84. How To Sign Contracts 12 Months In Advance With Roland Nairnsey

I think my purpose is to educate people, help improve their lives, but also make it fun, easygoing, connective. And how do I get builders to be successful? We have an ongoing coaching program, but that's rooted in following a replica process that begins with discovery and being genuinely interested in your clients. I'm just saying, if you're going to negotiate, let's be good at it and create a win win situation when you get a sale and protect profits, make the buyer feel like they want something special. Make it a good game is what I'm trying to. Just capitulate quickly. Basically, it's all rooted back to asking questions and listening and positioning yourself in a way that has meaning to the clients.

This is Professional Builder Secrets, the number one podcast to help you grow your building company safely and securely. Brought to you by the association of Professional Builders. Join us every week as we talk to industry experts and your fellow professional builders on everything you need to know to generate more leads, more sales and higher margins while improving the building experience for your clients. Hello and welcome to the Professional Builder Secrets podcast, a podcast by the association of Professional Builders for building company owners, general managers, VPs and emerging leaders. Here we discuss all things running a professional building company from sales processes, financials, operations and marketing. We have another exciting episode from the Professional Builder Secrets podcast. Joining us today is Roland Nanzi, President of New Home Sales plus, based out of Miami, Florida. Roland, welcome.

Thank you so much, Pasco. I'm very happy to be here. I'm honored to be part of your talk. Thank you.

Well, we're delighted to have you and I was doing some research on the show before I actually jumped on and I really love the background you're in because I have a common alignment to it. But please tell us a little bit about what you do and what your company specializes in.

Thank you so much. Yeah, so I'm a new home sales coach and consultant in the United States, of course, and North America. I started selling homes a long time ago and then was a sales director and took bunches of training. So everything that I teach is completely authentic, is stuff that I've done myself. In fact, my clients call me the, the stuff guy because I literally help them transform with real world information that they can use. It's not a whole bunch of theory and conjecture. It's. It's hundreds of pages of replicable sales systems and processes that work. So yeah, clients all over the country, I go out there and visit with them and we help recruit sales teams and we train them on an ongoing basis and we measure the results and we get proven results increase sales consistently. So that's sort of the side of it, of what I do. That makes sense, by the way.

Yeah, absolutely. I'm just curious, did you, do you ever land on this purpose? Like when you were seven years old, eight years old, did you go, I'm going to actually go coach people for a living. How do you fall into your purpose?

Oh, that's a great question. I didn't see that coming. I guess when I was young I wrote screenplays and I love movies. And so it was either selling or acting, which is sort of a similar thing, you know, just so it's acting with facts. And so I got into real estate very young. It was just when I started started doing and then I discovered the coaching aspect of new home sales and I just fell in love with it. And I just took literal delight and pleasure in watching people improve their lives and career with real world information. So that sort of swayed me over to that side. But I'm like you with your TED talks and your message to convey. But you can make it interesting, fun, memorable. And so, you know, I have the English humor. I did grow up in England before I came to the States. So people do tend to remember that he makes goofy jokes to relate to the material. And so I think my purpose in that regard is to educate people, help improve their lives, but also make it fun, easygoing, connective, that kind of thing. Does that make sense?

Yeah, yeah. I don't think I've ever heard anyone say sales is acting with facts, but I think I'm gonna hold you on that because I actually really like that, so.

Oh, okay. Well, good.

Yeah. So look, you know, the theme of today is around how to sign contracts 12 months or a year or you know, a few months in advance, basically how to pre sale contracts in advance. Where do think builders struggle right now when it comes to contracts and sales? I think why don't we look at it from a holistic view before we dive a little deeper. Where do you think the builders are struggling today when it comes to contracts and sales?

From the experience that I have with the various builders I work with, it really is. We've been through interesting times. I think the builders have been confused as to what they can do. So I think it's uncluttering and simplifying and getting back to basics. Most of the economists who I follow talk about it. It's like 2019 again, 2020, which were really good markets, but you had to be good at what you do. And then we had Covid, and it actually created a boom, as we all know, with rates as low as they were in the States anyway. And so I think there's just been a whole bunch of confusion. So just simplifying, getting back to basics, a simple message, positive selling skills. You know, as it were, some of the sales I've worked with that literally have gone through Covid, their skills have atrophied. They haven't used them. They're confused. You know, there's all these sort of warnings about what we can't do. It's like, well, let's just own what we can do. Let's just make it simple. It's great to meet you. Let's find out what you're interested in. Let's design and build that home around those needs and keep it simple and stop creating sort of imaginary barriers or confusion. As you know, confusion leads to indecision. And so you've got to be clear and simple with your message.

Yeah. Now, how do you help builders with their sales process and, you know, to get better contracts or feature contracts, how do you help them with their sales process?

First of all, you have to have the right team in place. So I spend a lot of time helping them sort of recruit the ideal candidates. We don't need real estate experience, necessarily, but typically people with sales experience, we gravitate towards people that have been selling something at a high rate, whether it's cars or rentals or that kind of stuff. So we'll build a sales team then. Really, it's a training program rooted in. It starts with discovery and being interested. You know, we just briefly chatted prior to this, and you're obviously a person that's good at asking questions and being interested in others. And so that's the basis you want sales people that are naturally curious, mentally nimble, coachable, that can follow a process, and certainly persistent, that really don't hear objections and don't hear no. So, you know, I think that idea of caring about your clients and being empathetic is huge. But also that has to be coupled with sort of a resilience where you can handle rejection and objections and just manage them in a positive way. So. And how do I get builders to be successful? We have an ongoing coaching program, but that's rooted in following a replica process that begins with discovery and being genuinely interested in your clients and then phrasing what you have in a way that makes sense to the clients. Now, let me tell you about my builder. Where the greatest builder, you don't Know the client. How can you possibly say that? So you've got to root any sales, and anything you're selling has to be rooted in discovery and learning about the clients and being genuinely interested and then phrasing it in a way that has meaning to them, not. Not the other way around.

What do you think? Yeah, I mean, look, it's funny enough, my first job in Canada before I actually went on this path, was a professional telemarketer selling timeshare to Canadians and Americans. And I remember going back and reading the pitch, and it was really interesting because I couldn't use it. It was a pitch, right? And I was like, well, how do I investigate further? How do I actually get them motivated? And so I had to reinvent the pitch. And I definitely resonated when you said it's really about getting to know the people you're dealing with. And so I guess, you know, let's dig a little deeper there, just a little bit, because from what I'm hearing, you say you recommend that every builder out there get to know their prospects that potentially qualify them, and then customize a pitch based on what you know about them. Is that correct?

Brilliantly said, actually. Yes, Bosco. So, I mean, it's not completely making up your presentation every single time, but absolutely. It's got to be rooted in basic discovery. I've even narrowed down this public discovery and private discovery. Right. So public stuff is, how'd you hear about us? Great. What was on a website, when you think of moving and our homes, you build 500 million and those features and that kind of stuff. More private is what is their real why, what's their motivation? What's their pain point. A lot of us aren't going to tell you that in the first five minutes, which is not. It's too private. But if you build trust and you're. You're empathetic, then after a little bit, then people will open up. But let's understand that you have five or six questions, maybe five or six minutes to get somebody's attention when somebody walks into your sales arena. I know when. When you were doing timeshare, you probably had eight seconds to keep on the phone and just hang up. So that's a little different.

Yeah, I mean, I remember, you know, back in the day, you had to sort of tap into the sentiment of taking a holiday, and that was how you could closely associate a product to that sentiment is. Is getting people to think about, you know, when the last time they took a holiday was. So that was an interesting question. Yeah, so it was a question that I loved asking was, you know, when was the last time you took a holiday because you just didn't know what to expect. Right. And with the current economic outlo outlook in the world.

Yes.

And with everything that's going on, you know, the uncertainty and just every outlook made available to the media today, which obviously gives a lot of people heartburn and for some people it, you know, it keeps them up at night. How do you view that in the world, especially if you're a builder, you know. And how should a builder really prioritize pre planning? Because this whole concept today is about pre sales or pre planning for the future. Why is pre planning so important? And how do you help builders get there?

Right, fair enough. I think that you have to have economic data on your side. Even as a sales trainer, you know, I work with about 30 builders every on a monthly basis, you know, I have just enough economic information to be dangerous. I listened to some of the best podcasts. In fact I was just on the, on a call with some guys at Zondo, which is a very well known Myers research that they do research and I was just, just confirming facts. So I think if you rooted in economic data to reassure the builders that these are realistic projections, you know, that's the starting point. And then the salespeople have to have a basic understanding of how the economy is affecting them most places, at least in the states, it's so much healthier than the actual media would make it seem. And not to bash the media, that's not my agenda. But if you don't have a filter to analyze data, then you're going to think it's a terrible time to buy. I'm just going to sit on the sidelines. Well, hey, guess what? There's a shortage of homes in the States. We're upside down by about 5 million. We only have a couple months worth of supply when normal is considered a six month supply. Unemployment's at 3.2% in the states, which is almost full employment. If you want to work, you really can, which means people do have income. So if you can't sell in those conditions, there's something not right with you if you don't understand how that positions you. Now I can't speak globally, I'm not in every single market like you are. But I think a beginning point to train your salespeople to make sure they have essential economic data on their side to support that. Now is a great time to buy because you know, finish that statement in the states Now's a great time to buy because a year ago, builders were shut down. We weren't doing pre sales probably. And if you did, maybe you had an escalation clause where you couldn't guarantee the price because costs were so volatile. There were supply chain issues, bidding wars. So it really wasn't pleasant to be a buyer in that market. Now it's great. It's like a safe haven. You can come in, you can choose your home again, choose a home site, personalize it with your, you know, whatever the process is, and rest assured that the price is locked in again and your selections will be made. Most builders are giving a higher level of finish to offset the fact that rates have gone up a little bit. So really there's a strong case to be made for now is a great time to buy because. But you have to have economic data and intelligence to support that. Otherwise it does sound like just a hokey thing that you're saying. So I think that combination would be important.

It sounds like data sells narratives as well. Right. So it gives the builder an extra value. Let's talk about buyers a little bit. What are the findings that you have learned about buyers in the building space that every builder should be aware of when it comes to closing a sale?

I think the buyers got scared with what's going on, everything that you said, and so they just sat on the sidelines for a couple of months and then they've come back out again, recognizing that they want a brand new home, you know, and that a brand new home is more appealing than a used or a resale. Just tapping in into what they want to learn about and not having your own bias, not making assumptions, doing the research on what the clients want, but then really having a sales team that can ask questions and sort of translate features into benefits. You know what, in my book, Mastery of Selling for New Homes, my first book, my next one is Mastery of Negotiation, which doesn't mean you have to negotiate, but I'm just saying if you're going to negotiate, let's be good at it and create a win win situation where you get a sale and protect profits. But basically it's all rooted back to asking questions and listening and positioning yourself in a way that has meaning to the client. So to get back, you know, to peel the onion back, how to builders deal with it and what you're looking at, just understand the market you're in, but make sure you translate what you're doing into benefits for clients. So I call FBI feature benefit involvement. So the feature might Be, I don't know, that you have a, some kind of a product, maybe maintenance free vinyl or a hardy plank or brick or stucco. So what, so what this means to you is. And then it's maintenance free, which will give you more time in. Maybe my case means I can spend more time with my beautiful son Max, you know, which would be a hot button. My lovely wife. Gotta add that in there in case she listen to the podcast. But my point being that just the feature of maintenance free, so what? I don't know what that does. You know, you might be providing green features and solar this and all that stuff, but if the salesperson can't simply explain that to say so it means that you'll have a healthier home and will save money. Is that important to you? Oh, yeah, of course it's important. Thank you for connecting me to that emotion of the feature and the benefit. So the feature is logical, the benefit is emotional, but the involvement question connects you to that emotion. So the heightened level feature, benefit, involvement. So there we go. So if the builder has a vision about something but the salesperson doesn't understand it or can't explain it simply, then you'll be lose a potential clientele.

Now, what are customers looking for in contracts? You know, for a builder that's potentially bringing on a customer, I always like to look at it from a different angle rather than the builder's angle. I always thought I asked this question from a customer's perspective.

First of all, in my book, I have a list of about 100 words that we use in sales. So not to pick on you, but the word contract we've actually replaced with the word agreement, just so you know. So I have a little foam ball that you want to see because, you know, they're listening to this. But in my training, if people say the wrong word, we throw this phone ball at each other, train each other. So that word agreement sounds so much nicer than a contract. Because, you know, if you watch Goodfellas or, or any of those mafia movies, they put out a contract on you. So it's not a lot. It's a home site. It's not a house, it's a home. It's not standard, it's included, yada, yada, yada. Sorry about that little lecture, but I just.

No, no, no, no, no. That's good to know. I mean, hey, I like the word agreement. It actually, it's actually more bonding. So.

No, yeah, that's your background. Right. And connection. Yeah. So we're agreeing to sell you're you're agreeing to buy but the question was what are the clients looking for? Yeah.

In an agreement.

Yeah, yeah, I think it's a great point. I think that there's probably, it depends on the buyer. You know, I teach personality style in the training because you should learn a process one way but then learn to adjust it for the various personality styles that you're working with. But I think the most normal buyers care about integrity and the fact that you'll put something in writing and that there aren't going to be many surprises along the way. So if you are going into a pre sale and that could be at every level, you know, it could be 300. I was a sales director fairly recently before I came back to training and in southwest Florida we were building homes from about 2 million to just over 10 million and yet I've sold homes for 3, 400,000 as well. And people care about integrity and putting things in writing and not having surprises at every level. So. Or understanding if there are going to be changes, what's the bandwidth of that change, is it 5% or is it, you know, 30%, in which case they could get really upset. So I think just being transparent, I sort of use the example. I'm going to try to say it right, I may not, but if you were to go to a restaurant and say the way to what's good and it goes, well, the state's great. Well, I'm a vegetarian, I don't like steak. Well, you asked the question. So you should give a choice, you know, between the, the seafood, I'm looking at your salmon and your steak. What's better? Then he can give an educated answer. Well, it's the same thing with your buyers. You might ask, you might not know what's important. Maybe a little weird example, but you've got to find out what's important to them. So your eyes, your expressives want shiny objects and they want the latest finishes. Your analytical people want energy savings and they want processes and systems and warranties out, you know, extra warranties and proactive warranties, your Ds, your dominant people, that they just want to make sure they're getting the best deal and that they're winning something from you. And then you're amiable, your S's just want to know they're dealing with somebody with integrity and a family type building that you're interested in them. So I think it's not one size fits all unfortunately, but it's being clear and transparent. And so basically Bosco, based upon what you Shared with me. I can't wait to show you this. Not. I have a great idea. Let me show you the idea. Four bedroom. I want to ask you lots of questions about you, your family, what you will get out and say based upon that. Here's an idea for you. Not. Not something. Does that make sense?

Yes. What you're saying to me is really, you know that discovery plays such a big role because in that discovery process you're also going to find out the character of the person you're dealing with.

Yes.

And based on that character, you could potentially shape the agreement to work in their favor.

Well, look at you. That was quick.

Yeah, I'm a quick learner.

I'm a quick learner.

All right, well look, how do we get, get builders to, you know, really get these future agreements, you know, these agreements that are, you know, 12 months or six months or three months, you know, how do we get them to start focusing on that? Because, you know, I think it sounds like a lot of builders will say, oh, we're really time poor or we're really focusing on today. How do you get them to look at the future?

It's probably a blend. You know, I'm not there so. And I'm sure there's so many variables and the many builders that are listening to this podcast. So if you have a neighborhood, if you're a community builder, then of course you are projected a blend of move in ready homes or I don't like the word spec, we call them designer showcase homes because they're professionally curated by our designers. So I'm sure if you're in a neighborhood that you're already budgeting for that I think a lot of the builders I believe would be more on your lot kind of builders and that kind of stuff. And so again, I think it's just having a, just making it seem simple and easy, easy to follow. To answer one of your earlier questions, what do people want? They want a simple process. They want to know that you're confident that they can trust you in the transaction but that it's not going to be way too complicated and that they're going to have to go all over town picking out their flooring and their cabinets. But what you provide is a simple, perhaps a one stop shop or a process where you manage all those decisions for them. So I think the more you can learn about a client and then sort of imbue that this is going to be a simple process, a fun process. We're here to hold your hand throughout out and encourage buyers that it's okay to trust us. And maybe we have a slot that you need to get in right now because the next slot is going to be, you know, middle of April, two months from now or something. But I think it's all about just, just keeping it simple, quite frankly, and, and being a solution provider. As a builder, obviously not, not presenting problems, presenting simple solutions for your buyers.

How do you create urgency for, you know, a building business? How do you help them?

I was hoping. Yeah, good to me to interrupt you, but that's one of my favorite questions because for whatever reason, the last month with my 30 or so teams, we've been asking this question, why my builder? Why my neighborhood and home? Why now? So for those that have a pen handy, why now is. Is a huge difference maker. So for us humans to understand something, you, you, you probably know more about this than me based upon your background. But my understanding is we have to hear things at least three times. Would you agree with that? In other words, just to say it one time isn't enough for us to get it. So I've broken the sales process down into a three act play. Just that there's a beginning, middle and end, you know. So the beginning is you meet somebody, you learn about them, you give a presentation. The middle part is you demonstrate, you narrow down to one of a kind. Act three is closing. And I would advocate never negotiate on your feet, always close at your seat. So I did this. I brought people back to my desk, sat them down and recapped and got so much better at it. So my point being is that that idea of urgency, you can't only wait to act three and go, oh, Bosco, better buy now. It's like, well, you didn't say that before. So up front, when you meet them early on, talk about why now is a great time to buy. There's a phrase, silent sales tools. So if you're in a sales office, have something around you that talks about that. Grand closeout, grand opening, five exciting opportunities, incentives. You know, incentives have rules, they have a time frame, they have terms that should be stated in writing. So silent sales tools that support that, if you're in a neighborhood, have lots of sold. When you sell something, put the soul signs out there, if they get knocked and put them in the windows so that, you know, in the snow and the rain or whatever climate you're in, because that's a silent sales tool. So when somebody is driving through your neighborhood prior to coming in, perception is reality. They'll see that. So I could go on all day about silent Celsius. Tomorrow I'm flying up to Pennsylvania and I have a wonderful builder. It's the first time we work together and the first time I saw their map of the community, they had about, let me get this right, maybe 300, 350 home sites. Sites instead of lots. We call them home sites. But they're only. It's a grand opening. I say what we need to do is hide all the other home sites. Just focus on the current collection, which was about 35 home sites. They quickly did that, and now you've got a map that creates urgency. You're only looking at what's available now. Your focal point is on today. Not. No, you know, to build something, but it's not on. Oh, I'll wait because that. There's a lot over there that's on the trees. And I'll come back next. No, no, focus on now. But always been thinking about what sales tools are creating urgency. Perception is reality. Team whatever. I believe many years ago, I. I sold out of a neighborhood. We built over 2,000 homes, and I was there for the last sale. I was there 10 years. And then I went to a newer. A builder friend of mine, and he hadn't sold a home in this neighborhood for about four months, and he had 23 homes and home sites out of 101. So the very first day on the job, I said, welcome to our grand closeout. 24 exciting opportunities. And then I changed the sign to say 23. And we just sold one. Bottom line is it took about a month to get the sales going. We did four the first month, but we sol out in just over three months, exactly the same conditions as when I got there. But we just had the buyer believe correctly that, hey, we're in the final 25% here. It's a grand closeout. And we only have two corner home sites and we only have this home you like the most. There's only three opportunities, whatever it's going to be. But constantly thinking about how do we narrow down and create a. Not just why us, but why now? So up front, you say it and you show it. In the middle of the demonstration, you have to narrow it down to one of a. Of kind.

Kind.

If you don't narrow down to one of a kind, there is no urgency. Right?

Right.

So if I go to a car dealership, I just look at the car. It's great. That's a nice pipe dream. But if I drive one and I pick it out and I like the colors and I like the cup holders and the rims. Because I'm a baby, that's what in the stereo has to be loud. You know, if I like that one of a kind, then, oh, now I'm gonna have a sleepless night worrying about that one of a kind on the lot being gone. And then at the end in the recap, then you'd support that in writing. Here's the home. Here's the home site that you like. Here's the price that we came up with, and here's the. That even on the. On your lot world, if you can give an idea of the home, it might not be the exact. It might be other steps. But basically I like your plan. You know, your. Your Addison model, you know, with the plug and play options of the extended patio, blah, blah, blah. And it's approximately this now I'm falling in love with a one of a kind. There's going to be a fear of loss. The part of our brain, the amygdala that deals with fear is going to be. I don't want to do without that anymore, so I better either. By now, when I come back, I'm going to be much more likely. That was a long answer, but I do love talking about urgency with this.

I'm all happy about you going through because it.

Oh, okay.

What I got from that was this. Three acts. You're repeating this particular statement to create that connection with the product. Right. And so, yeah, I totally agree with that. What type of buying Persona or avatar should builders be looking for for future agreements? You know, is there a certain characteristic about that buyer that builder should look for?

You mean the buyer or the salesperson for the builder?

Yeah, sorry, the salesperson. The building company that's selling this future contract. You know, they're at buyers who are looking to buy something in the future. So what kind of characteristic or Persona should those builders look for?

I've never. I've always done it the other way around where we'll sort of do market research on what the market, who the market is and who that demographic. So it's an interesting way. I mean, definitely you have to know that. But usually the builder wouldn't create it. The builder would decide upon a market that they're in and that may be a region that they're in. You know, you're in a part of Australia and I don't know know what your buyer base is. But I just had this conversation quite literally a builder in Wichita that's gonna. Wants to do a TND or traditional neighborhood. It's like, well, you know, who's that buyer going to be? I don't know, is it a move up, Is it a right size or like somebody moving down? Is it maybe newly single? So I think that it's a great question. You should understand it and then market directly to that. You know, you can, what, geotarget or geofence, go after many more of what you want, but you need to know it. But it's going to be different things. In a lot of markets I've worked in, there's two or three avatars, really. It could be that second, third move up. It could be a right sizer that wants to scale back and it might be some other blend of some nationality that, you know, ethnicity that wants to be in that part of town. A lot depends on what you're selling and AB locations, etc. But definitely you have to know it. So you're very shrewd to talk about it.

Yeah. Look, you had a chord with me when you said it could be another buyer. Because it's funny enough, I'm about to, you know, put an offer for another house. I'm a homeowner, you know, I've bought a few houses in my time in different parts of the world. And the house I'm looking for, we saw it on the weekend and I was, I fell in love with it.

But, oh, good.

I said to the realtor, I said, you know, I'm willing because the seller isn't ready to move out. They need to find another place before.

Okay, perfect.

So I said, I'm willing to wait because that's the one that I want. Right. But it struck a chord with me because perhaps in this particular case, those future contracts are from potential buyers that own a few assets or own a few properties, right. And can wait 12 months or can wait six months because they have the ability to still survive knowing that their dream home or one of their dream homes or portfolio is being built. So maybe that, maybe that's, you know, one of the characteristics out there.

It is a view, I think, because it's an aspirational buy. It's not your first home. And so you're willing to say, hey, if you guys want to rent it, but we'll close and you rent it back or we'll delay a closing. Whatever you guys come up with. In the builder world, I. Most builders I've ever worked for will sell something on a leaseback if, you know, so the buyer comes in for falls in love with the model, we'll sell it to you. We'll lease it back at 6% so you can have it and you see. Exactly right. That more aspirational, wealthier buyer usually can wait a little bit to get what they want. Even that might be building something to get. Yeah, yeah. I don't know where this have a portfolio. This whole idea of low price that doesn't seem to be many of the buyers right now. People want what they want. They don't need that low price. It's just not usually what's driving. They want something better than what they have.

Yeah. Look, I'm gonna ask a question because obviously we live and breathe around closing and the third act, so.

Okay, thank you for.

Yeah, yeah. What do you need to do as a builder to close those future agreements or for that matter to close any agreement. I figured this question would get you excited, so.

Yeah, look, I'm rubbing my hands together. Look at this. I'm all excited. I didn't realize I was such a new home nerd. Yeah, it's great. It's hilarious because is first of all I get questions on teach my guys to close all the time and I say how old do they open? In other words, how good is their discovery? I feel like we've covered that though. Good open ended questions. You're going to build a case at one show. It's an Act 2 and narrow down Act 3, which is closing, as you so correctly said. Thank you. It's not about the words. That's what I have to shake people out of most books on closing or selling. It's all about say this and I'm sure you know this, but the most research shows that most of what we judge is voice tone and body language. You know, for example, I've been to classes where they say on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest, how much do you want to buy? And I would never say that. I can't say it. It sounds crass. But what I can do is I can narrow it down to something. Have you fallen in love? And then I'll sit you down and I'll recap it with you because I know you've probably got 30 questions that why don't I be proactive and take you through a closing process. So long story short, it's not words. It's the process that you have people overlook. And so I learned this. I was one of 10 salespeople in South Florida on a sales floor for 10 years. It was heartbreaking for the first year because I just wouldn't sit everybody down. Then after a year I thought, wait a minute, why am I ending up standing up saying here's your brochure, let's sit everybody down and see what happens. And I sort of cultivated this closing process that was as in depth as that one, which would be, here's the location that we like and here's the things that you liked about it. Let me put it in writing. You like the grocery store or whole paycheck or whole food, I guess we call it here, whatever is around the corner, the airport, whatever it is, most importantly in a community. Here's the community. Here's some amenities if you're an amenitized community. Here's the outside of the home you like. Let's make sure we pick the architectural style. I believe you wanted the farmhouse or the coastal or something. Let me show you that. Let's go through the floor plan together. That could be 15 minutes. And if you had kids, you know, so kids, bedrooms. That's right. Their names down. Jack and Diane over here. Two American kids. Anyway, just being silly, but anyway, we're right in the kids names down. We'll come up with an appro. What are some of the finishes? We'll write an approximate price. I'll tell you how easy it is to build. We have a five step process. You've chosen your home, you choose the home site. We give a small deposit, blah, blah. It's subject to financing. Guess what, Busco? We're actually at step one right here. So let's go ahead, let's get started. So it's about a 15 minute closing process that will exponentially increase sales. It's not. Learn a magical phrase or some BS kind of crash statement. That sounds so sales, salesy. What do you think?

That makes really good sense? I mean, for me, I would say, you know, go back to my, to my selling days. You had to paint the picture right. So I think, I think what you're doing is helping people envision that home that they want to buy. Let's take a different direction. Let's talk about sales and marketing tactics that are working in the industry today. You're around it a lot more than most builders. What's working today in the industry?

It's great. And I think that's one of the things that. To try to answer the question best I can, and I think a lot of builders will look at source of traffic instead of source of sale. I did that a lot where I worked for, as a sales director for four years. We would do newspaper ads and it would drive in traffic every weekend in the market where people read the paper, you know, an older market. But then we looked at the actual sales and everything had come from our website organically searches where they were looking for a value range. So I think what we need to track the source of sales, not just feel good that lots of people are walking in on it. So it's different strokes for different folks. But I think now with, with all the digital capabilities, you know, you can identify, hey, I've got a group of doctors or nurses or, or employers over here and you could what, geofence or geotarget them and go get them so much more, more easily, you know, Facebook ads or whatever it might be, Zillow. I mean I'm not advocating one company, but have a marketing expert that knows how to go get more of what you want and then have the salespeople, you know, track. The question that I teach is after you welcome them is how did you hear about us? Great. What. And then the follow up is what was it on the website, what was it on the ad, what was it that your friend and learn as much as you can every single time a client comes in and then go get more of that. You know, the stuff is successful for you. So it might be slightly different in different regions, I'm sure of it. Maybe it's referrals and word of mouth because you're such a good builder and you're building 10 custom homes a year, not 100 in a neighborhood or 500. So maybe it's 10 good referrals, I don't know. So have, have a referral party and choose your neighbor or something. But it's understanding your market and, and drilling down and making sure that the sales, the frontline sales are asking those questions to give the feedback back to the builder and marketing.

So going back to the source is really important. What are some of the trends that you're seeing in the construction or building space today as well? You know, obviously you said that the unemployment rate's really low, so there's obviously revenue for people to potentially buy homes as well. But what are some of the trends that you see being so close to.

Building builders in the States? There's a build to rent trend that's going on where quite a few regions people are coming in and just slicing off whole neighborhoods and just making them in, into rental communities. As far as builder trends, just I think sort of being open minded and being flexible. A lot of the, I work with a lot of sort of family sized builders, which means different things I suppose, but it could be 50 to 100 homes a year, not 500. And those builders are becoming, are much better and much more flexible at blending in some infill or small neighborhoods with on your lot and positioning the on your lot ability a lot better. Where they say, look, we have neighborhoods, you can look at our models, but we can also build on your land or ours kind of stuff, or you can sort of help them find land if you want to. But I think there's a trend towards being open minded. Most builders were either one or the other even 10 years ago. I'm an on your lap, on your lot builder, on your land builder or I'm a community builder builder. Now I would say half the builders I work with have sort of can delve in either one and aren't boxed in and they might even get into rentals and rental communities and, and do a bit of that. So I think it's, you know, understanding your business and make sure they're profitable but also being flexible to different opportunities and, and how you can leverage that successfully. Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah.

That's an interesting. It's an interesting concept because even here in Australia, at least in Queensland, where I'm at in Brisbane.

Yeah.

Yeah. There's a 1% vacancy in rental units in Queensland.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah. And a lot of the buyers talking to a realtor this week and a lot of the buyers are basically looking at townhouses or looking at units. We're also having the Olympics coming up in a few years, so.

Oh, nice. Oh, that's good to come back over. I haven't been to Australia for about seven years, so it's time to come.

I'm sure the association of Professional Business would love to have you and.

Well, that'd be good.

Thank you. If you do visit, you'll have to let Russ know. What are some of the builder blind spots when it comes to agreements? You know, you. Oh, great question.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, what are some of the most common blind spots that you encounter working with builders?

Yeah, I have had builders that have. We all have bias biases, right. Or buying heuristics, selling heuristics. One of the biases was about that I ran into recently was the idea of sort of negotiation and I tried to teach it as a win win where like we're not giving it away just to show weakness. It's part of a pricing strategy. So if your market and yours sounds like it hasn't, if you got such a low vacancy, but you know, in parts of the States for a While people wanted to feel like they were getting a better deal. So there's ways to create a win win without giving away the farm. And I, I teach that stuff, you know, so don't be so, you know, I had a builder that at very high end, the buyer that asked him, did he negotiate, he said no and the buyer left, didn't buy, bought for somebody else. Well, that's a lose lose. You didn't get the sale. The guy was just nibbling. I've always wanted to make an offer. It doesn't mean I won't pay full price. But if I'm going to buy a home or a car, I've always wanted to make an offer. I hope you don't get insulted by that because that, that's your own bias. It's just I'm going to try it and, and you know, and try to stick with it. So, and on the selling side as a builder, just, just being open minded about pricing strategies. Strategies. It's not price apologizing. A builder friend of mine calls it that. It's not, it's just being, being smart. You know, retail figured it out without showing weakness. But a lot of what I teach in the next book, mastery of negotiation, stuff I've learned from others by the way, I didn't, I don't think I created any of it. I just implemented it and got to practice it. It's create a win win. If you have an incentive, there's got to be terms, it's got to be in writing with an expiration date. A lot of the builders I'm working right now, they have a little bit of room that the manager will say, okay, you know, here's the published price. We maybe 1% or 2% in our back pocket. Don't give it away if you don't have to. But if the buyer wants window treatments, if the buyer wants ceiling fans, if the buyer wants an upgraded fridge, say well if I could, would you? The old phrase from 30 years ago, if I could, would you? Well let me write it down, let me put it together. I run it by my boss and we'll see. Use the higher authority of your boss to say, you know, I'm not guaranteed but I'll try. And now the buyer feels that they want something and it might have cost you 1500 or $2000 that you had in the budget. So my point being that the biases against certain things that really are just pride and ego as opposed to a business plan. Come up with a business plan and, and decide, you know, Yes, I have 2% per home. My sales director or my manager, my salesperson can work with. Hopefully they. They're not panicked by that and they can work through that in a way that doesn't appear to be manipulating people. I don't want that to be the idea, but make it feel. Make the buyer feel like they won something special that, you know, it was like the World cup final or where Messi scored a penalty and came from behind or whatever, went extra time. That was it. But, yeah, make it a good game is what I'm trying to say. Don't just capitulate quickly.

Fair enough. Let's talk about your books.

Well, thank you.

Yeah, you've written the Mastery of Closing. You've got the.

Actually, it was called that. It's now Mastery of Selling.

That's right. Okay. Yeah. Right.

Yeah, yeah, I changed the name because, yeah, I realized it wasn't only about closing, but, yeah, that was the old title. So that was.

I mixed the other book that I read from Brian Tracy, the Art of Closing. Closing the Sale. It was the first sales books that I read when I was 19 years old. So Going back to the. Going back to the roots.

Tracy's great. Tom Hopkins is great.

Yeah, yeah. You know those, those were the old school cats, right? Zig Ziglar, Jim Row. Yeah, they're all the pioneers, I guess. Looking at your books, right, what are some of the key takeaways from your current book and what can people look forward to from your future book?

Well, I think first of all, all keep it simple. So early on, there's one page that describes that three act play, beginning, middle and end. And that's probably the most important. One of the most important pages is to understand that there's a process there that if you miss a step, you might make a sale in a really good market, but it might come back to haunt you because you don't know enough about that buyer. So, you know, just keeping it simple and step by step, it'll get you more sales. And if you're not getting sales, you can go look at and fix it and that kind of stuff. And then really the. The theme with me, the more I. The older I get, you know, I'm aging ra rapidly. Here is the more empathetic and the more questions I really do ask. You know, when I go back on a sales floor, I was a selling sales director in southwest Florida from 2013 to 2017 before I came back and started my own company. And I'm genuinely interested in people. I care about them. And what is it about that home you like? And what is it about the location? And we have these kinds of home sites. What are you looking for? And then really listening and picking up on those clues and developing Malcolm Gladwell and Blink talks about mind readers and empathy. And it's so real if you're going to be in sales. And it's just not binary where people don't always say what they're thinking or what they mean. It's the silence and how they react to things and their body language and, and all that kind of stuff that if you're paying attention to that. So I guess, you know, on a simple level there is a process. A lot of people don't even know it. On a more deep level, ask good open ended discovery questions. Don't rush in with an answer till you're really comfortable. You know why they have that question. So if you were saying to me, I want something that's really open and I go, well, all my plans are open. So I'd say tell me more about that Bosco, what does open mean to you and what else is important and your family. Oh good. And then I would repeat it back. We call it chunking. So here you correctly, you want this, you want this, you want this. And it's that open ended discovery that back and forth early on that will get you tons of sales at the end. You know, if you open well, you can close strong but you know, they're not the way around.

So I mean, when's the book? Do you. When are you having the book and where can you find the books essentially?

Well, no, but mastery of selling is out. You get on Amazon actually. So the mastery of selling for new homes is out now please. It's international, you can get it anywhere. It's coming out on audible and in the spring I'm finishing up recording that, which is an interesting project. And then mastery of negotiation will be in the summer. So it's more of a. It's half the size. This is 456 pages. It's really how to give it to a salesperson. That's your sales bible, as it were. Mostly of negotiation is at the advanced level where it's going to be much shorter and it's much more. 22 processes each one you can implement that will, you know, will teach you to not just get the sale but create an experience and get a win win. So yeah, summer time for them.

What type of resources do you offer for the builder listeners out there? And obviously you said you're in Miami but you're all over the U.S. what are some of the things that builders can do to follow you or, or even hear you speak? You know, tell us a little bit about what you do on a day to day basis.

On my website, New Home Sales plus. The plus could be anything to anybody. So that's sort of nice and open. I have some, some videos on there and I'm always adding videos and short podcasts. I had mine where I decided, oh, here we go, I got the timer. I decided we have short attention span. So I had a 10 minute, I do minute short podcast. There it is. And then what else? I write blogs on a constant basis. I'm just about to do articles for some of the builder magazines in the States. And then I do it a lot by. By zoom. Thank you for getting up early, by the way. I forgot to say that. Very nice of you. I know the time difference. So if you're in a different. If you're in Australia or wherever, you're across the world and want to zoom like we are, it's pretty easy. We just need to figure out those time zones and I'd be happy to be flexible. So, yes, it's fun to travel somewhere, but not always practical. Well, one of the things that I realized during COVID is I had so many builders that would hire just one or two salespeople and so it's not practical to go there to train one. So I created this virtual academy which we do about three times a year now. And it's the same training material, which is about 180 pages of stuff that you will replicate sequentially. We do it every week. Like every Friday we'll do a three hour session. It's live, it's interactive, it's not a video that you buy. So I think it has more value that way where you can actually interact with me and learn. That's also something pretty neat where you could understand the sales process in real time over five parts. If we're not together, you know, if ideally flying out somewhere would be amazing.

And otherwise I guess we can find you on stage as well because you do a lot of speaking as well.

Yeah, I do. Yeah. I'm a regular. The International Builder show in Vegas this year did a couple of spots there. I'm speaking next week at a summit. Builder Partnerships in the States is having one in Fort Lauderdale. So yeah, I'm often around. I normally have my own retreat. I might not be doing one this, this summer. It's. I, I might skip this year and focus more on next year in 2024. But I'm working on the books and it's just taking so much time. But yeah, I'm easy to connect with if nothing else, you know, pop me an email, I'd love to chat with you. It's roland@newhomesalesplus.com so that's easy and I would love to figure out how to help you in any way possible. And plus I have lots of other resources like you people that I know they can introduce you to if you have a certain need for something within the industry. I have of lot a lot of great other companies that are vetted by other builders. You know, I have we formed a mastermind group within the builder they work with and that's a live group where they answer questions and help each other out. So hopefully in there there's some resources for your builders to reach out to me. Thank you.

Amazing. Amazing. Well Roland, they said that a great conversation is when you learn something new. It's fair to say that I'm sure our builders have learned a few things today. So really appreciate your time and energy and we look forward to having you back in the near future. And again, thank you so much for sharing your insight insights today.

Thank you Busco. It's a pleasure. And thanks to the the association of Professional Builders. I appreciate you and Russ for putting this together. Thank you so much.

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