by Bernice Ross
Inman News Features
Listing a property is a complex process that requires planning, mastery of scripts and the ability to make a powerful connection to be effective. To increase your effectiveness on listing presentations, evaluate your presentation using the guidelines below.
Length
An effective listing presentation makes the connection, differentiates your services from that of the competition, addresses existing market conditions, outlines a specific marketing plan and overcomes objections all in 20 minutes or less. If your presentation doesn’t do this in 20 minutes, you’re probably not converting as many of your appointments as possible. Furthermore, the longer you’re at the appointment, the more likely you are to promise more you can deliver as well as getting stuck with a lower commission.
Preparation
When I was selling, our office had all of the necessary forms in separate file folders. I had my personal presentation materials bound in a leather binder that I would drop off so the seller could review them prior to our meeting. To customize my presentation, all I had to do was to pop in a current comparative market analysis, take a photo of the property, paste the photo into a color brochure for the cover page and I was ready to go. This saved me huge amounts of time in terms preparation as well as minimizing the amount of time I needed to spend during the actual presentation.
Connection Strategy
Making the connection is not about how good you are or that your company is number one. Instead, ask questions about the seller’s home, what they like about their neighborhood, as well as what they will be looking for in their next home. Asking questions builds connection. Talking about how great you are simply doesn’t cut it.
Scripts
Do you have a pre-planned listing presentation you could give right this moment without having to reference your notes? Virtually all top agents can do this with virtually no preparation.
Objections
A good presentation overcomes objections before the seller even has a chance to raise them. Can you demonstrate why the seller should focus on “closed prices” rather than “listing prices” when determining where to list their property? Can you show the seller how listing at a full commission is a benefit to them? Is this incorporated into your presentation or do you sit there dreading how to handle it when the seller raises the objection? If you’re not 100 percent comfortable dealing with seller objections, you’re losing listings unnecessarily. Mastering those objections can create thousands of dollars in your pocket as well as dramatically reducing how hard you have to work to convert listing leads into signed listings.
Marketing plan
Have you put together a 90-day marketing plan outlining how you typically market a property? Having a generic version for your listing presentation differentiates you from the competition as well as addressing the concerns the seller has about how you plan to get their property sold.
Web Page
Does your presentation demonstrate how the seller’s property will be marketed on your company’s Web site, your personal Web site, as well as what strategies you use to convert Web leads into showings on the seller’s home? A simple strategy to put you ahead of 99 percent of the competition is to post a photo brochure of the seller’s property on a separate page on your personal Web site. When the seller sees this, they know immediately that you are Web savvy.
Paperwork
This is one of the most time consuming and inefficient aspects of our business. If you’re not using electronic forms, 2003 is a great time to start. These are simple to use, easy to modify, and cut down on copying time and poor quality copies. Use “electronic forms” to write your offers, counteroffers and listings. If your board doesn’t have these forms, you can do your offers and counteroffers on your computer rather than laboriously writing out these documents by hand. Once completed, e-mail the documents to your buyers or sellers and have them fax back the signed copy saving you both time and gasoline.
Transaction Tracking
Most transactions require regular contact with the principals, lender, title, inspectors, etc. A way to simplify this entire process is to use a transaction tracking system that allows you to track your transactions on-line with an automatic system that e-mails your customers and clients with updates.
— Bernice Ross is an owner of Realestatecoach.com and can be reached at [email protected].