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Population of the World is Twelve
I bet you didn't know there were only twelve people in
the world. More specifically, there are only twelve
different kinds of people in the world.
This astute observation was gleaned from meeting
about 10,000 people on over 5000 sales calls I made in
5000 different houses. (Actually I think it is closer to
6000 calls) I met a whole bunch of nice ordinary people
(& a few wackos too.)
After the first few hundred calls I began to notice that I
was seeing the same people over & over again. Not
really the same people, of course, they had different
names & different faces, but they all spoke the same
phrases, had the same body language, same hand
gestures, voice inflections, asked the identical
questions, made the same excuses why they were
going to think about whether to proceed or not.
( About 50% of them promised to let me know "one way
or the other" what they decided to do. In 25 years only
one person ever let me know)
After a while I could put this person in column A & that
person in column B & pretty soon I had something like
a Chinese menu selection to choose from.
Here are a few from column B, C, D, E .........who the
contractor will recognize immediately & will lose
interest in you & your remodel in a few minutes.
People with legal pads & felt tip pens. They always tell
you they are looking for information about a
remodeling project they have in mind. That's true, all
they are looking for is information. They never buy
anything. I don't believe I ever sold anything to a
person with a legal pad & a felt tip pen.
People who say "I'm looking for a contractor who I can
work with". This is code for "either you give me
something for nothing or i'll find someone else who
will". These people wind up the loser every time. The
contractor has many devious ways to make it look like
he is giving you something when he is actually taking.
If you don't believe me then let me offer you a free
room air conditioner. Please!
People unable to make a decision. He is afraid he may
make a mistake even choosing the color of the roof
shingles. He never buys anything.
People who say to me "We can't decide whether we
want to build a family room, remodel the kitchen or
finish the basement or maybe put on a dormer, What
do you think?" They never make up their mind & they
never buy anything.
If you recognize anyone here then I suggest you tell
them we know who they are & we aren't interested in
wasting our time with them. They will rarely get a
decent price from the contractor.
Contractors look for people who are prepared, people
who have put some time & effort into their remodel
before they call you. Contractors will jump through
hoops to build your job & give you their best price. But
first they have to recognize you as one of those
people in............... Column A.
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