I came across an interesting article a few days ago and I thought it was interesting some of the observations author Jose Perez made. The article was an overview of how to do business in the current real estate market. Perez mentioned how “If it used to take 30 days to get a transaction closed, it now takes 120 or more, If it used to take 20 contacts to get someone to listen to you, it now takes 100 or more, and If someone was inclined to do business with you before, they are now inclined to make sure they are getting the best deal regardless of their relationship with you.” I found all of these characteristics in doing business to be very important given our current economic state.
The current market is very different for clients than before. As a result, you must recognize this and change the way you approach sales, or you are likely to never establish a client connection.
Clients aren’t willing to be sold. Perez explains “There are a variety of reasons for this all borne from the harsh economic realities we are living through. With all the negativity surrounding us every day, consumers are thinking any financially impactful decision through much more thoroughly than they ever have.” In other words they are taking much longer to commit and even clients willing to consider buying in this market are far more cautious.
Perez offers some suggestions to increase sales which include: Don’t sell, help, don’t close, advise, Don’t push, encourage, become completely indispensable.
It’s a totally different mindset but one that must be adopted in order to stay relevant, no matter how counterintuitive it might be to the most hardcore of salespeople. Furthermore, besides the economic reasons driving this necessity to change your approach, today’s online consumer also doesn’t want to be pushed.
Perez also offers solutions to engage consumers online: “We blog about interesting topics that will position us as thought leaders, we post interesting articles, videos, etc. that provide engaging and relevant information, we allow the online consumer to interact with us without forcing them to make a decision…they control the process and call the shots.”
These same practices should be taking place in our meeting with potential clients or current ones. The more appeal to someone’s needs and assist them in understanding their situation and cost involved, the more we can prove to be an indispensable resource in helping them examine their position. In achieving such a task for our client, more times than not the consumer will be inclined to do business with us when they are ready to make a step toward purchasing real estate.
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