<H1>MOTIVATED BUYERS</H1>

By Hank Trisler

The greatest waste of time in a salesperson's life is the non-motivated buyer. Motivated buyers are those who badly need or want to buy what it is you're selling. They buy quickly, decisively and with an absolute minimum of haggling. The more motivated they are, the quicker and more decisive they become. Non-motivated buyers can't decide, always want to see another house or another model and generally suck up a lot of time.

Since all we really have to sell is our time, we want to segregate the motivated from the non-motivated and spend as much time as possible with the former and as little time as necessary with the latter. Here's the problem: Few buyers come into our lives with signs around their necks that read: "I'm Really Motivated."

That being the case, we need some identifying actions to help us know who is really motivated and who is just shopping. I'm going to use a few real estate examples here, as this is a field in which determining motivation is absolutely essential to one's survival. We'll have to extrapolate to other industries.

MOTIVATION HURTS. People are always asking how they can get motivated and I wonder why. Motivation is when you don't like the position you're in and badly want to change it. Motivation isn't something that one person does to another, but something that occurs internally. Getting motivated is not something I want to do to myself on purpose, but it happens to me without any conscious action on my part. I don't want to hurt on purpose. The more motivated I am, the more extreme are the actions I will take to get satisfied, or unmotivated. When I get the itch, I'll do whatever it takes to get it scratched.

MOTIVATED BUYERS ARE IN THE MARKET CONSTANTLY. If you really hurt, you work hard to make the hurt go away. If you have a buyer who is sitting in a motel with a wife, two kids and a cocker spaniel, you can bet he's going to do his damnedest to get out of there. If he's not looking at homes with you, he's looking with your competition, or calling Owners For Sale, or driving around town shooting For Sale signs.

My son, Howard, once got the hots for a Sport-Utility vehicle for reasons still obscure to me. He haunted automobile dealers, stroked salespeople, drove everything he could get his hands on, scoured the newspapers, surfed the Internet and generally drove everyone around him nuts. He really wanted a new truck. If worked that diligently at his business, he'd be a millionaire by now.

MOTIVATION IS SHORT TERM. Managers all over the world have told me, "I don't want my people to go to one of those ‘Motivational Seminars.' They get all pumped up, run out in the parking lot and can't find their cars. Motivation doesn't last." That's true, but neither does a bath.

We can't continue in a state of hurt forever, so we will find ways to scratch the itch, or make the itch go away. It all happens in the unconscious mind. My informal studies tell me that motivation can be kept at a peak for maybe a week, tops. If that highly motivated homebuyer you have can't find what he wants in a week, he'll rent a house or do something else to make the hurt go away. People just lose the fever.

After about a week of looking at trucks, Howard decided a new one was just beyond his reach, so he decided to slick up his old car and drive it for a bit more. It happens to our buyers all the time.

MOTIVATED BUYERS ARE DISLOYAL. Buyer who really hurt don't care who makes the hurt go away, they just want it gone. If you deal with the truly motivated, prepare yourself for the fact that you may lose them to other salespeople. It wasn't anything you did wrong, it's just that the other guy was there with a solution at the right time. In the long run, however, you'll make a lot more money dealing with motivated buyers than with loyal buyers.

Here's the key: If a buyer is truly motivated, he'll love you if you let him know that you're going to make the hurt go away. Call him early every morning and tell him what you're going to be doing for him that day. "Hi, Al, three new homes came on the market today and I'm going right out to see if any of them might be right for you. Where will you be if I need to reach you?" "Good morning, Frances. I don't have the answer to that software problem yet, but I'm going to be working on it this morning and hope to have an answer for you by early afternoon. I'll call you as soon as I have it." "Hey, Howard, I have a lead on a truck over in the valley and I'm going to see if we can get it for you. Don't go anywhere. I may need to get hold of you."

If your buyer is still motivated, he'll appreciate what you're doing on his behalf and may express his gratitude by holding still until you can solve his problem. After all, if he's convinced that you're working hard for him, he doesn't need to work so hard for himself.

If his motivation has changed, he'll tell you. "Hey, pal, you don't need to bust your pick for me. We just signed a six-month lease, so we'd have more time to find just the right house." Don't be depressed. It was nothing you did. He just found a way to scratch his itch before you did. Motivation can return as quickly and unpredictably as it left. Tell him you'll keep looking for just the right home and put him in your contact manager for a call in two weeks. If you continue to call him every morning, you'll annoy him because he's lost his motivation. Worse yet, you'll be wasting your time with an unmotivated buyer.

Will you lose the occasional deal because someone got motivated in between your bi-weekly calls? Of course, especially if you haven't really sold him on the value of having you as his salesperson. If you have, he may well call you when the motivation returns, but even if he doesn't you'll make more money by focusing on finding a new, more motivated buyer. Buyers who lack motivation will waste your time and drive you to distraction.