With the completion on of this module, the participant should:
•Know how to set the scene for the presentation.
•Understand the eight steps of the presentation.
•Know how to conduct the first step - explaining the real estate market.
•Know how to discuss the characteristics of your market with confidence.
How to set the scene for the presentation
Setting The Scene For Your Presentation
Knowledge and skills taught in this session.
How to set the scene for the presentation.
How to set the scene for the presentation.
The consultative selling presentation strategy falls into two parts: setting the scene, and the presentation itself. Setting the scene gives you the opportunity to confirm your information and check for any lingering questions or problems about the type of listing. It also prepares your clients for the presentation. There are eight steps to setting the scene. We have put these in the order that works best, and this order should not be changed. The steps are:
1. The direction statement.
2. Reinspect the home
3. Arrange some work space.
4. Introduce the consultative approach to the presentation.
5. Reaffirm needs and wants.
6. Reaffirm their openness to the type of listing you have proposed.
7. Obtain permission to proceed; and
8. Ask the vendor to suspend judgment until they have heard you out.
Point out the five things that are important to vendors. These are:
1. The choice of agent.
2. The price.
3. The marketing programme.
4. The commission fees.
5. The service they will get.
Although all of them are important, vendors can value one or more of them over the others; the commission fee, for example. This will mean that, no matter how well you perform in the other areas, if your commission fee doesn't meet their expectations, you may lose the listing.
Explain to the vendors the importance of looking at all five areas as a whole. If they choose an agent on the basis of one area only, they may get someone who will let them down badly in another. Point out that your presentation will cover all five areas, and ask them to withhold judgement until the end. Then they can make a decision based on all the information you have provided.
Remember that there is a purpose to each of these steps. Don't skip over them, especially not the reaffirmation of their wants and needs and their receptiveness to the proposed listing.
A demonstration of how to set the scene for the presentation.
Setting The Scene For Your Presentation
Knowledge and skills taught in this session.
A demonstration of how to set the scene for the presentation.
Script for the five things
1. The direction statement
Mr and Mrs Wilson, with your permission, may I just tell you how I would like to do this? I'd appreciate having just a few minutes to go around the home again so I can refresh my memory and make sure I have everything right. Then we can sit down together and get to work. Is that Ok with you?
2. Reinspect the home
Arrange some work space
Now, we have a lot of work to do tonight and a lot of material to go over. I would really appreciate it if I could use your kitchen table. Is that Ok?
3. Introduce the consultative approach to the presentation
May I tell you how I like to work? I want to make something clear. I don't want to just talk at you and have you say 'yes' or 'no'. I like to work with my clients, not at them. And that will continue all the way through until we get your home sold. So, as I go through the various facets of selling your home this evening, I'd really like you to work with me. I'd like you to break in with any questions you've got, as we go. Is that Ok with you?
4. Reaffirm needs and wants
Now, I want to make sure I've got this right before I start. My understanding is this: you want to move to Sydney in approximately six weeks' time. Mr Wilson, you have a new job there and you both want to get the family moved and settled as soon as possible. You don't want to give the house away, but you would really like it sold as quickly as possible so you can get on with your plans. Does that pretty much sum up what you want to achieve?
5. Reaffirm openness to an exclusive listing
Now, just to make sure I am on the right track here, we discussed on my last visit how an exclusive listing would fit into your plans. Are you still happy with that? (Answer any objections.)
6. Obtain permission to proceed
With your permission, then, I think it is time for us to work on getting your home sold.
7. Ask the vendor to suspend judgment until they have heard you out.
Before we start, though, I'd like to tell you something. What I have found during my years in this business is that there are five main things that are initially very important to people who are considering listing their houses. The first is their choice of agent. The second is the price they are going to get for their home The third is how they will market their home. The fourth is the commission fees and the fifth is the service they are going to get. Almost everyone who is thinking of selling looks at those five things, although not necessarily in that order. What I would like you to understand is this. All of those things are important, but it is just as important to see each one as only one part of a whole and to make a decision based on the whole picture, not simply one part. For example, let's take choosing an agent. There are a number of things that people look at: the agent and their company's track record, how much experience they have, what kind of reputation they have, what kind of service they can provide and so on. But even though you might find someone who excels in all those areas, if they can't offer you quality marketing programmes or the kind of marketing programme you want for your home, you would only be receiving one important part of what you need. The same thing is true when you look at commission rates. Some companies offer a lower rate than others, but if that means you receive
less service, less promotion or less marketing skills, then making a choice based strictly on the commission rate can be a serious and costly mistake What I am trying to say here is that you need to look at the entire package - the agent, the marketing and promotion options and the costs - before making a decision. There is too much at stake here for you to be swayed by only one factor, when it is the combination of all of them that makes the system work. In my presentation, I will be showing you a complete package, which includes all of those things and how I believe they fit together to best help you achieve what you really want to do. We are going to work through each thing together. And I don't just want to talk at you for an hour or so. I want you to be directly involved. Ask questions and tell me what you think as we go along. But I do ask you to withhold judgement until we have covered everything because it is important that you look at the whole picture before making any decision. Is that all right with you?
Role Play
In this exercise, you will role play setting the scene. The purpose of the exercise is to give you a chance to practise setting the scene. Use the script above as a guide, or you can download his script by clicking here
The eight steps of the presentation explained.
The eight steps of the presentation.
Knowledge and skills taught in this session.
The eight steps of the presentation explained.
The presentation: overview
The second part of the consultative selling presentation strategy is the presentation itself. It has eight steps, which, again, are set out in an order that works well in practice. The most important thing is that you finish each step before moving 01 to the next. Use plenty of feedback questions, and remember to ask permission to proceed before moving on to the next step.
The eight steps are:
1. The real estate market, where you explain to the vendors the market they are selling in and how it impacts on them.
2. Pricing, where you explain to them how pricing works, discuss their situation and agree on a realistic price.
3. Saleability survey, where you give them your recommendations for increasing the saleability of the home and discuss having these recommendations carried out.
4. Market plan, where you show them the plan you recommend, discuss the options with them and arrive at a final plan you are all happy with.
5. Marketing assistance form, where you give the form to the vendors and ask for their help in marketing their home by completing it.
6. Why us, where you explain to them why they should choose you.
7. Mandate, where you obtain their authority to list the home.
8. Rules for communication.
In the next clip we will discuss the first step, the real estate market. Tte other steps will be covered in detail in forthcoming sessions.
How to explain the real estate market to the vendors in the presentation.
Presentation Step 1 - The market.
Knowledge and skills taught in this session.
How to explain the real estate market to the vendors in the presentation
The real estate market
Your presentation begins with a description of the current real estate market. This will involve you systematically going through the information in the market section of your presentation material. There are six steps to your discussion of the market.
Describe the market (buyer's or seller's). Tell the vendors whether they are selling in a buyer's or seller's market and explain what that means. Use the characteristics you have outlined in your presentation material.
2 Number of homes on the market. Give the number of homes that are for sale in the vendor's area.
3. Number of homes sold this month. Give the number of homes that have sold in the past month. Use the figure for a past year, if this is more useful. (Is that right? Or should the consultant give that figure anyway?)
4. Average time to sell. Give the Real Estate lnstitute's average time for a home in the area to sell. Explain that this should be adjusted to allow for prior listings, and give the new figure this makes.
5. Percentage difference between listing and selling. Point out the average difference between the listing price and the sale price and ithe significance of this in setting an asking price.
6.
Buyers and property preview Describe how your company attracts buyers and works with them. If possible, have this information on your laptop and show it to the vendors. If appropriate, offer them a property preview.
Property previews
A property preview is where you invite all the buyers registered with your company, and in the right price bracket, to an invitation-only 'open' home. This is easily organised if the buyers list is kept on the company's computer system. so that it is available to all the consultants in the company.
Exercise - Understanding your market
Find the following information for your market . ou may need to discuss the current market with your manager or support person,
Click here to download the support document.
Write down the details for your market under the following headings in the support document.
1. The type of market you are in (balanced, seller's or buyer's) and what makes it so.
2. The average difference between the list price and sale price, as a percentage.
3. The number of houses currently on the market.
4. The value of house sales in the last year.
5. The median sale price.
6 The trend in the market over the last six months
practise describing the type of market you are in. Explain why it is that way, use the statistics from your notes above.
A demonstration of the market section of the presentation.
The real estate market: demonstration
The substance of Peter's script appears below, split out under the steps you need to follow. There are versions of steps 1 to 4: one for a seller"s market and one for a buyer"s market. The last two steps are the same for both.
Seller's market:
1 . Describe the market
As we go into this presentation, I think it is important that you know about the market you will be selling in. Currently, we have what is called a seller's market. That is, we have a shortage of homes. and that's in your favour. What it means is that your home should be easy to sell. But the reason I'm here is to help you get the maximum price from the market lf we pay attention to the marketing plan, and do the right work, then that is exactly what we will do. 1 Number of homes on the market There appears to be about 600-700 homes for sale in this area .
2. Number of homes sold this month ... and about 300-350 homes have sold each month. So, as I have said, the climate you are selling in is a good one.
3. Average time to sell According to the Real Estate Institute. the average time it has been taking to sell a home is 25 days. That figure is not strictly accurate. as it doesn't allow for homes that have previously failed to sell and have been relisted with another company. Allowing for that, the true average sale time is about 35 days. Even in such a favourable market, not everyone is going to sell in the next month. In view of that and your deadline, we need to pay very close attention to price, because it is critical to the sale.
Buyer's market, steps 1 to 4:
Mr and Mrs Wilson, I want to start by talking about the market you are selling in. Currently, we are in a buyer's market. This means more homes are for sale than are being sold. We estimate there are 1,500 homes for sale right now. but only about 100 sales a month. That means that, next month, only one in four of the homes on the market will sell. I want to do everything possible to make sure that yours is one of those As you will see from these statistics, the average time it is taking to sell is about 70 days, and the average sale price is $110,000. You want to get away in less than six weeks, with the house sold, so the market does not favour you. However, if we do our work tonight and pay attention to how best to attack the market, you should be able to do exactly that.
4. Percentage difference between listing and selling
When we look at the pattern of sales over the last year, it is interesting to see the difference between what the house was listed at when it sold and the price the owner actually received. If you look at the statistics, you will see a clear pattern We start with the price the owner had on the house at the time of sale, which may or may not be the price they started with, and then look at the price the house actually sold for. The difference between the two has consistently been around the 5 percent mark. We will be coming back to this figure as a guide when we set an asking price.
5. Buyers and property preview
Now, I would like to explain to you a special service that our company offers. It is an innovation in real estate selling, so you may not have heard of it. Like most real estate agencies, our company has what we call a 'buyers list'. When a person contacts us looking for a properfy, we put them on our computer system, along with the details of what they're after. What we do that is different is that when a property is listed with us, we contact all the buyers on our database who might be interested and invite them to view the properfy at an open home. We call this a 'properfy preview' because it gives these buyers a chance to look at the properfy before it goes on the market. Your home could sell as a result of this preview. You wouldn't have to market it at all. You would still pay our commission but you would completely avoid any marketing expenses and you would save an awful lot of time.