Atlanta Sales and Marketing Council welcomed sales trainer Myers Barnes this morning for a breakfast meeting and an afternoon CE (continuing education) class. In his typical high-energy form, Myers provided a day full of power-packed tips for improving Atlanta new home sales.

Here is a brief recap of the information that Myers provided in the morning session. Known for his excellent concise sound bites, he made the following points.

• Is it a bad market? It is only as bad at you think it is. There are no bad markets, there are only bad market decisions.
• Home isn’t where you live, it’s how you live.
• Follow up forecasts the level of customer service they can expect after the sale.

Selling is just a mathematical equation based on follow up. When is the sale made?

• 2% made on the 1st contact
• 3% made on the 2nd contact
• 5% made on the 3rd contact
• 10% made on the 4th contact
• 80% of sales made between 5th and 12th contact

During 10,000 video shops

• 87% never initiated a close
• 89% do not fully register the prospect
• 86% do not return calls
• 76% do not return email
• 80% of all sales occur after the 5th to 12th contact (Buffini)
• 89% of the sale is visual (Standford/Nahb)

A few more fun Myers-isms to get your brain working:

• Yearly Goal – to become the elite, to do what only 10% of my competition is doing.
• What’s working, what’s not? Whose working, whose not?
• Success in this industry is what you stop doing.

Average price of a homes over time:

• 1950 was $8000
• 1960 $15,000
• 1970 $28.000
• 1980 in CA and Fl $100,000
• 1990 in CA and FL $200,000
• 2006 – 15 years economic expansion
• 2010 – 2020 – it will be 10 years later/expensive

The law of real estate: For every downside, there is an upside.  Myers gives this tip for those in new home sales, “Stop selling houses and start selling mortgages. They are going up a percent or two by the end of the year.”

He also states, “Not everyone in life will be a millionaire, but everyone in life should strive to be an out of debt-anaire.”