Entry by Mollie Wasserman

What to say to "Not-So-Loyal" Buyers

  4 Comments

From Coach JudiB:

Here's something I say to buyer prospects who are reluctant to stick with one agent:

"John and Sue, I understand your reluctance to "tie yourself" to any one agent. Most buyers begin by feeling pretty much the same way. Let me ask you a hypothetical question. Let's suppose your boss came to you and said 'I have a very important project for you to tackle. It's going to require a great deal of time and attention on your part, and it's critical that you give it your very best effort. Likely it will require your adjusting your schedule a fair amount because of the specific demands of the project. And the rewards for successful completion of the project can be very nice." Now, if you ask them at this point how eager they might be to tackle such a project, most people would be willing...they recognize there may be hard work, perhaps some sacrifice...but at the end they would be well rewarded, Right?

Now add, "OK, now let's suppose your boss added 'oh, by the way, I'm going to give the exact same assignment to several other people, and regardless of the time or effort or expertise invested by any of you, only one of you will be getting paid at all.'"

Now ask the buyer if they were given that scenario, how hard would they work...or how willing would they be to even take on the project at all...knowing that they could give it their very best effort, and many, many hours of their time, and wind up with nothing to show for it!

Time is money - pretty much everyone understands that. You could also add..."those hours invested on that project for which you never get paid are gone. Not only did you NOT get paid, you can not now use THOSE hours to work for someone else who WOULD enable you to get paid."

No doubt the would have the same reaction as we do...IF THEY REALLY UNDERSTOOD THE CONCEPT. Heck, how many of us have had clients believe we drove company cars, we had a salary and a draw (like other "sales" people they may know), that our companies pay for all our advertising...and add to that MISINFORMATION the fact that pretty much EVERY MEDIA MENTION of what Realtors make say things like "why pay your agent 6% or more!!!!" The public hears from all over the place that you and I put all that money in our pockets. The focus is on that larger number (bigger press impact) rather than basically HALF THAT AMOUNT which is generally closer to reality...and out of which STILL flows all of our expenses! The public BELIEVES we have so much money, their deal, and whether we get paid for it or not, simply doesn't matter to us...and certainly doesn't matter to them.

I'd also ask the buyers..."now suppose your boss said 'I realize this task might be challenging for you, and I REALLY APPRECIATE all the time and effort it will require of you...so much so that I'm entrusting only you with this challenge...I want to be sure that when all is said and done, you are duly rewarded". Then ask them, "under which scenario would your boss get YOUR best effort?". When they give you the answer, just add "and realtors think exactly the same way. When we know we have a client's loyalty, we do everything in our power to help them get into the home of their dreams".

Just some thoughts...hope it helps.

JudiB

4 Comments

Trying to logon to the dashboard and nothing works. Tried bobhall, Robert Hall and thehalls@chesapeakelifestyles.

The login to the dashboard (back end of the publishing system uses the same credentials that you used to register.

User Name (or ID) is your email address and the password is the same you suplied when you registered. Email me directly if that does not seem to work and I can help.

Merv

Judi,
That is a wonderfully powerful script, and I thank you for sharing it. It's just a matter of readjusting Realtor "speak" and presenting it in way the general public understands.
I find most people are reasonable. They come with pre-conceived (and mostly mis-conceived) notions of "how it is". So much of our "job" is educating. This is just part of the process.
Thanks again.
Carole

This is a great dialogue; it is, though, very agent centric (asking the clients "how would you feel if you were me?").

Tweaking it just slightly to show the clients how it benefits them to use just one agent would be key. The next phrase to tack on, then, would be "do you want a lot of agents working for you just a little? Or would you rather have one devoted to your success?"

This page contains a single entry by Mollie Wasserman published on November 16, 2007 1:10 PM.

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