by charlie lang, executive coach & trainer @ progress-u ......are not in a rush, insist on your...

Tactics against sales tactics © Progress-U Limited ♦ [email protected] ♦www.progressu.com

Tactics against sales tactics

By Charlie Lang, Executive Coach & Trainer @ Progress-U Limited

Published in SMART INVESTMENTS & PROPERTIES

Professional property agents are supposed to save you time and hopefully help you get that ideal apartment you are hunting for. But given agent’s own agenda for the need to close deals, can you really trust them to look after your interest? Charlie Lang, a professional sales & leadership coach, makes a living dissecting sales tactics. Here, Lang shares his own experiences dealing with agents and through his analytic eye offers tips to identify the sincere agents.


A few months ago, I was considering buying an apartment here in Hong Kong. It

was my first time and I didn’t know what I would discover on this journey.

If you want to buy a house, an apartment or pretty much anything of value, you

typically need to interact with a number of sales people from different vendors.

In this article, I will share with you some of my experiences with various sales

people who tried to employ all sorts of sales strategies and tactics on me, how to

identify them and what to do to make sure your best interest is maintained.

What they didn’t know was the fact that I was a ‘sales person’ all my

professional life with positions such as Sales Engineer, Export Sales Manager,

Sales Director, Managing Director of some sales subsidiaries, and VP Sales &

Marketing for APAC. Even now, I’m still involved in sales as Managing Partner of

my sales & leadership training and coaching company.

The first sales agent I met, let’s call him Tim, welcomed me with a friendly smile

into his agency. He asked what I was looking for and I gave him a list of

requirements, specifying which criteria are a must, which ones are quite

important, and which ones rather nice to have.

I noticed that he focused on the requested size, desired locations and the

available budget and immediately said: “Oh, it will be very difficult to get

something decent in these locations within this budget. That could take a long

time, maybe we will never find it. I could show you some nice places which

match most of your criteria, but will cost 20- 40% more.” He obviously already

forgot that I said that I’m not in a hurry.


Lesson No.1: Sales people tend to look for easy and fast deals. Very

attractive deals (for me) are rarely easy to find and take time and effort. If you

are not in a rush, insist on your own criteria (including budget!). This is provided

that you believe such deals exist, although they may just be a bit harder to find.

How an excellent sales person would respond: “Looking through your

criteria, I notice that you’re looking for something below average market price

which of course would be beneficial for you and make it a good investment.

Though it might be a bit tough to find, we’ll do our very best to find something

as close as possible to your requirements. It might take a bit of time, but you

said that you’re not in a rush, so that should be ok then.”

So, I insisted on my criteria and noticed right away that his motivation to look for

an appropriate place for me reduced considerably. I had pretty much the same

experience with most of the other five agents I contacted. Luckily, there was one

exception who seemed to be willing to go the extra-mile for me to search for

something matching with my criteria.

The other agents said that they will keep their eyes open and let me know if

anything by chance would show up.

Eventually, after a few weeks, some of the agents came back to me with

apartments that at least fulfilled all my must-have criteria and most of my

should-have criteria.

One of these agents, Annie, was a smartly dressed Chinese lady who obviously

lived abroad for several years. Her English was very good and she knew how to

express herself in a very enticing manner.


When we entered the apartment, she was highlighting all the good points of this

apartment, such as proximity to subway (important to me), level of security

practiced by the security guards (somewhat important to me), number of

bathrooms (three instead of requested two, not really important to me), ‘beauty’

of installed lamps (absolutely not my style), large size of the terrace (important

to me), etc.

Lesson No. 2: Sales people tend to list all advantages of what they try

to sell independent of whether they are true advantages for you or not.

They do that to impress the buyer and believe that it will increase the motivation

for the buyer to buy. However, the more they list things that are unimportant

for the buyer, the higher the chances of their efforts backfiring on them. Many

buyers then consciously or subconsciously start to think that they will be paying

for attributes they do not actually want and will therefore be paying an

unnecessarily higher price. They start mentally discounting the value of the

sales item.

As a buyer, it is important to remain clear about what truly matters when

considering the value of the object in question.

What an excellent sales person would do: Excellent sales people will try to

get a clear idea on the true buying criteria of the buyer and highlight only those

attributes that match with the buying criteria and ignore the rest, because they

don’t matter. At best, if any apartment has a unique feature that was not

discussed before, they would ask a question around that.

For example, if an apartment has two instead of one terrace, the excellent sales

person would try to get a better understanding why the terrace was a

requirement. If the buyer responds that she likes to get a sun-tan during her free


time, the sales person could say something like: “I see, then you’ll probably like

one special feature of this apartment: it has two terraces, one on the east side

and one on the west side. This will allow you to take a sun bath at any time of

the day.”

One time, I found a nice apartment with a somewhat right price. The agent

asked me: “Since you like this place and since the price is very attractive, I

suggest that I start preparing the purchasing contract together with the seller.”

“I said, hmm, sorry, no, I first need to think it over once more.”

The seller, obviously trained in a technique called “Assume-the-Sale Close” which

she just applied, made a puzzled impression and perhaps knew from experience

that if she wouldn’t close it now, she might never do so. So she decided to be

persistent and followed up with the “Better-Act-Now Close” and responded: “You

know, these kind of places are very rare and I have two other people who

showed strong interest. They will come to see the place again this afternoon. So

I can’t guarantee that the apartment then will still be available.”

I responded, “Well, if that’s the case, then so be it. I’m not ready to make a

decision right now.”

Still not deterred, the agent pulled out her last closing technique, the “Last Ditch

Close” by saying: “If you decide right now, I will give a call to the seller to ask

him to take over some of the government fees you’d need to pay. But I can do

that only if you make your decision now. If you decide later, then this will not be

possible anymore.”

I said, “Thanks for the effort, but I need to go now. I’ll let you know later.”

And I left.


Lesson No.3: Beware of closing techniques! Many sales people try to push

you into decisions you might regret later if you agree right then. If you doubt,

don’t! Even if you can’t explain why you can’t make a decision right now, don’t

make it if you don’t feel 100% comfortable.

The reason why you have doubts or don’t feel comfortable is because your

subconscious mind ‘knows’ of some criteria you are not aware of and yet still

matter in your decision-making. Unless these criteria have reached your

awareness and been answered satisfactorily, a comfortable and good buying

decision can’t be made.

What an excellent sales person would do: Excellent sales people know that

if a buyer is not ready for making a buying decision, some conscious and/or

subconscious criteria have not been met, yet.

They will use questions like “Is there any important aspect that you are not yet

satisfied with?” to check the conscious criteria. To reveal subconscious criteria,

they will ask questions like “Is there anybody else, like your spouse for example,

whose opinion you need to consider before making a decision?” or “Is there

perhaps something you haven’t thought of so far but which might be quite

important to clarify before you can make a comfortable decision?” or “Is the

financing of this purchase fully clarified?” Top sales people have a lot of

experience what these subconscious criteria could be in their industry and will

ask appropriate probing questions when they see any resistance in making a

decision.


Excellent sales people know that a sales person can not close a deal but need to

assist the buyer in their buying decision process. Once all important conscious

and subconscious criteria have been met satisfactorily, closing of a deal becomes

a natural consequence.

I remember seeing one apartment which made an excellent first impression. I

was almost about to go for it, but something was holding me back. As usual,

when this happens, I ask for more time and perhaps a second visit.

The sales person told me that this apartment is really a jewel and I should really

decide soon because it would be likely that other people seeing the apartment

would be equally impressed and might just decide earlier and I’d miss a great

opportunity.

I resisted and went home. At home, I looked at all the data of the apartment and

realised that the apartment covered actually only few of my ‘should-have’ criteria

and almost none of my ‘nice-to-have criteria’. Considering purely the data, the

price seemed way too high. So I wondered why I was so impressed when I

visited the apartment. After going through the visit in my memory, I realised that

I was impressed by the spotless cleanliness and perfect painting of the place.

Everything was perfectly in order and well organised which made the apartment

look so attractive.

Lesson No. 4: The owner of the apartment used a tactic that is often

employed by used car salesmen. It is called “dressing up”. It is based

on the principle that if an item ‘shines’ as if it was brand-new, the perceived

value tends to increase.


Don’t get mislead by the first appearance. As the saying goes, “Not everything

that shines is gold.” Be clearly aware of what is really important to you and

determine the value of the property based on that.

What an excellent sales person would do in this situation: As stated

before, excellent sales people have only the best possible outcome for their

customers in mind. If they realise that an apartment just ‘shines’ but actually is

otherwise not great, they will bring that to the attention of the buyer and try to

work out a fair price for what the buyer would get and considering what the

buyer truly values.

Eventually, I found an apartment that looked pretty close to what I was looking

for, in fact, I really considered buying it. Even though it was within my budget, I

felt it was a bit overpriced considering the actual size, location and state of the

building. I told myself that I would buy it if I’d get an 8% discount.

So I asked the agent: “What is the best possible price you think I can get for this

place?” He responded: “You know, this apartment is already below market value

and a really good deal. I don’t think that the owner will lower the price any

further.”

Lesson No. 5: Property agents, like many other sales people, work on

commission basis. The commission is usually a percentage of the sales price.

The lower the sales price, the lower the actual commission. Especially when it

comes to high-value items such as apartments or houses, any reduction in the

sales price means a significant reduction (in $ terms) in the commission. That’s

why most sales people are reluctant to fight for the lowest possible price for their

customers as it will reduce their income.


Do not get discouraged by the unwillingness of the sales person to fight for a

considerably lower price. Let them know that if they don’t manage to achieve

your target price, there won’t be any deal and they know that in that case their

commission would be zero. If they see that you are serious, they will go fight for

you with the owner.

What an excellent sales person would do: Excellent sales people want to

have excellent customer relationships. To make the customer happy is their

foremost objective. They know that even if they ‘lose’ a part of their commission

today, they win it back and eventually gain more in multiple ways tomorrow

through repeat business and referrals from their happy customers.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, the majority of sales people still believe that selling is a game they

need to ‘win’, rather than focusing on the best possible outcome for their

potential buyers – regardless of whether they close the deal or not.

If the buyer loses by making a decision that she regrets later on, the sales

person will ultimately lose – if not the deal, then the reputation and missed

future opportunities.

If you are confronted with such a sales person, identify the sales tactics and

strategies and act accordingly to protect your interest.

You have one big advantage over all the sales people you meet: you are the one

who makes the final decision! Make use of that advantage!


P.S.: I still haven’t decided on any property yet; luckily I still have some

time to continue my search.

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Charlie Lang is an Executive Coach and Trainer who founded Progress-U Limited in 2002. His mission is to assist his clients in becoming excellent leaders for the benefit of all stakeholders. He is a passionate and professional Executive Coach, Mentor Coach, Trainer, Public Speaker and Author of over 100 articles related to leadership, change management and innovative sales.

End of 2004, he started authoring the book "The Groupness Factor" ( see http://www.progressu.com.hk/Groupness-book.htm ) which got published in August 2005. Charlie’s articles got printed in publications like Human Resources, FZ Magazine, Banking Today, SCMP, Effective Executive and CareerTimes. Charlie is a founding member and President (2007-09) of the Hong Kong International Coaching Community.

by charlie lang, executive coach & trainer @ progress-u ......are not in a rush, insist on your...

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