“When you have an organization that is well trained, their salespeople are service minded and they put customers in a hugely comfortable position where they want to buy,” he adds.

“Two of the main driving forces of the top producers are their high level of optimism and a high level of dominance — meaning they’re not afraid to ask for the order. At the same time they understand they are going to be met with resistance and they understand their job is to keep the customer at ease and continue to sell past that resistance without making the customer feel intimidated or uneasy,” Smith explains.

Resistance

Resistance is part of the territory. Customers don’t want to feel that they’ve been sold a product but, rather that they’ve bought it — that it was their decision. Resistance, too, comes from the extraordinary amount of information available to consumers, making them more skeptical than ever. A good salesperson anticipates the negative information that his prospects may have heard or read about the remodeling industry and certain practices of those in the business. The salesperson then counters this with positive information about his company, Smith says.

Salespeople needn’t be discouraged, he adds. “More and more business is being sold today on the first visit than I can ever remember.”

"Practice, practice, practice.We don’t let them learn on the leads; we let them learn before we give them the leads.”