Last Thursday we did a little show in the SWS Virtual Studio called "How to Wow Your Seller" where Susan Haughton and I discussed various things a listing agent can do to ensure that her seller clients are talking about her behind her back, letting everyone they know how thrilled they are with the service they're receiving. At the end of the show, we asked the audience to share their Favorit-est Tips and below are the results of that survey.
But first, know that your sellers aren't going to be "wow'ed" by a big flashy display or expensive closing gift. No, wowing your seller (or your buyer for that matter) is far more a function of the Total Client Experience - how satisfied they are in the day-to-day with your communication, your attention and your expertise. If your client is less-than-wow'ed with you during your transaction together, no Flashy Wow or Fancy Closing Gift will change that.
My point is that the Favorit-est Tips you will read about might seem kind of mundane, even ordinary, but I promise you, if you do these things for your seller, you'll blow away most of your competition because they AREN'T doing them!!
So... without further adieu... How to Wow Your Seller: The Favorit-est Tips
Favorit-est Tip #1 (by far): Contact the seller every day for the first ten days of the listing. While putting a sign in a yard may be just another day at the office to you, it's a Big Deal to your sellers and they want to feel that you care as much as they do about your new listing. The best way to let them know this is to be in frequent communication about all the things you're doing and what's happening so they know they're Always On Your Mind. This is really easy to do since there ARE a lot of things going on in those first ten days!
Favorit-est Tip #2: Ask your seller for feedback on how you're doing. That this tip was so popular surprised me. But yeah, a few weeks into the listing (after you've been showering them with attention the first ten days!), just ask your sellers if they're satisfied with your service. I think I'd fall over in a faint if a real estate agent ever asked me that!
Favorit-est Tip #3: Give the seller a Market Snapshot when their home goes on the market. A "Market Snapshot" is a list of the current competition for your listing - aka the other homes on the market competing with yours. Every few weeks, update this report with a "State of the Market" report, detailing recent activity such as new listings, price reductions, homes under contract and withdrawn, etc.
Favorit-est Tip #4: Preview any new competition as it comes on the market and share your findings with the seller. Keep an eye on the market activity surrounding your listing and preview any new listing that comes up. This gives you a great excuse to contact your seller with feedback and keeps you up-to-date on the market activity in the area. Win/win!
Favorit-est Tip #4a: Offer to take your seller out to preview the competition for their home.
Favorit-est Tip #5: Provide the seller with a Calendar of Events detailing what will be happening during the listing period, as well as during the Contract-to-Closing period.
Other Tips: Provide prompt feedback after an Open House, send the seller links to your online advertising, prepare a thorough CMA and be able to intelligently discuss the data within it, prepare a new CMA every six weeks, use "we," "our," and "let's" when discussing strategy.
If you'd like to hear the entire show, you can find it at Club SWS or at the SWS Bookstore.
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Here is a short survey about the things a real estate agent can do to make sure his or her seller knows he or she cares! If you have a few minutes.... just click this link to participate - http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e7km90vrhh7rmfut/start
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Good morning Jennifer,
Excellent tips on wowing your sellers! Many of them I do but never thought to ask them at the 2 week mark how I'm doing? Genius!! I'm going to try it!
That was a great call, Jennifer - thanks for the tips! Any chance you recorded the webinar? :)
Kerry - all shows are recorded and provided at Club SWS (www.ClubSWS.info), but not publicly. It was a great show, wasn't it?!
Dorie - please do! Not only will your sellers be happy with you, but you'll create a much stronger relationship with them.
Valerie - I'm glad you think so!
Jennifer, thanks for posting these tips! I was so bummed to miss the call due to scheduling, but these are some fabulous take-aways!
Sharon
These are all great tips! Sellers will feel more appreciated! Thanks for sharing.
Randy Bocook Team
Jennifer~ Thank you for sharing this great list of tips. I took good notes. We have 2 new listings coming up and I plan to practice these steps!
Jennifer all great tips . Keeping them updated on the market condition is the best way when you recommend any price adjustment.
I'm happy to see I'm already doing some of sellers favorite things. While I contact them often in the first week, not everyday. I'll have to up my game on that one.
Love these ideas! I've found it extremely helpful to show sellers the competition so they can get a realistic idea on pricing. Keeping them engaged is a huge benefit. Thanks for sharing this important list!
These are all great tips and keeping them engaged with the process will keep them involved with all of the decisions along the way! Thanks for sharing your list.
Wonderful tips! Thanks.
Jennifer super list of basic things to do. I like bringing your sellers to visit their comps, never tried that. I wouldnt have guessed to call eveyday either for the first 10.
Taking your sellers to see comps is particularly valuable when they are arguing with you about price. Great list!
Great tips. People want you to communicate with them. It is so easy to allow that to slip through the cracks.
As usual Jennifer, some very usable and valuable information.
great post, reminds me to do the things I know I should, plus your list will help me put it in a system to make sure I do it every time
I was sorry I couldn't make it, but happy to see that I am doing most things on the list!
We already do a few of your tips, but I can see where incorporating the couple we don't use would wow our sellers.
These will be good tips when our market changes again. But right now around the Denver metro area, if a house is on the market 10 days, the sellers aren't happy!
Wow Jennifer that is a great list and something new we have never thought about.
There are some really good ideas here. Happy to report I utilize all of them except for #2. Then again, because I communicate with them so much, they usually tell me.
These are now among my favorit-est too.
Great Tips for Handling a Listing - I also show the seller where their home is advertised and how many hits they are getting on the single property website and where those hits originated.
Great tips! Thanks for taking the time to share. Sometimes we all get caught up in the busy work and forget about the human side of things.
Great tips and it comes back to great communication (the way THEY want to be communicated to!) and so few real estate agents are good at that. OVERCommunicating has you seen as a great agent!!!
Thanks for sharing these tips!!!
Great ideas.
These are great tips that help build rapport with the seller. It certainly shows hhat you value them as a client.
One of sellers' biggest complaints is that they never hear from the listing agent after the contract is signed. Following these great tips is a sure way to keep the client informed and happy.
Jennifer, looks like the number one item to any seller is communication and often. I guess from a sellers point of view you can't overdo it on that one.
Simple, maybe, but so important! Thanksfor the great suggestions.
I would think most agents perform your tips except #1 and #4a. under certain circumstances I agree with #1 and #4a but generally not. Most sellers don't heed the advice of their Realtor about where to price their property so most won't get any activity unless the home is in a very desirable neighborhood and #4a is really meaningless to most sellers since they believe their home is exceptional regardless of the competition so wouldn't take the time to compare properties. Great post, regardless.
JAH, so happy to catch the recap. We'll use #4 sometimes and preface it by asking them for 20 minutes of their day. You usually don't get a turn down with such small requests and it can be a huge eye opener.
Jennifer, congratulations on the well-deserved Feature! This is one post I am bookmarking for future reference. Sharon
A great reminder of what I consider the basic levelf service to my sellers. Thanks!
Love this post! Bookmarking for sure! Basic, but essential things to do! Kathy
Great reminders of the things we need to do.
Good care and excellent customer service still are the "favoritest".
Excellent tips. In this market, the showing activity and providing feedback seems to be all the communication the seller needs as most of the homes are going under contract within a couple weeks. It's just a huge flury of activity.
These tips all come down to good communication - and keeping your seller informed at all times. People want attention - they want to feel important to you after you've taken the listing, not just while you're trying to get them to sign.
Jennifer - These tips are outstanding. They really focus on communication and keeping the client informed. Love it.
Wow - it's been a long time since I've had a post featured here at Active Rain - I forgot how fun that is! Thanks for all the great comments and I'm glad our Favorit-est Tips resonated with so many. Just a couple of comments...
First, don't think that you have to literally call your seller every day during those first two weeks or so. By "communicate" I mean that your seller gets SOMETHING from you every day - whether it's a phone call, an email, a text or whatever - just something informative that shows them you're on the job and thinking of them. The good news is that in those first two weeks, there IS a lot happening to tell your seller about, so it's pretty much a no-brainer to come up with material (but let me know if you'd like some ideas).
Also - don't think that you have to remember to do all this stuff on your own - that's what your fancy-schmantzy contact management system is for!!! Just create a New Listing activity plan and enter all of these to-do's, then apply it to your listings and you're golden. The nice thing is that once you get in the habit of Wowing Your Seller, it will become second nature to you and you'll feel guilty if you don't do it on a regular basis. And that's a good thing!
A few mentioned that this list is pretty basic and I agree... but I will also tell you as someone who has had properties listed with agents many times in my life, I have NEVER, and I mean NEVER had an agent who did even half of these; in fact, most of them did NONE. Literally, none. So, as mentioned in the blog, if you do them, you'll be way ahead of the competition.
I really like the calendar of events tip. That is great!
Jennifer, this is a great list. Each of these items is on my list, as well. Customer service is important.
I agree with you about letting the contact management system help you to 'remember' as it can be pretty easy to forget to communicate when you are so busy working hard for the client! It's probably the worst thing to do to forget to communicate!!!
I took a seller out on a tour of comps once. She became a lot more cooperative about price and condition.
Jennifer,
Congrats on the feature and good reminder on how to be out in front. Tailored as necessary for each client, all of these action should be part of the service I'm providing to my clients. Great post.
I admit doing only some of those. Thanks for the reminder to catch up on other things. Will be add on to my checklists. Thank you!
Certainly a lot of great points, I often wonder if the sellers forget that there home is even for sale as they never seem to call either to ask what is going on as well.
I already have incorporated #3 and #4, but I'm definitely going to incorporate #1 and #2! Thanks!
Incorporating all of these into my planner and my practice. Love it. Thanks, Jennifer.
Jennifer, Great post! Congrats on the feature. You never got half of these from your agent! How sad is that.
It is one of the biggest complaints we hear from our listing appointments. Communication is very important.
My clients know upfront how often they will hear from me and other communications they will receive during our time together because it is one of the biggest complaints we hear.
Great tips. Love it idea of an excuse to call every day for the first ten days. This does make perfect sense!!
Congratulations Jennifer on a well deserved feature post! Wonderful tip and contacting the seller every day for the first 10 days is brilliant.
Here is a follow-up to this blog (with more coming soon!) http://activerain.com/blogsview/3739389/even-if-they-don-t-complain-sellers-notice
I often thought that every day was too much even at the start. Maybe I need to rethink that. Great points.
I agree that contacting every day for the first 10 days or so is a superb idea... I feel it happens anyhow, with showings, feedback, sharing marketing activities, etc, but a conscious effort to do so and ensure it happens is great.
Jennifer: These are all great ideas and I enjoyed your 'even though' post as well!
Ah, there it is: #2.
Jennifer ~ Great tips, wowing them along the way is much more valuable. After all that's when they are talking to their friends about what a great agent you are! : )
Good morning Jennifer. Winston re-blogged this and I'm glad he did. Great tips and you are right: communication is key always. Enjoythe day.
I am pleased to say that I have found all your tips to work like a charm!
Jennifer,
These were excellent tips and your follow up tips were as well! Thanks so much for sharing!!!!
DeeDee
Hi Jennifer,
I can't agree more that constant communication is one of the key ingredients for a successful sale !!! Customers love it and you will gain a fan for life!!!
Enjoy your day!
My last listing was vacant and my Seller said I did not have to waste my time doing open houses. I said I had nothing better to do on a Sunday afternoon. I sold her house to a Buyer who came to an open house. That's how I wowed her.