How to Handle One-Leg Appointments in Home Improvement Sales
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In-Home Sales Training: Strategies for Handling One-Legs
Mastering the One-Leg Challenge in Home Improvement Sales
Want to know different strategies to deal with one legs when doing in home or home improvement sales? Then you're watching the right video. After being in over 16,000 homes I will share strategies that I use that have worked for me and others I’ve trained in the 35 years I have been in home improvement sales.
What Is a One-Leg?
When you are doing home improvement sales…a lot of which is a one call close you are selling to homeowners and in the typical scenario a husband and wife. There are variations of this such as two homeowners who are brother or sister, two life partners but the point is if the in the case of the husband and wife who own the home and one of them is not present for the sales call it is called a one-leg in this business.
Why Avoid Selling to a One-Leg?
It’s in Everyone’s Best Interest
In this post I will cover why it is in everyone’s best interest to not be selling to a one leg. This applies to whether you are in a one call close or not. But especially important if it is a one call close. I’ll show you different ways I use to reset one legs in a way that they come back down and doesn’t annoy the customer. And last, I will give you some tips about this whole one leg situation so please read to the end to see everything.
One-Legs Undermine the Value of Your Offer
Is this business there are no absolutes but the rule of thumb in my opinion is that you want to try and avoid selling to a one leg as much as possible. This is because it’s in both you and the customers’ best interest. If you just sell to one person and it is high ticket like most home improvement sales are meaning 10k and above, you need both parties there. You spend 1.5 to 2 hours in the home explaining the value of everything you do and exactly what they are getting for their money to create a sale.
Why the Customer Loses Too
How long do you think the person who heard everything will take to explain what you do to their other half? 10-15 minutes at the most. Could you build the value and sell in 10-15 minutes? Of course not. When the person who heard everything explains your offer and tells the price do you think the person who wasn’t there will be sold or say “that sounds high maybe we should look around”. Add the fact that what if the person who is the dominant one who actually makes the decision is the one who didn’t see what you do? So, from the point of view of you the salesperson you will have a better chance making the sale if you don’t present to a one leg. I think you already knew that or you wouldn’t be reading this post.
Best Practices for In-Home Sales Training: Dealing With One-Legs
Reset the Appointment When Possible
What about the customer? What’s in their best interest? Whether they say yes or no I believe that it is the customers best interest to make a buying decision if they have all of the facts and information. When you present to one person and after you leave then they give a watered-down version to the party that wasn’t there the other person doesn’t have all of the facts. Not to mention that when people buy they are really buying you and your credibility. They trust you before they buy.
How can the person who was there effectively convey your credibility, honesty and who you are to the person who wasn’t? So not only are your chances of making the sale diminished but if you really do have the best solution and product for the customers; problem they lose out as well by not buying. So, it’s not just you trying to make a sale (which you are) but actually in the customer interest as well to have all decision makers present. So, in theory the best strategy if you go to a home and it’s a one legger is to reset it for both people to be there. Yes, you have to go back but you rather go there once for nothing or twice for $2000?
Exceptions to the Rule
Now never say never …there are a lot of situations where you should and can successfully sell a “one leg”.
A lot of time if the ticket is lower say HVAC that’s 6k yes a you can easily sell those. But again, would you spend 20k without speaking to your spouse?
Or you may have a situation where the wife says, “it’s my house that I got from the previous marriage and it’s my money that I am buying the kitchen with.”
Or another situation is when you are selling to a very wealthy person. I have sold kitchen to just the wife, but it was a situation where her spending 30k would be like you and I spending $20.00.
What I am talking about here are generalities. These are best practice strategies that have worked for me.
When a Reset Isn’t Allowed by Your Company
Be Strategic If You’re Forced to Present
So, we agree that’s it’s in the customers and salespersons best interest for you not to try to sell to the one legger but there are a lot of variables. Some companies don’t give you the option of resetting a one-legger and make you present to the one person. One reason for that is unless the salesperson is really good the reset won’t come back down because they annoyed the customer, and they decide not to deal with you or your company at all.
When I was a sales manager, I allowed people to reset but if I found that the leads weren’t turning into a actual sit the second time that sales rep lost the privilege and was forced to pitch all one legs as their punishment. At least they had a small shot of selling them vs no shot at all if they never saw the customer again. However, I know very few companies where if the customer wants to reset because their husband or wife wasn’t there because they were delayed at work and wanted to reset to a time where both people could be there that would refuse that. Read between the lines there if you want to.
How to Reset a One-Leg Effectively
Step One: Build Rapport First
If you go there and the situation was just like I stated above and they say my husband was delayed at work can we reset this appointment it should be a piece of cake.
If it’s not that easy the first piece of advice I would give you is don’t go and try to reset or feel out if it’s a one leg immediately. Even if the lead said husband and wife and I walked in the door the first thing I wouldn’t say is where is your husband? Like anything else I would get rapport with whoever I was meeting with and after I got rapport and started the needs analysis part of the sale call then I might dig and ask if they are the sole homeowner or that I was told that I was meeting a husband and wife and where the other party was.
Step Two: Frame the Reset as Customer-Focused
The biggest reason is you need to get rapport and therefore control before you not only feel out the situation let alone reset a one leg. You also need the rapport so you can feel out the situation gently and not come across to the wife like you don’t think she can make any decisions on her own and that you need to speak to the real decision maker - the man of the house.
Maybe you didn’t know there was another party and you thought the man or women was single up to that point. Either way you should try to gently reset it. Here one way that I do it …side note never badger them and say things like “didn’t’ they tell you over the phone that we need both of you here? What good will that do? It will just annoy them. If anything, I blame it on us.
“I’m sorry so you are married? I’m not upset with you at all, but I will have to talk to someone at the office about people not doing their job. The only thing that they should have told you is that since this a free estimate that is good for 90 days that we always try and find a time where both parties can be there. To be honest in all probability you’re the real decision maker like my wife is in our house but we used to just leave the estimates with either husband or wife and invariably someone would call back and say my wife wants to know what other styles or colors you have and how much that would be?
Or my husband wanted to know if adding a humidifier was an option and how that would save on our energy costs. (use example from what you are selling) or my husband wanted to know what other payment options you have if we changed this or this. So we found that instead of wasting the customers time by going back and forth that it was easier to get all the questions answered in one visit and the only time we had to come back was if you decided to place the order. Does that make sense?”
80% of the time this works, and I reset the appointment easily.
Step Three: Use Confusion to Encourage Reset
Some other strategies that I have used and again it’s in everyone’s best interest to do this with both people there. One is that sometimes if it’s just one person I can confuse them enough that they realize that they need the other person there.
For example after I try and reset using the method above and they say “No that’s okay I’ll get all the information and we don’t need him here. “ I might say not a problem so if you don’t mind me asking where do the electrical and gas lines come into the house? Is the electric 110 or 220? Do you happen to know if your homeowner’s association has by laws or extra permits regarding this type of work that we need to know?”
You get the idea and after that a lot of time the person may say “You know what maybe it is a good idea that my husband should be here”. That’s why you never do this type of stuff at the door you need to try and reset the one leg after you have rapport and therefore the control with the customer.
So, let’s say you’d tried to gently reset it and still it doesn’t work the other strategy I do is make it a two-call close and then make the second call where we discuss money a situation where everyone needed is there. The way I do this is if I still can’t reset the one leg I finish doing my needs analysis and get information on what they want. By the way one of the first questions, I ask on the printed ones I use is “are you the sole homeowner?” This helps me avoid surprise one legs 😊so after I do my needs analysis, I show the product and let the husband or wife pick out what they want. This could be styles and colors of the windows, kitchens, bathrooms, or whatever variables you have in your product.
I sell them on the quality of the product and build interest so they will reset by doing a full product demo. This is another place that I have found where I can reset the one leg because if I am going through colors for a kitchen, floor or roof and they may start to seem a little confused about what the other party who is not there wants. They say things like “Well I’m not sure are they all the same price? Actually, Mary, they are all different prices. If you want, I can price up every option…it might take another 45 minutes but that way you can have all the choices and prices to show your husband. No that’s too long …maybe I should have my husband here.” You get the idea.
Turning a One-Leg Into a Two-Call Close
How to Structure the First Visit
The point is when I am selling the one leg I do it by just doing the rapport, needs analysis, pick out product . I don’t cover anything about the company, price conditioning or installation. Then at that point I say “Okay now that I know what you want let me bring this back to our installation department with pictures of your house and I can come back with a final price. Now for this I would like a time where you and your wife or husband can be here since we will be talking about the money as well.”
What to Do on the Second Visit
At this point you have been with the one leg for at least 45 minutes and have plenty of rapport to reset the appointment easily. In some cases, it’s not a surprise because I lot of times when I sold kitchen and baths they were surprised that I could even give them the price. “Or you can do that now?” and expected me to go to office to get a price then come back. Now at the reset appointment, where both people are there, I recap to the other party what we talked about as far as needs….your husband said you wanted to do this and this and here are the products and colors picked out.” Confirming and showing the product the first person picked out is very easy and gets the new person interested and involved quickly.
In some cases the whole thing could change right there if the other person wants something else. (Be patient and repick out something they both agree on) If the other person agrees with the selection now I sell them on the company(which I left out the first time too important for both people not to hear), now I price condition both together, then explain how the installation process works and lead into my regular price and closing strategy.
Doing it this way allows me to spend at least 45 minutes plus with the new party as well as not annoying the person who was there the first time by having to repeat things they already heard. This time of the second visit with the new person allow me to get enough rapport to close them.
Here are some tips for if you do reset the appointment:
In-Home Sales Training Tips for Handling Resets
Pro Tips for Sales Success
1) Remember. don’t try to reset immediately wait until you get rapport.
2) Rules of thumb always have a reset time set before you leave the house don’t say we’ll call back or if the customer says I have to check his schedule in the worst case set a tentative time and tell them you will reconfirm it. Make sure you have a set time for the reset. It’s very important make the reset asap. In the worst case within the week. Longer and you will lose the lead.
3) Never price condition or give any price ranges the first visit. If you do they will not reset.
4) If your resets are not turning into actual sits that you are getting to sit in front of the second time, you are doing it wrong should stop resetting until you figure it out. Otherwise, your manger will hate me😊
Final Thoughts on In-Home Sales Training
Hopefully this helped you. I’m not saying it always works but it works enough to bring you to the next level, and I have personally used all of these. If you want more, please check out the post on features and benefits or the posts on closing home improvement sales.
Happy Selling!
