Getting
Listings
Let’s
face it. In order to sell a property, you must first list it so that you (or
anyone else) can sell it. Listings are after all, the core of the business. The
question is: how do you get listings?
I’ve
got to say there are a million ways to do this, most of which are never used. For
starters, most real estate sales people are not really sales people to begin
with. They are hard wired for rejection. If someone seems willing to do
business with them, they automatically get suspicious. I think the business of
direct sales is a foreign concept to most sales people that is difficult to
grasp.
I
remember once when our company closed our office and moved us to another in a
consolidation move, several agents in the office we moved to quit the business
altogether, citing a lack of referrals coming into their office and how would
they make a living now? These were not sales people. They were sales clerks and
didn’t know the difference. That’s the thing. Direct sales are a whole
different category. You need an entirely different mindset for that.
I
remember the old Xerox course in direct sales that was so simple it was
understandable by most everyone. It said (more or less) to paraphrase; find (or
establish) a need and present your product to fill that need, answer any
objections until the need is met; ask for the order. Well it went something
like that.
There
was another course called the Spech sales course for real estate. It was also
an excellent course in having the (potential) client participate in
establishing a price for the property. I used its philosophy quite successfully
in my marketing technique. On Dwight Whalley though, it had the opposite
effect. He was a friendly, gregarious fellow whose personality invited
friendship. Dwight was literally making an excellent living selling real estate
with never much of a problem. But once he got into this method, his sales began
to slow down to the point he wasn’t making any sales at all. Finally desperate,
Dwight went back to his old ways and business picked up for him.
The
point of the whole story is that not everything works for everyone. You have to
take what matches your personality and go with that. Not even drumming into our
heads that in cold calling we needed to call, make the appointment and get off
the phone got through our heads (well not all of us anyway). It seems the
blockage occurred in identifying oneself as a real estate agent and the
perceived tirade of abuse that was sure to follow from the person on the other
end of the phone. Well it was a time when lawyers, used car salesmen, and real
estate salesmen were all the butt of many jokes. Agents would identify
themselves in the strangest of ways to avoid saying “real estate agent”. Some
would be “doing a survey”, others would be selling insurance, etc. – anything
but looking for real estate business.
Then, if they didn’t get their ears burned off from the other end, they
would begin to talk to the potential customer and blow their whole cover.
We
had one agent in our office who I think I’ve told you about before who had
mastered the art of getting appointments. He was indeed an experienced agent
who would go around the office asking people how many appointments/listings they
wanted. Of course, everyone was happy to
get a listing or to and would be happy to pay a referral on the sale of a
property.
“Listen,”
he would say in response to a tirade about real estate agents. “I’m with you
sir/madam. I just hate them crooks. I’m an agent myself and I have no end of
trouble with them. They drive me nuts!”
First
thing you know he’s got the party on the other end agreeing with him. “Tell you
what,” he says. “I’ve got some good people I trust working with me. I’ll send
Mrs. Palmer over to give you an evaluation of your home. No, no, there’s no
cost or obligation. But I’m sure you’d like to know what your home is worth.”
Of
course they would. Who wouldn’t like to know what their home is worth? “Is
tomorrow evening good for you – say 7:00 p.m. or should we make it 8:00?”
“No,
seven is fine”.
“Mrs.
Palmer will be there.” He hung up the phone and went on to the next.
The
thing was that he wasn’t ashamed to be a real estate agent at all. He was
rather proud of it in fact. In the course of the evening he had racked up
thirteen appointments, with a referral of ten percent on each sold listing. Not
bad for sitting on the phone enjoying yourself for a few hours.
So
there you have it. You need to be proud of what you do to do it well. It works.
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