The Decision Box

This is a story about decisions.

Most of all, it's a story about why closing isn't as important as some people would like you to believe.

Remember when we first started talking about closing? I asked you how hard it was to close someone that wanted to buy. We talked about how the top salespeople weren't great closers but were just better than everyone else at doing the things that made closing easy.

Now I want to ask you a similar question, but with a twist. How hard is it to sell someone that isn't sure they want to buy? Better yet, what happens when you do? Let's start with some questions to find the answer.

What is it that causes a customer to say, "Yes, it's perfect, let's move forward." Did they say yes because you asked them what they were looking for and then matched your product to their needs? Or was it because you happened to be a master closer? Or, for the sake of argument, was it both? You might not believe me, but the answer is, "None of the above." None of these techniques have much, if anything, to do with getting a customer to say yes. It's something completely different.

When a customer says yes to an expensive product, there are only two things that influence their decision. One has to do with their appetite for change, and the other has to do with their definition of "The Perfect Decision." Let's start with change.

Any psychologist will tell you that most people aren't too interested in making a change unless they have a darn good reason. Customers are no different.

If they're going to make a change, they have to have a darn good reason, too. And the bigger their reason, the easier it is for them to say, "I'm outta' here."

The Perfect Decision is the second factor that influences the psychology of buying and selling. Psychologists also will tell you that when there's a lot on the line (money), a customer won't budge unless they're sure that they're making a great decision. And a great decision is a decision that's as close to a perfect decision as they can get.

There's just one problem though, and it's a doozie.

The Decision Box
Customers have absolutely no clue as to what The Perfect Decision looks like, feels like or even includes. All they know is that they want it. Their only problem is that they can't define it. To better explain what I mean, I want to introduce you to what I call a Customer Decision Box.

Jeff Thull, CEO and president of Prime Resource Group, originally came up with the idea, and I just took it in a different direction. A customer decision box is a device that allows you to look at selling and buying from your customer's point of view. And in the end, it helps you plan your selling strategy. Take a look at Figure 1, and I'll walk you through the process.

A customer decision box consists of a scale that runs from 1 through 10 on the vertical side and 1 through 10 on the horizontal side. A 10 on the vertical scale means The Perfect Decision, and a 10 on the horizontal scale means A Big Reason to Change. The closer your customer is to a 10 on each scale, the closer they are to purchasing a home. Better yet, the easier it is for you to close the sale.

Since we know that customers wants to make the most perfect decision they can, the only question left is, where do they start? I wondered, so I asked hundreds of salespeople to see what they thought. Associates told me that when customers begin to shop, they're about halfway toward a perfect decision on the vertical scale and about half way toward saying, "I'm outta' here" on the horizontal scale (Figure 1). That's not new news, so here's the shocker.

Customers that are beginning to shop and are about half way on each scale have an "Area of Understanding" of about 25 percent (5x5). They know enough to tell you what they're looking for, but that's about it. And whether or not we choose to recognize it, customers realize that they have to eliminate a lot of question marks before they're anywhere close to making a perfect decision.

And It Only Gets Worse
What will the majority of customers tell you if you ask them what they're looking for in a new home? If you think about it, the only thing they can tell you is what they already know. And what they already know is the information that resides in their area of understanding.

Hot-button or needs-based selling does nothing to help your customer move any closer toward a perfect decision. All it does is provide you with a point of reference to make a presentation. And it only gets worse.

What happens if you try to close a customer whose area of understanding is 25 percent? Master closer or not, you're going to hear the same old thing, "I need to think about it." What else could they say if they know there's a whole bunch of things that they haven't thought about?

"I don't believe it," you say. "I've sold customers that haven't been very far along in the shopping process." And I'm sure you have. I'm not saying that you can't sell a customer whose area of understanding is 25 percent. Matter of fact, there are three ways you can do it.

• You can sell them by using closing pressure.
• You can sell them by lowering the price.
• You can sell them by getting them excited.

All of these techniques work, they just don't work very well (look at the national closing rate). When everything is said and done, you have an even bigger problem. Once the emotion wears off, your customer's area of understanding is still 25 percent. What happens when they realize that you didn't help them make a perfect decision? Good bye referrals and good bye customer satisfaction scores. And it only gets worse.

In addition to the reason I just described, there are three more reasons why closing early and closing often is bad business (Figure 2). First, there's the customer who's close to a decision but isn't sure if he or she wants to move (Figure 2b). Then there's customers who are sure they want to move but still not close to a perfect decision (Figure 2c). Figure 2a is that customer. And finally, you deal with customers who know exactly what the perfect decision means to them (Figure 2d). But it only gets worse.

Of these four situations, there's only one that supports the sales trainers battle cry, "If you don't close them, your competition will." And that's the customer who has shopped a long time (Figure 2d). There's only one problem, this market group represents well under 10 percent of your visitors. This means that you're being trained to deal with well less that 10 percent of your visitors as though they represent 100 percent of your market. How many sales do you think you're missing?

Two Parts to Every Sale
So, what's the answer? Actually, it's pretty easy. Just remember that there are two parts to every sale. The first part is helping your customers define the perfect decision, and the second part is helping them decide. Customers don't buy a home unless they believe it's the perfect decision.

The most important part of the sale is helping your customers define what a perfect decision means to them. Once they do this, they have a reference point to decide and helping them decide becomes a snap.