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Get free tools & tips Tell a colleague about us Who else uses Express Commission?In February 2010 Express Commission provides working capital solutions to leading residential, commercial, and industrial real estate agencies and business brokers across Australia. Our clients are based in every state of Australia and include both independant agencies and members of Australia’s most successful real estate groups including:
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Express Agent News 2 Mar 2007 issue Selected article shown below. See all articles for this issue.
World's Best Spiel
In 2006 the following article by Jim Remley was voted the world's best guide to a successful listing presentation in a survey of 10,000 US real estate agents. In real estate our dance floor is our seller's home, and not unlike the Vienna Waltz our seller presentation includes six key steps which must be committed to memory and practiced rigorously as well. Our six step presentation plan can be easily remembered by using the ACTION acronym. A - Ask Questions C - Clarify Answers T - Tap into the Audience I - Introduce Solutions O - Offer Options N - Nurture Decisions Step 1 - Ask Questions Asking questions and letting a client talk is the fastest way to build trust and rapport as it demonstrates that you are actually interested, engaged, and committed to building a professional relationship. As one top producer explained to me: "When I visit with a seller I pretend I'm there as a therapist for the first ten minutes." How do you get a client to lie down on your real estate couch? Superstars put their clients at ease while asking gentle probing questions. In addition they don't overwhelm clients with a barrage of rapid fire queries. Instead they ask carefully crafted open ended questions. Open ended questions, are questions that can't easily be answered with just a simple yes or no instead they require expository thought. Take a look at seven open-ended first step questions often used by top producers during this early meeting phase. Seven Open-Ended First Step Questions: 1. Where did you move from and why did you choose this area? 2. What do you like most about living here? 3. Why are you selling? 4. Where will you be moving to, and why? 5. What improvements have you made to the home? 6. What do you see as the homes' best features? 7. How well do you like the neighborhood? Now you may notice that many of these questions may have already been asked and answered during a pre-meeting interview or perhaps included in a pre-listing questionnaire. If so any agent can easily modify her questions by making small adjustments. For instance: "I see on your questionnaire that you have lived in the home five years, what's been the best part of living here?" Step 2 - Clarify Answers Have you ever lied to a salesperson? Come on! Yes, you have. We all have, it's natural and besides lying to a salesperson isn't really lying is it? It's more like concealment, self preservation, survival of the fittest. Why do we do it? What's our underlying motivation? Clients lie to salespeople because the salesperson has failed to establish trust and rapport. In a real estate setting this can mean that when earlier you asked the seller why she was moving, when she needed to move, and where she was moving to and she responded by saying: "Oh, I'm moving because my husband has been transferred, and we really need to get moving in the next ninety days up to North Dakota." The truth is that her husband is in jail, has just been transferred, and she has to sell the house to pay for his next appeal. Unless you clarify answers you may never learn this vital information. So how do you clarify answers? The easiest way is to restate back to the client what they have said. Let's take a look at this technique in action: Clarification Dialog Agent: Mr. Seller you said earlier that the reason you're selling is....ideally you would like to be moved by....and you will be moving to.... Is that right? Seller: Yes and there's one more thing.... Clarifying a seller's earlier answers is a master communication tool. While they may have been hesitant in the beginning to confess all their real reasons for selling, by the time you ask this follow up question often they will be ready to tell the truth or at least expand their story. Step 3 - Tap into the Audience One of the skills of a master presenter is the ability to involve their audience in the presentation. For a seller this means that a great real estate presentation is never passive, like sitting down to watch a movie, instead it's active like going to hockey game where the audience is a vital part of the excitement of any match up. After all without an active, engaged, and often vocal audience a hockey game would be pretty boring. Superstars encourage their clients to be vocal, active participants during a presentation not just passive spectators which is why it is often wise to give your clients permission to interrupt you, debate you, and even berate you through out the discussion. Tom's technique for doing this was simply to say "As we talk today I want you to know that this is a discussion so any questions that pop into your head ask them, and if you disagree with any points or don't quite catch something I've said please stop me. Ok?" Step 4 - Introduce Solutions So you're ready to roll out your presentation and introduce your solutions. But how do you do it in a way that is natural? After all you don't want to look uncomfortable getting out your binder or laptop. Why not just ask the clients "Do you mind if I just take a minute and show you how I work?" That was easy! Really it is easy. While I've seen speakers recommend asking sellers for a glass water to establish control before beginning a discussion, (something I find to be a ridiculous idea) the key with opening a presentation isn't to establish control, it is to maintain trust and rapport. A seller can't feel trapped, tricked, or terrified about you beginning your discussion. Instead they need to feel at ease, and calm, while enjoying the same free flowing conversation that you had earlier. A good presentation then should be an extension of your earlier discussion, one that has now simply moved to the kitchen or dining room. Once the discussion has begun you can begin to introduce specific solutions on each page of your presentation. One key to remember when introducing each new concept is the strategy of framing. To frame a discussion means that you take the time to put the subject matter into a context that will benefit the seller, or at the very least pique their interest. Step 5 - Offer Options Would you like French fries or onion rings? A window or an aisle seat? Two queen beds or one king? Options, options, options everyday as consumers it seems we have more and more choices to make. Why? Because we like them! Companies know that because every customer is unique, building options is a smart way to create products and services customers will actually be excited to buy. In the old days we use to call this technique the preference of choice close. Today we just call it a true win-win, the client gets what they want, and you get what you want, a happy customer. So how do you provide options to real estate clients? First look at each page of your real estate presentation and decide if you can offer the client any alternatives. At first this may seem like a challenge but as you begin to review the possibilities you may discover there is a near limitless supply of options to offer your clients. Let's take a look at some user friendly preference of choice questions: Preference Questions Pricing Pages: "Would you like to consider hiring an valuer, or would you prefer that we take a look at my Competitive Market Analysis, it's free?" "Would you prefer to set a higher price and be willing to wait for a buyer, or would you rather price the home to the market and sell quickly?" "Would you like to pre-set a price adjustment thirty days from now or would you prefer to do that sooner?" "Would you be willing to help a buyer with closing costs or an interest rate buy down which could help you sell quickly or would you rather wait for a buyer who can pay those costs themselves?" Product Pages: "Would you like to offer a home warranty that can enhance the marketability of your home at no cost to you unless the home sells?" "Would you like me to provide you with a list of the best ways to help your home stand out in the marketplace, or would you prefer to sell the home as it is?" "Would you be willing to beginning pack up non-essentials now, this can help a buyer picture themselves in the home or would you rather wait until we have an offer?" Promotion Pages: "Would you like me to do an open house on the property, or would you prefer just a REALTOR tour, or both?" "Would you like to have to have a flyer box, or a talking house on the home, or both?" "Would you like to feature interior and exterior photos of the home, or both in our marketing?" You might notice that with most of these questions either way the client answers it assumes that you will be listing the property. This technique is called an assumptive close, meaning that just by virtue of the client answering you have moved closer to listing the property. For a rookie or even a veteran who is not used to asking these types of strong questions they can soften this approach by adding a quick preface to each question. For example some agents add - "If you decide to work with me" or "I f we decide to work together" to each question thus eliminating the assumptive close portion of the question. Regardless of the semantics by offering client options, choices, and alternatives you are helping them to take baby steps towards an ultimate decision. This is important because many of our clients have a hard time making decisions which leads us to step six! Step 6 - Nurturing Decisions Over the years I had often thought of my clients as being like hens. They won't be rushed. Colorful and unique they each sit in their homes pondering the idea of listing their home patiently. They nurture their decisions. For a real estate agent who wants to take a listing this can be a frustrating wait, which is exactly why over the years I have developed strategies for helping my clients accelerate this agonizingly slow process. Like using a microwave instead of an incubator we can help clients speed up their decision making process by using four easy strategies: • Don't Go Big - Going big, means forcing the seller to make a big decision with an ultimatum question like - Would you like to list your home today? Going big is like driving to Las Vegas with your life savings and placing it all on red, yes if you win you might drive home in a Porsche, but you can just easily end up hitchhiking home. It's a crapshoot. • Talk them Down - Making a life changing decision for many clients is like being a first time bungee jumper. They want to jump, but the really, really don't want to jump. To get them to take that first step into thin air, the positives must outweigh the negatives. Superstars stack up as many positive reasons as possible for their clients to take that leap of faith. Top Producer Tip: If the client has a negative reason for selling - death, divorce, or financial problems reframe the negative into a positive. For example: "John, I know that when you sell the home financially you aren't going to benefit, but on the plus side - your credit will be saved, you will be able to move on with your life, and a huge burden will be lifted from your shoulders." • The Cascade Effect - An avalanche, what causes one to happen? Many scientists ascribe it to something called the cascade effect, where one small push or tipping point causes an unstoppable chain reaction. The same is true in decision making. Top producers use this theory as a sales tool by finding their clients tipping point, their fulcrum of decision making. They then apply leverage to this point until irresistibly the client is buried in an avalanche of reasons to move forward. Top Producer Tip: Whenever it is to your advantage use your own personal sales statistics to build creditability and motivation: "From our earlier discussion, it sounds like getting moved before summer is over is your biggest concern. During the last year my average days on market has been 43 days compared to 69 days for the overall market, which means I sell homes on average 26 days faster than my competitors. How does that sound to you?" Gift Bagging ? Trying to rip open a gift wrapped present can be a challenge which is why many people today use a gift bag. From a selling sense gift bagging means you make it easy for people to say yes. For example: "Now if you decide to move forward, I have some space available to do a special feature on your property in the real estate guide next month. How does that sound?" Do you have any feedback on this article or ideas for a topic that you would like us to cover in future editions? |
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