In most businesses, the place where agents lose most of their clients, from a marketing point of view, is between engagement and conversion. The reason this happens is that they stop asking questions and stop thinking from the customer’s perspective.
A great example of this occurs when agents give potential clients an idea of what their home is worth in the current marketplace. Imagine walking into one of those client meetings and saying, “Obviously today you want to get an idea on price. Now, once I tell you a price, what does that then allow you to do?” This of course allows them to make some decisions on what they want to do next. What I would go on to say is, “When we talk about price it’s going to be like a traffic light for you; it may be a red light, meaning you can’t make the decision to move – an orange light, meaning you might be able to make the decision to move – or a green light, on which you can definitely make the decision to move. Is there a particular price that you need or want to get that green light? And if we can get you that price, will that allow you to make the decision to sell the property?”
Lots of people who are sitting in our database are stuck in red or orange situations because we haven’t asked them the right questions to help us understand what a given price means for them. That is why it’s so important to ask those questions, so we can get at the answers we need to actively move the client to conversion.
One of my favorite questions when working with a potential seller is, “If I had a buyer for your home right now, could I mention your place to them, or should I sell them something else?” If the client says, “Yes, of course you could mention ours!” you now know that they’re truly a potential seller. The next part of this conversation, then, is for you to take immediate action and say, “In order to do that I probably need to come back down and see the home again.”
You’ve got to increase your level of engagement in order to move to conversion. If you have no intention of ever calling all those people who are sitting in your database, or trying to get a face-to-face meeting with them, why are they still sitting in your database? That’s what makes the difference in whether you move forward in your business: Conversion. Understand that in every call and in every step you take, you’ve got to move toward that conversion process. This is why I say to you, when you prospect to find people who are looking to sell, always move toward getting that face-to-face meeting with them. If a customer is willing to meet you face-to-face there’s a much better chance they’re truly ready to do business.