Some reasons Why Real Estate Agents Lose Money
Whether you’re a new agent or a veteran agent, it’s easy for someone to bury themselves by working “in” their business compared to working “on” their business. When you work “in” your business, you’re working on deals, prospecting, negotiating contracts and everything else you can think of in the day of the life of a real estate agent. What most agents forget to do is work “on” their business by fixing some of the seemingly small details that you do or don’t do that sabotage a deal. Here are some reasons why you’re losing money by not working “on” your business right now:
Preparing for the Sale:
1. Insufficient market knowledge – You’re not spending enough time previewing property, studying home prices, market trends etc.
2. Agent’s lack of confidence – If you don’t believe in yourself, why would someone else?
3. Agent’s sloppy personal appearance – From having your shoes buffed to wearing a tie, guys, take the extra time making sure you look good. Ladies, the same applies for you, looking professional is key.
Greeting the Customer:
4. Forgetting to smile – If you needed to ask someone a questions and they were scowling, would you approach them?
5. Lack of enthusiasm – Acting like you don’t want to be there. You have to show your enthusiasm and desire to work for the client!
6. Lack of energy – like Enthusiasm, energy is contagious. If you don’t have a enough energy to do something, how can you expect your clients to?
Moving into the sale:
7. Not listening
8. Failing to hear the customer’s “Wants” and Needs” – Your customer’s wants and needs are the most important part of the transaction. If you don’t, they may not be motivated enough to close.
9. Inability to gain and hold the customer’s attention – People like to be entertained and compelled, is your presentation good enough to do that?
10. Not taking into account the clients fears regarding the sale – Not addressing the fears ahead of time can lead to objections you may not be able to handle later. Like???
11. Leaping to conclusions – Doing so can lead you into trouble that normally wouldn’t occur, if you would just be patient.
12. Knocking competition – Talking down the competition really just makes you look bad.
13. Admitting failure too easily – Never give up.
14. Inviting bargaining on price too soon – Have you ever discounted the price of something without anyone suggesting it in the first place?
Objections:
15. Insulting the customer’s intelligence – This usually almost instantly takes you out of rapport.
16. Inability to answer technical questions – You may have one fantastic presentation, but if the technical stuff slows you down, you will definitely loose the trust your clients have in you.
17. Getting too technical – There is a lot of Real Estate jargon that many people either don’t know about or don’t care about. Boring your clients with technical information or assuming they understand it is a turn off and a rapport killer.
18. Lying – I bet most of you are guilty of this, don’t lie.
19. Losing patience – Sometimes people take a bit longer than you would expect to decide. Buying or selling is a big decision, don’t you think?
20. Ignoring objections – You can only ignore objections for so long. Objections are ultimately a question your client’s have in their mind, so answer it.
21. Talking too much – Telling isn’t selling.
22. Not having an answer – Not having the answer to their question will make you look unprepared.
23. Failing to press for a close after the objection was handled – If you don’t close or ask for the sale, don’t expect them to sign anything.
24. Failing to turn objection into a customer benefit – Leaving an objection the way it is will allow it to just become a problem and in the way of your close.
25. Getting sidetracked by an objection – Sometimes an objection can lead the conversation into a direction that’s unfamiliar to you or something that will just turn the customer off.
Closing:
26. Not asking for the order – If you don’t ask, don’t expect to receive.
27. Failing to recognize a buying signal – More often than none, your buyers will be waving a flag in the air.
28. Failure to spark customer’s desire to take advantage of the opportunity – Even when you think they’re sold, you need to re-sell them. But don’t talk to much and unsell the deal.
29. Falling in love with the sound of our own voice – You will end up talking yourself out of the sale.
30. Lacking confidence in the offer or the listing price – You play a huge role in the process, submit what’s necessary.
Follow up
31. Not following-up enough – 70% of all sales happen on follow up.
32. Not calling back with information requested in a timely basis – You’re making several thousands off this one deal, each client needs to be treated like they’re your only one.
33. Over promising and under delivering – This will simply lead your client into utter disappointment.
34. Not closing for the sale on the follow up call – It takes a minimum of 5 times that you need to close in order to get a deal.
Out of this list of 34 things agents do to lose money, how many apply to you?
You can think of each item on this list as 1 transaction. If 8 of these apply to you, than that’s 8 transactions. If you’re average commission check is $10,000, that’s $80,000. Ouch! What are 2-3 actions you can commit to doing to prevent this from happening in the balance of 2014?
