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Walter Sanford is an international speaker and author of 14 books for real estate salespeople
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Put Selling Skills Before Technology
The best business solution isn’t always the most high-tech one.
BY WALTER SANFORD
Technology can make your business run faster and cheaper, but it only ads value when it’s grounded in a profitable business strategy. If misapplied toward dubious goals, whiz-bang technological “solutions” only drain your budget and waste your time. When evaluating a technology, make sure it achieves your real goals: raising net profit, increasing free time, and making the real estate process more convenient for your customers.
Here are potential high-tech pitfalls to keep in mind when considering how technology fits into your present and future business plans.
Don’t let technology become a security blanket. E-zines, automatic buyer searches, and automated listing follow-ups are all the rage these days. As additional services, I love these tools. However, if you rely on an e-mailed newsletter alone to keep your database loyal, a great salesperson will eat your lunch! Maintaining a fully automated contact system without working the phone will guarantee that you become an average salesperson. Your business strategy must emphasize proactive, personal contact whether you’re dealing with past, present, or future customers. Pick up the phone, and ask past customers for referral or repeat business. Contact buyers to re-align parameters. Check in with sellers to address their needs and, if necessary, request price reductions.
Never mistake glitz for substance. Many salespeople overestimate the effectiveness of high-tech listing presentations. Sure, you’re on stage when you solicit a listing and flash is important. However, after 30 years of doing presentations, I’ve learned to follow a golden rule—the salesperson who knows the most about the seller wins. This isn’t mutually exclusive with using a laptop during your presentation. But it’s easy to get so wrapped up in technology that you forget that your top priority is placing yourself in the best position to answer customers’ needs and calm their fears. Developing a laptop presentation that offers solutions to problems they may not even perceive is a low priority. It’s more important to qualify sellers and learn their needs and criteria via phone prior to the presentation, and then send them prelisting materials or ask them to visit your Web site. And although you may assume that technology will add polish to your presentation, it may actually detract from it. Have you ever tried to crowd sellers around your tiny screen for a good view or attempted to monitor their eyes and body language when you are all clustered together?
Don’t assume technology is always more efficient. For example, interactive voice response systems (IVR’s) automatically give buyers information about a listing over the phone, and simultaneously capture their phone numbers. This sounds impressive to sellers, but it isn’t a timely or cost-effective solution. You still have to call the buyer back, determine who made the call, and answer the question, “How did you get my number?” Often, you’ll find yourself talking to someone who isn’t interested enough in a listing to speak with a live salesperson and who might never have contacted you if you didn’t have an IVR. Similarly, virtual tours wow sellers, but they don’t necessarily help you find buyers. Thirty years ago, I was involved with video realty. It was hard to get a buyer excited about a property with videotape, and it’s still hard to close them on a virtual tour. Sure, it can prove invaluable as a very preliminary way of narrowing options or when sellers aren’t available to see properties. But how often does someone pay hundreds of thousands of dollars when they can’t commit the time to see properties in person? Also, by letting sellers use virtual tours, you don’t give yourself a chance to guide their choices and see beyond their stated wants to underlying needs. And even though a good virtual tour may bet buyers to call you, the best way to attract buyers is still to have a great listing. I would rather spend my time calling expireds, FSBOs, absentee owners, investors, or my past client database than devoting a lot of time and money to creating virtual tours for every property.
Before the letters start coming in from the “tech gurus,” let me say that not anti-technology—it can make me faster, smarter, and cooler, but I always look at business systems first and apply technology second. Technology has sped up the transfer of information, creating a more demanding public, and helped real estate practitioners be more productive. The key is to remember that technology is just a tool—it doesn’t replace sound business strategies or practiced salesmanship and customer service.
Ask Walter:
Q. I’ve had trouble convincing expireds to list their properties with me--they feel as if they’ve been burned before, and now they’re scared of working with a new salesperson. Is it worth it to attempt to win them over?
A. In my experience, reluctant expireds often represent more trouble than they’re worth. The most likely reason their home didn’t sell was because it was overpriced. So, what are these sellers afraid of? They might not want to hear the bad news—that their home isn’t worth as much as they’d like to believe.
If you want to convince these sellers, come armed with a professional CMA, including pictures. You can also make them the following offer: if the appraised value is closer to your list price than theirs, they pay for the appraisal. If their suggested selling price is closer to the appraiser's estimate than yours, you pay for the appraisal.
If you think that the list price of the expireds’ home was realistic, perhaps the home didn’t sell because the homeowners were afraid they wouldn’t be able to find another suitable home and so found fault with the offers they did receive. The only solution to this problem is to show them houses, but that could quickly turn into a waste of time.
Finally, the owners of a home with an expired listing may not want to talk to you because they’re actually afraid that their property will sell if they set a realistic price with a top salesperson. An unmotivated seller might subconsciously set up roadblocks--such as an unrealistically high price--to defeat the sale. Check their motivation by asking why they want to move. If it isn’t a valid or immediate reason, you should ask yourself whether this prospect is worth it.
If you do want to solicit expireds, be sure you spend your time on those who want to sell at a realistic price, but just had the misfortune to list the first time with a salesperson not as skilled as yourself. You can spend a lot of time and energy trying to win over reluctant expireds, but it’s a losing proposition. Look at it this way, there are enough expireds in a slow market you don’t need to spend your time dealing with “cement heads.”
Sincerely,
Walter S. Sanford
Want selling and marketing advice? Send your questions for Walter Sanford to salesclinic@realtors.org | |
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