Turning a Lead into a Deal

First things first. We have to get the attention of the lead by offering them something. It is not too different from any other type of courtship. The original courtship was when a man would bring a woman a large piece of dead animal and she would grunt twice and drag the dead hind quarters into her cave and present it to her parents. “This is from Uga Uga, isn’t he sweet?” she would say to her parents wishing for their support of the relationship.

Her parents would also grunt and ask “How old is he? What are his parents like and where does he go to school?”

Once the offering was made and accepted the relationship had some grounds for continued communications.

We can’t really offer a dead animal as it isn’t looked upon as fondly as it once was. What we can offer is information and an ear that is willing to listen to the leads needs and desires. An ear that doesn’t judge them or tell them they are out of their minds if they think they can get a home in that area at that price. An ear that doesn’t say anything negative about their situation or why they wouldn’t be able to achieve their dreams.

Instead we listen to them and start the education process of being an enlightened instructor in our profession.

We allow them to have their dreams and then we educate them with examples of what is realistic for them. Showing them a house that they say they want regardless of their financial requirements. Allowing them to come to the realization that they may have a distorted view of the local real estate market instead of telling them on the first call that they are wrong. The idea of education seems to be a waste of time to some real estate professionals but during the education process we are cultivating the lead and not dampening their spirits or their desire to purchase. In fact we are increasing their desire to purchase and bolstering their spirits with fact based information that is being presented in a way that doesn’t make the lead become defensive.

We are the professionals they are the benighted. If we were to walk into their office there is little chance that we could do their job any more than they could do ours. We have to keep this in perspective in order to allow them to feel the bond that is created between educator and student.

Start the courtship off with positive information and stay positive while providing continued information that is useful to them.