Six Principles of Influence
When you sell a house, you cash a commission check. When you build a relationship, you create a fortune. Big earners in our industry are relationship agents. As your career develops, your satisfied client list should grow, and when properly managed, it should turn into a significant portion of your future business. Relationship agents take time to build strong connections with clients from day one.
So how do we build these strong connections? I’m going to share with you 6 things that you need to master, to start building strong relationships with potential clients from your first meeting. I recently read an interesting article by Robert Cialdini. He is a PhD and spent his career researching the science of Influence, persuasion and negotiation. According to Robert, there are 6 universal principles of influence, and influence translates into relationships.
RECIPROCITY
It is the principle that people give back to you the kind of treatment you give them. If you do something FIRST, like giving them an item of value, it will come back to you. The key is to go first. Smile at a stranger, you get a smile back. Whatever you would like to get from a situation, it will more likely happen if you provide it first. This is why I have always recommended that you show up to your listing appointments with a small gift. Bring flowers or pastry. Giving someone a gift makes them want to return the good gesture.
CONSISTENCY
People feel a desire to comply with your request if it is consistent with what they’ve publicly committed to in your presence. What this means for you in sales is that “questions” are critically important. Ask clients to state their priorities and commitments, then align your presentation with those things. The rule for consistency will cause them to want to say yes to what they’ve already told you is important. At the beginning of your listing presentation, ask a lot of open-ended questions. Hold onto their answers and during your presentation, tailor what you say, so your solutions answer their most important issues. At the end of the presentation it is difficult for someone to say NO to you when they have spent the entire evening saying yes, yes, yes to your solutions.
SOCIAL PROOF
People are more likely to say yes to your request if you give them evidence that other people just like them have been saying yes too. How do you use this in real estate? At your listing appointment, while you are outlining your services, tell the sellers which services are most popular with your other clients. They will want what others saw value in. Five-star client reviews also help sellers choose you because others have raved about you.
LIKING
It is no surprise that people like to say yes to a request if they know and like the person asking. A simple way to make clients like you and trust you is to find genuine similarities with them to increase rapport. Similarly, you can uncover features about your client that you genuinely admire (the fact they’ve raised five kids, or have a very successful job, or ran a marathon) and compliment them on it. When we compliment people, they want to like us. This is why it is so important to “small chat” at the beginning of your listing appointment. Get to know your client and what they like to do when they are not selling houses. Find something you have in common. If you have nothing in common, find something to compliment them on. When you establish rapport and they like you, they are more willing to say YES.
AUTHORITY
People are persuaded in your direction when they see you as having knowledge and being credible. When you are at a listing appointment, it is very important to tell clients about your work experience, your education, your local market knowledge and your past success record to show you are a credible source of information and they can trust you to help them make wise choices. More than once I’ve had people in my classes who have a PhD or law degree and they don’t want to tell clients because they think it is intimidating. This couldn’t be further from the truth. It says you’re credible. A critical point here is that you never use your authority as a lever to push people to do something. If you do, they will resent you for it. Don’t be pushy, be persuasive.
SCARCITY
People try to seize opportunities that they feel are rare or scarce. This is where the line-up effect works well. Everyone wants to work with the busy agent (because they must be good if they are busy). Clients will wait to get an appointment with you when your time is scarce. This is also an important reminder that you need to differentiate your services, so what you do looks different from other agents. The only way clients can get your “special service” is if they hire you. Scarcity drives action.
If you want better success at your listing appointments, arrive on time, with a gift, build rapport with small chat, ask lots of questions, sell benefits that are most important to the client, use testimonials and cover your experience.
Chris Leader
President
Leader’s Edge Training