Posts Tagged ‘sales training’

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Sweet! You got a lead from your website…or anywhere, really.

You call them up and establish a quick relationship. You provide them with a list of property or set them up on an email drip campaign……………………And then, it seems like they just fall off the planet.

“Why?!?! Why dont the clients call me back??”

Well…. 1. It’s not their job to call you back. That is YOUR job. If you want to continue to attempt to do business with this client, then follow-up is a must!

And 2. Not to put too fine of a point on the subject, but the reason they aren’t calling you back is probably because your follow-up phone call sucked. (Hey, someone has to be honest with you…)

Give them a reason to call you back!

Have you trained your brain to shoot yourself in the foot???

Let’s start with a little story……..

As a young boy, Tan had always heard of stories handed down by his father and his father’s father of a magical rock that, when held by someone, would grant them any wish. It was called a ‘touch stone‘. (A person would know they found the touch stone because the stone would be smooth and round…like a ball…and warm to the touch.) And, as luck would have it, it was said to be along the shore of a small lake near the village that Tan grew up in…

After hearing these stories for his entire life, Tan decided he was going to make it his mission to find this magical ‘touch stone’. So, he started walking around the lake. Every stone he saw, he would pick up, feel it for warmth and visually inspect it for shape. If the stone didn’t adhere to the physical attributes that Tan wanted, he would pitch the stone into the lake so he didn’t have to worry about having to check it again. Over time, Tan had convinced himself that he knew instantly if a stone he had grabbed was the mythical touch stone or not and would immediately hurl the stone into the lake.

Days; Weeks; Months went by and Tan had cleared thousands of stones from the shore of the lake….picking up each one and then pitching it into the lake.

Finally, one one cold morning, Tan grabbed a stone that was warm to the touch. And the stone was round like a ball. And, at that moment……Tan pitched it into the lake.

(Pause for reflection)

The moral of the story???  Treat every stone like it is a ‘touch’ stone.

Let me explain…

If Tan had gone about his quest with the idea that every stone that came across his hands was the touch stone, he would have known immediately that he had found the stone when he came across it. Instead, Tan had trained himself into thinking that every stone he found was not the one he wanted…and by pure instinct and practice, threw them all away...including the one he really wanted.

According to NAR, only 7% of ALL clients that indicate they want to buy a home actually are interested in buying right now….a “HOT” lead, in other words. (In case your math skills are lacking…that means that 93% of ALL clients are going to be buying or selling outside of 30 days!!) And, that is also true for internet leads. NAR also states that less than half of all internet leads are actually contacted by an agent.

Agents have to re-learn. Agents have to re-group. Agents have to retrain themselves.

Instead of viewing every internet lead like a rock…treat it like gold. Treat it like a touch stone. Treat every lead like it is the best lead you have ever had. Follow up with the client diligently, timely, and with respect. Give them the information they require when they require it and work hard to make yourself THE resource that the lead thinks of when they need something. Do this every time. Without fail. Every time.

Why would you do this, you ask? Why would you spend so much time working on something that might take months to get to a closing rather than looking for something that will close in a shorter amount of time??

Well…aside from just being good business, the main reason is to train yourself…to train your mental and physical reactions so that, when you do grab that ball-shaped stone that is warm to the touch, you don’t automatically toss it into the lake because that is all you know to do with it…because that is all you have practiced. It is all you know.

Make sense yet???

If you would like more information on how RECR can help you find that touch stone, please contact Clint at 800-977-7058. Or, fan us on Facebook. And, if you are on Twitter, you can connect with Clint there also.

One thing that we have continually preached at RECR is lead follow-up.

Speed. Timing. Quality. It is all part of the same deal.  And, it is quite possibly one of the most important aspects of a real estate agent’s job.

And, I’m not the only one that thinks this….Dirk Zeller of Real Estate Champions agrees with me…

LEAD CONVERSION AND FOLLOW-UP by Dirk Zeller

The first step to higher lead conversion is developing a better definition of what a lead is.  What’s the criterion of a lead for you?  Is it a specific time frame or level of motivation?  Is this a subjective or a pre-determined scale you use?  For most Agents, a lead is defined as any human being who can fog a mirror when held up to their mouth.  It’s basically anybody and everybody.  That definition is much too broad for us to ever reach the Champion Agent level.

Too many of us are investing our time and money trying to convince any and every lead to turn into a good lead.  We, in effect, say, “Oh, please, Mister lead, if I work with you long enough, won’t you turn into a good lead; because I really don’t want to have to prospect, and I need to make my mortgage payment next month.”  Are you trying to turn bad leads into good leads, or are you looking for good leads?  It’s almost as if we are trying to water dead plants in hopes of resurrecting them from the dead.  They are dead . . . move on!  What is the quality of your leads right now?  What would someone pay you to buy your leads?  If the answer is not much . . . Houston, we have a problem.

Champion Rule: The leads you have in your database are in other Agents’ databases as well.  Whoever calls them and meets with them first wins the game.

This, my friends, is the truth of our business.  For some reason, many Agents haven’t come to grips with this concept.  We think somehow we are the only Agent who knows about this prospect’s desire to buy or sell.  This is particularly true of Agents who work exclusively by referral.  You are making a huge mistake in today’s competitive market if you feel that you have the inside track or non-competition track.  Couldn’t another friend have referred them to someone else?  Isn’t it possible that they searched the Internet a little and got information from other Agents?  Could they have been out to an open house?  When a lead appears, we need to take action toward a face-to-face appointment immediately.

Effective lead follow-up is like threshing wheat at harvest in ancient times.  Threshing is, essentially, separating the wheat from the chaff.  The good kernels of wheat would be removed and used for food, while the chaff would be blown away in the wind.  If we aren’t actively threshing our leads, we will become complacent.  Too many leads can cause lead complacency.  Too many leads can be a bad thing.  You did read that right.  Too many leads can be bad!

An overabundance of leads can lead to complacency in your prospecting.  You can stop or slow the flow of new leads by reducing your prospecting because you feel comfortable because you have a certain number of leads (50, 100, 1000, or whatever the number may be).  You may feel that you don’t need to prospect today because you have enough.  What if what you have left has a high percentage of chaff in it that you haven’t found out yet?  It’s going to take a lot of effort to find that out.

When I started working with a particular client a few years ago, I asked him how many leads he had who wanted to buy and sell in the next six months.  He said he had 247 that fit into that category.  He was proud of himself, yet I found out he had not talked with them in a while, and he hadn’t been prospecting because of this volume of leads.  His attitude was “I don’t need to; I have 247 leads”.  I asked him to call all 247 in the next two weeks and ask for an appointment.  If they were not ready to list or buy, he was to set an appointment with them anyway to move the relationship along, so he could secure them as future clients.  Two weeks later, the first thing out of his mouth before hello was, “I have fifty-nine leads.”  He dumped over 182 leads that were junk.  He realized he needed to prospect to create new leads every day.

Dirk Zeller is a sought out speaker, celebrated author and CEO of Real Estate Champions.
His company trains more than 350,000 Agents worldwide each year through live events,
online training, self-study programs, and newsletters.  The Real Estate community has
embraced and praised his six best-selling books;  Your First Year in Real Estate,
Success as a Real Estate Agent for Dummies®, The Champion Real Estate Agent,
The Champion Real Estate Team, Telephone Sales for Dummies®,
Successful Time Management for Dummies®, and over 300 articles in print.

To learn more, please visit: http://realestatechampions.com/closingthesale/

Because everyone needs to be reminded how not to suck….

I decided I needed to get a new pair of shoes. The ones that I have are a couple years old and, quite frankly, a bit worn out.  So, I decided to head to the local ShoeEmporiumMart and get myself some shoes.  I knew exactly what I wanted…and in what section of the store to find it.  As I entered the store, I saw a couple customers browsing and 3 sales attendants by the cash register.

As I stroll past them, one of them says, “Hi. I will be right with you.” Assuming she was discussing something important and required time to finish her discussion, I went on my own.

Fine with me…I know what I want anyway. I head over to the shoes I want and the specific shoe I am after is not on the shelf.  So, I hunt around for a couple minutes only to figure out that there is absolutely no rhyme or reason as to how these shoes are shelved…and decide I would “hunt down” that kind lady that said she would help me.

After a minute or two of looking, I find her at the counter again chatting with the other two sales reps about her obviously too intense weekend of drunken debauchery.  I ask her if she knew where I could find my New Balance 820s in a 4E…and without even skipping a beat, she says to me and I quote….”I said I would be with you in a minute”.

I don’t think I have to tell you what happened next…..

Suffice it to say that I got my shoes from FootLocker instead.

You see…like this example, some aspects of your sales ability are painfully obvious to your customers.  But, some of them are much more subtle than this example…Subtle enough that you probably don’t even know that you are doing them.  But, your clients know.  Believe me!

So, here are some ‘subtle’ and some not-so-subtle ways that you suck literally destroy your relationship (and your reputation) with your clients.

Be inaccessible. One the primary complaints I receive from the clients I refer to agents is that the agent is hard to reach.  Heck, one of the major complaints I hear from other agents is that some agents are hard to reach.  Don’t answer your phone.  And, when someone takes the time to leave a message, don’t worry about calling back.  After all, if they want to reach you so bad, they will just call back, right?

Talk more/listen less. Youre the important one here.  Youre the expert.  What they have to say is not important at all because you have all the answers.

Be dishonest. Nothing will turn off a client more than being dishonest.  The phrase ‘a web of lies’ implies that it takes a lie to cover up a lie.  And another one to cover up that one and so on.

Ignore simple manners. Whether you like it or not, your manners matter to your clients.  Go ahead…keep your clients on hold.  Talk on your cell phone about nothing that relates to your clients that are standing right in front of you.  Use profanity and disrespectful language around your clients.  Say something negative about another client in the presence of one of your clients.  Go ahead…it’s the truth, right?

Take “No” for an answer. That’s right…just give up. Automatically assume that the client will never work out because you heard the word ‘No’ the first time you contacted them.  After all, only the “serious” customers that are ready to go right now are worth your time.

Don’t get to know your customers. Ignore the important things in their lives.  Don’t worry about birthdays or anniversaries.  Forget that they have 4 dogs they treat like children.  Ignore the fact that the ugly vase on the mantle is actually Great Grandpa George.  Don’t get to know them on a personal level…its not required anyway.  After all, they are just walking dollar signs, right?

I would bet that 98% of the people that read this will already know why you shouldn’t do these things and completely deny that they suck do any of them.

So, the next logical step in this conversation: Well, what should I do instead?

Simple. Dont suck.

BE ACCESSABLE! Answer your phone whenever possible.  Reply to all messages and email within a maximum of 6 hours.  Make sure that your clients understand that you are there for them and that you appreciate the fact that they trusted you enough to want to contact you.

LISTEN! You were given two ears and only one mouth.  That means you should listen twice as much as you talk.  Take the time to listen to your clients. What they have to say is important to them.  Therefore, it MUST be important to you.  Ignore your rehearsed responses to standard objections and tailor them to fit the specific needs of your client’s concerns.  Make them feel important…because they are!

BE HONEST! Be honest to a fault, if need be.  In this market, clients need an advocate that is out for THEM not THEMSELVES. Say what you mean.  Don’t beat around the bush about facts that need to be said.  Even if what is needed is a smackdown…it would be better for you to do it and be honest about it than to be deceitful and then get caught in the lie later on.  You have one shot to build trust…don’t blow it.

USE YOUR MANNERS! For sales people that want to reach the top rung of the ladder, there is no substitute for patience, civility, and good old fashioned manners.  Say ‘please’.  Say ‘thank you’.  Make eye contact with people when they are speaking to you.  Open doors for people.  It sounds silly, but these things are not just marketing gimmicks designed to make a client happy.  They are the tried and true marks of good character.

FOLLOW UP! Whether you want to believe it or not, sometimes “no” means “not right now”.  I see this every day with my company.  Agents simply give up after the initial contact with a potential customer because they were told “no”. It has been proven time and again that it takes seven points of contact for a consumer to remember who you are and why you are trying to contact them.  So, it is up to you to ensure that happens.  Call your prospects.  Email your prospects.  Work your leads. Don’t just give up initially because you didn’t get the answer you wanted on the initial request.  Sales isn’t a McDonald’s drive-thru.  You might have to ask more than once…or twice…or eight times.  I work with an agent currently that just landed an exclusive agency agreement on 35 properties because she followed up on a referral from my company that screamed at her on her initial phone call.  (If you want to hear the whole story, contact me…be happy to share.)

KNOW YOUR PEOPLE! Notice I didn’t use the word ‘client’.  I have said time and time again that this is a people business.  You deal with people.  And, they should be treated as such.  Get to know them on a personal level.  Use that to your advantage. Remember their kids’ names; their dog’s name.  Ask about the things in their life that are important to them and make them important to you as well.  By the same token, allow them to get to know you.  Developing a rapport and trust is mutual.  It has always been true, you must be able to give before you are proven worthy to receive.  That rule holds true here also.

It is a hard and fast rule of business that it costs six times more money or time to cultivate a new client as it does to retain a current one.  And, in this market, I would bet it costs even more.  Extraordinary customer service skills will only lead to successful retention of your clientele.  And that will ensure that you dont suck.

If you would like more information on Real Estate Client Referrals www.recr.com, please contact Clint at 800-977-7058 or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TheRealClint