MOTIVATED BUYERS

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.

BRANDING MAGIC

By Hank Trisler

Would it help your sales and marketing efforts if scores of people were wearing casual clothing with your brand-picture-logo emblazoned thereon? How about banners, water bottles, coffee mugs and other items all bearing your message?

Branding has done wonders for companies like Caterpillar, John Deere, DKNY and the major networks. Restaurants, bars, contractors, virtually any small business person can benefit from the magic of merchandise branding.

But there are problems. Someone has to stock the merchandise. Someone has to affix the logo to the merchandise. Someone has to bill the customer, fill the order and ship the product. Someone has to take the heat when the size or color is wrong. I'll bet NONE of that is attractive to you; it sure isn't to me.

Now along comes ol' Trisler, together with a company named Colorado Timberline to rescue you and solve your problems.

At no cost to you, we will put up an online store for your company featuring a WIDE variety of goods, both wearable and non-wearable. When people visit your site and purchase items from them, Colorado Timberline will emblazon the goods with a revolutionary new ink jet printing process, or with laser etching, whichever is appropriate for the item selected. They will then bill the customer's credit card (or PayPal) and ship the goods directly to the customer. You're out of the loop entirely.

• NO STOCKING. Nothing at all is in your place of business.

• NO SHIPPING. Everything shipped direct to the customer.

• NO BILLING. All credit cards accepted and billed directly.

• NO MINIMUMS. Your customers can order in onesies and twosies.

• YOU DECIDE WHAT YOU WILL SELL. Select some or all of the goods available.

• YOU DECIDE WHAT YOU WILL CHARGE. Markups are determined solely by you.
  

• NO HASSLES. Colorado Timberline has HIGH quality and terrific customer service.

• NO BULL. This is as straight and clean a deal as you can imagine. You have nothing to lose.

If you'd like to see the product line available to you and see a store in "the flesh," go to our Logos Promotional Marketing store and wander around. The prices you see there are the wholesale prices you will pay.

To see an actual store in action, visit NO BULL SHOPPING.

This is a really effective way to increase your marketing footprint and employ the branding processes of the Twenty-First Century.

LITTLE THINGS MEAN A LOT

By Hank Trisler

Barbara's birthday came in May, as it often does. It became incumbent on me, as a dutiful husband, to get her a gift. I've tried kitchen appliances, garden tools, automobile accessories, gift certificates and cash, all with equal lack of beneficial result. She wanted a real gift, lovingly purchased by me.

I HATE to shop. I abhor shopping the way people who like to shop abhor good sense. I'd rather receive a good, swift kick to the cojones than enter a department store. Realizing this, Barbara told me about a robe she coveted at Nordstrom's, including a description, color and size. She figured that if I could just go in and pick something up, I'd be more likely to do it. She was right.

I'd heard good things about Nordstrom's and their outstanding level of customer service, so the task was anticipated with a level of terror lower than usual.

After parking about four miles away from Nordstrom's, to avoid door dings, I found myself at the foot of the escalator, staring at a directory and breathing heavily through my mouth. Nowhere on the directory did it say anything about robes.

"May I help you find something?" a low, soft voice came from over my right shoulder. I turned to see a gorgeous brunette in her mid-thirties, wearing a well-cut gray business suit and holding a small Nordstrom's shopping bag. She was smiling broadly, but not threateningly. She seemed to really want to help me.

I noticed her words were carefully chosen. She did not say, "May I help you?" (Or "Melp ya?" as said by the pre-pubescents at fast-food kiosks.) That's far too general and has become meaningless through overuse. She asked, specifically, "May I help you find something." I clearly needed help and looked lost.

"Yes, please," I gratefully responded, "I'm trying to find a large white robe for my large white wife."

"You'll find our robes in lingerie at the top of the escalator and to the left," she flashed another dazzling smile.

As I rode the escalator to the second floor, I saw her go down an aisle, curtsey gracefully, pick up a piece of paper and put it in her shopping bag. I thought she must be the store manager. The rank and file certainly doesn't pick up trash.

The lingerie department was mobbed with matrons who clearly knew what they were about. They had shopping bags looped over their forearms and yanked garments purposefully off racks and dumped them on the sale station. Clerks furiously processed plastic and threw unmentionables into bags and boxes. Out-thrust elbows threatened to impale any male so foolish as to encroach on their domain. I lurked by a rack of robes and stared, wide-eyed, looking for all the world like a jack-lighted deer.

My savior of just a few minutes before emerged from the top of the escalator and stepped briskly toward two young clerks huddled at the far side of lingerie, obviously plotting the emasculation of wayward, fat old men. She spoke to one of them, and briefly glanced in my direction. The girl absolutely flew toward me; end-running the crowd at the sales station and stiff-arming a huge woman holding her arm up to stop her.

"You look like you could use some help," she said, smilingly.

I told her about my robe requirements and she expertly pulled the right one from a rack packed so as to deter any man from finding the right one.

I asked her who the striking young woman was who had just spoken to her.

"That's Laura. She's our divisional manager and a very high muckety muck in the corporation," she explained. "We all just love her. She asked me to take special care of you."

Mystery solved. I knew she must be a highly placed executive, but didn't realize she was the right hand to the Nordstrom god.

Was asking someone to take special care of me impressive? You can bet your credit card. I had never even been in a Nordstrom's before, but I'll go back. You win big points by helping strangers in strange lands.

And they weren't done with me yet. "Would you like me to put that in a box for you?" the young woman asked.

"Would you do that for me?" I asked, disbelieving.

"Just wait right here," she said and disappeared behind some curtains.

A few minutes later she emerged with a beautifully gift-wrapped box. I detest wrapping packages only slightly less than shopping, so I was clearly delighted. "Thank you, thank you, thank you," I babbled.

"I was happy to do it for you," she said, simply.

Now there's some power for you. I'd have probably said something like, "Aw hell, that's all right," or "Twarn't nuthin," or "It's all a part of our service" and any of those things would have been okay. But by saying "I was happy to do it for you," she made me feel special, treasured, valued. Her training had been excellent and she was applying it beautifully.

Joel Weldon, a friend of mine says, "Elephants don't bite, it's the little things that get you." Maybe picking up trash isn't the best use of a division manager's time, but I know of no better way to set an example and pick up information at the same time.

In the increasingly impersonal world we live in, the little things will segregate the exceptional from the also-ran.