How to ask the right questions and think from the customers perspective

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.

Understanding engagement and how it really works

It’s important you understand how engagement really works. What I’ve learnt in marketing is that if you’re the first in the inbox, the first in the voice mail, first in the letter box and the first in the meeting, you’ve got the opportunity to steal the attention of your customer and the attention is one of the most important parts of our conversation.

Most businesses don’t check their email statistics. They generally don’t know how many people are reading them and even worse than that, they don’t know whether or not they’re actually clicking on any of the links. It is important that you make sure the database system you’re using actually has the capability and the ability to be able to give you statistical reporting about who is opening up all of the emails that you’re sending out.

You should really take yourself out of the mix and put yourself in a position to see what it’s like to actually be a customer on the inside of your business. A lot of real estate agents will be devastated by this process because unfortunately we’re not as good at marketing as we think we are.  You’ve got to understand what you’re doing from a marketing point of view to lift the level of engagement.

What would happen if you added a buyer to your weekly email but then at week four you stopped sending the email and you rang them and said, “Hey Josh, you’ve been receiving our email for the last four weeks.  I just thought I’d quickly check in to see, have you guys bought anything yet?”

Engagement is about using different mediums in a way to lift the level of response in working with your client.  We use video marketing as a major engagement piece of marketing. In a training course a few weeks ago a client came up to me and said “Josh, even though this is the first time that we’ve ever seen you speak, I kind of feel like I’ve been sitting in your seminar over the course of the last year because every week we just watch the videos that keep on coming from a training point of view over and over and over and over again.”  That’s the power of engagement.  When people really start to understand what you offer to the marketplace.

So start to think “what can I do to completely shift my business model?  Not just from attraction but also into engagement so I can become more engaged in working with more buyers, potential sellers, past market appraisals, past clients, and your current clients.”

One of the great rules that I’ve learnt in business is to make sure that every day you speak to a minimum of 25 people.  If you do that your business will grow substantially.  Remember, the secret to success is making sure that you market consistently rather than when you have to.  That’s the difference, always being there. You need to understand, it’s not about you and your situation, it’s about the most important person in the world, your customer and their situation.

How to turn your open for inspections into one of your biggest lead source

It is time to think about open for inspections as being a massive opportunity for lead source. This is because you get buyers that are entering into your marketplace.

Think of open for inspections as a great way to get known by the neighbours. Not many work their Just Listed campaigns very well. What if you dropped a DL that said ‘Someone in your street is about to sell, to find out who and why they are selling, call us now’. This would add some mystery and intrigue about what is going on and will start to create word of mouth marketing.

Open for inspections is the beginning of the word of mouth marketing cycle as this is where you get to meet lots of people. The challenge is that we have great big databases, full of past market appraisals, clients, and people that you know live in and around the area. What if you thought of open for inspection as a networking opportunity where you ring all these people you know are from around that property for sale and you invite them to the inspection on the weekend? This will give you a chance to get back face-to-face with all of your consumers.

One of the other great benefits is that if you can already bring three, four, or five of your past clients and potential sellers to that particular open home, if that one buyer turns up that’s actually interested in buying the home, they’re going to perceive that there’s more competition on the property. More competition will lead to being able to get the property sold in a much shorter period of time, and getting the property sold will allow you then to put up the sold sticker.

With the open for inspection you might like to have what we call a Saturday assistant, and what the Saturday assistant does is they actually come out and they help you with your open for inspections. So their role is to put out the flyers, promotional boards, etc. and to make sure the home is brilliantly presented and ready to take people through.

Make sure your open for inspection register has room for the person’s name, number of the location of where they’re coming from. Try to get any comments that they might have around the property. In addition to that, like four little tick columns which is the open for inspection call-back, the 10-day call-back, the day 21 call-back, and then the just sold call so you can keep track of your follow up.

Now most agents have buyers entered a database. Many high quality databases now have an automation piece around the way that they work with buyers and sending information about new properties on the market that suit their requirements.
Well I really hope that you’ve enjoyed today’s coaching tip about running better open for inspections. Think about it this way, when you get to the open home, you’ve got a real chance to create the impression with the customer. So, take down all their details, feel free to send them a little SMS after they’ve left the open for inspection thanking them for their time, and make sure that you’re really good at the open for inspection call-back.

If you start to do that and run better open for inspections, and meet more people you’re going to create a much, much better business, and remember, start looking for the business that’s going to be happening in the market right now, and start looking to build the business that can happen over time.

Next Year’s Sales Start Now

It’s that time of year again. Everyone is getting into a mad rush to try and make things happen before Christmas. What is the most important thing for you to be doing today?

This time of year most people stop prospecting and focus on selling existing stock. There’s nothing wrong with focusing on selling stock, but now is actually the time to start prospecting for next year.

I recommend that most agents should take their holidays earlier in December, specifically from December 10 through January 5. That way you can come back into the market in early January, really hit the phones prospecting, and get lots of listings stocked and ready to go.

A lot of the agents we work with write down six properties that they want to list before they come back from their Christmas holidays. That way they can stay focused because they know what they’ve got to do in November, and then continue to build all of their listing stock for December, January, and February.

What I’m going to suggest to you is that every day you need to be calling out for business. One of the great secrets that I learnt very early on is that the first hour of every day should be spent on marketing. Focus on marketing to your potential customers who are in the marketplace, and start to build a better relationship with all of the people who are already sitting inside of your business. One of your greatest areas to build upon is your past market appraisals.

Most of the people who are sitting in your past market appraisal list were either at the orange or the red light when you last spoke with them. The challenge for most of us is that we frankly don’t know how to follow through with those key people. Here are a few simple questions to ask them:

· What are the next steps for you?
· What does your best outcome look like?
· How can I help you make that happen?
· What do you hope will change by the time we get to that definitive day?
· If a buyer came forward now, what would you like for me to do?

These questions will help your client make their next decision, and then take action on the things they know they need to do.

It’s vitally important for you to maintain your focus on the prospecting side of your business right now. Look for all of the listings that are left for this year, and then immediately start listing stock for next year so that you have a great start to 2013.

Do you want big leverage or small leverage in your business?

Write down the actual personal income that you’ve earned over the last twelve months. Now put a little x2 underneath that figure and calculate how much more you could be earning – two times your starting figure. This is what we call “doubling the numbers.”

When you think about doubling your income, what are some of the things that you would need to start doing, stop doing, and continue doing in order to be able to achieve that growth?

There are a few things you can do to really tighten up your business in order to get the small leverage stuff done right, such as asking better questions, and being more focused and attentive to your customers’ needs.

On the flip side is the big leverage area. We all know that prospecting needs to happen on a regular basis, but you also know that replying to e-mails, arranging pest inspections and building inspections, folding letters and other administrative stuff – it’s all necessary, but it really doesn’t contribute to your capacity for growth. You really need to farm out all of those activities and hire someone who can help you with those daily tasks of running your business.

Support personnel are absolutely critical to your business because their role is to allow you to stay focused doing the work that you personally need to do. The biggest challenge for most real estate agents is taking care of all the little things you have to get done when you should instead be thinking about all the big opportunities you need to be working toward.

If you’re a Level 1 agent you should be doing at least one call session a day. If you’re a Level 2 agent you’ll probably do two call sessions a day, and if you’re a Level 3 agent, you’ll do at least three call sessions a day. Why? Because activity breeds activity, and although you’re really busy, still you know it’s critically important to maintain the momentum of building up your listing stock.

Think about what it would take to double your income, and which actions you need to take in order to start building that momentum.

It is all about clearance

As we come to the end of the year there’s an important skill you should know about called “clearance.” Clearance is your ability to get all of your properties sold that are currently in the marketplace.

One thing that I look for as to whether or not a property is actually sellable is the quality of indicators of interest in that property’s sale. These include enquiries, inspections, second appointments, contracts and offers.

Now, if you think about it, everything you currently have available in the marketplace has at least one of three issues. First, if the property doesn’t have enough marketing around it then buyers won’t know it’s available. If the key features and benefits of the property aren’t publicized, how does the consumer make a decision to pay more for what is offered?

The second issue is that the sales method you’re using may not create the sense of urgency required to move toward a conversion. Auction is a great sales method because it has an end date, so we generate more urgency with the buyer to make a decision to buy the property.

The final thing we draw down to is price. If we get the pricing right, we can attract more potential buyers to the home. A lot of agents use price like a blunt instrument when they’re working with their vendors. If you don’t get the price right in the first couple of weeks, there’s just no way you’re actually going to get the home sold.

One of your greatest challenges will be whether you can go for a reasonable price reduction. You have to be able to attract interest to that particular property without going too low in price during the sales process.

Ask your vendors the following questions:
– Did you expect that you’d actually have more enquiries on the home?
If they say yes, then ask,
– Did you expect you would have more inspections?
– Did you think you’d have more second appointments?
– Did you think we’d have more requests for legal documentations?
– Did you expect we’d have more offers?

Usually they will say Yes to all questions. Reply with, “Although you’ve said yes to all that, it’s pretty clear what the market is actually
telling us, and what the market is saying to us at this point is No.” Give them a few options of what to change – the marketing, the sales method, or the price.

Clearance is one of the most important things you must consider because it is the reason all of these sellers have made the decision to use you as their agent. Remember this so you will always be their most trusted advisor.

How do you book the appointment?

Lets talk about how to book an appointment.

One of the best things you can do before starting a prospecting session is to review your schedule to work out your available time slots. By having the times already set aside, it’s a lot easier to quickly book appointments with the customer.

What we actually want to be able to do is connect with people more. You should be aware that out in the world a lot of people are actually pretty lonely and seeking opportunities to connect with others. Social media sites have been so successful because people are yearning for this connection at an individual level. With this in mind, you can see how you can use this awareness to be more successful in your career by booking more appointments.

One of the things that we have learned is that if a customer will meet with you face to face, then they are more likely to be in a receptive position to be shown the reality of their situation, whatever that may be.

Use the following dialogue: “It would be great to see you. It would be good to catch up. I could do something tomorrow at either 2:00 or 4:00. What’s best for you?” This dialog is designed to sound more like you are actually speaking with a friend. If the consumer feels that you are friends they’ll feel more at ease with booking an appointment with you. We then utilize the alternative choice clause, “So would you like X or Y?”

Getting more buyer appointments helps the vendor to justify selling at today’s actual market price. We also know that getting more market appraisal appointments helps to build the continuity of your pipeline.

What I want you to do this week is book more appointments. If you need more opportunities, hold more open for inspections. Open all the properties that you’ve got available in your stock list because that will build your social proof. Plenty of people will see you doing opens, which will increase the number of buyers and neighbours you get to meet.

Are you taking the tortoise approach to business?

No matter which marketplace you work in, there is a dynamic called the rhythm of business. This rhythm usually breaks a year up into quarters around Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.

In order to really build rhythm in business you need a good system based on what growth looks like for you. So one of my best questions to start with is, what does success look like and how will you know when you have achieved it?

Building rhythm in business includes using Saturday open for inspections. Saturday is like game day where you get the opportunity to meet more buyers and more sellers than ever before. The trick is to be alert to the opportunities around you. If you really want to build a business, then you’ve got to make sure that you are taking plenty of time to work with the buyers who are coming to the opens, and increasing the number of open for inspections that you are doing.

Are you taking the tortoise approach to business? Are you happy to do maybe one listing and one sale a month? Are you relaxed about what’s happening, even though you know that you could do more? Maybe you sense that you kind of feel a little bit asleep in your career.

Perhaps your business has a little bit more mojo to it. Has it got a little bit more pace? Do you hold four, maybe five open for inspections every Saturday? You do your three to four sales every month and you have started to build consistency and momentum, but all
of a sudden you find road blocks starting to appear in your career because you just don’t have the capacity to do all that you need to do.

If you see yourself in either scenario then it is time to move to the next stage of business. This is the rhythm of business where it is fast paced and frantic. It is time to be really focused and make sure that you’ve got some good results.

You might want to implement the following:

  • Minimum number of open for inspections every Saturday. Try to hold 5, and then try to visit 5 other properties in your core market.
  • Preplan your holidays 12 months in advance.
  • Know when to speed up and slow down.
  • Have clear goals, both soft and hard KPIs

What I say to people is that being successful in your business is really about living it and breathing it. We are going to use a three-step model to do that. The first thing you’ve got to really learn is the rhythm. Next is to move into a position where you start to really live and breathe that rhythm. Once you’ve actually learned it and you start to live it, then you’ll start to actually love it.

How do you increase your capacity?

This is one of the most confronting questions you will ask yourself in your real estate career.

The first thing that you can do is to increase your fitness: Physical fitness, mental fitness, emotional fitness, spiritual fitness and financial fitness. Altogether, fitness is actually all about the speed of your recovery. So, the fitter you are, the quicker you can respond to circumstances happening around you.

The second thing you can do to increase your capacity is to create better systems. What I mean by that is, for example, setting up databases that automatically handle all the buy work for you. Through automation you can send buyers alerts that have just been listed by your agency about properties that could suit their requirements.

The third thing is to employ good people. Many good agents in this industry could be exceptional if they just made the decision to actually back themselves. There will never, ever be a perfect time for business growth. Putting on an assistant is one of the best moves you could make for your real estate career. This can only go wrong if you decide to hire someone to do the work, then back away from managing any part of it yourself. What I know is that you’ve got to hire someone who is actually going to complement your skill set.

How do you know if you need an assistant? Across the industry, the benchmark is usually about 30 transactions per year or around $300,000 in fees. As soon as you are doing about $300,000 in gross fees, you are ready to put on that assistant. So, what do you look for? Well, I believe that the number one most important skillset is the ability to prospect, because prospecting actually turns the business around. Prospecting is not something that you can just outsource to a junior. People actually need to be competent and have the capacity and the skill to really be able to work with you.

The next thing to ask yourself is, are you coachable? If you’re not coachable, how do you expect to be able to coach others? In addition to that, is your assistant coachable? Out of all the people I have ever worked with who have put on an assistant, the ones who have really succeeded are those who actually took control of the situation and decided that the assistant is nothing more than an extension of their business.

Working with assistants is not easy. You’ve got to commit to be very clear about the workload and what you’ve got on for the day. This brings us back to one of your basic fundamental skills: The ability to make a task list.

Putting on an assistant could be one of the best things you do in your real estate career. It will take you to over $600,000 in fees – might even take you into $1 million plus type territory – but you’ve got to make sure you’ve got them doing the right work.

How do you brand, package, market and develop yourself so you are desirable in your marketplace?

One of the key components to your marketing and branding is the need to understand that to be really good at what you do, you need to be what we call the “Authentic You.”

The Authentic You is the natural, normal You that you are as an individual outside of the real estate world. If you can bring that genuine personality and persona into what you actually do inside your real estate business, you’ll have a tremendous level of success.

We employ two types of communication: written and spoken. Written communication includes e-mails, letters, SMS and social media. Most of this content comes directly from our head. On the other hand, when we speak, either face-to-face or over the phone, our communication actually comes more from our heart. This means that it tends to be less rational and more emotional.

There is the secret. Really good communication gets not only you, but most importantly your prospect, emotional about what is happening in their world. So whether or not they are thinking about selling or buying a property, it’s all about the process of getting the customer into a more emotional place as a part of the sales process. This is why phone calls and face to face interactions will always win, because these are much more emotional means of communication for the way that we actually want to work with people.

If you want to be incredibly powerful in working with people, do more communication over the phone and face to face. Measure your soft KPIs: The total number of calls or call sessions, the number of connections you make, and in addition to that, the number of appointments you book. The reason why it’s important to be booking those appointments is that that face-to-face communication is where you will actually get to the conversion.

It’s time to think more about what your customer really wants from you. Think about how you present yourself when you actually speak to people over the phone. Do you use a different voice, or do you just use your normal voice and allow people to really connect with the Authentic You that you truly are?

Speak more from the emotional voice, more from the heart and less from the head, and you’ll find a tremendous improvement in the way that you communicate with your customers.