Understanding where your clients are in the buying process will allow you to sign more listings, better assist your buyers and generate more referrals. When you know what is important to them at each step of the buying process, you can better communicate with them and make their experience working with you an even better one than before. Take a moment and understand things from your client's point of view.
You Want More Listings?
This is one of your client's largest assets and they are about to make a decision on whether or not to let you sell it for them. Think about it for a second. Where are they in the buying process? They are in solution search. They have gone form no need to un-neew and created a list of priorities and criteria by which you are going to be measured. Do you just launch into your listing presentation? I hope not.
Let's assume you have made all the proper introductions and have established some level of rapport. Now is not the time to go telling them about you and your broker;s capabilities. Stop and take them back through those first few stages so you can better understand what is driving them to sell the home, what changed to make them decide to sell now, and most importantly what are the criteria and their priorities. Now you can properly make adjustments to your listing presentation (I am certain you practice that enough to be able to make adjustments) on the fly. How much more powerful will your listing presentation be now that you now what they are looking for their real estate agent.
You Want Your Buyers Buying?
Congratulations you have a number of buyers that are using you as their buyer's agent. I am also sure you would like them all to find the right home. Unfortunately we sometimes forget what they are going through andmay have a few mis-steps. For example, when my wife and I were looking for a home to buy when we first moved to the DFW area, our agent who ironically was from Ebby Halliday, forgot who she represented. We were looking for a pre-owned home in a nice area. We found a house we liked but we were not sure exactly how much we liked it.
At this point in the buying process we are leaving solution search and going into perceived risk. Who is the last person you want to hear from when you are in perceived risk? That's right - the agent. She pushed us a little and we decided to make an offer. She didn't like our offer as it was 6% lower than the asking price. She pushed and said that there would be multiple offers on this house and that if we wanted it we should make a full or even above list price offering. How do you think this went over with my wife and I? Even if we were to lose the first house we were making an offer on (by the way she only had shown us 5 homes,) is this the right tactic to use when your clients are in perceived risk?
I eventually had to tell the agent that if she did not want to present our offer to let us know and we would find someone who would. She presented it and the seller came back with a counter lower than the list price needless to say. We simply declined the counter and told our agent she was no longer our agent. It is important to advise and provide recommendations to your clients. It is also very important to listen to their decisions and read them correctly.
Listen to Your Clients
If you can track your clients through the buying process you will know what is important to them at each point 
within that process. You will know when to press and when to show restraint. This will make their experience that much better. In the beginning the focus will be on needs, wants and budget. In the middle is all about how the home (solution) meets their needs and wants.
During this time establishing and maintaining rapport is easy and can allow you to strengthen your relationship with your buyer. However, as you get closer to making a decision on whether to sell or buy, your clients are feeling enough pressure. They are thinking of everything that can go wrong. They need to make this decision and this is when an agent needs to show restraint. If not you might find yourself having to rebuild a relationship you just spent a lot of time creating.
Clients
You may recognize these steps as the same ones you go through or have gone through. When an agent or any sales person is in sync with you I am sure you prefer them over others. For me, understanding where my clients are in the buying process allows me to present information in a comfortable manner allowing them to make intelligent choices. Their choices. After all it is all about them.
As a client when you work with me you will always know and remember:
Your Success is My Focus
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