Are You Falling for the Bright Shiny Things?

What You Need to Know About That Slick Sales Pitch

As a Realtor®, you are constantly being bombarded by salespeople who have the latest and greatest product or service. The sales pitch sounds convincing. Their promises make you think you'd be a fool not to go for it. You certainly want the results they're promising. So, you hire them and am often (not always) disappointed.

The sales pitches I get usually come from an SEO company letting me know that my poor site isn't ranking well. Oh, my, this is wrong and that is wrong. Then, they promise to get me on page one of Google quickly. My answer is always the same..."That's funny. How can it not be ranking? I have 3 spots on page one of Google for my search terms." The conversation ends. I see this all the time and it's so frustrating.

This morning I received a call from a "security company" asking me if I'd heard about all the false alarms going off in my community. Of course, I had not. She then let me know that my neighborhood was "crime ridden" and continued talking without taking a breath. Actually, my community's demographic is mostly older and retired people who really enjoy a great round of golf. It's a Neighborhood Watch area and is very safe. The fact that this salesperson wouldn't stop talking long enough to listen to what I had to say led me to just hang up on her. Her motivation was not to help me. She was only interested in making a sale.  

Here's three tips for making sure the sales pitch you're hearing is in your best interest.  

• Asking the Right Questions - In order to know how to help you, the salesperson should be asking the right questions. More often than not, the person giving you the sales pitch has never met you. They don't know your style of doing business. They probably don't even know if their product or service is one you actually need. They just know they want to make a sale.

• Listening or Selling? - Every successful Realtor® knows that in order to sell homes, you have to be a good listener. If your buyer only qualifies for a $250,000 home, you're going to narrow the search to homes within their price range. When a salesperson calls you, do they listen to your current challenges? Do they address those challenges? Or, are they trying to get you to look at something you don't want or need?

• One Size Doesn't Fit All - Are you forced into a one size fits all box; given only a choice between Plan A or Plan B? These plans are a good starting place. However, you shouldn't have to settle for services in either one of those plans that you don't need. If at all possible, your sales person should work toward making sure you're only going to have to pay for services you need.

  Clearly, I wrote this post about sales pitches out of frustration. I'm certainly tired of seeing people getting ripped off or talked into something that isn't going to help their business. More importantly, though, I hope these three tips will help you get what you need and not what the salesperson wants to sell.

Post originally written by Pamela Cendejas and posted at Second Self Virtual Assistance.