Do you try to educate prospects, or simply decline to work with them?

As agents, you no doubt run into sellers who have definite ideas about how their homes should be priced, what they do or do not need to do to get ready to sell, and whether they should stay or go when buyers come by.

You may also come across buyers who refuse to get pre-approved because they "know" what they can or can't buy – and those who refuse an inspection because they're "perfectly capable" of checking out the house themselves.

These people already know it all…

Do you try to educate them, or do you just let them go find a different agent?

As a copywriter I ran into something similar this week, and after some thought decided that it wasn't up to me to provide an education - and this client would be more trouble than he was worth.

In the note I sent him I was soooo tempted to point out a few things. For instance, the fact that it is always a poor idea to begin an email with "I'm so-and-so and I sell…"

People really don't care who you are! (Well, maybe they'd care if you said you were the sibling they didn't know existed, but…) They care about what you can do for them. An email always has to begin with something of interest to them.

And then, the drip campaign he wanted. His first assumption was way off base – that it takes far less time to write a 4 or 5 sentence email than a page. Phooey! It takes way longer to refine the words into a brief message than it does to write a few paragraphs. If you've tried to condense your message to fit on a small postcard, you know exactly what I mean.

And next, he seemed to assume that each message could build upon the last as if the prospect had read every one.  The reason we use drip campaigns is that people are likely NOT to read every message. So yes, each message does need to build upon the last, but it also needs to stand alone, just in case it's the first one the prospect has read. Could you do that in 4 or 5 sentences? Maybe, but in this case I think not, because he's not selling his service. He's selling a product with benefits that need to be explained.

I didn't relay any of that to this gentleman.

For starters, I don't think he would have paid attention. He might have wanted to argue the points instead, and I don't have time for that. And then… It really isn't up to me to teach someone who already knows it all. If someone wants to learn, I'm always willing to share what I know – and to point them to others who know more.

So – I just wrote and told him that we weren't a good fit - and wished him well. He has an interesting product that should sell well if he gives it the right presentation. I hope he figures it out. 

Sometimes, it feels really good to just say no. Do you agree?

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net