Why am I only closing 10% of the clients in my pipeline?
Well, that’s the first problem, they are not clients, they are all customers. They don’t become clients until they sign a buyer’s agency or listing agreement. I was spending all of my time running around in circles for them, working for the other 90% for free. I was just evaluating my progress and it didn’t match my results. I was busier, working harder, looking up houses, sending out emails, but closing less. For example, the phone rings, the customer says they saw a house on Zillow or some other site and wants more information about it. I take their phone number, email address and the address of the property they are interested in and start doing the leg work. Once I find out all about it, I call them back, give them the info and they close with someone else! Why? Because they were never my client or yours. They were a customer. We need to stop being afraid of losing a client we never had and get them to sign an agreement before we do anything, but most of them still wont sign because they want to remain customers.
The second problem, but not the final problem is that we are all trained to get them approved before putting them in your car, but I was doing it all wrong. This was another way I was working for the other 90% for free. I was sending them to a lender before I had a written agreement to represent them. This customer would then get approved and buy with someone else. I need to get a written agreement before I attempt to get them approved. We used to do that, but we slacked off because we were told that people felt pressured if they saw papers at the first meeting. Well, 90% of customers walk away anyway, but now, let them walk before I put in all the hard work.
Many clients are afraid to sign because they don’t want to commit, but wait, they are not your client yet. From now on, it’s sign or walk. Stop putting all the extra work into someone who doesn’t want to sign an agreement and become a client. I’m not wasting anymore time with just customers. This way, we will close more deals. The market has changed, and we should change with it.
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