Blog / Buyer Management
Evoking emotion in selling with Sean Carpenter
With Sean Carpenter, Realtor with Coldwell Banker King Thompson in Ohio and a national speaker on Real Estate.
There’s an old saying in sales that ‘people buy based on emotion and justify, after the fact, with logic’. Sean Carpenter knows the importance of forging emotional connections with buyers and sellers. A full-time realtor with Coldwell Banker King Thompson in Ohio and a national speaker on real estate he has a favourite quote by John Maxwell, "People won't go along with you unless they get along with you".
Sean believes that making emotional connections in real estate is done in three ways:
- Building relationships.
- Solving problems.
- Having fun.
He says, “If you can do those three things every single day, if you can build a new relationship with someone you've never met, or deepen a relationship with someone you've known for years, if you can help people solve problems, and if you can have fun doing it - that's a pretty good day. And if each day you put your head on the pillow, you've done those three things, eventually you're going to have some real estate sales in there”.
He adds, “I think our world has gone from "find me, sell me" to "know me, help". And if we can have people know us, when it's time for them to have a problem, they're going to go to that person who's good at solving problems in the community that has a good reputation”.
The power of listening
Sean believes that the best sales people are the better listeners and it is essential to listen to build bonds with people. Everyone likes a listener. He says, “I would say the best salespeople are the best question-askers. Because if I'm asking a question, my customer or client's doing more of the talking, it gives me a chance to listen, and then ask more questions, and hopefully helping lead that customer to say, it makes sense of me to do business with Sean”.
Take the time to get to know a client
Qualifying leads is essential, Sean believes to being successful. He says, “We need to quit running and chasing every phone call thinking that's going be our next slam dunk closing, 'cause rarely is it. We need to have buyer counselling sessions where the client comes in and we spend an hour getting to understand where they are, and where they want to be when the transaction's all said and done”. He likes to get a full picture of every client and their lives because it takes the focus off the sales relationship and broadens the scope. He says, “I try and get spouse's name, kids' names, kids' birthdays, anniversary, where you went to college, what's your pets' names, what's your twitter handle, do you have a blog? I try and find all these other reasons to talk to those people other than "do you want to buy or sell a house?".
Utilise social media
Sean is a big believer in Twitter and Facebook because he says, “Social channels give you so much opportunity to learn what the people's lives are, and then obviously try and maybe see if there's a way you can become part of that. So social media's a great source of me to build relationships”. He shares his life on social channels, it creates a sense of authenticity. On his blog carpscorner.net, he recently wrote a poignant post about his daughter Riley turning 18 which evoked a wave of connections from his almost 5000 Facebook friends.
He says, “We don't sell houses, we help people make decisions on the place where they're going to take their family, where they're going to enjoy the town”.
The 4H Club
Every morning when he gets into the office, Sean does the following activites to build and foster relationships.
1. Handwritten notes
I do old-school handwritten notes to customers, clients, anyone I need to thank for anything from the day before, but five handwritten notes.
2. Hotsheet
I'm on the hotsheet for our local real estate market to see what new listings have hit the market, price changes, and all I'm looking for is do I know anyone that lives around that specific property? If it jogs a memory, if it makes me think of somebody, I'll call them - I'll email them the listing.
3. Happy birthdays
I go through my Facebook list, I see which of my friends are having birthdays, and I try and reach out to them and send them a message. Now, I want to point something out: You know what most people do when their friends have a birthday on Facebook? Most people do nothing. Right? If you have five thousand friends, I bet you get maybe five hundred "happy birthday" messages. The next group of people might write "happy birthday" on the wall of that person, but by the time it's the said "happy birthday" it doesn't really stand out. So just a little tip: if you're ever going to wish someone a happy birthday on Facebook, write a little more story than just happy birthday. You know, "I hope you have the happiest of happy birthdays this year", or "May your year head be filled with awesomeness", because as I'm scrolling through my feed halfway through my birthday, I'm going to stop and see that one, and I usually get a like or a comment back on those.
4. High-fives
I try and like five things on Facebook, I try and comment on five things on Facebook, I try and comment or retweet five things on Twitter, I like five pictures on Instagram, and I try and send five texts to someone that just basically says, "Hey Peter, hope you're having a great day, was thinking about you." Super-simple, but we all respond usually quickly to a text. We at least look at it.
Once I've done my 4H club, I walk across the street to Starbucks. And that's my reward for building my day and trying to connect to people.
I think our world has gone from "find me, sell me" to "know me, help".
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