Sometimes, in the middle of a presentation, with both homeowners present, one or the other buying party suddenly gets up and leaves. This can happen for any one of a number of reasons. For instance, one spouse has to take a child to sports practice. Or one of the buying parties gets up to start making dinner.
Whatever the reason, you have to either get them back into the room together or schedule another appointment when they have more time. You're not going to sell just one. Surveys show that few people are willing to make a significant purchase without their spouse being involved. Think about it: Most people can hardly agree on which restaurant to go to, let alone agree on a major purchase for their home.
What To Do When a prospect gets up to leave, either they're not interested in you and your product, or they flat out have to leave because they have a legitimate reason and there's no flexibility. If they aren't interested — for example, if she's going to help the kids with their homework — you need to find out why. Or maybe you haven't injected urgency into the call. Would she get up and walk out on a dental appointment?
If one or the other have to leave, the departing spouse will likely say, “I need to do such-and-such, but just go ahead, you don't need me anyhow.” At that point, you must set another date. You also need to create urgency: “Mrs. X, this is extremely important. It's important for me to schedule the presentation at a time when you can be here to talk.”
Second Chances The decision to alter or to improve a person's home is huge and should not be taken lightly. Because you're the person who's there to provide information that will help them make this decision, make sure you give that information to all the involved parties. It's your job to be the salesperson. Don't expect the one spouse to sell the other for you. And don't sell yourself on the idea that you can get a sale without one or the other party being there. That's a rookie mistake. —Phil Rea has conducted more than 13,200 in-home sales calls and trained more than 1,750 salespeople. He shares his sales strategies each month with salespeople across the country through his MasterMind Program. For more information, call 866.441.7445.
