By Todd Duncan

A couple wanted to stretch their dollars, but southern California was not the place to do it. They spent hours looking at homes online in three other states and came across a beautiful place in Georgia. Business would take them to the area the following month so they arranged with the realtor to tour the home then.

Three weeks later, they met her in a parking lot and hopped into her car. Nancy showed them the house and then eleven others. She wanted to give them a true feel for what their dollars could buy in her town and she sensed they could do even better than the house they had originally come to see.

After the first day the couple was in love with a restored nineteenth century farmhouse on two-and-a-half acres. It was the most expensive of the twelve homes they toured and also the smallest. This didn’t sit right with Nancy. She asked them to consider looking at a few more homes before making a final decision. She had a feeling about one home they had not yet seen. The couple agreed.

The following morning on the way to the first home, Nancy handed them each a color flyer. “Here’s where we’re headed.” The picture was of a large Cape Cod in a wooded neighborhood. The lot was beautifully landscaped and bordered by a 500-acre nature preserve. At the bottom of the flyer was the asking price: $70,000 less than the farmhouse. When the three walked through the front door they sighed in unison. It was the one. Their offer was accepted that afternoon.

As an early celebration, Nancy treated the couple to dinner at her favorite restaurant where the owner and the cook knew her by name. The couple received warm welcomes and complimentary sweet tea. It was the perfect ending to an exciting day.

To show their gratitude the couple made plans to buy Nancy dinner once they returned to sign the final paperwork. She graciously accepted and then outdid them like they do in the South. She had an eight-acre farm, she explained, and a finished barn where they would stay when they arrived back in town. She insisted and so began a dear friendship.

Not long after they moved, the couple referred some friends to Nancy and she worked her magic again. Now the five of them share dinner once a month at Nancy’s farm, proving there’s something endearing and enduring about doing business the Southern way.

Lesson Summary

The Southern way is simple: treat customers like friends and their friends will become your customers. The story doesn’t end there. Since their regular dinners, the two couples each referred Nancy two more couples. This means her considerate ways earned her a five-fold increase in business from one customer. That’s about the way it works when you do business the Southern way.

To be a top-notch salesperson, you need to be selling solutions to your prospects’ deepest needs. You need to be selling the fulfillment of your prospects’ deepest desires.

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