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Week #9 - Is Your Presentation Presentable? PDF Print E-mail
Written by Ben Eckenroed   
Tuesday, February 24 2009 09:30

Pattie Kouri with BrokerAgent Social writes a great piece on reflecting upon how you present yourself.

 

"'What are your top five strengths as a Realtor?' If it takes you more than 60 seconds to answer that question, it’s time to go back to the drawing board."

 
"Every day, real estate agents throw their profits down the drain—or into 'profit holes'—because of bad habits. Such habits—lack of goals or poor selling skills, for example—can slide by unnoticed during an extremely busy market, when everyone’s 'too busy' to set goals and the properties seem to 'sell themselves.'"
 
"But here comes the changing market, and all of a sudden the clients are fewer, the competition is fiercer, and those bad habits rear up with a vengeance. "
 
"There are many, many profit holes, but today I want to focus on one that seems to plague our industry: poor presentation skills."
 
"It’s fairly obvious that you will improve at anything you practice. And while that’s true of presentation, it’s also true that some very, very experienced real estate agents “get by” with fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants presentations. Just imagine how much more profitable they could be if they paid some attention to repairing this profit hole!"
 
"There are lots of ways to make a presentation to a client, from folders and insert sheets, to three-ring binders, to bound books, to PowerPoint, to other high tech formulas. That’s not what I’m talking about here. You can take a class to learn about how to do those things—and you should! What I’m talking about is the interaction between you and the potential client. That’s the presentation. You can spend two weeks putting together a drop-dead fabulous PowerPoint presentation—but if you send it by e-mail or drop it off at the client’s house without a face-to-face meeting, you have not made a presentation!"
 
Patti dives right in and discusses how fear plays a huge role in how you present yourself. Fear comes from many sources, maybe your not dressed right for this client, maybe your car isn't nice enough, maybe your not old enough, maybe they will think you are out of your element. Whatever it is, fear is almost always present in some form or another. But there is a cure for fear, and that cure is the boy scout motto: Be Prepared. When you present yourself with strength and confidence and follow through on what you say, you will have a client for life.
 
Patti continues, "So what should your presentation be? First and foremost, you need to listen to the client. You can be the most successful, gorgeous, vivacious agent in your entire market, but if you don’t listen to the client, you can kiss their business goodbye. It may be helpful to write down, just as a reminder, in case you’re nervous, a few “starter” questions. These will vary depending on whether the client is selling or buying, but in general, you want to get them talking about their plans, their hopes, their expectations and their concerns. Listen carefully and take notes, because what you do next should speak directly to what they’ve just told you."
 
A great piece of information offered is that your presentation is "a conversation, not a lecture". The more you adhere to specific sentences and pre-made paragraphs about your job, the more uncomfortable you will be when the client interrupts you or changes the flow of the presentation.
 
Patti offers up a great point, "Because you’re a smart, well-prepared agent, you’ve done the comps, you know their neighborhood, you have a written or electronic presentation, and you are going to leave them with some materials to review. But rather than going over everything you’ve written point by point in your meeting, address the specifics of what they’ve just told you. Make sure to talk about the ways in which their concerns will be handled. If certain parts of your prepared presentation target their concerns, turn to those parts and explain them further if necessary. Ask if they have additional questions."
 
UFSB's Take: Patti writes a great article. There is much more to it and I suggest you take a look at it. She is absolutely right, so many agents focus so much on having a written presentation, that they think the presentation will be what gets them the listing. The problem is, the wrong presentation ends up helping or hurting. By asking yourself before you go in a question that you know you can't answer, and practicing working your way around it, your job becomes easier. You will be able to handle almost any objection thrown your way. By warming up and practicing in the most harshest of conditions, the actual appointment goes easier.
 

Read the Full Article Here

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