Bringing the Power of Relationships into sales

Originally Posted by divineeducation Hi Mr. Cesario, I am fascinated with Real Estate, but not the most knowledgeable - Are you a seller's agent, buyer's agent, Broker, Construction Sales, or are you in New Home Sales in another capacity? Thanks, Aaron

I've actually taken all of the state required classes to become an agent, but as of now I am selling New homes for a fortune 500 builder/developer this is somewhat of a new venture that I've taken on.

O.k. - I am from central Ohio, near Columbus. We have had an explosion over the past several years of (I guess they call them) Mega Builders, like Dominion Homes, MI, Trinity, Centex, and many others. Are these companies similar to the one you work for?

What are the advantages to working for a company like yours? Here, they have model homes and the office of the sales rep is actually in a converted garage or living room / office, and they have office hours, whereby people visiting the developing community can visit the rep and obtain packaging information about different models, financing options, etc.

Blessings,
Aaron

Originally Posted by divineeducation O.k. - I am from central Ohio, near Columbus. We have had an explosion over the past several years of (I guess they call them) Mega Builders, like Dominion Homes, MI, Trinity, Centex, and many others. Are these companies similar to the one you work for? What are the advantages to working for a company like yours? Here, they have model homes and the office of the sales rep is actually in a converted garage or living room / office, and they have office hours, whereby people visiting the developing community can visit the rep and obtain packaging information about different models, financing options, etc. Blessings, Aaron

Yes, the company I work for is similar to the above mentioned companies. I find it to be an advantage to work for a well know builder simply for the fact that most consumers when making a major purchase such as a house want to do some of there own reasearch on the company before hand so it helps to work for a company thats been building homes since 1957. As far as the market goes, you said that you live in Columbus, Ohio area, well I'm not too familiar with the economy in Columbus, however I have family in Youngstown and one of the major differences is our economy is still pretty good, and it's actually an excellent time to purchase a home if you can. Depending on the size of the community being developed at the time we typically have 2-10 salesmen working that developement, and we are married to that particular developement until we sell out 90% of the lots or get a lucrative offer from withen to move to another development, our company on average at any given time might be developing 10 or more of these communities in the Houston market alone. On the smaller developments with just a few salesmen we will actually work out of one of the models, on the larger projects we will move in a modular office, eitherway everyone has their own office. Typically on big ticket sales we are not a one time close, sometimes it just works out that way but on average someone just getting into the buisness should expect a 3-6 month time period to build their pipeline to the point that they are closing 1-2 homes a week, closing just one home a week your well into the 6 figure range. Although the company is responsible for bringing in around 50% of our traffic, each salesman is also responsible for generating 50% on their own through networking, marketing rubbing elbows with realators ect.

When you get tired of shoveling all of that snow up there, and finally decide to move to a city where the jobs are plentiful, the women are beautiful, the economy is booming, the weather is nice, and the fishing is great, just give me a buzz and I'll fix you right up

~James

hey welcome aarron

Hi Bob, thank you!

Hi James,

I would have liked to respond to you earlier, however, I have been working much with some clients, specifically a business brother / friend of mine, and. . .

My wife is going to have a C-Section for the birth of our baby girl the coming Wednesday! So - no doubt - things have been super busy here.

Hey James, you were painting a pretty nice picture of Houston (except that I love my wife and daughter dearly and am not in the market for the women), and I have always wanted to visit (never have), so what the heck. . .maybe we'll move. . .

More seriously now. . .I do enjoy warm weather, and we did just shovel our car out - we live in Madison County West of Columbus Ohio, and actually had blizzard conditions last weekend (about that time) and I think the accumulation was around 18 inches. . and for about 1.5 days, we were at a level 3 which means no one is permitted on the roads unless it is an absolute emergency - we were shut in for almost 2 days!

As I was reading through the description of your company, it is similar to the Mega Builders here, however, your company has been around much longer and probably has a better reputation than many of those here. The market is and has been flat for several years I believe. . .around 5%. . .

My step father was born and raised in Youngstown, and in fact, several years ago, I met Jim Tressel a few times because while he was the coach at YSU, I worked at Tippecanoe Country Club where he had a membership. . . He was a family man, nice guy.

I lived in Canfield as a teen and my parents still live in Canfield, just outside of Youngstown. . .

My step dad's last name is Greco. . .many Italian families in the Youngstown, New Castle, Cleveland loop, but I am sure you knew that.

Pardon my ignorance, but Cesario is Italian, isn't it?

Talk to you soon - Oh - I may not be in for a week or so due to the baby coming!

Blessings,
Aaron

Originally Posted by divineeducation Hi Bob, thank you! Hi James, I would have liked to respond to you earlier, however, I have been working much with some clients, specifically a business brother / friend of mine, and. . . My wife is going to have a C-Section for the birth of our baby girl the coming Wednesday! So - no doubt - things have been super busy here. Hey James, you were painting a pretty nice picture of Houston (except that I love my wife and daughter dearly and am not in the market for the women), and I have always wanted to visit (never have), so what the heck. . .maybe we'll move. . . More seriously now. . .I do enjoy warm weather, and we did just shovel our car out - we live in Madison County West of Columbus Ohio, and actually had blizzard conditions last weekend (about that time) and I think the accumulation was around 18 inches. . and for about 1.5 days, we were at a level 3 which means no one is permitted on the roads unless it is an absolute emergency - we were shut in for almost 2 days! As I was reading through the description of your company, it is similar to the Mega Builders here, however, your company has been around much longer and probably has a better reputation than many of those here. The market is and has been flat for several years I believe. . .around 5%. . . My step father was born and raised in Youngstown, and in fact, several years ago, I met Jim Tressel a few times because while he was the coach at YSU, I worked at Tippecanoe Country Club where he had a membership. . . He was a family man, nice guy. I lived in Canfield as a teen and my parents still live in Canfield, just outside of Youngstown. . . My step dad's last name is Greco. . .many Italian families in the Youngstown, New Castle, Cleveland loop, but I am sure you knew that. Pardon my ignorance, but Cesario is Italian, isn't it? Talk to you soon - Oh - I may not be in for a week or so due to the baby coming! Blessings, Aaron

Aaron,

Congrats on the new addition to you family, Is this your wifes first C-Section? my son was born via a C-Section.

As far as the recent snow you talked about your probally not going to like the fact that it got around 90 degrees here today
But seriously Texas is a whole different world from up there. I have family in the New Castle, Girard/Youngstown area I actually have quite alot of family up ther, half of which I don't really know. But to answer your question, Yes Cesario is Italian.

If you ever get tired of all of that snow and you decide to make that move, I would be more than happy to show you around. I too am very much in Love with my wife a son, it's just hard to overlook the obvious sometimes, well Aaron I enjoyed talking to you, let me know how things go with your new daughter.

~James

Hi Bob,

I have asked the other guys in this thread if they wanted to start talking about the Headline Topic posted above - I have not had a chance to get to know you a little more, but perhaps we can share and all learn / grow together on this topic of Bringing the Power of Relationships into Sales.

Hi Aaron,

Just read the thread spinning off the headline topic you first posted, and agree that the ensuing discussions did get off on a tangent ... nice personal and warm tangent though.

Talking about relationships, the most difficult part would starting one with the customer --- am I getting that right? There is something called a relationship tension that must first be managed. We should try to get within the customer's comfort zone that grants us the right to proceed with the selling process.

In this matter, I find the concepts introduced by (sorry if get the name wrong, it was such a long time ago) Dr. Alessandro (?) on the Platinum Rule of "Treating the Customer the Way He Wants to be Treated" to be such a powerful facility to use, if just to ease the relationship tension within us.

If friends can still remember, the concept swirls around the two dimensions of human behaviour --- Open/Closed and Direct/indirect, where 4 main customer behavioural groups can be identified: Director, Socializer, Relator and Thinker. I have seen recent writers giving different labels to these 4 main groups.

Being able to identify the main behavioural pattern of the customer helps ease the relationship tension within ourselves, and gives us certain helpful points on how to start off the sales interview. Of course, this is an art, not a science, and your miss can be wider than a mile. But, I have constantly used this approach in the last 16 years and find them to be of great help.

Shah
Malaysia