The Appointment: You either receive a phone call, have a referral from a friend, past client, family, or from some other source. You were able to obtain the "appointment" for the client to meet you at your office or at their home.
The Preparation: Come the day and hour of the meeting you have prepared your brain with whatever you think they will want. You have probably also punched their name into Google to see if there is anything written. You pulled properties or their own to be more educated just in case they have questions pertaining to you being familiar with their area etc.
I wrote a blog some time ago about answering phone calls. And I received a lot of positive feedback and a lot of the respondents explained that they do not "answer" calls. They "return" them.
In this day and age of the "hard" market and buyers being a commodity, at least the buyers that are buying. Listings, that used to be wonderful to have, are just sitting collecting dust. It would be of a great benefit for you to stop sitting at any appointment, that you have been able to secure, letting the prospective client interview you.
You are worthy: Let us not forget why they are meeting with you. You are not second best. It is not that they could not get an appointment with someone else. It was also not the fact that they might be doing this as a favor as a friend or other associate that referred you. No, they are meeting with you, not out of obligation, but because they are hopeful that you can and will complete the task at hand.
The Honesty: Now, when you are sitting there in front of the clients, that you are thinking whether or not you are going to take on, you need to approach all of their questions with no holds barred truth. This AM Paris and I had an appointment about a couple that put 80K into their home as a down payment last year. They want to relocate out of state. Their break-even point on the home is 520K. There is an identical one currently listed at 429K. Our advice, either sit in the home and wait to relocate, short-sale, or procure another home and try to rent this one, period.
The Result: That is it. And you know what the lady told us. Wow, I appreciate you shooting from the hip. Come to find out, she was in sales herself. People appreciate honesty and when you sugar coat too much you start sounding flimsy. We are the experts. Some of us have developed more of an expertise than others in our field.
Removal of Fear: No matter, never lose heart. When you are interviewing clients to see if you are going to take them on, remember one thing. They can only say they do not want to do business with you. They cannot kill you and even if they could, they could only do it once.
Follow Through: Get out there and stop being undercover and ask everyone you meet if they have been concerned with this current real estate market. From that very question you will have a door open, because everyone is speaking about it. Then you will have others standing around looking at you as the SME (Subject matter expert).
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