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One of the crucial moments in any real estate agent’s transaction is getting a client to close. During a workshop called “How to Close Any Deal” at Connect Now on Thursday, Kendall Bonner, broker/owner of RE/MAX Capital Realty and Jeff Lobb, founder and CEO of Sparktank Media, led a conversation with participants about how to get clients to want to close with you, and how to best navigate their objections.
Kendall Bonner | RE/MAX Capital Realty
“The best close is the one you never actually have to say because you’ve done all the legwork ahead of time,” Bonner said.
Over the course of the workshop, she and Lobb explained how agents can best prepare themselves to help a close come naturally and effortlessly.
“I think one of the big things is building trust,” Bonner said. “People will believe what you can logically and tangibly explain.”
Both emphasized the value in wielding personality profiling when meeting with a seller in order to better anticipate how they might react to your marketing suggestions, for instance, or what aspects of the transaction might be most important to them.
Lobb pointed out that part of the value of personality profiling is being able to then quickly adjust your presentation, depending on a particular seller’s needs or wants, in order to mirror their personality type.
Jeff Lobb | Sparktank Media
“You have to be able to pivot really quick,” Lobb said. “In today’s world, your presentation not only needs to be about them … But, think about this: How quickly are you ready to have an a la carte menu and shift to what they want, when they want?”
Bonner, Lobb and attendee Katie Clancy, who is team leader of The Cape House Katie Clancy, all said an agent can’t go wrong by asking the client questions — and stopping to really listen to their needs.
Just by asking the seller what keeps them up at night, Lobb said, can be very revealing, “and that will open all those little gateways to conversation.”
Shadd Boucher | RE/MAX Capital Realty
Shadd Boucher, an agent at RE/MAX Capital Realty, also chimed in, adding, “it’s not about a presentation anymore, it’s about a conversation. In each section you engage … and you don’t move forward until you have understanding and agreement.”
Boucher added that, oftentimes, the only person in the room that the client will trust is themselves. Therefore, it’s important to help guide the conversation through self-discovery.
Real estate coach Bernice Ross also joined the discussion, giving her tips for how to beat out other agents for the job. She said if you can get a client to agree that your marketing plan is a good one, from there, you can encourage the client to start working with you then and there.
Bernice Ross
“And then you say, ‘Would you just like me to start marketing your property now?'”
Ross said, at that point, you can even offer to call any other agents they were considering working with to let them know their services are no longer needed.
On the tech side of things, Bonner said that she likes to try and use video in place of email or texts so that clients can feel like they’re getting to know her in advance.
Her favorite video app is BIGVU, which allows the user to have a teleprompter and employ closed captioning on videos.
Lobb on the other hand cited BombBomb and HighNote as great solutions for delivering video and other content through an email in a visually-pleasing way.
Finish out the year strong. Join us for Connect Now December 17 and our flagship Inman Connect January 26-28. You’ll collaborate with your peers, learn skills and strategies to boost your business, and plan for a year ahead that is likely to be anything but predictable. Reserve your spot now.
