How to Hold a Homeowner Discovery Call that Leads to a Sale
Are you winning business with your homeowner discovery calls, or just marking more follow-up reminders in your calendar? Here’s how to use that first crucial call with homeowners to close the deal.
Practice makes perfect, they say. I’m not perfect at speaking with vacation rental owners, but I’ve had more practice than most.
Nailing that first call with an owner is crucial to winning their business.
Luckily I’ve had the opportunity to hone my talk tracks due to a high volume of prospective new owner calls I’ve handled during the years I worked at a national property management company.
In this article I will share my insights and methods to having a great discovery call.
Being the first point of contact for owners calling in to inquire for service nationwide gave me a huge variety of personalities to speak with and endless practice. And because I needed to get to as many calls as possible while collecting as much info as possible, I developed winning methods.
Stay in control on the conversation
I tried to keep the calls to 10 – 15 mins each, and get my time to finish the sales process in the CRM to 5 minutes. In the beginning I had some owners talk to me for an hour and veer far off topic. I’d take copious notes on paper then afterwards try to condense them into a note in the CRM, and send them more info. As I got busier these inefficiencies were adding up and I was forced to streamline my process.
One of the key things that made a difference was staying in control of the conversation. Control doesn’t have to be manipulative, I see it as leadership. People are calling with questions and they want guidance so I became a bit more assertive but used the tone of my voice to convey enthusiasm to assist. Asking my questions up front made sure if someone had to get off the phone quickly (they often did) I had what I needed to get them to the next step of the sales cycle.
I got used to saying, “Thank you for calling, I’m just going to ask you a few questions so I can better assist you.”
Ask the right questions in the right order
Property description questions came first and specs of the property and highlights were what I focused on. Followed by current and previous rental experience. The previous experience told me a lot about the kind of person I was speaking to and I tailored my talk track around what I believed was most relevant to them.
Once I got the basic info, I asked a few more questions about their reason for inquiring for service. Were they not happy with their current company and why? I would then explain how my company would do things better or differently.
Sharing the service overview including fees was quick, short and sweet. I highlighted a few things that I believed help the company stand above their competitors.
Wrap the call up with an offer or next step
Jumping into next steps was a way to wrap up the call and make sure we had a reason to talk again soon. Offering an income projection was always a way to get them excited for a next call. I would explain I had to call them with the numbers and explain the nuisances of them. This guaranteed the person would take my next call and if I was the closer I scheduled that call while I had them on the line. If there were no pictures available to help me do the income projection I’d schedule a property walkthrough with my counterpart that was physically in the area.
This team selling approach worked very well. I joined a young scrappy start up company and grew with them into the largest vacation rental management company in the US.
What was one of the main things that I believe helped them dominate in such a short time?
Responsiveness.
Answering the phone when someone calls for info was crucial to success. To miss a call and let a call go to voicemail was to be avoided at all costs. Because we knew the cost of not picking up the phone when it rang was huge. Playing phone tag to get someone back on the line was a waste of precious time and resources. Experts say the conversion ratio of a lead answered is 10x better than a lead called back.
My advice, answer that phone every time. Train back up people to qualify owner calls. Be as responsive as possible and you’ll win more deals.
If you need help making sure no opportunity slips by, Vintory is here for you. At Vintory we believe in evaluating the playing field so all property management companies have a better view and chance to play.
Looking for more sales tips? Check out my blog The Top 10 Sales Tips for Converting Homeowner Leads.
Author: Jade Wolff
Jade’s record breaking track record spans multiple industries and product lines. Cars, jewelry, make-up, life-insurance, health products and more. She’s left unattainable benchmarks for sales teams that have followed in her tracks and re-invented corporate sales strategies along the way.
Now Jade is leading the business development team for Vintory.
