#1 Strategy to Convert More Listings

Over the years, through focused preparation and hours and hours (and even more hours) of practice...I was able to have a fairly high listing presentation to listings taken ratio.  Most agents will have an average of a 25% closing rate, better than average would be 50%, and the top agents would be converting upwards of 70-80% of the appointments they go on.  What is interesting here is if you take...say...10 appointments and each one is going to payout $6000 CGI, the difference between having average skills and above average skills is an additional $18,000 for the top listing agent - for the same amount of time! Repeat this a handful of times over the course of a year and you can see how you’re leaving, at least, $100,000 on the table - or putting in your pocket!

Here're six benefits you can have when you commit to pre-qualifying 100% of your listing appointments, 100% of the time.

1. Flushes out what's really going on - I like to use this example when I am teaching agents about pre-qualifying the seller.  First, let’s think about what process a doctor follows leading up to a surgical procedure.  Typically, the patient is asked a series of questions; various tests may be run, and we’re told not to eat/drink anything, in most cases after a certain time the day before the surgery.  WHY?  To prevent you from dying or having serious complications.  The doctor is “flushing out” what is going on with the current state of your health. This is exactly what we’re doing when we pre-qualify the seller.  We are asking a series of questions to understand what is going on - the things that are obvious and those things that aren’t as obvious. We’re doing the same thing the doctor is with an intention to take into consideration all factors to allow us to determine how to move forward, if we’re moving forward and what issue may come into play. Simply put, we’re getting prepared for surgery - in this case; it’s not life/death, and it is in most cases the largest financial transaction the seller is trusting you to take them through successfully.

Imagine this - what would it be like to go to a doctor and they don’t don’t ask any questions? They don’t order any lab work and just say “ok, see you in the morning” what would you do?  We’d question what’s going on right? Here’s the thing, the seller doesn’t know any better and when we’re not following this process (knowingly or not) we taking them down a similar path.

Over the years when I teach agents how to do this I often hear things like “what if they get mad that you’re asking questions” or “what if they don’t have the time” here’s what I say, number 1, that in itself is telling you something and number 2 who’s in charge here? You’re the doctor and know what’s best for your patient to get their desired outcome.

2. Gives you leverage to close the sale - Exactly! How many times do you go to a listing appointment and attempt to close for the signature and find it difficult? Have other things come up that hadn’t come up to that point that leaves you wondering what to say?  Maybe all of a sudden the seller starts backpedaling on you with comments like “well, I can just keep the house” or “if we can’t ____ then I guess we will just not sell the house” if you haven’t come across this yet, it’s a matter of time until you do.  What is key to remember here is when you pre-qualify at a high level, you essentially are (as we said a moment ago) FLUSHING everything out which doesn’t give the seller anywhere to “hide”: so to say.  You asked the questions, have all the information, and now that is what you can use as leverage to close for the signature. Jody, let’s look at it this way...imagine you have a large boulder sitting before you...it weighs approximately 100 pounds - with no tools - I ask you to move it forward about 10 feet. What would you say? Exactly, that would be quite a challenge.  Now let’s say I gave you a stick that was about 3 inches in diameter and 7 feet long and I said “go ahead and wedge that in between the ground and boulder and move it forward” what would happen? (snap)  Correct, what I want you to recognize is the stick was the information you normally have going out to list a home - some and not all there was to know.  Now let’s do this...I am going to give you a rod made out of steel, same thing, 3 inches in diameter and 7 feet long. What do you think may happen when you wedge that between the ground and the boulder? (could get it to move forward with less resistance? Yes...) The reason is that you have more in depth information and as a result of more “leverage” to move the process along.  It’s a fact that it’s next to impossible to close for the signature if we don’t have the leverage to work with. If you find yourself having this come up, check in with yourself and ask "am I getting all the information I can possibly get to be in a position to close the listings I go