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The Three Key Reasons Sales Cycles Have Increased
and How to Deliver Value and Shorten Them
About The AuthorAbout The AuthorAbout The AuthorAbout The Author
Dirk Zeller
Real Estate Champions
Real Estate Champions was founded in 1998 by Dirk Zeller
after a successful career as a top ten agent in a 4-State region
for a large international real estate organization. Real Estate
Champions has become a global coaching and training
company specializing in the strategies and systems to increase
sales for real estate companies, real estate teams and real
estate agents. Real Estate Champions has created and
delivered custom training and coaching solutions for Century
21, Coldwell Banker, Prudential, Berkshire Hathaway Home
Services, RE/MAX, Better Homes and Gardens and ERA
throughout the United States and the world.
Dirk Zeller, founder and CEO of Real Estate Champions has
been an agent, investor, speaker, coach and bestselling author
for more than 25 years. He has been a featured speaker at
sales and success conferences on six continents. He is a ten-
time bestselling author. Dirk is one of only a handful of authors
worldwide to have written multiple books for the “For Dummies”
brand. His sales, success and time management books have
been translated into multiple languages.
If you are desiring more success and income in your life, we
encourage you to also visit our website at
www.RealEstateChampions.com for more resources to improve
your success.
You can contact Dirk at:
Real Estate Champions
5 NW Hawthorne Ave., Ste. 100
Bend, OR 97701
1-541-383-8833
© Real Estate Champions. All Rights Reserved
2www.realestatechampions.com © Real Estate Champions. All Rights Reserved
Contents1. The availability of information 3
Properties are selling too fast. 4
Now is a bad time to buy or sell. 6
There’s nothing good on the market. 7
2. When the market changes 10
3. Getting the prospect face-to-face 12
3www.realestatechampions.com © Real Estate Champions. All Rights Reserved
The Three Key Reasons Sales Cycles Have Increased and How to Deliver Value and Shorten Them
The sales cycles of most real estate buyers and sellers seem to be getting
longer. That longer cycle has led to agent frustration, lower lead conversion
rates and revenue imbalance for some agents, companies, and teams. There
are a number of factors that seem to be influencing that longer sales cycle.
1. The availability of information
The typical consumer that is using the Internet to find out about real estate,
the marketplace, properties, areas, lifestyle, and school information is on
information overload. This overload of information leads them to confusion
and often decision paralysis. The information can also be faulty, incorrect, and
just dated. This can cause paralysis of thought and fear of action. Consumers
are using real estate third party sites at record levels. Many organic searches
for properties guide them to Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, and many others.
The information that is contained on those sites is frequently dated with
sold properties,
rather than active
listings. The sites
are clogged with
off the market
properties.
The lack of
accuracy cause
the prospect to
draw the wrong
conclusions:
4www.realestatechampions.com © Real Estate Champions. All Rights Reserved
The Three Key Reasons Sales Cycles Have Increased and How to Deliver Value and Shorten Them
✤✤ Properties are selling too fast.
When they reach out for more information and find out a sale
has already happened they feel discouraged instantly. When this
happens a few times they start to experience frustration and
disillusionment with the real estate market. That causes some
prospects to give up or feel the timing isn’t right for them. A select
few gain a higher level of desire or motivation. That is the minority
compared to the ones that end up in a frustrated state.
When that
prospect actually
reaches out to
you online or
makes a call
to you, which
they do a small
percentage of the
time compared
to the amount
of searching
they do, they
know they are reaching out to a salesperson. They expect a less than
pleasant experience because of the cumulative sales experience they
have had in their life.
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The Three Key Reasons Sales Cycles Have Increased and How to Deliver Value and Shorten Them
They quickly want to find out about what they wanted, what they had
an interest in, or a desire for more information, they discover they
can’t have or even consider at a deeper level that property they want.
What they desire or are interested in is gone…frustration happens!
We must understand their psychological state. They blame the
real estate agent even though we had nothing to do with it. It’s
our fault to many of them.
The experience, if that is
repeated, starts to cause
them to say, “Properties
are selling too fast”,
“The marketplace is
overheating”, “I think
we will wait until the
market calms down a
little more.” They move
into a pattern mentally to justify their decision of delay or not now
or their personal conclusions of the marketplace. Most humans,
rather than seek to learn, are seeking to justify or validate what
they already believe. That is especially true for many buyers using
the Internet.
The truth is, your market may be experiencing low inventory but
it’s not no inventory. The speed at which properties are selling is
overstated because of the lack of accuracy of the inventory of Zillow,
6www.realestatechampions.com © Real Estate Champions. All Rights Reserved
The Three Key Reasons Sales Cycles Have Increased and How to Deliver Value and Shorten Them
Trulia, and Realtor.com and other third party sources. We have to
deal with a lot of inventory that hinges on these sites as active when
they have been long ago removed from the marketplace through sale,
expiration, or withdrawn. This frustration and dissatisfaction will not
change so we must be more skilled at elongating the conversation
and move the prospect out of frustration and disappointment to
opportunity, engagement and especially conversion.
✤✤ Now is a bad time to buy or sell.
The consumers’ mentality, because of that discouragement, draws
the inference that
the timing is bad.
They psychologically
overstate the risk of
“Not finding what we
want”, “Being stuck
without a home”,
“Selling our home
without another property identified” or the market turning to their
detriment in selection and pricing.
What they fail to process is that typically trends like I am expressing
frequently continue for a period of time. They falsely assume the
market will respond to their desire to wait for a better time with the
outcome they wish for. I purposely used the word “wish” because
7www.realestatechampions.com © Real Estate Champions. All Rights Reserved
The Three Key Reasons Sales Cycles Have Increased and How to Deliver Value and Shorten Them
in most cases, it is a wish. That’s why a salesperson that can serve
and compel them through value and positioning themselves as an
expert can break this cycle. Don’t underestimate the power and
influence of high level sales skills, which most agents lack. The
easiest avenue to break this cycle to that is a face-to-face meeting.
Our ability to sell the value of the meeting, coupled with urgency
will set you apart from all other agents.`I recently starting working
with Jason Secor , RE/MAX in Birmington, AL. Jason is one of the
top teams in the United States. The goal is improving the lead
conversion of his elite team of buyer’s agents and inside sales
associates. In less than 3 hours of the right sales training they
increased their Internet lead based buyer appointments by 32%!
Don’t underestimate the power and influence of high level sales
skills.
✤✤ There’s nothing good on the market.The final conclusion buyers arrive at to validate their thinking is
that there’s nothing good to buy. “If I want to accept a lower quality
8www.realestatechampions.com © Real Estate Champions. All Rights Reserved
The Three Key Reasons Sales Cycles Have Increased and How to Deliver Value and Shorten Them
property or a substandard area…I might get a home…but I won’t
do that.” The challenge with this reaction is that most consumers
searching online tend to hyper focus with their online search.
They feel they have access to the same information a real estate
agent has access to. We have to understand why they come to
this false conclusion because of ease of access, faster access and
anonymity, the desire to stay stealth is a powerful force.
The choke point is created because as the consumer is looking
at virtual tours and images of listings they frequently are not
going out to experience the properties. They are just reviewing
the properties with, “Hey, a picture is worth a 1,000 words”
mindset. “Because these pictures don’t make my heart rate go
up when I view them, this
home is crossed off my list.”
They get caught in a death
spiral of their own mental
outlook. Again, a skilled
salesperson can throw
them a lifeline to extract
them from the rip tide of no
inventory.
A typical series of photographs of a home might be worth a
1,000 words but it falls far short of even one showing. What they
fail to understand is that real estate agents are notoriously bad
9www.realestatechampions.com © Real Estate Champions. All Rights Reserved
The Three Key Reasons Sales Cycles Have Increased and How to Deliver Value and Shorten Them
photographers. Most agents are not well versed in lighting, photo
angles, capturing warmth, space and emotions that can be created
with the right photographs.
As an agent, one of our primary objectives should be to convince a
prospect that homes are an emotional and feeling decision. That
connection can only be known for sure by an interior inspection.
That by walking through a few homes you would be able to
customize their search parameters to save them time, potentially
expand their selection by directing them to niche or pocket areas
that offer similar amenities and lifestyle they desire.
Increase the number of “great deals” they have access to.
This will increase their odds of finding that right home, reduce
the frustration they are feeling, increase their knowledge of
the marketplace and if the right property becomes available
within their current search parameters they will have enhanced
negotiating power because you could project to the seller they
have a number of other options if this negotiation is unsuccessful.
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The Three Key Reasons Sales Cycles Have Increased and How to Deliver Value and Shorten Them
These are all benefits to them! When exposed powerfully and well
they create openings and opportunities to ask for an appointment.
This is where the sales skills, persuasion skills and asking skills
create the explosion of appointments as with Jason’s team!
A skilled agent that can express those thoughts, ideas, and
counsel a prospect can have a vast improvement in conversion
rates on leads. It is clearly the skill in which we sell service, value
and align it with the prospect’s emotions and mindset. That is the
first step with a discouraged or frustrated buyer. Let me caution
you...it’s easy to assume that you have these skills. Even if you
have been in real estate sales for 20 years, the odds based on our
research is you were never taught these skills...it’s not your fault!
You must take action to change your sales skills.
2. When the market changes
Any time change
happens it can
cause urgency
to increase in
some people and
prospects. It can
cause caution
and fear in other
prospects. We
11www.realestatechampions.com © Real Estate Champions. All Rights Reserved
The Three Key Reasons Sales Cycles Have Increased and How to Deliver Value and Shorten Them
need to be able to determine which type of prospect we are encountering.
Does the changing or shifting marketplace give them a “window is closing”
feeling or response? Does it build urgency or apathy? Do the interest rate
changes make them more motivated or less motivated to take action?
As a salesperson, my job is to find out what their reaction is to change. I have
to understand where they are right now in their thinking. Please recognize
that their thinking could be incorrect. They just don’t know it yet. The truth is,
their thinking is their thinking. Whatever it is…I must deal with it. In order to
“deal with it” effectively I need to know what it is…now!
If the market change is causing inactivity or pulling back I must be able to
show them what might happen. They might be priced out, they might have
to settle for less than they could receive in location and quality in the future.
Once I do that, they weigh it and accept those outcomes are possible or even
likely. That will either change their actions or confirm they are willing to
assume the downside risk of waiting. You must understand that the on the
fence prospect doesn’t assume the opportunity will get worse…only better. As
a salesperson, I’m not going to make a sale anytime soon if I can’t show them
it might be worse to wait.
There is more opportunity in a changing
marketplace. That is true whether that
marketplace change is rising prices or falling
prices. There is a more limited opportunity
when a marketplace is stagnant in pricing
and has limited movement of change. The
slowness causes complacency on the part
12www.realestatechampions.com © Real Estate Champions. All Rights Reserved
The Three Key Reasons Sales Cycles Have Increased and How to Deliver Value and Shorten Them
of prospects. Ask anyone who is an expert in the financial markets, there are
people that make money in a downward S&P as well as an upward moving
S&P. The financial market that creates limited opportunity is stagnation.
Really knowing the desires, pain points, goals, objectives and dreams of your
prospects enables you to provide the best counsel and sound reasoning to
take action. I am not wanting to know those to overuse or improperly use or
exert influence to take action. My desire is to inform, educate, and guide them
through the true nature of the marketplace to a decision of yes or no. If they
decide, after weighing all the factors ...correctly, the timing isn’t right for them
now who am I to force a change in that? That is my belief in serving prospects
and clients. The key is are they evaluating and weighing the factors correctly...
probably not unless I meet with them.
3. Getting the prospect face-to-face
The sales cycle is longer in many cases because we didn’t get the prospect
face-to-face. Too many agents have fallen in love with electronic communication
in email, text, and social media. All of them have their place to communicate
efficiently with prospects. They lack the effectiveness that face-to-face
communication creates. You can shorten the sales cycle, determine the quality
of the prospect, and serve them with a higher level of service if you acquire a
face-to-face consultation. You can separate yourself from the other agents they
are interacting with online. The face-to-face aspect of selling your value has not
changed with the advent of the increased options of technology communication.
The key to face-to-face effectiveness that most salespeople miss is your level
13www.realestatechampions.com © Real Estate Champions. All Rights Reserved
The Three Key Reasons Sales Cycles Have Increased and How to Deliver Value and Shorten Them
of comfort with the word “no”. If you want to shorten the sales cycle for your
leads you have to acknowledge and accept that “no” is a possible answer
from any prospect. Let the prospect know that “no” is an acceptable answer.
When someone knows that you aren’t trying to maneuver them to a “yes”, they
will be more open to sharing their thoughts. That is true if you go for the no
phone-to-phone or face-to-face. When you gain a face-to-face meeting tell the
prospect that at the end of your meeting that you would like them to make a
decision. You can even share with them the decision you ideally want them to
make, or the decision based on your initial discussion over the phone that they
should strongly consider.
Most real estate agents reject the truth of being a salesperson. The truth is
you are selling your thoughts, ideas and recommendations. Even if you view
yourself as a “consultative salesperson”, a consultant sells their thoughts,
ideas and recommendations to a client. Many people like the term consultative
selling. They frequently, in actions and dialogue, miss the selling part!
14www.realestatechampions.com © Real Estate Champions. All Rights Reserved
The Three Key Reasons Sales Cycles Have Increased and How to Deliver Value and Shorten Them
The decision does not mean they have to buy a
home today. It could be as simple as; they make
a decision to explore the market at a deeper
level, that we go look at a few homes, that they
are willing to take the next step in the process,
or meet with a lender. That they will give you
an honest opportunity to earn their business.
There are a number of potential decisions
or commitments they could make after the
meeting other than buying a home. It might be
more effective for you and comfortable for them
to gain a smaller decision or a series of small decisions or commitments.
Again, you want to reiterate that “no” is a perfectly acceptable answer as well.
What you want to do is avoid a “maybe” or “I want to think it over” response. I
am aware this assertive selling approach might be a little out of your comfort
zone. One of the reasons that sales cycles are longer is salespeople are not
comfortable in being assertive. Some would call that aggressive, but it’s really
not. You have expressed to them that “no” is a perfectly acceptable response.
Aggressive would be non-acceptance of “no” and continuing to over press and
aggressively maneuver them. To pull out the verbal judo tactics to maneuver
a “no” into a “yes”. That philosophy isn’t consumer centric. Be assertive and
say, “I would be delighted to help you.” “I believe I can add some real value
to your home buying or selling process.” “I carefully select people I can help
because my time is not infinite.” “Are you wanting to explore your options and
opportunities further?”
15www.realestatechampions.com © Real Estate Champions. All Rights Reserved
The Three Key Reasons Sales Cycles Have Increased and How to Deliver Value and Shorten Them
A good prospect will see you for the professional you are in sales. They will
respect your direct approach and give you the information you need to help
them achieve their objectives. If they lack the desire to take the next step
you will be able to minimize your investment in time, and have shrunk the
sale cycle to the earliest possible position. You will have saved yourself time,
energy, and emotion that can be invested in others who are more likely to
create a revenue return. Sales is about evaluating the odds of serving a
particular prospect now or in the future. Sales is an odds based business.
Don’t be fearful of being assertive to shorten your sales cycle with prospects.
The sales cycle will continue to elongate if we don’t apply sound principles
and strategies with prospects. The wide open channel of the Internet has
elongated the sales cycle because it has created a longer “just looking” or
16www.realestatechampions.com © Real Estate Champions. All Rights Reserved
The Three Key Reasons Sales Cycles Have Increased and How to Deliver Value and Shorten Them
“just researching” period for consumers. That period requires our attention
because the right agent with the right strategy will transfer enough value
in that period to secure the client relationship. That agent will separate the
wheat from the chaff early rather than provide service for the next year only to
find out the answer is “no”, or “We are working with another agent.”
Success in sales is about
an effective sales strategy,
sales system or process,
sales scripting, and sales
skills. Those four are like a
combination lock. If you don’t
have all four numbers the lock
doesn’t open. When the lock
doesn’t open the sales cycle of
a prospect lengthens and lead
conversion goes down drastically. The frustration for the salesperson goes up
and the motivation of the salesperson goes down.
Salespeople need to be clear about the changes in sales cycles and sales
strategies in 21st Century sales. The ability to create an aligned system,
strategy, connecting the right skills and scripts will turn any sales career
around or drive a good producer to a great producer.
Focus on going for the no in the next few weeks. Ask more powerful
straightforward questions to prospects, especially Internet based buyers or
17www.realestatechampions.com © Real Estate Champions. All Rights Reserved
The Three Key Reasons Sales Cycles Have Increased and How to Deliver Value and Shorten Them
Internet registration leads. Give them a clearer picture of the market and how
waiting might be dangerous. I guarantee you will increase your sales.
If this eBook has made you a little bit uncomfortable about your business
whether you are an agent, team leader, manager or owner of a real estate
company. I view that as the first step to decreasing the sales cycles of your
prospects.
The first step in creating change and improvement is the awareness that a
problem exists. You now know that. The next question is what are you going to
do about it? Let me give you a hint...doing nothing or delyaing in taking action
once you realize the challenge will not benefit you.
The biggest waste of time is the moment you realize an issue or problem
exists and when you take action to resolve or fix it. You are now in that spot.
Take action, let us help you with bridging the gap...click here and send us a
quick email so we can create the breakthrough you desire for your business!
To your Success
Dirk Zeller, Founder, CEO and Author
18www.realestatechampions.com © Real Estate Champions. All Rights Reserved
The Three Key Reasons Sales Cycles Have Increased and How to Deliver Value and Shorten Them
Find Real Estate Champions at the following links:
www.realestatechampions.com
www.facebook.com/realestatechampions
877-732-4676
Books by Dirk Zeller
CEO and Founder of Real Estate Champions:
Your First Year in Real Estate
Success as a Real Estate Agent for Dummies®
Telephone Sales for Dummies®
The Champion Real Estate Agent
The Champion Real Estate Team.
Successful Time Management for Dummies®
Thriving in the Marketplace for Dummies®
Selling all in One for Dummies®
Effective Time Management for Dummies®
Running a Great Meeting in a Day for Dummies®