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In most service-oriented industries, customers want to work with professionals who can prove they’re up to the task, whatever it may be. Customers want to understand what they’re paying for, and professionals must be able to articulate their expertise. This is—and has always been—true in real estate, but it is especially important now as the industry changes.
Lynn Madison, real estate industry trainer and educator and head of Madison Seminars, notes that consumers seek out agents who can clearly articulate their value. The truth is that articulating value is the norm in service-oriented professions, notes Adorna Carroll, President, Dynamic Directions, Inc. and Referrals Only CT, LLC. Securing written agreements for services rendered is also the norm, she says.
It's time to regroup and prepare agents so that they can clearly explain their services, expertise and commitment to their customers.
Prep Agents to Highlight What Matters to Consumers
With practice changes on the way, there’s a lot of information for consumers to sift through and agents who are REALTORSâ can serve as a resource. During sales meetings, trainings and the like, brokers can provide up-to-date information on industry changes, which can always be found on facts.realtor. Likewise, a host of data about local markets and national trends can be found at the local and state associations and from the National Association of REALTORS®, respectively.
National reports might note stagnating markets or falling prices nationwide, but it is more important that an agent understand their local market, because this is what will relate directly to their consumer, and this is the information they should be relaying to the consumer.
Brokers can also set up a system that makes local, real-time data easy to access. Each time an agent sells a home, they use their customer relationship management (CRM) system, an online form they’ve created or a shared spreadsheet to keep track of key details on the sale, suggests Madison. They should record multiple offers (whether they occurred and, if so, the number of offers) and the number of showings. Then, each month, summarize this information in a report. Agents can send these analyses to their buyers, sharing statements like, “of the last 50 transactions our office handled, 42 were multiple offers and 40 of these had more than five offers.”
The stakes are high: Buyers sometimes underestimate the difficulty of finding and securing the right homes—and the value of a buyer’s agent. When agents are armed with the statistics and data that relate directly to their market and they are retrieving facts from the sources, they can help educate their clients.
Give Them Talking Points
Since many buyers may not be aware of the full scope of an agents’ responsibilities before, during and after the transaction, agents need to take a “feature—benefit—sell,” approach during the buyer counseling session or presentation, reminds Madison. This simply means they convey to the customer what they do, how they do it and why it benefits their clients. To help them figure out what that should look like, resources abound.
Brokers can start by providing agents with these core points of value that should be relayed to consumers:
- Agents help reduce stress in a highly complicated and high stakes transaction, likely one of the biggest of a consumer’s life.
- Agents serve as a trusted advisor through the transaction and demystifying the home buying or selling process.
- Agents use their extensive experience to navigate difficult negotiations, write the best offer possible, set the right price for a listing and help consumers avoid common mistakes—all to ultimately help successfully close a transaction, saving consumers money and time.
Brokerages can also evaluate the myriad reasons why agents who are REALTORS® are worth their compensation, provide a monetary value to each of those reasons based on the services offered and provide agents with bulleted lists to reference, advises Carroll.
Maintain Focus on the Buyer
As an exercise in fully understanding their value, agents should write down everything they do for their next three to five buyers, suggests Madison. They should record all tasks, “from the moment they say ‘hello’ to the closing table.” Madison says they should also record how much time each task takes. After all, “how can they tell the buyer how much they’re worth if they don’t know?” she asks.
Another strategy is to flip the script. Most brokerages and agents work on a listing presentation, and now it’s time to prepare a buyer presentation of similar caliber. Madison suggests taking the information given during recent listing presentations and tailoring it for a buyer.
If agents are worried about sounding like they’re bragging, they can focus on how their efforts are of service to the buyer, counsels Madison. “They can say, ‘my job is to find you the right home at the right price and the right terms and get you to the closing table with the least inconvenience possible.’”
Carroll notes that agents should work with the client to determine what they want, need and wish for in a property, and once that’s clear, they should articulate how their services will deliver on those expectations. This helps an agent set the stage for how their services equate to value.
The needs of first-time buyers, investment buyers or experienced buyers vary, and agents would do well to determine how they’ll respond to varying needs. Encourage agents to emphasize different points with first-time versus repeat buyers, explains Madison. With first-time buyers, agents might need to spend more time correcting misinformation and highlighting their negotiating skills. They might also need to bring up strategies for securing a property that doesn’t include additional financial burden.
Meanwhile, repeat buyers often worry about selling their current home before they buy a new one. In those cases, agents can share experiences with coordinating simultaneous closings. To bring that point home, they might mention the reverse contingency clause, which gives sellers enough time to find a suitable replacement home before they move out of their current residence.
Help Agents Rehearse
Agents need to believe in their value, since “no one wants to spend $500,000 with someone who doesn’t have confidence,” says Madison. To help them broadcast self-assurance, encourage them to rehearse their presentation with you or their colleagues. Confidence comes from repetition as much as it comes from belief in oneself. If an agent is confident in their presentation skills, that will translate to the customer.
For the most up to date information about the proposed settlement agreement and the practice changes taking effect Aug. 17, 2024, check out facts.realtor.
