When the market shifts, salespeople must shift with it. Conversations that were acceptable in a sellers’ market will not provide good outcomes in stable markets or in buyers’ markets.
Chances are high that your market has shifted to a buyers’ market very quickly. If so, has it caught your salespeople off guard?
In sellers’ markets, conversations around the issue of estimated selling price are different to similar conversations in other markets. I stress that I don’t agree with this conduct, but it was common in sellers’ markets for salespeople avoid price altogether, or to rely on overquoting to win listings. When the market is rising quickly, even salespeople who overquoted to win listings sold those properties because the market rose to a point where it reached the overquoted prices.
Not now. Salespeople must handle price differently, and for leaders who don’t want to see a dip in their profits, they must be mindful that their salespeople aren’t shirking their duty to correctly address price with their sellers.
Beware the shirkers or suffer the consequences.
There are two areas that leaders should address with their salespeople.
- Dealing with price at the listing presentation. Sellers must hear an honest estimate of the likely selling range for their property in this current market. If salespeople cannot accurately deliver an honest price estimate and still win the listing, they are not skilled enough to survive in a buyers’ market. Retrain or remove are a leader’s only two options.
- In shifting markets, salespeople must address the issue of overpriced listings.
If a property has been on the market for a month and it isn’t ‘cooking’ – it has a party or parties talking about buying it – it is overpriced, and the price must be adjusted.
Salespeople must stay on top of the asking prices of their listings and guide sellers with honest feedback about repositioning their asking prices to attract buyers.
Salespeople who will not address the need to reposition the prices of their ‘stuck’ listings are unskilled and will not make it. Again, retrain or remove are a leader’s only two options.
Your team can look on dealing with price as an unpleasant duty that should be avoided, or they can look on the right price as a necessity for selling properties in a buyers’ market. Furthermore, they can look on telling sellers the truth about price as a service to their clients, a service that will help those clients achieve their goal to sell and move. A change in attitude can do wonders.
Dealing with price is a necessity and one of attitude. Leaders, beware of the shirkers and be sure that your salespeople are doing their job, that is to list and SELL properties at the highest market price.
Gary Pittard