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Accept the following: You have to list to last. Listings are mental labor, working with buyers is physical labor. Freedom comes with listings. You can simply handle more listing business than buyer business, once you understand the process. Being a listing agent requires more education, skill, polish, motivation and perseverance than being a buyers agent. Listing agents make a lot more money, more consistently and with less stress.
You Must Develop the Mindset of a Listing Agent.
Listing agents know how to consistently generate listing leads, follow up, prequalify them, present in such a way they take the listing, negotiate in such a way the listing sells, and close the deal. They are able to do all of that in such a way that the seller sends lots of referrals their way and trusts that agent with their own future business.
Listing agents work with more than just repeat and referral clients. They are able to successfully help ‘colder’ types of leads, due to their higher level of skill and confidence.
Fact: Many agents do the same volume and number of deals year in and year out because they are dependent on ‘what comes to them naturally’, ie, the easy business. In order to get to the next level, you must learn to not just work with people you know but also people you don’t.
The Listing Agent’s 7 P’s
Profit comes from Previewing, Prequalifying, Preparing, the PLP, and a Polished, Professional Presentation. (Prayer doesn’t hurt!)
“Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.”
-Norman Vincent Peale
Step #1: Generate the Lead
* Remember the ‘Spokes in the Wheel’ method of lead generation. There is no ONE, magic, silver bullet that will solve all of your lead generation needs. You must implement a minimum of 5 ‘spokes’ of lead generation, perfecting, purifying and pursuing until you are the BEST at each spoke!
* In order to sustain long-term, ever-increasing success, you must do what you don’t want to do when you don’t want to do it, at the highest level… which often means doing MORE prospecting, marketing and lead follow up than you THINK you should be doing!
* If you struggle with lead generation, get help!! It doesn’t have to be feast or famine, real estate roller coaster of income. Commit to ending cash ‘spurt’s’ and get into cash FLOW. It starts with getting great at lead generation.
Step #2: Follow Up With Urgency
* Follow our 18 Lead Follow Up Rules, starting with understanding URGENCY. Never end the day without following up on 100% of your leads. It doesn’t matter if they came in your email, voicemail, text or online. Follow up.
* Remember that buyer leads are listing leads in buyer’s clothing. Don’t blow off your buyer calls just because you ‘already have too many buyers’. Use great scripts like ‘which home in the area do you plan on selling?’
Step #3: Pre-Qualify for motivation and time frame
* Pre-Qualify 100% of your leads, both buyer and seller, 100% of the time, using buyer and seller pre-qualification scripts, 100% of the time!!! Don’t have different rules for different ‘types’ of leads.
* Always know the following prior to listing appointments: (using the script)
-Seller’s time frame -Seller’s motivation -Are they buying as well?
-Are they speaking with other agents and if so, how many, who and how did they decide? -The price they have in mind and why.
Step #4: Send the Pre Listing Package
* Always send your powerful, proven pre-listing package before every listing appointment, no exceptions. Use a courier if you must. Have a digital AND hard copy.
* Warning: Just because no one in your office does this, does not make it right. It just makes it more important and obvious why you’ll stand out and take more listings!! Take your time and make your Pre Listing Package shine. It’s one of the most important tools you’ll ever use!
Step #5: Confirm the appointment!
* Always confirm and always show up even if you just left a message of confirmation.
* Always ask if they received the Pre Listing Package AND that they opened it!
Step #6: Present! It’s showtime.
* Remember that ‘presenting’ begins at the time you convert the prospect from a prospect into an appointment. The better you are from the beginning, the higher chance you have of actually taking the listing.
* Use our powerful and proven listing presentation. Do not wing it…even with past clients and people in your sphere, referrals, ‘slam dunk’ appointments! They deserve your utmost respect, not your skipping of steps.
* Pre-view the competition and pending listings to be as accurate as possible in your pricing. Remember, pricing it right in the first place prevents you from having to deal with reduction conversations later.
* Know what’s most important to the home owner. Don’t assume you know, don’t assume it’s always about price.
Step #7: CLOSE!!
* ‘ABC’…’Always Be Closing! Know how to use soft closes, direct closes and don’t walk out the door saying ‘ok, I’ll follow up in a few days!’… Instead, leave with signed documents in one step whenever possible!
* The definition of ‘close’ is that it’s the LOGICAL ending to a GREAT Presentation. It’s far easier to close when you’ve actually followed all of the previous steps!
* Don’t drop the ball once you’ve got the listing… you’re still ‘presenting’ until the seller gets that check at closing! Follow your own ‘listing plan of action’ and strive to under promise and over deliver. Use our Seller’s 12 Week Communication Plan if your listings aren’t selling quickly!
Remember: Listings are mental labor; buyers are physical labor. Being a great listing agent takes skill, practice, experience and perseverance. Commit to becoming the best and soon you’ll feel more freedom in your practice and less stress. How many buyers can you work at the same time? How many listings? The lifestyle of the listing agent is much more flexible as it’s more scale-able than buyers.
Homework: What steps must you take so you’re following 100% of the 7 step listing process? What would happen if you did those things? What would your goals be if you knew you could take very close to 100% of the listings you went on, even the ones who weren’t referrals? Would you prospect? Would you be more urgent on your lead follow up? The better your listing skills are, the bigger you can think!
