By Lloyd R. Manning
Like all professions and disciplines, becoming proficient at selling real estate takes time, education and above all perseverance. Book learning is only part of the job – perhaps a large part, but certainly not all of it. Because they are anxious yet green, it is not uncommon for a novice salesperson to unknowingly commit acts or say things that kill their own sale. Here are 10 of the most common violations of good selling practice.
1. Selling when you should not, talking when you should remain silent. This is a common failing. It might work for auctioneers but not for salespeople of any kind – real estate, automobiles, books, you name it. When you go through the selling process, answering the questions and overcoming the objections, there is a time to talk and a time to remain quiet. You must give the prospect time to work through his decision-making process. When the prospect is serious, he is saying nothing, yet contemplating what has been shown and said. If you start talking, perhaps offering an additional positive, you are aborting the prospect’s thought sequence. More sales are lost by talking too much than not enough.
2. Failure to listen. You hear the voice but don’t know what this person is saying. Poor communication. This is perhaps the greatest failing of all salespeople, Realtors included. Perhaps because you are concentrating on what to say next, that all-persuasive pitch, that closing argument, either you don’t hear what the prospect is saying or flesh out his objectives and constraints. Or perhaps you are listening, but only with your ears. Body language is ultra important. Often what a prospect does not say is more important than what he does say.
3. Failure to qualify the buyer. Failure to establish the buyer’s true motives and constraints. Not bringing out the buyer’s likes and dislikes, wants, needs and of course purchasing power. Often it is not the “what” but rather the “why” that must be satisfied. Every buyer does something or buys something at the expense of not doing or buying something else. Thus it is a trade-off between what is desired, what is needed and what is affordable. As a sales professional you must ensure that what you are proposing makes the trade-off reasonable and acceptable.
4. Answering the question before it is asked. Telling or showing too much too soon. Limiting the prospective buyer from exercising a sense of control over the decision making and buying process. This is important! Never relate too much at the get-go, like putting everything imaginable into a highlight sheet, or giving an all-inclusive spiel, leaving no room for questions and answers. It is on the interview that you feed in pertinent information, but slowly, one piece at a time. Let the prospect digest what has already been provided and an agreement or at least understanding obtained, prior to adding more grist for the mill.
5. Failure to organize. After the buyer is qualified it should be an organized showing of properties procedure and a step-by-step sales presentation of the one that most likely meets the buyer’s criteria. The sales professional must adapt the sales pitch to his most comfortable way of making presentations and the prospect’s reception to it. If the drill isn’t working, change it. Ask questions in an orderly, professional manner.
6. Applying incorrect motivations. Using the wrong pitch. It is too easy to assume that all buying decisions are made with the head and not the heart. This is equally true with all categories of real estate, including major commercial properties. No matter how sophisticated or worldly wise the buyer may be, it is the subjective motives, the reasoning behind the why he wants to do this that outweigh the objective considerations. It is by satisfying those subjective motives that the sale is made.
7. Failure to maintain a sense of urgency. Failure to keep things moving along. If you permit seemingly inconsequential matters to go unattended or to drag on unnecessarily long, your chance of losing the sale is directly proportional to the delay. Just because you have an accepted offer and a deposit does not mean that your job is done. A sale is not a sale until the seller has his money and the buyer has possession – and sometimes not even then. (I once refunded a deposit where the buyer had been in possession for four years).
8. Forgetting that the buyer is making a large investment. All buyers have doubts about the decision they are about to make. Age and wealth does not enter this picture. Although frequently changing one’s residence is now becoming more common, historically, most residential buyers have done this only two or three times during a lifetime. All buyers are concerned that they could be making a huge mistake. It is always a stressful situation, filled with uncertainties. You must be patient as you go down the line answering each question, overcoming each objection and offering reassurance.
9. Giving worldly wise advice on subjects or matters on which you have no expertise. At times it is difficult to remember that you are a salesperson, not an engineer, architect, town planner, consultant or financial adviser. (This happens to all of us – me included). We stop selling and start advising. Failing to dazzle the buyer with brilliance, you try baffling with camel dung.
10. Lastly, don’t be a smart ass. Thinking that you know more than the prospect and letting it show. It just might be that the prospect, on inspection, is more intimately acquainted with the strengths and weaknesses of the property being shown and his own financial capability than you are. As a sales professional you are a conveyor of information. The more orderly manner in which the information is provided and properly responded to, the greater the chance of you making the sale.
This article was taken from Lloyd Manning’s most recent book, Winning With Commercial Real Estate – the Ins and Outs of Making Money In Investment Properties. It covers the entire field of buying, financing, leasing, managing, selling and more. In 374 pages, for less than $25, the book provides an invaluable guide to investors, Realtors and appraisers at all levels. It is available as an EPub from www.Booklocker.com or as a paperback online from Indigo-Chapters, Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
