Blog / Prospecting

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Often succeeding in the real estate business has more to do with the agent and the approach to the client rather than the product. Yet finding an agent who understands human behaviour and has the correct temperament or behavioural style for real estate can be extremely difficult.

If the personality of real estate agents and the way we communicate with the buyer or seller are critical to success then surely becoming a student of the way people behave is a great place to start. But is human behaviour predictable? The answer is a definite yes! Human behaviour is not an exact science as in physics or chemistry but we find there are patterns in the way people behave – saying and doing the same things over and over again.

The industry attracts a vast number of people who ‘try’ real estate soon discovering that real estate ‘tries’ them, leaving a constant flow of hopeful agents either entering or leaving the profession. At any point in time it is widely accepted that one third are entering, one third are staying and one third are leaving the industry. For any agency committed to recruiting and developing real estate agents, this is an extremely frustrating, energy sapping and costly pattern and one that needs addressing.

One solution is to use a tool that will profile your agents and help you understand the potential agent’s temperament and behavioural style. There are many successful and widelyused systems available to help better understand temperament and behaviour including the DISC profiling system. This system helps show success and failure signals in people and assists business owners choose the person with the greatest chance of succeeding in real estate and in your agency.

Having the right person in the job will get you a long way towards being successful in real estate but it is also important to understand human behaviour and be aware of how we learn, how we retain information and how we remember things – all of which influence how we make decisions and how we buy.

The characteristics that any agency needs to look for in a potential agent include:

• Has a good work ethic
• Knows how to delegate
• Invests back in their business
• Takes the time to understand marketing
• Constantly searching out new ideas
• Has a do it now/take action attitude.

Success leaves clues and successful agents have all of these characteristics in common. They work long hours, are passionate about what they do and have a ‘can do-do it now’ attitude.

Firstly, humans learn (and buy) with all senses generally using:

• 83% Sight
• 11% Hearing
• 3% Smell
• 2% Touch
• 1% Taste

Secondly, humans retain information through what we:

• say as we do something (90%)
• say as we talk (70%)
• see and hear (50%)
• see (30%)
• hear (20%)
• read (10%)

And thirdly, people's rate of remembering using:

• combination of speaking and showing after three hours is 85% (and drops to 65% after 30 days)
• visual (seeing only) after three hours is 72% (and drops to 20% after 30 days)
• verbal (speaking only) after three hours is 70% (and drops to 10% after 30 days).

An agent’s job in dealing with buyers and sellers is to influence them to list or buy a property. To do this, it is vital that you communicate effectively with your client.

The above information shows that visual communication is extremely important in effectively interacting with and understanding our clients and this should be top of mind guide when presenting to buyers and sellers. Some even say that presentation is everything in real estate. A powerful visual identity in your listing presentations and sales approach, mixed with a strong verbal message, will assist you in making an impact that will influence people and lead to positive dealings and outcomes for the agent and agency.

Combine great communication and the right agent with an understanding of human behaviour and you are well on your way to success.  

Paula is a licensed real estate agent with over 20 years experience in managing and delivering real estate education and training to the industry. Paula is leading the national team to provide the Australian property industry with professional, high-quality and ethical real estate training. For more information on Kaplan Professional, visit www.kp.edu.au.

 

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