In Home Sales Course: Stop Cancellations and Tighten Your Close

Prefer To Watch: Here’s The Video

Summary:

• Why cancellations happen—and how to prevent them.
• Use the notice of cancellation to lock in shaky deals.
• Post-close steps that cut remorse and save jobs.

Why Cancellations Happen and How to Prevent them

One of the most frustrating things about doing in home sales like selling home improvements is when you spend 2 hours in the home to make a sale and then they cancel. If you get a cancellation, it can be twice as brutal because you not only lost the commission but it frustrates you and affects you making future sales. By law any sale made in the customers home has a 3 day period that they can cancel their order.  Here are some things that cause cancellations and by knowing them you will know how to avoid them and make more money. I will also go over how I use the notice of cancellation to tighten up weak sales so please watch until the end. 

Own the result: it’s your sale to lose

The first thing to do if you want to lower your cancellation rate is that that you have to take responsibility for it. I used to think how weird it was that peoples lives were perfect until they bought something from me.  Then they lost their job, realized that they didn’t actually own their home or found out that had a child they didn’t know about and couldn’t afford to do the work. I guess it’s possible but the reality is that in most cases the reason they canceled is your fault. It’s hard for some people to accept that but the good part is that because it’s your fault that it’s controllable. To me a cancellation is almost like a delayed no sale.  All you got them to do is sign something and give you some money. I’d almost rather have them not buy at all then think I made a sale and commission then have it cancel. 

Sell want, not pressure

 If they cancel it means that you haven’t sold them properly.  You can make people do anything but if you made them do it instead of making them want to do it they’ll cancel as soon as you leave the house.

Use a consistent system

 That’s why one of the main reasons that causes cancellations is the way they are sold. People who are what I call stylized sales people and who don’t follow a methodical system to sell someone generally have higher cancellation rates. Stylized can mean that you just rapport them enough that they can’t say no to you . Or it could be that you high pressure them into signing the paperwork. “I want to think about it” I understand just sign here and your thinking will be done. 😊 Both these types of sale will be a cancellation.

That’s because in a way you are making them do it instead of making them want to do it. Properly building the value and learning how to sell so they are in love with your product is how you make them want it. The way to do this consistently is to be consistent on how you sell. A good system doesn’t sound canned or like a sales presentation that annoys people but covers all the points of a good needs analysis, sells your company, product and installation and building value and price conditioning them so they think your product is worth what you are charging. Then being able to one call close them in a way that is professional and doesn’t make them feel pressured. If you do your job right they should have a 1000 days to cancel and they don’t. 

Manage expectations and momentum

When you are new accept the fact that you will get cancellations. A good way to not get frustrated by them  is not to count any of your money until the 3 days go by. Don’t make a sale and get all excited and think you just made $1000 dollars. Look at it like you just put a job into the sales funnel and until the 3 day recession period goes by and it becomes a net sale that you don’t’ have anything. That way if it does cancel you won’t feel so bad like you lost something. Don’t count it until you actually have something. 

Write tight deals (and avoid “sign now, cancel later”)

Another big reason that people cancel is that the salesperson doesn’t write what I call a tight deal. The worst is when they sell on recession. That’s where you close by saying “well if you’re not sure just sign up now and if you change your mind you have three days to cancel.” This is something that weak and new sales people do until they learn it doesn’t work because everyone cancels. A variation of this is that when you sell jobs that you know are weak.

I have had sales people where when I told them that their job canceled that they told me that it “didn’t surprise them”. You should never sell a job where you think the deal is weak. You’ll soon find out that if you think they may cancel that they usually do. If they are not sure then you shouldn’t  be selling them or if you need to… take it away to lock it in. You have to be strong enough to say “I appreciate your business but if you are not sure I would just prefer you didn’t do it because I don’t do business like that.” In the worst case if you take it away and they let you then you should know that they would have canceled anyway. Your best shot is to take it away and if the job is sold correctly they will come back and the job will be even tighter. 

Use the notice of cancellation—an in home sales course tactic

One place you can do that is at the notice of cancellation that is required by law to be given to the customer in all jobs sold in the home. Sometimes I see sales people not even explain it and just get the customer to sign it in a flurry of sign here here and here. That’s weak and wrong. If you get paperwork signed like that they will look at everything after you leave and when they see that you didn’t explain it it could hurt your credibility. If done right this form can actually make your sale tighter. 

This is how I explain the notice of cancellation  where maybe I had to spend a long time in the close or I’m not sure it’s tight and want to make sure.  It would sound like this:

The last form we have to sign right here John and Mary is I need you to know that anytime you purchase something in your home you have three business days to cancel the transaction it's an old law because people used to sell things door to door and it really gave you three days to make sure the company exists you obviously know we exist but I still need you to sign the form that I have explained your rights to and you understand how it works.. but before I have you sign this I just want to make sure are you comfortable with everything that we explained to you and the payment we worked out you're comfortable with…. Yes .. well the reason I'm bringing this up is because you do have three days to cancel but if you're not sure I just want let you know I have no problems ripping everything up right now and I'd still thank you for all your time because everything up to now has been for you and I guess this part for me because if I bring in this order and then two days later somebody cancels it really looks bad for me because the company thinks that I pressured you in doing this. so are you comfortable with everything? ..yes everything is great ..and I can have your word that you will follow through with this so I can sleep at night?  yes.OK well then I just need you to sign right here then that I explained your rights to you… thank you.

Post-close lessons from an in home sales course

The other way to lower your cancellation rate is to do what is called a good post close. In it’s simplest terms you rapported them when you get there now be sure you rapport them and make sure they are comfortable with everything on your way out. Don’t wham bam get the paperwork signed and run out of the house. In your sales call you get them all excited to buy then you have to make sure they come back down to earth and cool down while you’re there so they don’t have buyers remorse after you leave.

After thanking them for their business I always get them to sell themselves and tighten up the job by asking them “If you don’t mind what’s the main reason you decided to hire us today? Well I like everything you had to offer and how you did the work? Etc. Check for any of the holes. For example if they told me when I got there that if my roof was more than 10k that I was wasting my time. After I asked them why they bought I would lock it in by asking them “You know when I first got here you told me you weren’t spending more than 10k. What made you decide to spend the 15k on our roof?” Their answers to these questions will reinforce the sale and you can’t be afraid to ask them. They would have asked themselves these questions after you left anyway and at least if there is any doubt you can handle it there. Don’t be afraid to ask the question because you think they will back out. If they can’t answer questions like this they would back out and cancel after you leave anyway. In most cases you asking and them answering them now will make the job even tighter. 

Follow through the next day

The other tip is that you should always give the customer a thank you call the next day. “Hi Tom I just wanted to call and thank you again for your business and let you know that we processed all of the paperwork and everything is on it’s way” This does two things it adds an air of finality “everythings on it’s way” which may put to rest any lingering doubts and also if they are going to cancel I find out right now. The easiest time to save the job is now where everything is still fresh. If you don’t make the thank you call then sometimes you don’t even find out about the cancellation until the notice of cancellation comes in and it could be 3-4 days later. At that point all the momentum is gone and the job is much harder to save. 

If you like this post please check out the video on “Features and Benefits” so you can learn to sell better or the articles on Closing.

Happy Selling!