For this week’s blog, I have consulted my good friend and business partner, Jason Abrams, to help me outline how to master the listing presentation from start to finish.
Preparing for the Listing Presentation
It all starts with the right mindset. When preparing for a listing presentation, always come from the mindset of “how can I purchase or own the home?” — the strongest form of control — as opposed to the “I am going to list the house,” which is the weakest form of control. The question to ask yourself is, “what form of control do I want to exert on this piece of real estate?” Perhaps the most important thing that Jason wants to point out about this question, is that it is driven not by what’s best for you, but what is best for the consumer.
Operating from the mindset of ‘what is best for the seller?’, is the highest form of honor in a real estate transaction. Understand that there may be a time when it makes sense to wholesale the property yourself or bring in an outside investor to purchase the home, but other times it makes the most sense to list the home and sell it in the traditional sense.
Once you have established the right mindset, the next step is to do some research: run a comparative market analysis (CMA) to see how much the property is actually worth.
As a team owner, you should be asking yourself, “Does everybody on my team value a CMA the same way?” Furthermore, if you were to ask each agent on your team to run a CMA for a home, would you get multiple different versions of a CMA or would they all come back congruent with your team standards? It is important that your team members are valuing homes the same, and that all sellers are getting the same valuation tool, because undervaluing or overvaluing a home could have detrimental results to a seller.
The Listing Presentation
Practicing your team’s listing presentation is perhaps one of the most crucial steps in this entire process. If you are not consistently practicing and perfecting your presentation, do not expect to show up to a listing presentation prepared and confident. Like any professional, you must perfect your craft!
Jason encourages you, as the team owner, to ask yourself two questions: “When was the last time I updated my listing presentation?” and “Are my agents properly trained on our latest listing presentation?” The truth is, if you think you know what your agents are saying, you are mistaken. The best way to see if your agents are properly delivering the listing presentation, is to film them giving the presentation. When they are finished, sit down with each of them, watch the recording and help them improve before the next presentation — just as an NFL coach would sit down with his or her team before the next game and review the previous game’s film.
Jason also recommends that no agent go on a listing presentation alone. As a team owner you should be modeling exactly what you want your team members to do and how you want them to deliver the listing presentation. Have your agents shadow you on your listing presentations to learn from you, or if you are not going on presentations, then your agents should be partnering up and going on appointments together.
By partnering up for listing presentations, your agents will deliver at a higher level; everyone performs better in front of an audience. Additionally, having a second set of eyes and ears during the presentation is key. If something is overlooked or misstated, the other agent can jump in and compensate when the presenter misses something.
Servicing the Listing
In today’s real estate market where homes are selling almost too fast, we tend to lose some of our basic skills. Jason believes that one of the skills we are missing today is consistently checking in with our sellers.
The key to servicing sellers is connecting with your sellers once per week. Even though homes are selling quicker than they used to, we must continue to connect with our sellers on a regular basis. This does not mean that your admin calls your seller for you or you send an automated text message. YOU must connect with your sellers once per week and let them know that you are thinking about them, what showings are taking place this week, or if anything has changed.
If you are calling every week and checking in with your seller and then something happens goes wrong, the seller will likely be less taken aback by the issue and will trust that you will help take care of them. However, if you are not checking in once per week and you only call when a problem arises, your clients will probably be more frustrated.
We all know that people will do business with people they like, and people are willing to work through problems with people who care about them. Never underestimate the power of this weekly phone call.