If you want advice for a wonderful and lasting marriage, don’t ask Hugh Hefner. Ask a couple who have been happily married for four decades. If you want to understand the U.S. economy, listen to those who have made a fortune by doing just that. Warren Buffett, one of the world’s richest men, said of the S&P downgrade, "I don't get it. In Omaha, the U.S. is still triple-A. In fact, if there were a quadruple-A rating, I'd give the U.S. that.”

One of the major factors that play into a customer’s decision to buy a home is his or her confidence in the economic climate. So when a potential home buyer asks about the economy, he or she can immediately sense whether the sales professional is confident about the economy or not. What do you think prospective home buyers would sense from Buffett? He is practically laughing at the downgrade, indicating that his company is glad to hold onto its vast amount of U.S. Treasury bills.

Sales professionals need to know enough about the economy to be able to calm consumers’ nerves, not to mention their own. Below are a few talking points for building customer confidence:

1. U.S. companies are doing well.

The stock market has its ups and downs, but the purpose of Dow Jones is just to show the industrial average of how the 30 public companies have traded during standard session. When a company is doing well, its stock should go up. When it’s not, the stock should go down. Many companies in the index (such as Apple) are actually having a good year. The market didn’t go down based on an accurate reflection of how those companies are doing; it went down because people panicked. It wasn’t a response to what the Dow Jones is technically supposed measure — the performance of companies in the index.

During the Internet boom, stocks went up because of greed. People bought into this intangible hope based on greed and social influences, not logic. In this case, the scenario is flipped. Just like the Internet, stocks decreased based on emotion, not evidence. Buffett advises investors to be greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy. So technically, it’s a good time to buy. Emotions are driving down prices. But when the dust settles and emotions clear, people will go back to logic and buy again.

2. Look at the downgrade in FICO terms.

The highest achievable FICO score is an 850, but to achieve the lowest interest rate for a home loan, you can have a FICO score of anything over 740. So nothing really changes if you have a 780 versus an 850. You still get the best rate. Our credit downgrade is like going from an 850 to an 800 credit score. It’s still a remarkable score/rate. In the new home business, we’re elated when buyers come in with a credit score of an 800.

In the same way that your personal FICO score is determined by averaging scores from three agencies (Equifax, Experian, and Transunion), the U.S. score is analyzed by three agencies — the S&P, Fitch, and Moody’s. Fitch and Moody still give the U.S. a triple-A rating.

3. Assume an underdog mentality.

We’re arrogant. Bill Walsh, legendary 49ers coach, said his hardest task was changing an arrogant, Super Bowl winning team to one with an underdog mentality. He says teams do better when they have to fight an uphill battle to make it happen. They’ll push themselves above their comfort zone rather than assuming the win. The U.S. is like a Super Bowl winning team that has won so many times that we feel like we’re indestructible. We get our butts handed to us when we think we can’t lose.

But like an underdog team, when we really have something to rally around, we actually do better. Since WWII, we’ve had years of arrogance and it’s kept us in this delusional thinking and caused a habit of overspending and bad decisions. For the first time in my life, America has a financial goal to strive for as a country — getting our triple-A rating back. We do better with goals as individuals and as nations. Now we’re finally faced with reality. It’s like getting on the scale and realizing we’re overweight and need to make some changes.

4. People still want to improve their lives.

People still need homes and they are willing to change their living situation in order to improve their lives. So our rating got downgraded. Does that change that your prospects aren’t happy with their current living situation? Have your prospective buyers’ neighborhoods improved? Do they have all the space they need? Has their school system improved? When it’s all said and done, people buy because they’re trying to fix something. When the dust settles, they’re still in the same situation and they want out.

So here’s my advice: Know enough to feel confident about the economy and to be able to share some points with your customers and get them to the point of saying, “Ok, I’m fine with where we’re at.” Then get them talking about the models, the community, and what they want to change about their lives. If Warren Buffett is confident about the economy, we should be, too.

As a sales professional, author, professional speaker, and consultant, Jason Forrest helps home builders increase closings and profits through leadership sales training. His books include Creating Urgency in a Non-Urgent Housing Market and 40 Day Sales Dare for New Home Sales. He can be reached at jason@jforrestgroup.com and www.jforrestgroup.com.