How to Sell Home Improvements Without Pressure (and Still Close)

Picture the one before you. Three hours in her front room, rang the office twice from the kitchen, knocked a grand off, then another five hundred if she'd sign tonight. She's still cross about it. You can tell by the way she says "and you're going to tell me the price is only good for today as well, are you?" before you've even put your bag down. Her husband's in the armchair, arms folded. The cup of tea she's made you is already going cold.

That's what you're walking into. She isn't worried about your price yet. She's worried you'll be him.

So how do you sell home improvements without pressure? You do the hard work at the start of the appointment instead of the end. Agree the rules before you sit down. Let the customer tell you what's wrong. Deal with the reasons people don't buy on the way through. And only ask for the order when you're fairly sure the answer's yes. Do that and the close is just the next sensible thing to say. Nobody needs pushing.

Pressure comes from asking too early

I've been selling in people's homes for more than 40 years. I started door to door with gas central heating, and even then I never talked about the boiler until I knew they could afford it, or that I could help them afford it. Otherwise the only way to close it would be to lean on them.

That's where pushy selling comes from. Asking for a decision when one of the five reasons people don't buy is still sat there: no need, no desire, no money, no hurry, no trust. The customer isn't ready, so the salesman has to force it. Discounts, ring the manager, tonight only.

If they don't qualify on all five, I can't ask the closing question. It would be pressure, and they'd feel it straight away.

Pain to pleasure, nothing else

This is the bit most reps find hard to swallow. I tell the people I coach that their job is to take the customer from pain to pleasure. That's the whole job. Do it within a price and a timeframe they're happy with, with them trusting you, and you get the deal.

Think about a good doctor. You sit down, he asks what's wrong, then he asks how it's been affecting you. "I haven't slept all week." Only then does he write the prescription, and you thank him for it. Nobody leaves a doctor's surgery feeling they've been sold to. But a doctor who started writing before you'd opened your mouth would be dangerous, and you'd walk out.

So I ask, and I keep asking. "What's making you want to do something with the conservatory?" Too hot, too cold, noisy when it rains, spiders. "How's that affecting you?" "Talk to me about how you use it." Nine times out of ten it gets locked up once summer's over and turns into a dumping room. They've told me the problem in their own words. I haven't had to push anything.

Take the get out of jail cards off them early

Customers arrive armed. "We never decide on the day." "I'll need to speak to my husband." Think of them as Monopoly get out of jail cards. If you wait until the end to deal with them, you're arguing, and arguing is pressure.

So deal with them up front. I tell them why I'm here, what I'm going to do, and what the next steps would be if we come to an agreement. Then: "I'm not going to ask you for a decision today, unless you want to give me one." Always that last bit. And: "If what I show you doesn't make sense, you're quite okay to give me a no. I'd rather have a yes or a no than a maybe. Is that all right?"

You'd be amazed how the shoulders drop. He unfolds his arms. Now they know you're not going to trap them, so they start being honest with you.

Ask why now, then shut up

One question that saves a lot of awkwardness: "Why now? Why not last year, or next year?"

Sometimes the answer is "we're just getting a feel for prices for next spring." Fine. That's not a sale tonight, and trying to make it one is exactly how you end up the pushy one. Have the conversation when they're ready, and diarise them for a call back.

When it is now, keep turning your statements into questions. You learn nothing while you're telling them about your company. Then ask, and let the silence do its work. He who speaks first loses. It feels horrible the first few times, sitting there while they think, but that silence is where they make up their own mind. Which is the opposite of pressure.

What most people get wrong

They hear "no pressure" and think it means "don't ask". So they sit there being matey for two hours, chat about the dog, leave a quote on the side and hope. That isn't kindness. Rapport without structure just hands the customer an easy way out, and the firm that comes in after you will ask for the business.

You still close. You just test first. "Based on the conversation we've had today, where are we?" If you hear buying signals, stop talking and ask. If a worry comes out, good, you can deal with it while you're still at the kitchen table. That's the order the 7 Steps to Sales Mastery is built on: Frame and WHY first, Objections and the Pre-close before the Close, and Consolidation after it. "Is there anything missing?" before you leave.

And remember, on a contract signed in their home they've usually got 14 days to cancel. Squeeze someone into signing and you'll often get a phone call two days later. Sell it properly and it stays sold.

A home improvement sales rep I coach closed 17 of 22 appointments in one stretch, 12 of them on the day, by listening properly and building the sale around what the customer told him mattered. That's one person's result, not a promise. But it shows what happens when the customer does the talking and you do the listening.

If you'd like to find out where pressure, or the lack of a proper close, is costing you sales, take the free 2-minute Sales Leak Assessment and book a free 30-minute discovery call with me.