the real decision maker and sort of politely put a kibosh on all the other kibitzers. In other words the person you sense is the decision maker says “ohh I'd like to go darker and all of a sudden their friends go ohh no you should go lighter and then somebody else says well I don't know if you need to do that.” When that happens you need to just lay it all out on the table and say look:
“I appreciate all of your feedback but there's no way I'm going to be able to please all of you. We can't make half the kitchen light and half the kitchen dark and then leave half of it undone so I guess the important question I need to ask is who's paying for this first of all. Or who is the real decision maker here so I know who should I follow if you all have different suggestions? or… “Which one of you should I follow the most so I don’t get confused and we're not here for hours.”
Lay it out on the table and try to establish who's in control so you can go from there. Be firm but nice.
Navigating Awkward Situations
Another and sometimes more awkward situation is where it could be a friend or relative such as a mother there with her young adult daughter who is the actual customer.
They mean right but you can see that they start to dominate the conversation and tell their daughter what to do or not and you feel the situation started to get uncomfortable? “Are you sure you need to do this?” “Why don’t you just replace the front windows instead of all of them?”
Addressing Dominant Influences
My strategy there is not to get between them but almost put them in a room and let them fight it out and you deal with the winner. Be polite and tactful
“Miss Mother I really appreciate you being here because I know you are looking out for your daughter just like I would. However I need to know since I am feeling a little friction here is do you make the decisions for your daughter or do you think she is capable of making her own decisions? And what about you Miss Daughter does your mother make your decisions for you are do you think you are able to make them yourself. I will follow whatever you guys want me to do but I need some direction here? “
This may seem bold to newer sales people but after you have been beat up enough times in the home like me it won’t 😊
Rescheduling When Necessary
You also have to use your common sense where the extra people there may actually be a hindrance and you might be better off rescheduling the appointment.
Recognizing When to Reschedule
For example they have friends over for dinner or swimming where if it wasn’t for that particular situation they wouldn’t even be there. They are there for a separate reason then you coming. Then you need to politely remind the customer that there are different colors and styles to pick out and to be fair to them as a customer it would take much longer unless they could give me 100% of their focus and attention.
“Would it be better for everyone we did this at a different time? “
I remember one time they were literally having a birthday party with 30 people there when the wife answered the door. “Excuse me…are you having a birthday party? Yes…well with the fact we are picking out colors and door styles for your new kitchen do you think it might be better to reschedule this so it doesn’t waste your time by going back and forth and not being able to give this 100% of your attention? You know you’re right. I don’t know what I was thinking 😊
Sidebar: Handling Third-Party Interruptions
Sidebar: Separate from all of this regarding third party kills. Haven’t you ever noticed how weird it is that if you are presenting if a friend does come over or the phone does ring it is when you are delivering the price? I used to think they had a secret button they pressed so when I was giving them the price it was the signal to come over. If you’re not new to this I know you know what I’m talking about. 😊
