How to Win the Listing BEFORE You Even Meet with the Prospect

I have a great listing presentation that I used in my own business that virtually guaranteed that I’d win the listing once I was face-to-face with my seller prospect, but there were a couple of systematic steps I’d take before I actually even met the seller that made a big difference in my business.

First, if I determined that the seller was interviewing other agents, I always ensured that I was last to present. My Call Coordinator, Cindy, scheduled my listings for me, and she specifically requested this “last in” position, telling seller prospects that “Craig would like to be last so he can show you how much more he can do for you.”

Before the actual meeting, however, my office sent out my Pre-Listing package. This is a simple, but professional looking folder which extracted some key pages from my listing presentation . . . kind of like a promo to a movie. This package made a great first impression. It previewed the great and unique information I would be going over with them in the face-to-face meeting, and it pre-sold them on my services. My students successfully use this same package with their sellers.

What pages did I include in my Pre-Listing Package? It varied a bit from prospect to prospect, but as a rule, I included the following:

1. The very first page of my Pre-Listing Presentation identified the key prospect benefits right up front, and summarized the key support pillars to this benefit (e.g. Key Benefits: Fast, Top Dollar, No Hassle … with a brief description of exactly how I’d do that)
2. The summary pages explained my unique and innovative consumer programs in more detail ((i.e. 24 Hour Talking Ads, Tour of Homes, Trade Up Program, Team System, Buyer Profile System, and Talking House – programs most of my competitors didn’t offer)
3.  Graphical representations of key stats showing my performance  (e.g. List to Sales Ratio, Days on Market, Market Share, etc.)
4. Information on homes currently listed or recently sold in their neighborhood
5. Some highly specific and powerful client testimonials
6. A DVD I’d created entitled “How to Price and Prepare Your Home for Sale”

There are many great reasons to do this, not the least of which is that this approach sets you up as a professional — this is what might happen if you met with a financial advisor or  a lawyer. Sending a package ahead in this way also sets up a degree of reciprocity — I took the trouble to prepare a package especially for them (a cover page was personalized with their name and address), which made it less likely that they would cancel their meeting with me even if they had a good meeting with another agent first. (It sort of guilted them into keeping their appointment with me.)

With the Pre-Listing Package, I both got my foot in the door first (I become the standard against which all my competitors were judged), but also got to have the last word with my scheduled last-in face-to-face meeting. With this package in their hands, my prospects already had a sense of how much more I would do for them and I find this made them favorably disposed to our meeting. Often, the listing was won before I even walked in the door!

We hold many free, half day seminars across the country for agents who want to learn more about my system and you can search the current schedule here.