Everybody loves a shortcut. I know I do. But some shortcuts turn out to be not so short – client contact, for example.
During the boom, I saw a lot of salespeople taking shortcuts with seller communication. The argument was that they were so busy with buyers, and with finding listings to replace the properties they were selling, that there was no time left to spend with sellers.
While you might get away with such shortcuts during a boom, when sales are harder to come by communication with your sellers is the key.
In our program, Winning Ways – Real Estate Sales [1] – we say,
“Contact creates contracts.”
You’d better believe it.
How often do you see salespeople do a great listing presentation, create a great impression with sellers, and then ruin that great impression through lack of communication while they have the property listed?
What an incredible waste to leave sellers languishing overpriced on the market, waiting for the day their listing agreement expires so they can go elsewhere.
Seller contact – I call it ‘Pampering’ – requires little more than good time management and a desire to do a better job.
And it offers several rewards: happier clients, a better List-to-Sell Ratio, and you will make more sales.
Speak with your sellers every week and watch your List-to-Sell Ratio climb. If you are presently looking after, say, ten sellers, divide that number by five and this tells you how many of your sellers you need to speak with each working day – in this example, two.
Now of course you have to say something interesting when you do call, and in Winning Ways – Real Estate Sales [1] this topic receives plenty of discussion, but make weekly calling of your vendors a discipline and you’re already well on you way to more sales.
Shortcut client communication? I don’t think so!