Honest Prospecting
Agents will use any excuse not to prospect. Not having buyers shouldn’t be one of them.
I recently had a conversation with an agent who was very frustrated. He knows he needs to prospect, but he’s been making excuses and distracting himself from doing it. When I examined what was frustrating him, it was that he didn’t feel good prospecting for listings when he didn’t have a buyer for their house. He said he didn’t feel authentic and he couldn’t be sincere knocking on a FSBOs door saying he had buyers when he didn’t. I’m sure this is a challenge a lot of agents face. They want to prospect, but they want to do it honestly.
Let me first say, most agents will use any excuse not to prospect.
Stop making excuses and build a case for the benefits of prospecting.
The typical script I suggest for prospecting is: “Hi. My name is Chris from ABC Realty. Do you want to sell your house?” (Expect a No.) “We have buyers for a home in your area. I promised them I would talk to everyone to find someone who might be thinking about selling. Are you sure you haven’t thought about it? Do you know of anyone else who is? By the way, if there is one thing you can change about your house, what would that be?” (Everyone wants to change something.)
This script works well and it opens the door to a lot of conversations. However, some salespeople don’t feel honest saying they have buyers when they don’t. My solution? Find buyers!!
How do you do that?
Borrow an open house in the neighborhood you want to prospect. Advertise it everywhere, so it is well attended. Engage every buyer who comes in to see if they are working with an agent already. Ask them “If this house isn’t right for you and I got a great deal on another house in this area, would you want to be the first notified?” This will get you a list of potential buyers.
If you don’t have a buyer for that neighborhood, someone in your office will. At the next office meeting, ask the group “If I have a listing in __ area, do you have buyers?” If they say yes, get the buyer’s details. Now you have legitimate buyers who you can talk about when you are prospecting. Rather than saying “I have buyers” you say “We have buyers” and you are being honest.
Another way to the same result without waiting for the next office meeting is to send an email to everyone in the office saying: “If I have a listing coming up in __ area, do you have buyers for that area? If so, let me know and you’ll be the first one notified.” When agents reply, now you have legitimate buyers, and when you do get a listing, you’ll sell it faster if you have a list of potential buyers waiting in the wings.
CAVEAT: Prospect an area that sells quickly and frequently in a good price range. Typically, a good price range is slightly below the average sale price in your area. Someone in your office will have a buyer for that neighborhood, so you increase your chances of success. Now you have a reason to prospect.
Rather than make excuses not to do something, find reasons to do it. Success comes in CANs not CAN NOTs. Simply put – don’t tell yourself why you can’t, tell yourself why you can. My solution for finding buyers is not complicated. The answer is typically right in front of you.
You might think I was having this conversation with a new agent, but he was a veteran agent. The solutions I suggested were not something brilliant that he couldn’t have come up with on his own. The real problem was that he didn’t want to prospect and was finding every excuse not to.
This goes back to why I think it is so important to have a coach. Someone to hold your feet to the fire and not let you get away with making excuses. If you are in need of a great coach to hold your feet to the fire, please reach out to us at 866-607-7999. We’ve got your solution. Let’s start the conversation.
Chris Leader
President
Leader’s Edge Training