We have just wrapped our inaugural ‘List’ month for the Ray White Group.
We held 6 major events across Australia highlighting how to win more listings, featuring some unbelievable sharing from a host of our network’s superstars.
During these sessions we focused on three key areas, preparing for an unstoppable listing pitch; how to deliver the pitch itself and finally; how to close and overcome objections.
One of the most startling realisations I have had personally, is that so many agents aren’t adept at closing and asking for the business when they complete their presentation.
I’m not entirely sure why this happens, perhaps a combination of not wanting to appear like a pushy salesperson or maybe having never been taught?
Whatever the reason, I thought it would be good to start this article with a statement of fact: in the world of sales, closing is the expected end to a pitch or presentation.
Not only do your customers expect you to do it, they actually want you to do it.
A pitch without a close leaves the recipient with a feeling of confusion and lack of satisfaction.
I think many agents expect the prospective vendor to jump up in excitement and plead for them to list their property for sale, but in many cases, the vendor doesn’t know what will happen next and is simply following your lead.
Have you ever found yourself completing your presentation and at the end, where you should close and ask them to sign, you start packing up your belongings, stand up, offer a hand to shake and say “I’ll follow you up in the coming weeks”?
This is what’s known as the ‘anti-close’.
Doing in fact the exact opposite of what you are supposed to and walking out of the property without actually discovering if you could have listed the business then and there.
There is a simple formula you can follow to give yourself every chance of winning the business every time, a simple roadmap to close the doors to objections.
It is critical that you follow some form of agenda.
Whether this be printed in a carefully curated booklet or written on a pad in front of the client, an agenda is one of the most powerful listing tools at your disposal.
The agenda does two things.
Firstly it provides your recipient an understanding of what you will cover and gives them an opportunity to add any items that may be of importance to them.
It’s vital to always ask your prospective sellers if they have any additional questions or things they would like to discuss during your meeting and write them at the bottom of your agenda.
Once the customer knows you will discuss what’s most important to them, they will be able to listen to your presentation without wondering if you’ll get to the ‘good bit’.
The second thing an agenda does is gives you a closing sequence.
As you work through each item and you have an agreement from the vendor about your approach, you can tick that item, effectively closing the door on that part.
If you get to the end of your pitch and find that the seller won’t move forward to signing the listing authority, chances are you’ve said or done something throughout the presentation that they haven’t agreed with.
You can walk back through your agenda and ask against each line item, “We spoke about price, are you comfortable with our agreed pricing strategy?” etc.
Once you have identified the point of objection, you can begin to work on overcoming that particular item to move towards your close.
Once you have completed your pitch and your agenda has ticks against each item, you have a very simple and clear mandate – it’s time to ask for the business.
Everyone has a different approach to their closing dialogue.
Some prefer direct, formal language such as “The next step is to fill in our listing authority.”
Or in the form of a question, “Are you comfortable with me representing the sale of your property?”
Whereas others prefer a more indirect approach, using smaller moments throughout the presentation to ‘trial close’, all leading up to the inevitable crescendo of signing on the dotted line.
This looks more like testing the temperature as you talk about various items such as marketing, “Would you like me to see if the photographer is available on xx date?”
Or if there’s a preferred auctioneer, “Let me see if I can book our auctioneer for your preferred auction date.”
The theory being if they are indicating they would be prepared to commit to items such as these, they are demonstrating a desire to work with you and your recommendations.
Something that is worth remembering is that you don’t always have to get completely through your presentation before closing and moving onto the signing of the documents.
There are some telltale signs that will highlight if the seller is ready to move forward.
Those include body language cues such as leaning in, nodding in agreement, smiling, asking questions like “How can we do that?” or “When would you do that?”
If you feel like they are enthusiastic, maybe even excited, you can move to the close at that point.
Language like “I think we’re on the same page here, why don’t we move to the authority document, that will cover all essential points like fees and charges, that way I can get working for you as soon as possible.”
Some agents will even use the listing authority as a ‘quote document’, working through it in tandem with a presentation, so that once they get to the end if the customer is happy, all they need to do is sign.
Of course, you won’t win them all.
Some customers will simply not be ready or really will want to do more research before making their final decision.
If you are unable to close in that initial meeting, the best thing to do is schedule a time to come back and see them again, or at the very least, arrange a follow up call within agreed timeframe.
Finally, what can be trickiest of all is when you are hit with an objection, how to receive that information, digest it and respond in a way that you can hopefully move beyond the objection and keep moving forward.
It’s worth bearing in mind that many consumers won’t actually feel that comfortable with raising an objection in the first place.
It’s important that you make it easy for them to raise any stumbling blocks with you on the way through.
This can be done simply by making statements at the start of your presentation such as “If there’s anything you’re unsure of or don’t like the sound of as we move through, it’s important that you let me know so we can clarify and work through that.”
In addition to this, it’s also helpful to understand if the business is there to be had from the outset of the meeting.
This would typically happen when you’re setting the agenda and it sounds something like this: “If I answer all of your questions and provide you with all of the information you are looking for, are you in a position to move forward with the sale of your property today?”
If you have this information at the start of your presentation, you will have more confidence to close if they say yes, and if they do say yes and at the end of your presentation they don’t sign, you know it’s because of something you’ve said or done during the presentation that hopefully you can go back and overcome.
With an industry average appraise to list ratio of around fifteen percent, it’s inevitable that you will lose more than you win, so while you should always look to improve, understanding that you won’t win them all can make the losses a little easier to bear.
Most agents simply need to do more appraisals and listing presentations to increase their list rate.
As with most things, practice makes perfect, just make sure you’re not practicing on your customers though, because that can be a very expensive exercise.
