Selling Soulfully with Jennifer Allan

I've been watching and commenting on Leslie Rojohn's fine blog called "Time is Money-- Unless You're a REALTOR" - about charging retainer fees. Maybe you saw it, too, since it was Active Rain's headliner of the day last Thursday or Friday.

As typically happens when any topic of non-contingent compensation is featured, the comments came in fast and furiously, most along the lines of "Sounds great, but it will never happen. If buyers (or sellers) can get it free down the street, why would they be willing to pay for it?"

Indeed. Why would they?

Hmmmmmm?

That's not a rhetorical question - I'm asking it. Assuming you like the idea of getting a retainer or upfront fee, WHY would a buyer or seller be willing to pay one for your real estate service?

Hmmmmmm?

No answer? Well, then there's the problem!

Unless you're some super-duper salesperson who can sell the proverbial snow to an Eskimo, you need to believe that what you're selling is good for your customer. Great, even. AND IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE THAT ABOUT YOUR SERVICE OR YOUR FEES, no one else is going to believe it either!

Of course, this applies to any product or service someone might be pitching, but for our purposes here, we're talking about non-contingent (aka retainer or upfront) fees.

"Sounds great, but it will never happen. If buyers or sellers can get it free down the street, why would they be willing to pay for it?"

Well... in the last few years of my active career, I offered my sellers the choice to pay me $500 upfront... and most took me up on it - happily. Was the guy or gal down the street also charging $500 upfront? Nope. Were my seller clients so filthy stinkin' rich that they had an extra $500 lying around they wanted me to have? Nope. Was I such a super-duper salesperson that I was able to overcome their objections with a masterful script and a mega-watt smile? Oh, heavens NO!

Most of my sellers paid the $500 upfront fee because I made it a good deal for them to do so. And they recognized a good deal when they saw one and cheerfully wrote the check. And because I knew what I was offering was a good deal for them, it was no problem at all for me to "sell" them on the idea.

So... instead of moaning and groaning about how unfair it is that we Work for Free (which we DON'T) and that "no one will ever be willing to pay us non-contingently unless everyone else does it, too," get out of your own way and think about how you could make getting what YOU want also be a good deal for your customers. And you'll be able to sell it All Day Long.

In keeping with our tradition of posting the Favorit-est Tips after our How-To shows in the SWS Virtual Studio, below are the Favorit-est Tips from yesterday's show: The Proper Care & Feeding of Sellers from Contract to Closing.

The show was about a listing agent's duties and responsibilities during the critical Contract-to-Closing period to keep everything on track and heading toward the closing table. We used my Listing-Under-Contract checklist (which you can find in my VIP Lounge) to refer to, although interestingly, a few of the most favorite tips weren't even ON my checklist! (Thank you SWS Coach Deb Stephenson for adding your brilliance!)

So, without further adoooooooo.... Here are the Favorit-est Tips as voted on by the live studio audience, in reverse order of Favorite-ness!

Fifth Most Favorit-est Tip
Prepare the seller for the inspection by 1) asking them to vacate the home during the inspection so the buyers can begin emotionally moving into the home and 2) setting the expectation that the inspection may go badly so that if it does, they aren't shocked, and if it doesn't, they are pleasantly surprised.

Fourth Most Favorit-est Tip
Put up your SALE PENDING sign fairly quickly after contract. This is great marketing for YOU and for the local real estate market. SOLD signs always breed more SOLD signs and that's a very good thing.

Third Most Favorit-est Tip
Do a walk-thru with your seller before the buyer does his or her walk-thru. This gives you the opportunity to make sure the buyer won't find anything amiss and create a ruckus right before closing. Wish I could take credit for this one, but it was Coach Deb's.

Second Most Favorit-est Tip (seriously)
When you pick up your sign and lockbox, take some toilet paper rolls with you to make sure there's TP in the bathrooms. Many sellers inexplicably take their half-used TP rolls with them and it's a drag for the buyer when they arrive with their moving truck... and there's no TP to be found. The buyer may never know it was you, but it's just good karma ;-] - Thanks, Deb, for this visual.

And...

The MOST Favorit-est Tip...!
Prepare for and attend the appraisal. Have good comps with you that support the price, as well as any that don't and be able to explain the lower ones. Also bring an itemized list of any repairs, improvements or features the home offers, with approximate costs. Don't annoy the appraiser with random chatter or get in his way, but do be there, be charming, and offer to help measure.

So, there you have it! If you'd like to listen to the entire show, you can find it at Club SWS (www.clubsws.info) or at the SWS Bookstore (www.SWSStore.com).

Especially for Rookie Agents (but everyone is welcome), this teleseminar show is about what happens (or SHOULD happen) between the time you get your listing under contract (woo hoo!) through the day of closing (an even bigger WOO HOOOO!). 

The thing is... getting a listing under contract is nice, but it's sometimes the easiest part of the whole process. Today, buyers are nervous, lenders are fussy and your seller might not be tickled with his selling price, so holding the transaction together will require you to be on top of the dates and deadlines, and prepared to ward off problems before they become deal-breakers.

On Thursday, January 12th, we'll discuss all these things a listing agent should be doing during the contract-to-closing phase, based off of the SWS Listing-Under-Contract Checklist.

During the show we'll cover topics such as:

• What you need to do immediately following contract execution
• What you need to make sure your seller does immediately following contract execution
• How, why, when and with whom to follow up throughout the process
• Your role during the inspection period
• Proactive steps to take to head off problems before they arise
• What your responsibilities are prior to, during and after the closing
• And... whatever else we think of to tell you about!

Sound like fun? If so, please mark your calendar and join us on January 12th!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE DETAILS
Date: Thursday, January 12th, 2012
Time: 8:00am Pacific / 9:00am Mountain / 10:00am Central / 11:00am Eastern  
Duration: 60 - 75 minutes
Equipment Needed: A computer with a high-speed connection and speakers or a telephone.
Cost: Free, but you must register, below. 

REGISTER FOR THE SHOW HERE

A few weeks ago, I posted a blog called "Nine Attributes of an Exceptional Real Estate Agent" in which I listed nine competence-related skills and services I'd want my real estate agent to bring to the table if I were in need of real estate assistance.

None of the nine attributes had anything to do with being nice, friendly, likeable or compassionate; they were all related to taking exceptionally good care of me and my real estate transaction.

Several of the 120+ commenters called me out on that - they felt strongly that I should have included what they called "people skills" and what I call "compassion factors" (e.g. being a good listener) in my list of attributes.

I disagreed. NOT because I think real estate agents should strive to be a$$holes with atrocious bedside manners, but rather because what we do, if we do it right and especially in today's excruciatingly difficult market, requires a fairly high level of competence, expertise and good old fashioned hard WORK to properly serve the clients who have honored us with their business.

Being nice, likeable, friendly and empathetic isn't enough. It's just not. Yes, maybe having great people skills gets you in the door, but if you don't have the knowledge and expertise to get the job done that you were hired to do, all the people skills in the world aren't going to change the fact that 1) your client is going to be disappointed and may very well share that disappointment with anyone who will listen; and 2) if you're paid on a contingent commission basis and can't get the job done, no payday cometh for you.

No one wins... not your client, not you, not your struggling real estate market that could really use some exceptionally competent real estate agents out there getting the job DONE!

What dismays me the most about this discussion is the heavy emphasis in our industry on personality being the key factor in success. Who cares about market knowledge, contract mastery or negotiating skills? As long as you're likeable, you'll be just fine! And we wonder why the failure rate in our industry is so freakin' high?

It takes more than a mega-watt smile, a firm handshake and a sympathetic ear to properly serve your clients. If you don't believe that, then I'll go out on a limb and say that your clients aren't being properly served, and I promise you, they notice. Oh, they may still like you personally, but inside, they're wishing they'd hired that other guy or gal who (as my biggest client ever used to say about me) "...isn't the friendliest person in the world, but she gets the job done."

So, my friends, let's go forth... and be Exceptional ... and Get the Job DONE!

(If you'd like to read more of my thoughts on the matter, read my comment #39 on the blog referenced above).