4 Tips for Creating a Better Listing Presentation
By Paige Tepping
RISMEDIA, July 13, 2010--When you walk into an appointment with a prospect, you must be prepared to guide your seller through the home selling process. Many agents do this with a scripted sales presentation while others choose to wing it. Top producers don't read a sales script line-by-line, but they do have a well-thought-out outline for what they want to talk about in their meeting with prospects.
The best listing presentations are ones where you've created and memorized a planned presentation that concisely explains the selling process and any frustrations, concerns, and problems sellers may face. But they go beyond that.
If you simply memorize a pre-written script, you will sound mechanical and fail to build rapport with your prospects. You will be focused on what to say next, rather than focusing on your prospect, listening to his or her concerns, and observing his or her body language. To become exceptional at giving listing presentations, you must practice your script over and over until you are so familiar with it, that it becomes second nature to you. Once that happens, you can walk into any situation and customize your listing presentation to your prospect's biggest issues and concerns.
Krista Baker, President of Morningstar Marketing Coach, LLC, offers the following tips for getting the most out of your listing presentation.
1. Build rapport initially
When you first meet with your prospects, include a few minutes of small talk and potentially get your prospect to laugh at a joke before you launch into the heart of your material.
2. Ask questions
If you've internalized your listing presentation, you should have specific questions you can ask sellers that will allow you to hit each point in your presentation without sounding like you are giving a sales pitch. The person who asks the questions is the one in charge of the appointment, so make sure for every point you want to address, you start with a question and let the seller do the talking. Some ideas for questions to ask include:
-Questions about themselves - How long they've lived there, what they like best about the home, what aspects of the home caught their attention when they first purchased it?
-Questions about their selling motivations - Why they are now considering selling, their timeframe for moving, when do they plan on putting up a for sale sign, where they are moving to, which is most important: fast turnaround or a top selling price? What questions do they have about the selling process?
-Questions about the home - Have they made any improvements, what price range do they have in mind, will they be leaving any items in the home, can they offer any buyer perks or help with financing?
-Questions about hiring a real estate agent - What are their criteria for hiring an agent? What kind of marketing do they expect?
3. Actively listen
The best presentations involve actively listening to the seller for the majority of the time. Your presentation should be 80% listening to the seller and 20% asking and answering any questions. Let the seller do most of the talking.
4. Have visuals
While you don't need a PowerPoint presentation to be effective, you should have samples of your advertising and marketing materials, as well as testimonials and case studies from happy clients. Show your prospects exactly how you've helped your clients sell their homes and what they can expect if they list with you.
By actively listening to your prospects and demonstrating your expertise through samples of marketing materials and case studies from happy clients, you can increase your prospect-to-client conversion rate and start taking more listings
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