Wednesday, August 22, 2007
by Susan Rochwarg, Susan Sells Team
Are you my Buyer?
As the president of your own professional sales corporation, your job is to create and keep customers with whom you enjoy working and who appreciate the extent of the job you do for them and how you treat them. Then you’ll have an abundance of ‘clients for life” and remember, not everyone is a GOOD buyer for you.
CHANGE: And just as a company must continually restructure and redesign its product and service offerings to satisfy the changing tastes of a demanding and competitive customer marketplace, you as a salesperson must constantly upgrade the quality and sophistication of your sales procedures and approaches if you are going to create customers in sufficient quantity.
QUALIFYING: There are countless ways of attracting buyer prospects but determining when they are a good buyer match for your real estate corporation is the key to enjoying what you do and having fun while you’re funding and fulfilling your life’s dreams and theirs too.
INTERVIEW: Anything can be (and should be) handled at the initial interview and then referred to later as necessary and appropriate. Don’t forget, it’s got to be a win-win for your clients AND you. Clients must understand that your rewards come after a high level of risk and liability, hard work, many hours of preparation, negotiation, and research before the sale is solid and possibly (and most likely) a long lead time. You’re front loading the opportunity for them and they should be clear that’s the case. Remember, you’re taking the risk so make it the right interview.
NEEDS/WANTS: You must discover what’s important to your Buyer prospects like timing, pricing, ease of process, comfort with the level of information and data, the best deal, the property that fits their lifestyle, winning the negotiation or no-hassle. That’s where you’ll be spending much of your time and the house is secondary and fills the needs almost naturally.
FEES: Your fee must be a reflection of the value you bring to the equation and don’t compromise your fee for a client just because the client asks. Does the client really want you to negotiate their deal as quickly and readily giving up money as you did your fee? You’re capable of making a better deal for your client that’s worth the full fee compensation to you and as a buyer’s agent, the seller pays the full fees most of the time either through compensation offers in MLS, credits to buyers at closing or a combination of both. If you work with a loyalty agreement, this agreement has benefits of understanding and communication for both the agent and the buyers. Of course you can extend a Satisfaction Guarantee in the event they are not satisfied with your delivery on the service of the contract. If you’re front loading the opportunities for your buyer, they should be willing to protect or guarantee your fee. With resistance, I ask, “with your guarantee for my fee, I have the obligations and incentive to find the best homes and negotiate the very best deal for you and will be compensated a fair fee in exchange. If I agree to work for what ever fee I can get or not then I have no incentive to work for you- I do what ever deal I can make for you as fast as I can make it Which would you prefer?
AGREEMENT: If you have a loyalty agreement with buyers, then that applies to all buyers or it’s not fair to Buyer A if Buyer B says she/he doesn’t want to sign a loyalty agrement. If you don’t present and they don’t get the VALUE in your taking the time and making the commitment to evaluate and update the full breadth of their wants, needs, timing, motivation and price, they probably aren’t your buyer so go on to the next.
You’re better off to let them go in the beginning than to let them down later as it is discovered that no matter what, you can’t meet their expectations and demands and you’ve risked hours and energy, money and resources, taking away from other buyers, sellers, prospects and team members who want you and need you.
