Sell your real estate services while you sell your listings
Of course you want to sell your listings, but if you want more listings, you must sell your real estate services.
One of the formulas copywriting schools?teach is the “4 P's” method. ?The P’s stand for Picture, Promise, Proof, and Push.
For direct marketers selling products such as diet pills, pain relief lotions, etc. this is pretty straightforward.
Your “Product” is a bit different.
Before you get to the listing presentation, you must generate leads and convince those leads to listen to your presentation.
One way to sell your real estate services is through prospecting letters that offer useful information and prove your understanding of the prospect’s wants, needs, and worries.
This important step gets you in the door, where you have the opportunity to make that listing presentation. Combined with your agent bio, good prospecting letters will present you as a professional agent.
Your prospecting letters begin the process of presenting "picture, promise, proof, and push." The picture is the vision of a home sold quickly and for top dollar. The promise is that you can get that done. And then comes the proof.
What proof can you use to sell your real estate services to new listing clients?
Proof of your exceptional service lies in the statistics that represent what you've done. If your days on the market and list to sell ratios are good, be sure to include that information in your listing presentation. A scattering of testimonials from happy clients is also good.
Perhaps most importantly, you offer proof by showing what you're doing right now to sell the?homes you already have listed.
Your listing promotions are also your self-promotions. They will help you sell your listings and they will help you sell your real estate services.
When you do a fantastic job of getting your listings in front of buyers, you are selling the listings - and you're selling your services by demonstrating what you can and will do for your listing clients.
If you don’t have current listings, hopefully you can still access the promotional work you did for a recent sale or two.
Sell your real estate services by showing those potential listing clients the photos and the narratives that you’ve posted on MLS, on your own website, and on social media. If you’ve blogged about your listings, provide links to those blog posts. In addition, keep copies of the flyers you've created for your listings so you can show them to prospects.
Sell your real estate services through your choice of photos...
Point out the fact that instead of driving through neighborhoods looking for “Home for Sale” signs, more than 90% of all home buyers do their “driving” on the Internet, browsing through real estate websites.
That means the first photo in an Internet presentation has, for a large part, replaced in-person curb appeal in creating a first impression.
That photo sets the expectation and either invites or discourages further investigation. Just as a potential buyer in a car drives right on by a house that lacks curb appeal, Internet shoppers will "drive right on by" a house with a poor photo.
Home shoppers flip through listings, looking for something that catches their eyes. Then they look at the rest of the photos and read the details.
Ugly pictures, pictures that are blurry or too dark, or pictures that don’t even show the house aren’t going to capture that attention.
The second requirement – plenty of photos.
When your initial photo catches someone’s eye and they want to know more, for heaven’s sake give them more – and make the rest of the pictures worth viewing.
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A professional photographer will know what to shoot, but if you’re doing it yourself, just stop and think. Which features give the house the most appeal? Hint: It’s not a blank bedroom wall with a bed pushed up against it.
Why do so many agents persist in using pathetic pictures?
My first guess is that they don’t want to pay a professional. But then, they should at least get out of the car and attempt to compose the frame. I’ve seen listing photos that showed the car’s rear view mirror in one corner, and there’s simply no excuse for that.
Agents who are just starting out may not be able to afford a professional – we can all understand that. But since those photos are so important, you also can't afford to post ugly pictures. So if you’re in that position, take a class, look for instruction on line, or consult with a photographer friend and learn to do it correctly.
Video tours also make both you and the house look good, as does drone photography (if it is legal where you live). If you choose to do your own videos, do get some instruction or take heed of others’ mistakes. Slow down to give viewers eyes a chance to keep up and see what you’re describing.
Finally, your narratives are important - both to sell the home and to sell your real estate services.
Use your narrative space to paint a verbal picture of enjoying life in the home. Your well chosen words should "Put the reader in the home."
Instead of repeating the details they’ve already read, such as “3 bedroom, 2 bath, garage,” include features and benefits that aren’t obvious in the detail section or the photos. Mention the view, the dog park or golf course nearby, the easy access to mass transit, or the way the sun shines on the back deck in early morning. Maybe there’s something especially appealing about the floor plan, the outdoor spaces, or the smart home technology. Remember to be specific. Statements like "great view" and "nice fence" just don't do the job.
Whatever it is that makes this home stand out should go into that narrative so that it can make your phone ring with showing requests.
Write a good description to use on your own website, in your blog posts, etc. Then, if necessary, pare it down to the most essential points in order to fit into the limited space allowed by your MLS.
Even when space is limited, avoid going overboard with abbreviations. Not everyone will know what WIC in MBR means. I've been associated with real estate and listing narratives for well over 30 years, and I still see descriptions with abbreviations I cannot decipher.
The bottom line: keep the description reader-friendly even if it means leaving something out.
If you can’t take time to write a good narrative or can’t make the words come together right, get in touch. Writing property descriptions is another one of the things I do to help real estate agents succeed.
And what is the PUSH? It is the call to action.
In your prospecting letters, it is the line that says "Call me."
It's the sentence that says you'd love to answer their questions about the market or prepare a market analysis for them. It generally ends with "Call me today!" Note that it can be important to add a P.S. that reminds them that talking with you does not put them under any obligation.
In the listing presentation, it's asking for the listing.
Here are some suggestions:
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"Without promotion, something terrible happens... nothing!"
P. T. Barnum ~~~
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Camera Image courtesy of furuoda at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Real Estate Professional at SEAN FARRER, P.A., with Coldwell Banker Schmitt Real Estate Company
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