So, ARE you more than a lockbox key and a fill-in-the-blanks purchase agreement? It’s all about the value you bring to the transaction from a buyer’s perspective. I think your value is huge, but I’m curious to know what you think. Why should a buyer choose to work with you rather than anyone else? Or rather than go it alone?
{ 0 comments }
I am really old. I am so old, people in their 40s routinely call me ‘Sir.’ I’m so old, when I do crunches at the gym, I literally hear crunching. I’m so old, my dog, Homer, thinks he’s an assistance animal. I’m so old, young mothers burdened with babies and bags of groceries routinely hold the door open for me. I’m so old a punk on the sidewalk called me ‘Grandpa’ the other day.
Having now publicly wallowed in all that wrinkly tommy-rot, I must admit there are some benefits from being older than dirt. One such benefit is the fact that I actually know a couple of things.
We’ve been talking about the Buyer Inquiry and Buyer Data Sheet and, today, about Buyer Objections (which I prefer to call Buyer Questions and Concerns . . . it’s less adversarial). Often our conversation has gotten back to demonstrating your value to the consumer when he or she makes contact. That seems essential.
Here is a Great Truth: Nobody ever does anything they don’t want to do.
Let me repeat that: NOBODY EVER DOES ANYTHING THEY DON”T WANT TO DO. Even if they’re choosing the lesser of evils, they are making a choice.
So your task, when that potential Buyer makes contact, is to make them want to meet you.
As you probably already know, nobody who ever calls you for the first time wants to meet you. Meeting you is the last thing they want. They want to get the information you have as quickly as possible with a minimum of entanglement and to get off the phone. They will pause and absorb only when something extraordinary happens:
There’s a word for getting people to want what you have. It’s called ‘Salesmanship.’ And when used properly, it is not dishonest, manipulative, opportunistic, harmful or fattening. Great salesmanship is knowing your business so well that you shine like a polished gem. Great salesmanship is being willing to educate the other person about a process in which you are expert. Great salesmanship is knowing, right down to your marrow, that nobody can do a better job for this caller than YOU. Believing so strongly in what you know and what you do, you reach out to consumers with near missionary zeal. Really, gaining the right to help people make good decisions becomes your mission. (In fact, I don’t think it would be a bad idea to slip that phrase into your cadre of dialogs: ’My personal mission is to help people make good real estate decisions.’ )*
For years, when I worked for Brand X, I devoted lots of time to meeting with and interviewing our top producing salespeople. Because I was designing training, it was important that I knew what the top people were doing. These great salespeople had a few things in common: they all had a strong sense of mission about what they were doing. They knew their business so well that they were supremely confident they were the best person to help the consumer. And helping as many people as possible to make good decisions was the only goal that seemed to matter. Honestly, I rarely met a great salesperson who could tell you how many deals they’d done this year or what their gross commission total was. That wasn’t important to them. What was important was the customer whose transaction had snarled and whose living room furniture was now being stored in their garage. What was important was getting that family comfortably relocated before the start of school so the kids could go into the new situation on day one. What was important was finding that perfect house in that perfect neighborhood with the mother-in-law suite downstairs so the family could be together.
When you have the accent on that syllable and can back it up with solid knowledge of inventory, finance and the real estate process your value just oozes out. The potential Buyer recognizes it quickly and is anxious to meet you. Suddenly he or she wants what you have. I don’t guess I’ve ever heard anyone demonstrate the value he brings to a Buyer transaction any better than Jack Bailey. He did it again today in our National Sales Meeting when he volunteered to role play a Buyer Inquiry call. Luckily, we have tons of video of Jack doing this in the Download Library and you really ought to be taking a regular look at that wonderful material.
*For a real example of that sense of mission, I have a short video clip of a great salesperson. Cindy Coplin Mitchell works in Athens, Georgia and lives her business with passion every day. Here, she’s talking about working with FSBOs, but I think you’ll see what I’m talking about. I am sad to say, she does not work for us . . . but who knows? Enjoy!
{ 0 comments }
