There are times when you have to give a customer what they need. There are times when you have to give a customer what they want. Either way, you have to understand what they need AND what they want.
As real estate professionals we often know what our customer needs. For some reason it's harder to find out what they want right?
Maybe it's because we don't ask them enough.
We often go into a meeting with a prospect and can't wait to tell them how great we are. We love telling them our references, past successes, and how great our company or office is doing.
We ask them a bunch of questions that are mostly designed to make it easier for us to make the sale right? And there is nothing wrong with that, you need to be able to close them. But if that isn't working great for you all the time, maybe you need another approach.
One of the things I've noticed as we work with more and more potential coaching clients from a lot of different industries is that the sales process goes smoother, and ends in a win-win for both parties if we simply ask them what the want.
"Mr./Ms. Prospect, I'm glad you're looking into coach with us and we may be a good fit, but tell me, what is it you want us to do. What do you want us to provide you?"
If you keep encouraging them to tell you what they want, instead of interrupting to tell them how great you are, they will be so appreciative. They will feel understood.
Once you do understand them, and they recognize that you understand them, you can then present a solution and a plan to meet what they want (probably with a little of what they need mixed in).
We've had a lot of current and potential clients tell us they want help managing their social networking, and on-line presence, so we've created that solution for them. We will be rolling this out as standard product offering soon because we understand people need it. But we would have never known they needed this if we didn't know what they wanted.
Do you know what your clients want or only what they need?
Keep encouraging them to tell you want they want before telling them how great you are. This approach will result in them wanting, and needing, to work with you.
Dedicated to your success,
John Alexandrov
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