sales

Teacher Education

Commercial Property Sales – Your Database Is Everything So Get It Right From the Start

December 28, 2020 Comments Off on Commercial Property Sales – Your Database Is Everything So Get It Right From the Start

As a priority for real estate agents, market knowledge should be number one on your list if you want more sales and leases. But it is the type of market knowledge that will really fast track a sale or lease and will attract clients to use your real estate services.

There is no point in claiming you are the best agent or broker in the area unless you can clearly prove it.

So what is the best market knowledge poof that you need and the clients will be attracted to? Try these:

A database of buyers and investors that will consider purchasing good listings as they arrive in your books.

Databases of tenants that will consider renting premises as their leases expire.

These two simple things can underpin many property sales and leases, can convert more listings for you, and will be the foundation of your real estate success if you do it correctly. Most clients will choose a real estate agent that can show that they have the advantage of massive market awareness; that is and should be your database. Show your database for what it is. Impress the client in such a way that they want to tap into that database.

Build the database every day in such a way that you can extract relevant information from it. A great database is almost the single most important factor for the client to use in choosing you as the agent to market their property for them.

So many agents say that they have a database, but the reality of that real estate database is usually something like this:

It really doesn’t exist

It’s a “boat anchor” that no single person can use without extensive training

Someone updates it but you are not sure how and why

It does exist but it is not up to date

It’s in the back of their diary in unorganized notes

It’s in their mobile phone so it is not a real marketing tool for anyone else in the office

It does exist but you don’t want to use it in case your lead gets taken over by the office and out of your hands

It does exist but no-one knows what to do with it

It does exist but you can’t get information out of it that you can rely on

It is full of inaccuracy and spam entries so you can’t trust it

The list can go on, but the message here is clear. If you are going to have a database in your real estate office and you want to use it to drive listing conversions then the following are the rules:

Use reliable software to capture the data.

Have sufficient categories of ranking and requirement so the database can be grouped into prices, rents, properties, region, time, and other special requirements.

Every salesperson should enter every new lead or opportunity into the database either directly or indirectly through a person that controls the database.

When an entry goes into a database, then it must be accurate and maintained by the person that started the entry so that the information remains current.

If you get your database strategy right, you can use it as a major conversion tool in your listing presentation. By showing the client that you have a significant and relevant database that can apply to the marketing of their property you have a much better chance of closing the listing of that property.

Education For All

Sales Training Mistakes – Only Teaching Product Knowledge

March 25, 2020 Comments Off on Sales Training Mistakes – Only Teaching Product Knowledge

When my son was young, he was fascinated by sports cars. Like a lot of boys his age, he liked to look at the models of the shiniest ones in the toy store, or point them out when we would see one on the street. Over time, he started to pick up assorted facts and statistics: this one went from zero to sixty miles an hour in so many seconds, another one had an engine with this many horsepower, and so on.

Now here’s a question for you: How successful do you think my young son would have been at selling sports cars at that age?

The obvious answer is that he wouldn’t have been able to do that job – children are usually better in the door-to-door cookie and candy type industries – but the truth is that he was almost as qualified as many salespeople that some big companies send out into the field. Granted, he didn’t know anything about sales, but he sure had plenty of “product knowledge.”

And that, of course, is the problem I want to highlight here. To many sales managers, training consists largely of getting the sales staff together in a room and forcing them to memorize marketing brochures and technical specifications. So long as the sales team knows all about the great things the company sells, and can explain all the ins and outs, the rest will take care of itself – or so the thinking goes.

Those of us who have worked as professional salespeople for a while know better. Being able to explain specific features is important, but it’s not nearly as critical as understanding the sales process, knowing how to read and react to different buying personality styles, and qualify potential customers. In fact, I would go as far as to say that product knowledge accounts for only about a third of a salesperson’s success – and sometimes even less.

Besides, product knowledge is more about memorization than it is skill. For that reason, it makes sense to do it in smaller increments, like morning or weekly meetings, rather than all at once in a sales training session. We all know the feeling of being overwhelmed by too much information, so don’t try to cram too many facts and details into your producer’s minds at once.

Key Sales Management Point:

Try to integrate the facts and details of what your company sells into regular sales meetings.

Use your training time to teach skills that will help your staff turn what they know into sales.

Product knowledge is critical to sales success, but sales skills are more important.