I see it all the time in estate agency (and in lettings).
The Valuer (or Lister or Senior Valuer or Appraiser or Estate Agency Partner or
Valuation Manager or whatever fancy title HR have come up with this week to
keep you happy) think their job is to sell themselves, sell their firm, sell their
services to get the listing ..... at any cost.
Sorry guys, I think you are wrong.
Estate and lettings agency is NOT about all you. Instead of
trying to sell yourself (and all the other stuff), here is a novel idea, how
about focusing on how YOU could help your potential vendor or potential
landlord with what THEY want, what THEY need, with what THEY desire.
You are wasting your time talking about your agency’s
features and benefits. Instead, even if you aren’t a landlord yourself or even
a home owner, you are in an ideal position to learn from your existing clients,
your existing circle of friends and associates who are landlords and vendors.
How the hell can you understand the worries, fears, opportunities, the things
that excites landlords/vendors? The things that keep them up at 3am in the
morning? You need to understand, really understand what it is like to be a
landlord, what it is like to be a homeowner, even if you aren’t one yourself.
Stop talking about you and your company and start listening
to your landlord or potential vendor talk about their property, their home,
their aspirations, their goals and their wants and needs. You have one mouth
and two ears .. use them in those proportions. At a market appraisal, the
landlord / vendor should be talking at least 67% of the time, you talk no more
than 33% of the time. Also, this is very important, you should wait four (yes
four seconds) after they have done
speaking before you say a word . . . Yes, it will make you feel
uncomfortable and I know that’s a long
time ............. but it works.
Don’t even try to close vendors and landlords with a quick
and easy trial close. Sorry, you need to put the leg work in, finding out the
real story. By brushing by the discovery work you won’t be able to help your
potential landlord / vendor discover why they need to change and why you are
the only person who can help them. Stop pressing play on the tape recorder of
your 45 min free val/appraisal presentation.
If your free val is
carbon copy of the one before and the one before that, then you aren’t allowing
the vendor /landlord to build a case in THEIR mind that YOU are better than the
opposition. Your job, Mr/s Valuer is to help your client develop the compelling
case for using you and your agency ..
You can’t do it for them ..
...why do you discount or match your competitor’s fees?
Nothing says ‘crap agent’ like discounting or matching fees. By dropping your
fees everytime at the first sign of an objection, you are giving in to the lowest bidder and your potential
landlord/vendor will believe you are no different to all the other agents. ...and
by dropping your fee, you are just confirming that belief. If you are going to
be better, and you believe you get what you pay for in this world, how on Earth
are you supposed to be cheaper?
Stop selling yourself on the altar of cheap fees and start
helping your clients make the investment in paying you a fee that your deserve
for what you are going to do for them, so you can do the things necessary to
produce the results they need ( because only small time Valuers avoid the
conversations about fee. Bottom line is this .. better outcomes cost more money.
You get what you pay for in this world but you have to justify the worth.