Prior to selling homes, I had 15 years of sales experience under my belt. I had an intimate understanding of the sales process, how to present myself, how I should communicate, and most importantly, what should I do when things start to go sideways. I began my real estate career armed with this confidence, but in hindsight, it was more akin to hubris. What I realised after the first few weeks on the job was that no past sales experience can fully equip you for selling homes. It goes to show why they never referred to us as salespersons, but instead the more elegant term of sales consultants.
After you’ve been in the industry for a considerable period of time, you begin to truly appreciate what it takes to selling homes. You gain a deeper understanding of the product and the market, and get better at interpreting client’s wants and needs. Your process will of course need fine-tuning and refinement with each new client interaction, but after enough time, that same process will start working in your favour. You will imbue knowledge in your product and the market, but also instil the credibility and authenticity that all clients are after in their sales consultants.
I don’t intend to give the impression that the sales process is some type of magic formula. The reality is that everyone has their own process for selling homes, developed and refined based on their own personal experiences. For me, I was able to leverage some of the skills that I developed during my earlier career in sales, but in order to be successful, I needed to learn new traits to complement my existing skill base.
I’ve outlined for you below the 6 key things I evaluated during my process for selling every one of my over 1,200 homes during my career.
Relationship is paramount when selling homes
Will start off with an easy one but an often missed ingredient to a successful sale. What makes selling homes that much harder than retail sales is that you are selling much more than the product. In reality, you are selling yourself to the client, as the most capable and suitable person to guide them through the home buying journey.
In most instances, you will be their primary and most dependent source of information, and they will entrust considerable faith in your experience and knowledge base. With that being said, clients are savvy buyers and will be apprehensive to commence a working relationship if they even get the slightest sniff that your motivations are to sell them on a home.
But therein lies the secret. The relationship is the sale. If you are able to build rapport and demonstrate trust and credibility, a sale is a natural byproduct of that work. I don’t mean to oversimplify; there are certainly other reasons why clients may go another way or if the deal potentially falls through… but in typing these words, I can confidently represent to you that I never lost a potential sale because I didn’t work hard enough on a relationship.
Another point to consider is how your cultural and emotional biases influence your client relationship. We are all products of unique upbringings and cultural experiences, and it is these experiences that frame our presentation to others. However, in building a working relationship, you must be as conscious of the other person(s) experiences and beliefs (if not more so) than your own. This includes having regard to what you say, the tone in which you say it, and having regard to how your personal views may be received by the client.
As an immigrant, I was always conscious of the fact that I did not have similar cultural upbringings to some of my Australian clientele, so instead I focused on identifying and nurturing shared experiences – for example, having a family, love of everything cricket, etc. Over time, I noticed that both sides of the relationship were open to learning about the cultural differences of the other, which only served to further enrich the relationship.
Clients come to you in various formats – ranging from a single person to a full family. Understanding the client dynamic is critical to your ability to be an effective sales consultant. For example, if the client is a couple, you may find one person in that couple is more outspoken and assertive about their choices, whereas the other person is somewhat reserved. While it’s reactionary to devote your attention to the outspoken individual, it is important to remember that they are both your clients.
Further, while the other person may be reserved in front of you, they may receive the impression that you are not adequately servicing or listening to them, and may then be inclined to not be complimentary of your service offering when speaking to other potential clients. This has happened to me in the past, and while it certainly wasn’t intentional, I learned from this and strived to be more attentive to all potential buyers.
Remain conscious of the available budget
Whether they secure financing through your company or elsewhere, clients will have a predetermined budget available for the home purchase. For most, this is the largest amount of money they have ever had at their disposal, a fact that you should be aware of and sensitive to. In your eagerness, it is not surprising that sales consultants are left frustrated by a client’s hesitation or indecision.
Truth be told, I was also left frustrated in some cases. However, when I dug through to the root of that indecision, I quickly recognised that the client is most likely weighing up every possible scenario to avoid their decisions blowing up in their faces later down the line.
Instead of interpreting their indecisiveness as a reflection on your selling ability, offer them the patience to work through their thought process, and be available for them as a resource when needed. The sales consultant does have valuable insight on homes purchased on comparable budgets, as well as details on how those budgets were used during the building process. Sharing this information with the client helps clarify their thought process, and invariably strengthens the overall relationship.
Work towards meeting the client’s needs
Your work in building a client relationship should get you some of the way there to realising this step. However, it doesn’t hurt to ask the client, point blank, of what they want to achieve through a home purchase. The needs (not to be confused with the subsequent section), represent the non-negotiable aspects of the home purchase. For example, number of bedrooms, number of house storeys, size of living area or outdoor spaces.
These needs will typically marry up with the client’s current personal and financial circumstances, however may also include accommodations for future life events (e.g. client’s wishes to grow the family, etc.). Your role is to absorb this information and confirm what will work within the client’s budget. The current housing market is so heavily commoditised, to the point there are numerous build plans available to meet your client’s specifications (unless they are so unique that they require a bespoke solution).
Be considerate of the client’s wants
The client’s wants are those stemming from personal tastes and preferences, and while they may be negotiable, they should certainly not be undervalued. As a sales consultant, I endeavoured to be receptive to client’s wants, because at the end of the day, they are the ones who will be living in the home, and therefore should be comfortable with the end product. I noticed that as soon as these wants were ignored, you effectively lose that client’s faith.
However, you can certainly be understanding of client wants and propose suggestions or alternatives that may be better suited to the overall build. Over time, as you foster trust in that relationship, the client is more open to hearing and foregoing their wants in favor of your suggestions. In some cases, it ends up being a better product that they didn’t contemplate, yet still thoroughly enjoy.
Remain cognisant of the current landscape
Real estate preferences change over time, and often track changes in socio-economic conditions. For example, suburban areas that may have been undesirable 10 years ago may have recently undergone a real estate renaissance, perhaps due to an injection in private expenditure and the potential gentrification of neighbouring areas. Further, immigration can also influence real estate preferences; for example, an influx of migrants from landlocked countries may wish to build or buy real estate near coastal suburbs.
These are just a few examples that I encountered during my career, and it certainly taught me to think beyond just the product and the current state of the market. It also gave me opportunities to advise my clients on options they previously did not contemplate. For instance, I was privy to information on many suburban areas that were in the midst of significant growth and transformation.
When referring these suburbs to clients, the initial reaction I received were historical, stigmatised notions and preconceived biases. I wasn’t able to shake these preconceived notions in all cases, but in the instances I was successful, it was because I had built up enough trust equity in the client relationship to voice and defend my opinion. The clients that agreed with my suggestions were those that trusted my opinions and recognised I had their best interests in mind.
Buy Homes Before Selling Homes
In light of the above factors, the surest way to sell a product is to be a buyer yourself. My success over the years was partly due to the fact that I intimately knew the product both from a buyer and seller perspective. I was able to complement the technical specs with my own experiences from past building processes. As a retail investor, I also encountered my fair share of setbacks and mishaps, which I communicated to my clients.
I have sadly come across too many individuals who seek to give advice that they themselves haven’t followed. I never expected my clients to trust me if I hadn’t previously walked in their shoes, at least a few times over. As I mentioned above, clients are very savvy and can sense if you are not forthcoming in your advice or if your suggestions ring hollow.
Selling homes was a very personal experience for me. I was able to meet a host of wonderful and interesting people, some of which I have the pleasure of calling my friends to this day. I also felt privileged that I was trusted enough to be involved in such a significant decision in their life journey. When I started, my mission was to connect with as many people as possible and help them through this process. The above considerations aided in me achieving that mission, and invariably resulted in my client’s satisfaction of the end product.
I hope the above is of use to those budding sales consultants out there. If you have any questions or would like to describe your sales tips, please feel free to leave a comment below.
The content outlined above was written, edited and published by the Lost Realtor. The author has over 20 years or real estate sales and investing experience in the Australian property market. He has held senior positions in Australian building companies, including being the General Manager of the residential sales division of Collier Homes. His qualifications include a Bachelor of Commerce degree and a Graduate Diploma in Building and Construction Law.