Is Your Listing Process Client-Centered?

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RISMEDIA-NRRE VOL 16-5 July 2000

Is Your Listing Process Client-Centered?

By Carla Cross, CRB, MA, Special to NRRE

Do you know what percent of the listings in your area sell in normal market time? Across the nation, only about 40% of the homes listed by real estate agents do ? and that’s in half a year. That’s much longer than normal market time.

We real estate agents constantly say that client satisfaction is our goal. Yet, in a recent survey, thousands of home sellers say they were satisfied with the level of service only when the:

1. listing sold quickly

2. listing sold for close to listed price

So, if less than one-half of the listings taken in any time period results in a “sold” sign, that means over half the clients rate us low on service.

The Client-Centered Approach

If what the client wants from us is a sold sign on the property, and that’s the only way they rate us highly, then we must change our methods of listing and marketing properties to create higher levels of customer satisfaction. By the client-centered approach, I mean to keep the client?s best interest first ? not the agent?s.

The Old Agent-Centered Approach

It?s obvious from the statistics above that the agent is not keeping the client?s best interest as first priority. If the client?s best interest comes second, the agent?s best interest comes first. Agents tell me they take over-priced properties because:

1. They?re afraid if they don’t take the listing, someone else will.

2. They think they can get the price down later and want to control the property themselves from the beginning. This self-serving tactic costs the seller thousands in proceeds because shopworn properties on the market a long time result in much lower selling prices.

3. They want to use the property as a bait and switch. Agents know that signs and ads bring calls. They know the potential buyer won?t buy that over-priced property, so they always have other right-priced properties in mind to switch them to. Doesn?t this sound exactly like a used-car salesman approach?

How to Create a Client-Centered Listing Process

Clients are fed up with manipulative sales techniques, controlling statements, pushy selling, lack of information and especially bait and switch techniques. They?re considering doing away with the agent altogether, and they will if we don’t change our priorities from agent-centered to client centered. Here are five questions to ask yourself, to see which kind of process you use ? and some tips to change your process to true client-centered.

1. Do You Have an Information-Loaded Listing System?

Write down your process for listing property from the first time you talk to a seller to after closing. Could I pick up that piece of paper and follow your process successfully? Do you have packages, processes and checklists that I could use to duplicate your system? Could the client identify that this is a true, organized, prioritized system? Have you spent time, money and effort organizing this system so the client gets the best service possible? Is everything you do in a visual format, so the client trusts that what you say you do you really do? (We believe what we see, not what we hear.) Or, is this process merely a ?do it by ear? or ?fake it till you make it? arrangement? Are you about creating trust and confidence throughout the process, or do you just tell the client to “trust me, I?ll take care of everything” (so you can do as little work as possible). Which is manipulative? Which is client-centered?

2. Do You Educate from the Beginning, or Do You Just Sell, Sell, Sell (Tell)?

I?ve had agents tell me, “I don’t give them anything in writing at the beginning about the company, how I work, how the process proceeds, etc. I just come over and tell them the price of the home.” Is that worth the generous commission agents receive? The client thinks not. You need to create a pre-first-visit package that fully educates the client about the process, your company and you. This helps the client anticipate objections and creates trust and confidence in you. The trend is to push most of the information we traditionally gave sellers at the end of the process (the listing presentation) to the beginning of the process. Then, sellers are fully educated and prepared.

3. Are You a Property Information Gatherer or a People Consultant?

Traditionally, agents spent most of their time gathering and prioritizing information about the subject property. They spent little time gathering information about the seller?s needs, likes, dislikes, prior experiences, and motivation. The shift now is toward listing agents as people consultants. Why is this important? Computers can do market analyses (not well, but they can do them). But, finding an individual?s needs can never be done impersonally. Also, you and I know that the relationship that’s established between agent and seller is critical to the seller?s success. Do you spend any time forming a relationship? Do you use a questionnaire with the seller to determine the information listed above? Do you use the consultive approach? That is, do you spend most of your time with the seller first asking questions, listening and probing for deeper information? The more time you spend really trying to discover the seller?s needs, the more you are becoming a client-centered agent.

4. What’s Your Objective?

The statistics prove that most agents? objective is to list the property. That is not in the client?s best interests. To change to client-centered marketing, you must focus on listing only saleable properties. And, at the highest level, you should focus on creating advocates and evangelists for life. Wouldn?t it be better to refuse to take an over-priced listing, and, at the same time, make the seller an evangelist for your business? You know the seller will be angry with the listing agent when the home doesn?t sell. The seller will never be an evangelist for that agent, even if the agent gets a price reduction later and the listing sells. That’s not good enough for evangelistic promotion. Instead of listing a property to get two buyers through bait-and-switch techniques, why not tell the seller the truth, and receive two referrals from the seller. In the long run, clients are looking for trustworthy salespeople. This change of priorities doesn?t come easily. You must learn to tell the truth, with statistics backing your claims. You must learn to gracefully leave the seller to another agent?s manipulative techniques, while keeping in touch with the seller (I don’t mean to solicit the listing).

5. Do You Provide the Seller a Written Marketing Plan?

The ?do it by ear? agent expects the client to go with the flow. There is no written marketing plan provided. There are no dates for completion of any activities. Clients have to draw the conclusion that they simply must trust the agent to do the right things ? if the agent or client could remember them. What if Nordstrom hired a marketing company to create a marketing promotion and the marketing company came back to Nordstrom with nothing in writing ? no examples, no budget. Would Nordstrom retain this company? Of course not. Yet, agents act like amateur marketers when they?re dealing with property sellers. If you don’t put it in writing, you must not want to be held accountable. So, if you don’t have marketing plans in writing for sellers, you are not creating the trust and confidence you need to list saleable properties. (By the way, this plan is not what the company will do. This plan is what you should do to earn your commission).

Follow the ?Leader? or Catch the Trend?

Real estate practices heed the principle, “if it ain?t broke, don’t fix it.” Agents tell me all the time that the top producer in their company doesn?t follow the five principles stated above. But you, I assume, want to build a bigger business. Don’t compare the top producer?s built business to your need to build business. You just can?t get away with ?trust me? when the client doesn?t know who you are. The principles I’ve outlined above are reflected in the bigger, and more real, world of international business. They showcase how you and I like to be treated. Step your business up to the next level now by catching the trends, not by trying to copy what worked in the past.

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Sunday, March 21, 2010