Even if you know you are the best home inspector in the area, you may find that fewer people purchase your service than you expect. There may be a problem with your advertising, marketing or availability.

Evaluating those factors is up to you. However, these six psychological principles can help you improve the number of sales you close. Once you meet a customer or talk to one on the phone, you want to have every method at your disposal to close that sale.

6 Psychological Principals that Win Sales

In 1984, Dr. Robert Cialdini wrote a book called Influence that is considered the last word on sales. When someone with several doctorates and years of research into the subject publishes his findings, it behooves us to listen and apply those principles. We can all learn six principles and here we will suggest ways to apply them when you are working to close a home inspection sale.

1. Reciprocity

People don’t like being in debt. You see this all the time in happy neighborhoods. You share the leftovers of your party with your neighbor and he shovels the walk the next time it snows. A salesperson in a mall offers you a free sample and you purchase the product after taking the sample.

Think about your home inspection business. What appropriate gift can you offer prospective clients? It should be related to the business, so offering a cupcake would not be appropriate. How about a small level with the business name printed on it. You could have something of local interest to welcome them into the area such as a guide to local parks and activities.

2. Commitment and Consistency

Dr. Cialdini discovered that people do not like to appear inconsistent. The concept here is that you try to get a small commitment from you client first so they feel an initial buy-in and they are more open to a more substantial purchase. One way to do this would be to create a sample inspection report that they can keep.

It is a demonstration of your expertise and thoroughness and is a physical reminder of you and your service. If you have a good website and post helpful blogs for homeowners, you could invite them to register; this is another way of establishing a connection and keeping your name in front of them.

3. Liking

You are more likely to purchase from someone you like.

You are in sales so you must have a way of establishing yourself in conversation with new customers. In the past, you have perhaps not worked hard enough to sell yourself. You may have thought that twenty years in the business speaks for itself, but it doesn’t. Only you can speak for yourself.

Tell you clients a short story about how you entered the inspection business. Maybe you retired from construction and wanted to prevent new home owners from being taken in; maybe its a family business and you grew up in it; maybe you built it up from a desk in your mother’s basement.

Stories that display you as a dedicated professional who works hard and believes in his job helps people like you.

You have to have a website; the days are gone when a business can function without one. Make sure you are connected with social media and encourage friends, customers, neighbors and everybody to like you. This adds to your credibility.

4. Authority

Even if we don’t pay enough attention to them to notice when they are incorrect or slanted, people love authority. Authority can emanate from people, organizations, numbers, institutions and many others sources.

• The previous section about “liking” uses an obvious example: experience. Use your experience as an authority.
• Certification or/and licensure: Include mention of these when you talk to clients and make sure they are prominently displayed on your website.
• Training: Did you graduate from a program for home inspection? Do you attend conferences to keep up with the latest trends and advances? Attend workshops? All of that is authority you can use in your sales pitch.
• Other Professionals: Are you on the recommendation list for local realtors? Have you a good Better Business Bureau rating? Was there some local news article or even professional publication that references your work? Use all the authority endorsements you have available.

5. Social Proof

Social Proof is a variation on authority. You can use customer recommendations here. Have a few customers who agree to chat with your future customers about your great service. If you have people who have used you more than once, even better. You will probably want to shift these supporters around every so often so they don’t tire of the phone calls.

6. Scarcity

People are motivated by feeling that there is a limited supply and that they may miss out if they don’t act now. In home inspection, you can express this by saying that your time is limited so booking the inspection now would prevent them being closed out.

This does not mean that you are the only inspector in the area, but having been impressed by your previous presentation, at this point they don’t want another inspector. They don’t want to miss out on your expertise, popularity, and patience.

They were impressed by your story of recovering from a broken leg caused by an improper inspection and decision to dedicate your life to preventing that from happening to anyone else.

Even encouraging them to “pencil” in an inspection date is a positive move. When you follow-up to confirm, they may have already mentally converted the “pencil” to ink.

These Principles are Not Rocket Science

The founder and writer of these principles has multiple doctorates, but you do not need so much as a high school education to apply them. You may have to be a little creative and you will certainly have to get a web site if your don’t already have one.

However, you will find as you practice this short list of principles that you have a more consistent approach to selling your service and may well see sales improve as you master your approach.

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