Words of a Champion
Dirk Zeller
CEO
Several years ago I watched an interesting interview with a major professional golfer where he was fielding questions from the audience. One person asked what this pro thought about in his routine when he was setting up a shot. He paused, you could see the gears turning and he responded quite simply. He said that his process was not at all elaborate, like most people. He said he really only thinks about two things. First, he thinks about exactly where he wants the ball to go and fixates that clearly in his mind. Then, once he has the target clearly identified and locked in, he thinks about how he is going to get the ball there.
The simplicity of those thoughts is the brilliant element to them. When he said those words, I leapt out of my chair to write them down. The question is do we have the clarity of thought on the target that we are aiming for right now? Do you know, absolutely, at every moment of everyday what the target is for you at that moment? We must realize that there are not multiple targets, merely one. You can only hold one target clearly in your mind at a time. You can’t have five different targets at once, you can only have one. What is the target for this very moment? That is a question that we should be asking ourselves hundreds of times during the course of our day.
Once we know the target, we can move onto the second part of the strategy. How am I going to get to my target? Which begs the question, what do I need to do to get there? We need to clearly know the actions that must happen to reach our target. We have to be able to make the direct connection between the activity we must do at this moment to achieve the results we want. For too many of us we have not made the commitment to the activities we must do daily to achieve success. We have to eliminate the activities that are not part of how we are going to get there. I truly believe you have the ability and the power to eliminate these out of your life. You can get rid of the non-productive activities. We often create elaborate creative avoidance activities that we engage in that stop us from hitting the target. We need to keep this process simple. Success is not complicated it is a simple process that is available to all.
Make the commitment today, to set the target and focus on how you are getting there. You too will become a champion performer.
To Your Success,
Dirk Zeller, CEO
RealEstateChampions.com
Developing Your Referral Strategy
To develop referrals, start with a referral mindset.
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A referral mindset exists when every prospecting, marketing, and customer service action is accompanied by the realization that the contact could lead not only to new business, but also to positive word-of-mouth and the recommendation of your service to others.
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A referral mindset exists when you create, believe in, and implement strategies that purposefully generate referrals as a regular part of your business development activities.
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When you have a referral mindset, you know that prospecting is a key route to referral success. In the same way (and often at the same time) that you prospect for client leads you need to prospect for referrals.
Generating referrals is among the easiest, most cost-effective ways to gain new business leads, but success doesn’t happen overnight. Even your platinum-level referral sources need to be constantly contacted and reminded to send business your direction.
Defining the type of referrals you seek
Before you launch a referral-generating effort, know what you’re looking for. In a sentence, you need to be able to focus your referral sources on an idea of what your ideal real estate prospect looks like. Include the following information:
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* Moments that people become great prospects. Help your referral sources notice the signs that indicate friends are in the “thinking about moving” stage. This is the point at which you most want to enter the game, before the transaction is already underway. Universal signs to watch for include: Pregnancy, recent adoption, promotion, transfer, trouble with aging parents, a recent empty nest, or trouble in a marriage or relationship.
Left to their own good intentions, people will call to tip you off about people they’ve just learned are in the buying or selling process. By the time that a mutual friend hears that people are actively looking to buy or in the mindst of selling, it’s too late. By then, the prospects probably already have an agent relationship.
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Your interest in helping people to sell their homes. The standard consumer view of real estate agents is that they put people into their cars, drive them around, and sell them houses. If you don’t expand this initial impression, most of your referrals will be for people seeking to buy rather than sell homes. Buyers are great clients and important sources of revenue, but the best agents build their businesses through listings. By cultivating referrals for those thinking about selling their homes you’ll put your business on a faster growth track.
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Your real estate niche. If you’re particularly effective serving a specific niche of real estate clients like investors, seniors, younger-generation buyers, or first-time buyers, let people know. Likewise, if you want to gain more of a certain kind of buyer, you need to inform your referral sources about your expertise in the desired segment and what prospects in that area look like.
When communicating your market niche interests, start by sharing your overall competitive market advantage and inviting all referrals. Then explain how you’ve developed a particular niche market expertise that you want them to know about so that they’ll think of you when they learn that their contacts have interest in your specialty area.
Your point isn’t to get referral sources to screen leads for you. You still want them to recommend the name of anyone with interest to buy or sell property; the more the better.
Setting your goal
In a really effective referral-development program, you might aim to achieve two referrals a year, on average, from each of your platinum-level sources, one a year from those in your gold group, and one every other year from those in the silver category. Referrals from sources at the bronze-level are too hard to project, but for all other categories, you need to give yourself an annual goal to aim at. In the beginning, you might just pluck your goal from thin air, but once you establish your first year expectations (or hopes), you’ll have a good benchmark against which to measure progress and set your aim in future years.
As you set goals and track progress, consider these tips:
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The number of referrals you aim to generate from platinum level sources should be double what you expect from gold-level sources, and your expectations from gold-level sources should be double what you expect from silver-level sources.
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Whenever you receive a referral, note whether the source is listed in your platinum, gold, silver, or bronze categories. This will help you track whether those in each category are performing at the projected levels. If not, you’ll know to enhance communications and referral-general efforts accordingly.
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As you qualify and work with referrals, note which of your database groups – platinum, gold, silver, and bronze – are delivering referrals that lead to business. If you notice that some categories are generating referrals that are dramatically more or less qualified than other categories, study your own communications to see how your messages to those in various groups may be contributing to good or weak leads.
How To Engage a FSBO
FSBO sellers will reject you. Remember, they would prefer not to use your services. But if you maintain a steady, professional relationship, offering help and staying in contact for four to five weeks, you will usually be able to win an interview. From there, a listing follows.
Increase your odds of success by taking these two precautions:
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Limit the number of FSBOs you cultivate. Focus only on the best clients.
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Avoid prospects with low motivation or unrealistically high price expectations. These sellers are usually the most toxic, and too often, they will try to take their frustrations out on you.
FSBOs fundamentally turn into a game of lead follow-up. You need to personally and regularly contact your FSBO leads to discover their motivation and qualifications, book a face-to-face meeting, disqualify prospects as necessary, provide regular service and communication, and schedule a presentation appointment. Then you need to repeat the service and communication steps several times weekly until the listing is in hand.
To make personal contact, begin by asking the FSBO seller if you can come by and see the home. You can ask them in a few different ways. You can explain that you want to keep abreast of the regional housing inventory; you can say that you are working with buyers who may be interested; you can present yourself as a potential investor; when you can, you can use the “reverse-no” technique. Following are sample scripts for each approach.
Script for keeping up with the inventory:
“Mr. Seller, your home is located in my core area of sales. Because it is, I would like to come by and preview your home. Would there be a time on __________ or __________ to do that this week?”
Script for working with the prospective buyer:
“Ms. Seller, I understand you are selling your home on your own. Let me ask you this: are you cooperating with real estate agents? What I mean is, if a real estate agent brought you a qualified buyer at an agreeable price to you, would you be willing to pay a partial commission?
We are working with a few buyers for your area that we have not been able to place yet. May I come by on __________ or __________ later this week to see your home?”
When you use the above approach, understand that you are not interested in reducing your commission. What you’re really trying to do is achieve a face-to-face appointment to collect more information on their sellers’ motivation in order to determine the probability of securing a listing in the future.
Script for a potential investor:
“Mr. Seller, your home is located in a solid area for real estate investment. I was wondering if I could come by to see your home as a principle for possible purchase and to see if it is a property that would meet my investment needs. Would __________ or __________ be better for you?”
In using the above approach, realize that the key phrase is investment needs. You will rarely find a FSBO that will meet your investment needs. My personal investment need is a home that can be acquired at a 70% discount below fair market value. Most FSBOs are trying to sell their home at 110% of fair market value. This technique does get you in the door to see the home and talk with them.
Script for a reverse-no:
“Ms. Seller, would you be offended if I came by to take a quick look at your home?”
The reverse-no technique can be used with any script. It capitalizes on the normal reflexive human reaction of “no” in order to achieve a positive response. It opens the door to you to then set an appointment.
FSBO Survey Script
Hi, this is __________ from __________. I am looking for the owner of the home for sale.
Your home is in my core area. I am doing a quick survey of the FSBOs in this area. May I take a few minutes to ask you some questions?
The ad in the paper said that you had _____ bedrooms and _____ bathrooms.
- Do you have a two level or one level home?
- Are all the bedrooms on the same floor?
- Are they good sized rooms?
- How is the condition of the kitchen?
- Are the bathrooms in good condition?
- Can you describe your yard for me?
- Is there anything else you feel I should know?
- It sounds like you have a great home; how long have you lived there?
- Why are you selling at this time?
- Where are you hoping to move to now?
- What is your time frame to get there?
- How did you happen to select that area to move to?
- How did you determine your initial asking price for the home?
- What techniques are you using for exposure and marketing of your home?
- Are you aware that over 86% of the buyers for properties begin on the internet now?
- If there was a clear advantage for you in using me to market and expose your home, and it cost you very little, would you consider it?
- Let’s simplify. Set a time to get together for fifteen to twenty minutes, so I can see your home and understand your objectives. I have time available __________, or would __________ be better for you?
Building relationships
FSBO relationships are built over time. By introducing yourself to the owners the first weekend their FSBO is announced, before the masses start calling on Monday, you create a good connection. By sending them tools, educational materials, free reports, and forms, you become an ally. By taking a personal interest in them and their situation, you create a solid connection that, in many cases, pays off when the owners decide to go with an agent they know and trust – preferably you.
Over the course of building a relationship with the owners, you’ll be able to get them to understand that, in every real estate transaction, a commission is paid. In the end, FSBO sellers don’t “save” the commission. Rather, they try to earn the commission by doing an agent’s job. In doing so, they spend their money and time to perform, as best they can, the duties of an agent. Those duties include exposing the home through marketing, presenting the home to buyers, building a sense of buyer urgency in order to prompt an offer, scheduling home inspections, handling qualification checks with the lender, supervising repairs, and facilitating the closing.
Not only is a lot of work involved in earning the real estate commission but FSBO owners unwittingly let buyers basically steal the commission through under-priced offers. The people who shop FSBOs don’t do it for their health. They want to secure a low price and a high initial equity position. In the process, they set out to “earn” the commission, and often do.
By building a relationship over time, you will demonstrate your value to the FSBO seller. Remember at all times, whether you’re working with FSBOS or expireds, your goal is simply to be one of the two, three, or four agents that the owner will interview when the time comes. You just want the opportunity to compete and make your presentation.
Six Steps of a Champion Objection Handler
After working with thousands of agents, it is obvious to me that most agents have memorized a few objection handling scripts but haven’t created a pattern to respond to objections. When you watch a great golfer prepare for a shot, they have a pattern or pre-shot routine they follow before they make a swing. There is a six step pattern that will create your success if you us it repeatedly.
This is the pattern of a Champion
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Pause
Take the time to take a breath before you answer. It ensures that you have listened properly; that the client had completed his thought. It keeps you from interrupting.
In the pause, you could also re-state the objection to buy yourself additional time. Buying yourself a little time to think is good. It also gives the buyer time to think. I have had situations where, during the pause, the client answered the objection themselves, or the spouse answered it for them. I am not too proud to accept help from a spouse or significant other to sell to someone. They know the person’s objections and know how to overcome them better than I do!
If I re-stated the objection incorrectly, the prospect will correct me, as well. It ensures that I am really addressing the right objection.
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Acknowledge
This means recognizing there is an issue or concern here. I did not say that you agree. That is completely different than thanking them for bringing it up or thanking them for the question or acknowledging their concern. To say to them, “I see what you mean, or I understand what you are saying,” only acknowledges it. It’s a great technique. We are not there to say they are right, unless they are right. You might also praise the prospect by saying, “That’s a really good question.”
Acknowledgement is a great technique to use when the timing of the objection is wrong. For example, if they ask you about commission before you have gotten to that place in your presentation where you discuss your fees, you could say, “That’s a great question; may I answer that later in my presentation after we discuss my services please?” or “I understand what you are saying; I have a flow to my presentation that works well for my clients. Would it be okay if I answer your concern when I talk about marketing? My clients have really felt that discussion links in well with your question.” The truth is once you acknowledge and delay the discussion it rarely comes back up again. You have, in effect, hurdled the objection that was asked too early through acknowledgement, delaying it, and ignoring it.
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Explore
We need to explore their frame of mind. Why are they feeling or thinking the way they are? What is causing their concern?
We need to probe. “Tell me more about it” or “Why do you feel that way?” are two excellent phrases to use in exploring your prospect’s views.
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Isolate
This is the one technique that separates the good agents from the Champion Agents. Most of us jump right into our verbal Judo we have been taught by some broker, trainer, etc. Isolation is the skill that separates Champion Sales Performers from everyone else. It is the access point to get to the bottom-line objection. It creates access to the real reason, concern, or hesitation of the prospect
Some prospects don’t want to release the real objection because they know it’s their last defense mechanism. Isolation helps you avoid the “I want to think it over” objection that some people use as a last resort. Since an objection is a request for more information, isolation defines the information they need. If we don’t isolate, the prospect will drudge up more and more objections once you answered the first one well. You will put yourself in a cycle that will lead to “I want to think it over”.
Most agents are afraid to probe in the isolation stage because they are scared of losing the sale. The truth is we don’t have the sale, so we can’t lose it. When we are scared to isolate, it’s because we can’t afford to lose this potential sale. That’s because we don’t have enough appointments because we don’t have enough leads. We don’t have enough leads because we don’t prospect enough. It’s a vicious cycle we can get ourselves into. Probing to determine the extent of their hesitation to proceed forward will not cause the client to be offended, as many agents believe. Is asking the prospect the only reason holding you back, or is there any other reason you can think of that causes you a concern? Non-champion agents often feel this will cause more objections, which is not true. It just brings out the ones that are already there right now, so you can respond to them.
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Answer
Once you have isolated the objection or objections and there are no other concerns, you have something to work with. You have an end in sight. If you have the proper answers, you will be able to close and get a contract signed. Your answers need to be delivered with power and conviction and be focused on the benefits for your clients.
There are lots of good scripts out there for the major objections. If you need some, I would suggest our Objection Handling CD series with flash cards and printable workbook to help you master this area. There is even a CD in this series that you can play on your way to your appointments that prepares you for the most common objections and prepares you mentally for the appointment. For whatever source you desire, you need to have professionally crafted responses to objections.
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Close
A closing is really the final culmination of a great presentation. That is also true when you are objection handling with a prospect. You want to close them through your conviction and belief in your solution; that, because of your experience, this is the right path that will ensure their complete satisfaction. You can also do a simple summation close. Simply sum up the benefits of doing business with you and ask them to take action now.
The two reasons I was really effective in objection handling were, first, my ability to close, based on my belief in myself. That belief was there even in the early stages of my career when the numbers and track record weren’t there. Second was my preparation. I asked the right questions before the presentation and prepared and practiced before I got to the selling moment with a prospect. Objection handling is about mental toughness, preparation, and practice. A Champion Agent acknowledges objections as part of selling. Without objections, there would be no sale.
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