In this weeks Guest Blog Paul Pang explains How To Close Better Deals And Avoid Bad Ones. Buckle up because for all of you investors and entrepreneurs this advice is priceless for your business.
Sales And Clients Are The Lifeblood Of Any Business
Ok so let’s get this out of the way – I don’t have a background in real estate per se but what I do have a background in, is digital marketing.
Earlier this year I founded my agency, Rainmaker Cocktail, that manages digital marketing campaigns for legal and financial clients and my main focus is to sell and close new clients on my services.
As any entrepreneur will tell you, the ability to close sales and clients is essential to business. Sales and clients are the lifeblood of any business and without that, there is no business!
How is this related to real estate you might ask?
“Pushing” Too Much Is A Recipe For Disaster
As a student of the game when it comes to closing, I’ve had many influences that have helped me craft my own techniques.
If you want to see an example of sales closing done well, then look no further than real estate, in particular, real estate agents. The closing techniques employed by real estate agents have partly influenced the way in which I close my own clients.
One of the biggest mistakes I see when people try to close (whatever business they may be in) is that more often than not, they are pushing too much towards the client in order to secure the deal. Examples of pushing can be:
- Too willing to drop the asking price;
- Too willing to add an extra benefit/feature for the same asking price;
- Too willing to accept any client that comes your way; or
- Allowing prospects to go away and “think about it” indefinitely
Any one of these is a recipe for securing a bad deal or no deal at all!
Too much pushing devalues your product/service offering and yourself in your prospects’ eyes!
No-one wants to buy from someone that comes across as desperate and if you push too much, desperation is what you’re projecting!
Balancing “Push/Pull” In Closing The Best Deals
The key to not only securing a deal, but the right deal is to find the right balance of push and pull. “Pull” is about valuing your product/service offering. So instead of just pushing towards the prospect, it’s about creating a firm position based on your own value, pulling away from your prospect to create some distance and expecting prospects to move towards you. The best deals come from good clients that are willing to move towards you because they what realise the value in what you have to offer!
Examples Of “Pull” Techniques
A good real estate agent knows how to employ the “push & pull” technique correctly. Here are a few examples of “pull” techniques used within real estate that you can learn and apply in your own business.
- Real estate is a prime example of scarcity; for every property that’s available, there’s at least 3-4 interested buyers/renters, and estate agents know this. They don’t push you into buying because they’ll always have other bookings lined up after you.
Make sure you project scarcity in your own offerings and always fill up your pipeline with other bookings/appointments so that you don’t feel you have to push any one prospect into a sale. If you allow yourself to be put in a position where prospects are few and far between, then you’re more likely to be persuaded (either by the prospect or indirectly by yourself) to compromise your deal, in some cases to a degree that’s to your detriment!
- Buying/renting a property is a big commitment that reasonably warrants the buyer/renter to go away and think about it, so estate agents offer the opportunity to keep the property off the market for 1-2 weeks for a small holding deposit.
The classic “let me think about it” tends to result in prospects never returning, especially if there was no commitment made by them when they left. Taking a small holding deposit or fee is easy enough to pay on the spot, but it also psychologically makes the buyer/renter somewhat committed, encouraging them to justify in their own minds to return and complete the transaction.
- Even if a buyer/renter is interested in the property, the estate agent isn’t simply going to hand over the keys on the spot. They do checks to make sure you’re the “right fit” before completing the transaction; i.e. do you have the means to pay the rent/mortgage every month? Are you going to stay in the property for minimum of period? Where have you lived before etc?
Don’t be too eager to close every interested prospect that comes your way. Set out your criteria for what makes your ideal client and make sure that they’re the right fit for you before accept a single penny – otherwise expect headaches!
Did you like Paul’s guest blog? Are you going to be using it in your business? Let me know in the comments section below. And, if you want to get in contact with Paul about anything he’s mentioned in the post above then drop him an email at paul@rainmakercocktail.com.
NC
