Convert your leads, naturally.
If I gave a list of 15 luke-warm internet leads to 4 different agents to follow up on, each person would get a different result. An untrained agent with no sales experience would likely be unable to connect with any of them. An agent using the old-school scripted approach might end up having a conversation with one or two but would be unlikely to build any significant connection. An agent who has previous high-level sales training from a different industry is likely to get a better result, possibly making a meaningful connection with a few leads.
Interestingly, the rare agent who is highly skilled in having deliberate sales conversations with these leads could typically make a meaningful connection with half of them or even more.
While a meaningful connection might not result directly in a real estate transaction, it is undoubtedly the first and most crucial step in getting high-quality clients who are excited to work with you.
If you want to thrive as the real estate industry emerges from COVID, adapts to new technology, and evolves to fit the new world, high-level sales skills along with your negotiation training will be essential. These are the things that a computer can’t do.
I’ve learned a lot about communication through my 35-year journey in the real estate industry. The most interesting is my coach training and leadership program. Most of the agents who take this program see unprecedented increases in their sales numbers. So much so, that many who aspired to become coaches, decide to stay in real estate sales and reap the rewards of these new skills.
What is it that they are learning that makes such a profound difference in the quality of their conversations? It’s not one single thing.
It’s, first off, a mindset that is the opposite of what most real estate sales training teaches you. It’s focused on the prospective client instead of the agent or the potential transaction. It’s based on curiosity versus knowing. It’s being open and not making assumptions. It’s listening to and hearing the prospective client’s viewpoint.
Secondly, it treats the prospective client as a human being who has all of the complexities that come along with that. Talking with a newer agent recently, his “leading-edge” sales training from one of the well-known brokerages taught him all about leads, sales funnels, and the need to “bag” a listing. I wonder how the person who is considering selling their home and experiencing all of the emotional turmoil associated with that would feel about the language of most REALTORS®?
And finally, it’s about your conversation skills. A sales conversation is a deliberate non-linear process designed to make the prospective client feel heard, cared for, and interested in knowing more. I teach a specific non-linear model that I call deliberate conversations to my coaches in training, and when they use this model in their real estate practice, everything changes.
I’m thinking of putting together a Nature of Sales training program based on these skills in the coming weeks and would love to hear from you about what that would ideally look like.
Would you be willing to take a quick survey about this? You’ll be entered in a draw for a free spot in the first course or workshop.