The coveted listing appointment: getting the appointment is only half the battle. What you do and say, or don’t do, once you’re in it is just as important, if not more so. With the real estate field being as crowded as it is, you will likely be one of several listing agents battling for the seller’s trust. So how do you stand out from the competition, impress the pants off the sellers, and ultimately win the listing without agreeing to an outrageous sales price? Here are some tips from the experts at Weichert on how to dazzle during every listing presentation.
Keep Your Ears Open
If you are anything like most real estate agents, you probably feel a ping of nerves when walking into a listing presentation. Especially, when you really need to make a sale. All of those nerves can cause many agents to spend too much time talking and not enough time listening. In most cases, a seller will tell you everything you need to know in order to get the listing. Make sure you allow them to speak as much as they are willing and carefully fish out valuable information like their motives for wanting to sell. At Weichert, we recommend a two-step process, with the first step focusing on listening to the seller and getting to know them, their needs, their wants, their concerns, then going back to do the final presentation.
Reinforce Emotional Motives
Most people don’t just randomly decide to sell their house and uproot their lives for no reason. In most cases, there is an underlying emotional reason tied to their decision to sell. Understanding this emotional motive will be valuable to you in your pursuit to attain the listing. As early as possible, you should ask the sellers what makes them want to sell and move. If they give a shallow reason, attempt to dig a little deeper. Once you know what’s motivating them, like a new job, retirement, a new baby, etc. you should subtly incorporate your understanding of, and experience with their goal in the conversation. For example, if they want to move because they’re starting a family, remind them of the comfort and relief they will feel if they’re settled into a new home before the baby arrives. At Weichert, this is also captured in the Getting to Know You portion of the listing presentation experience.
Impress Them With a Polished Presentation
It is not enough to make promises about how professional you are. You need to prove it during every interaction, if you want to earn and keep the listing. A large piece of that puzzle is how you deliver your listing presentation and the materials that you use to represent your marketing plan. For example, Weichert agents are given access to a professionally designed and highly customizable listing presentation called DOORS, which is one of the tools most often cited by our franchisees as helping their closing rates. In DOORS, agents use an online design tool that is integrated with their CRM to customize the presentation with key details about the property. The 24-page presentation can be shown digitally, as well as in a bound presentation that talks about the details of the listing, outlines the marketing plan your agent will use to market the property and markets your brokerage as well. It is comprehensive, colorful, and informative in a way that most other presentations are not. There is a companion leave behind version as well that you can deliver as a hard copy or send them electronically. Our agents find that these easy-to-create and polished presentations win over sellers that may have been on the fence, and help differentiate them when they are up against other agents.
Communicate Value With Clarity
Year after year, buyers and sellers proclaim that clear, honest, and regular communication is one of their top three priorities in a real estate agent, according to a study done by NAR. Although sometimes nerves can get the better of agents, when they are armed with a great presentation and speaking points, it can make the most ordinary agent seem extraordinary in the eyes of the seller. That’s why Weichert focuses and invests so heavily in their listing presentation. By arming its offices and agents with a solid presentation and sales system, they can go out and rule their neighborhoods and win those listings!
What type of listing system do you use in your brokerage? The more you invest in truly professional preparation for attracting and signing listings, the more confident, comfortable, and successful you and your agent team will become.
For more information about how you can give yourself a competitive edge this year, visit www.weichertfranchising.com.
