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Lee Woodward, Marketing Stickies, You Will Never Remember them all
An excerpt from Lee Woodward’s renowned book on scripts and dialogues
What to say What to Send, Lee Woodward.
Marketing Stickies. You will never remember them all.
A challenge you may face during your professional real estate sales career is the actual volume of buyers you need to manage at any given time. A comment you will hear from traditional agents is that they only carry (look after) just few good buyers, the ones they know can actually buy. If you asked them how many that would be, their answer would be in the vicinity of 8 to 10. This is ‘old school’ thinking and is said by people who have no real system for managing buyers. The 8 to 10 figure mentioned is really only the number of buyers they can actually remember. I believe and can prove that you need at least 150 to 180 prospective buyer contacts at any given time. Now can all these people buy? The simple answer is no they cannot. But will they move one day? Absolutely. And when this time comes, do you think they will call the amateur who took their details for no apparent reason or will they contact the caring, dedicated professional who rang fortnightly, sent SMS alerts of new properties listed, dropped off quality property magazines and forwarded regular email updates of all sale and auction results in the area? I should think so. Every year I see the talented, yet lazy seasoned agent get blown out the water by a fresh faced buzzing new professional with a gleam in their eye, wanting to match people to property. As I’ve said before and it’s a point worth repeating, real estate is not just about property; it’s about helping people move. So how do the very best agents control the volume of potential buyers they need to stay in touch with in order to create the momentum needed to drive every area of their business to success? Simple. By establishing a campaign of tasks (trails) targeting buyers over a 42-day period.
Trails are a series of automated events triggered by predefined actions and linked to a smart database. For example, by generating and posting say three target letters to a specific group of potential buyers in conjunction with supporting information such as brochures, business cards and home loan and relocation service information, interested buyers will soon be contacting you. The use of emails and SMS to communicate is also highly effective. Responses could be immediate or delayed. Either result generates a group of potential buyers who you can work with to develop their buying interest. The market becomes alive with interest! You will be asked to conduct listings (via referrals) that you would not otherwise have known existed.
After many years of working in the industry, I have also noticed that agents experience difficulty when trying to extract offers from potential buyers for listed properties. Why is this so? The problem arises through an inability to ask questions, based on proven strategies. Such questions generate a response that could lead to a sale. So what’s the answer? In my book I will provide you with a list of direct, winning communication strategies that lead to the negotiation arena.
To achieve this, the very first thing you need to do is learn how to qualify an incoming enquiry call resulting from your media advertising. And don’t forget, the negotiation starts from the very first time you make contact with that person.
Order Lee Woodward’s book “What to say, what to send” at www.realestateacademy.com.au
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