Making the Most of That Pre-Listing Call

The more organised you are before you take calls from prospective vendors, the more likely you are to convert them. When you have all your marketing assets in place, that first call and follow up is a real chance to dazzle and give a client an insight into the professional operation you are running. Jed Wood from Sanders Property Agents in Sydney’s Sutherland shire, shares some of his top tips for laying down the tracks for winning a listing.

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WHEN THE FIRST PHONE CALL COMES IN

Jed tries to learn as much as he can about the client and their property. Jed says, “See this call as an opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge and interest. There are two pre-listing calls - there's someone that you know or someone that you don't know. I use an analogue system of the blue card printed on an A4 piece of paper. I have a really detailed structured conversation with people I know and people that I don't know. I try to, of course, make the right impression for those that I don't know, to get as much information as I can in that pre-listing phone call. Whatever is in the home you go to, that detail. You're trying to send that signal that I want to know every single fact that I can.”

Some of the questions Jed asks are:

? Tell me about the land size.

? What's the garaging?

? How many bedrooms?

? Do you have solar heating?

? When would you like to see the property on the market?

? What price range did you think it would be in?

Have the courage to ask: Are you interviewing other agents and when is that?

SEND A PRE-LISTING TEXT MESSAGE THAT INCLUDES A WEB BOOK

Jed thanks the person for the quick conversation then sends a confirmation text with the appointment time and adds a pre-listing web book and an agenda that he would like to go through with the client.

He says, “The text says, ‘Just a quick thank you for considering our services and we look forward to having a conversation with you about your real estate plans. Please see below summary of some details about myself, the company and the agenda that we'd like to discuss with you’. There's an opportunity for them to call me if they need to reschedule the appointment for whatever reason.”

The Web Book, which a client can open on their phone immediately, includes information on:

SALES TEAM

Jed says, “The second index item of the Web Book highlights the sales team of our company and my own personal team. One of the unique propositions about our company is that we actually do work as a team unit. We're not independent contractors working for individual fees.”

MARKETING

Jed says, “Marketing is an important piece of the puzzle and we want to show clients that we can do everything that might have been shown to them by somebody else and more.” He includes an impressive but simple slide show of signboards, brochures, deal cards, newspaper advertising, websites and social media examples.

COMMUNICATIONS

As Jed explains, “This shows how we report back to the vendor in writing on a weekly basis. There is a property activity report. I send this to vendors every seven days that they're on the market. We want to obviously highlight what day they're up to, showing what virtual inspections their property has received. I'll also have a benchmark of where I believe they should be as a minimum. It also includes the number of enquiries we've received, the groups inspected, contracts that might have been issued, second inspections, any offers and interested parties.”

If a client chooses to list with Jed, the web book also includes reports vendors can expect to receive on price indication and feedback, an index of seriously interested buyers and who they might be, and a wrap up of the report.

PRICING YOUR PROPERTY

Jed says, “It doesn't actually answer the question too much it just sets up the conversation of there being two prices to your property. There's a mathematical price and an emotional price.”

THE PROCESS

This section outlines the process should a client choose to list with Jed. It includes Jed’s three steps to a listing and the process behind the scenes on the market and results and decisions.

THE PERFORMANCE FEE

At this point in the process, Jed doesn’t specify his fee but he uses this section to, “Just get it out there that we are only paid if we perform and the property is sold and that as a professional we have a professional fee which we'll discuss with them in person.”

CONFIRM OBJECTIVES

In this section Jed says, “We confirm what our objective is and our objective as the agent is to work for the client and with them and help them achieve a successful outcome. It's almost like a closing paragraph in a closing sequence to let them know we're there for the business.”

RECENT SALES

Jed says, “This demonstrates the calibre of property that I've been selling, the prices achieved, number of days on the market, whether it was an auction or private trading method of sale.”

Once he has sent the pre-listing text message and web book, Jed then calls the potential vendor an hour before the appointment just to confirm. The conversation goes a little like this.

Vendor: Hello?

Jed: Hi Lee, it's Jed from Sanders Property Agents. How are you going?

Vendor: Good Jed, how are you?

Jed: Very well. Just calling to confirm our meeting within an hour. Are you still okay for that?

Vendor: Yes, looking forward to it and I've been cleaning up all day.

Jed: Great. Did you receive the text message that I sent you and were you able to open the web book?

Vendor: Yes, I've never seen one of those. It was very impressive.

Jed: I'm glad you liked it. I'll be going through that with you. See you soon.

Vendor: Thanks Jed, bye-bye.

A little bit of organisation will take you a long way.