How to Convert Your
Prospects into Customers
or...
How to Catch a Wild Animal!
Every one wants more prospects for their real estate business. There are all kinds of marketing tools for capturing prospects, but how do you really convert them into clients or customers?
In the past 14 years I have been involved in just about every aspect of the real estate business from residential and commercial sales, development, personal investing,office management and presently on the training side of the business. Being directly involved in so many aspects of the real estate business over the years, there is one thing I know about real estate professionals trying to build their business and that is trust with your prospects. Building trust with your prospects is the key to all success regardless of what aspect of the real estate business you are involved in.
Put yourself in your prospect’s shoes. You are looking sell your home for example. You decide to try selling your house “for sale by owner.” As soon as you make the decision public that you are selling your house (by placing an ad in the newspaper or online) the phone starts ringing. But rather than the buyers calling to see your house, most of the people that are calling are Realtors® who want to list your house.
Soon it seems that every real estate professional just wants a piece of the pie. You wonder if they are really out to help you or if they just want that juicy commission.
Now I’m not saying that you are one of these pushy sales people. But when you are drumming up business you need to focus on gaining the trust of your prospects first.
A story I once heard illustrates the point...
A long time ago there was a village that had been peaceful until a new problem emerged. Wild boars were destroying their crops and becoming a huge nuisance. Everyone in the village did what they could to try and stop the creatures from destroying their livelihood and eating their crops, but the creatures were fast and they had no guns to kill the beasts.
Then one day a stranger strolled into town who said he could solve their problem, but it would take time and his unconventional methods would seem a little strange.
All he asked in return was a warm place to sleep and 3 square meals a day.
The village people were willing to do almost anything to capture the wild boars so their village would once again be peaceful and they would still have enough food to eat.
The stranger went to work. He asked for a full bushel of the towns best grain. He then took the full bag of grain and carried it out to a vacant field that the boars frequently passed through. He then proceeded to dump the grain on the ground and then went home for the day.
The boars stayed away from the pile of grain at first. It was almost as if they knew this stranger was up to something. But gradually the boars began eating the town people’s best grain. And finally they finished off every last morsel.
The next day the stranger was back in town and asked for another full bag of the town’s best grain along with a shovel and a wooden post.
After collecting his materials he proceeded to walk out to the open field. First he dug a hole for the wooden post and planted it firmly in the ground. Next he took the grain and spread it about 20 feet away from the post that he had placed in the ground.
The townspeople all found this to be strange, but the stranger convinced them that he had the solution to their problem and to let him continue with his work.
Soon the wild boars were being fed three square meals a day, but each day he added more posts and eventually added fence boards to the posts.
By now the pigs had gotten so used to being fed the best grain every day that they would show up and wait for the food to be brought to them. They were getting what they wanted and not having to work for it at all.
Then the day came when the stranger put the finishing touches on what could easily be seen as a hog pen. He fashioned a hinged gate to the only opening in the fence and left it open. Then he poured the grain on the ground and stood outside the fence.
This time his now-conditioned beasts entered the opening in the fence and proceeded to feast like never before. As the last boar entered the fence, the stranger all of a sudden didn't seem so strange as he closed his newly- fashioned gate and latched it securely.
The town stranger quickly became the town hero as the wild boars were now nicely penned up and the village was freed from the problems the boars had created.
Now I am not saying your prospects are wild boars or that you should trap them into working with you by any means!
But this story illustrates a great point. Chasing your prospects around trying to catch them like they are wild animals does not result in building your credibility. You will earn much more business by educating your customers over a period of time than by trying to get them to list their property the first time you talk with them if they are not ready.
Your prospects either want to purchase the best house for their needs within a given time and price range, they want to sell their house for the best price within a given time period or they want to refer someone to you that will do one of the above.
List out all the benefits your services give your customers. Give your prospects a list of all the ways you can help them to accomplish their goal in the quickest time possible. Let them know exactly why they should work with you instead of doing it themselves or working with any other agent.
Once you have spoken with a prospect make sure you are following up with them on a regular basis. If you aren’t using contact management software get it implemented in your business now. Make timely follow up calls. Make sure every possible prospect you come in contact with is on your regular follow up system in addition to some type of drip email follow up system. The tools to accomplish the correct follow up systems at your disposal so please take advantage of them. If you haven’t set up a proper follow up system yet, I strongly recommend you put everything else aside until this is complete. You can do everything else right in your real estate business and still fail miserably if you do not have the proper follow up system in place.
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