Here’s three quick tips for listing presentations:
Always ask for the listing, no matter what
How many listings have you lost just because you didn’t ask?
Okay, the listing interview isn’t going your way. The sellers have too many questions, too many objections. You are afraid they might say no if you ask for the listing. Before you touch the door knob to leave, run this series of questions and answers through your mind: Where am I now? I don’t have the listing. What is the absolute worst thing that can happen if I ask for the listing right now? They could say no. Then where would I be? I wouldn’t have the listing. What do I have to lose by asking for the listing? Nada.
Try something. Try anything. “Folks, we covered a lot of ground tonight and I understand you want to sell and want the most money, the quickest sale and the fewest problem. I can deliver what you want. Why don’t you let me get started right now?”
Every word counts
The challenge of “winging it” and just saying whatever comes to mind is that people often misunderstand what we are attempting to say because we have not used the precise words that minimize the chance of misunderstanding what we mean.
If you catch yourself saying “in other words”, or “what I meant”, it tells you that you didn’t say it right in the first place.
It may seem like a lot of work to memorize precise words and phrases, but it is definitely worth the time when you discover that you get more appointments, more listings, better prices and full or bonus commissions faster and more often.
The $5,000 ticket
Did you ever run a stop sign or a red light and get a ticket? How much did it cost? The average answer is from $75 to $300. That’s a lot of money.
Consider this: If you make a listing presentation adding point after point without checking to see if your prospects agree or understand, you could be running verbal stop signs or red lights and at the end of your presentation, you get a ticket called ‘no listing’.
If the sold listing would have brought you a $5,000 commission, that’s an expensive ticket.
To avoid getting such tickets, use frequent feed-back questions throughout your presentation. There are three kinds of feed-back questions: tie downs, benefit questions and logic checks.
Tie downs are questions such as, “Does that make sense?”, “Isn’t that right?” and “Would you agree with that?”
Benefit questions are test questions: “Do you see how (this feature, this idea, this thing I do) will help buyers decide on your home?”
Logic checks are exactly what the words imply; you are checking to see if the sellers are being logical. It’s illogical for a seller to say no when you ask, “Do you want the most money?” or “If you felt you could net an extra $5,000 by listing with me / pricing right / offering a full commission / de-cluttering your home / would you at least consider it?”
Jerry Bresser has been training and coaching real estate agents how to sell homes faster and for more money for over 35 years. He recently published his second book, ‘More Money in Your Pocket’ and is now offering an Aim Above Average Workshop.
