In the Zone | V I i 1 | How to List More Homes with a Single Question

In the Zone | Focusing on the 4 Profit Pillars of Real Estate

Volume 1 Issue 1

1. What Successful Realtors Are Saying

2. Prospecting: The Most Effective Way to Increase Your

Probability of Success

3. Negotiating: 11 Simple Steps to Successful Negotiations

4. Listing: How to List More Homes with a Single Question

5. Selling: The Secret to Why Sales People Fail

Hey,

Gary Elwood from Proquest Technologies. How’s it going? I hope your business has been profitable this summer.

Anyway, as you can see, I’m trying something new. Here’s the scoop:

Early this year I was talking to Bob Corcoran of Corcoran Consulting when he said something that really struck a chord with me me: “There are only 4 activities in real estate that will make money for an agent: prospecting, negotiating, listing and selling. Everything else is minimum wage.”

He went on to say that for an agent to be truly successful...to become a top producer...and to stay there...he or she must focus sharply on those 4 activities.

In my experience I’ve learned that when I talk to someone like Bob, someone who in the last ten years has consulted with a star-studded list of some of the biggest top producers in the world, including the #1 Coldwell Banker agent worldwide, to really listen carefully because what they’re saying is worth a pot of gold.

And that’s exactly why I created “In The Zone”: to help you with smart, efficient ways to sharpen your focus, build your inventory, take you to the top and keep you there.

Every month I will share an idea, tip or technique in one of the four pillars. And most of them will come from clients and subscribers who are in the trenches listing and selling real estate on the front line. So no ivory tower, impractical fluff. Just hard-hitting, easy, profit-rich ideas. I promise.

Enjoy the first issue and here’s to your success,

Gary Elwood

Proquest Technologies

1-800-959-3959

Send prospecting, negotiating, listing or selling ideas, strategies and tips to inthezone@proquest-tech.com.

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1. What Successful Realtors Are Saying

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"The first presentation I did using the Proquest system was a success, resulting in a listing for $1.25 million.

“I abandoned the traditional type of presentation in favor of one that was based largely around the new technology. After covering property values, I said, 'Let's have some fun now.' The sellers' eyes lit up. The demonstration went without a hitch.

“They made the decision to list with me on the spot, without 'interviewing' a single other agent."

Daniel Berman

If you want to learn the secret behind Daniel Berman’s success, then read our 24-page online report “How to Close More Transactions in a Month Than You Now Close All Year”:

http://www.realestategrowth.com/how_to_grow.htm

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2. PROSPECTING: The Most Effective Way to Increase Your Probability of Success

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In my mind, there is only one way to increase your chances for prospecting success, and that's this: reduce the risk for failure.

How do you do that? Simple.

Have you ever heard of the principle of acclimatization? If not, it goes like this:

Put a frog into a boiling pot of water, and he'll jump out. But put him in a pot of room temperature water, slowly raise the heat and within minutes you have boiled frog.

Prospecting is the same way. If you have a prospect on the phone and the first thing out of your mouth is, "Would you like me to sell your home?" the prospect will reject, resist and resent you for the remainder of the conversation.

But if you come in below the radar, the prospect won’t even suspect you.

What should you do to fly low? Provoke curiosity. Here’s how:

When you've just gotten someone on the phone say, "Do you mind if I ask you a question?" Everybody will say, "No, I don't mind." Why? Because their dying to know what you're going to say. And now you’ve lowered their resistance (without them even knowing it) and reduced your risk of failure.

Here are some other ways you can provoke curiosity: “Guess what?” “Do you want to hear a funny story?” or “Is this a bad time to ask you something?”

So the next time you get a prospect on the phone, instead of scaring them out of the pot, ease your way into a great and profitable dialog.

Next Month: Listing: Why does Craig Plantz in Denver, CO, have every 1 out of 3 leads calling to speak to him directly?

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3. NEGOTIATING: 7 Simple Steps to Successful Negotiations

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1. Ask for a price that is too high. You can always lower the price, but you can never raise it.

2. Bracket effectively. For example, if a buyer is offering $165K for a home that’s listed at $180K and your seller could live with $170, then counter offer at $175K. Bracket until you’ve zeroed in on your objective.

3. Flinch. Showing surprise through a flinch will communicate that their offer is hard to swallow and may make them soften up a bit.

4. Play the reluctant seller. Being reluctant usually forces the other side to strike a deal early and give up their bargaining range immediately.

5. Use the vise gambit. Communicate to the other side, “You’ll have to do better than that,” whether with words or body language.

6. Try nibbling at the end of the negotiation. After the deal has been cut, try to squeeze one or two more concessions out of the other side, feeding off of the enthusiasm of the moment.

7. Withdrawing an offer. Probably one of the strongest negotiation gambits, withdrawing your offer from the table usually motivates any tough buyer or seller to start giving concessions away.

Next Month: The one negotiating strategy almost all experts agree that will psych-out even the toughest opponent.

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4. LISTING: How to List More Homes with a Single Question

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Day in and day out I talk to a lot of clients who generate a lot of leads with our service and invariably they will always ask me, "How do I get more listings?"

It seems super-simple, but I always start by asking them, "How many people do you get on the phone everyday?"

"Oh, 10-12 buyers call me."

"And with those buyers, how many of them do you ask if they are selling a home?"

And nearly every time they will answer, “Well none of them.”

"Do you realize," I'll say, "that over 50% of home buyers are also selling a home?"

"Well, I never thought about that."

In 2002, NAR discovered that first-time home buyers make up 43.1% of the market and move-up buyers make up 50.4%. They also discovered 1 out of 3 bought or listed within 60 days.

What does this mean to you?

One third of the leads you generate with our service will be sellers who don’t have an agent yet because they usually start the search way ahead before they actually sell. It's like shooting fish in a barrel.

The bottom line is, if you have a buyer on the phone, you more than likely also have a seller who isn't working with an agent. So start asking that question, "Are you selling a home too?"

Next Month: Discover #1 Coldweller Banker Joan Pate’s rejection-free method to effortlessly listing 2-3 FSBOs a month.

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4. SELLING: The Secret to Why Sales People Fail

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Because they think they will. Sounds simple, but it’s true.

Several national studies have revealed the following statistics about why salespeople fail:

The good news is if you simply change your attitude from a negative to a positive one, you have improved your probability of success 50%. Earl Nightingale affirms this very thought when he says: “We become what we think about.”

So, how do you change your attitude from negative to positive, from failure to success? It’s really rather easy. All you have to do is follow these 7 guidelines:

Next month: How to find the hidden hot button of every prospect that will take you from presentation to closing.

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Proquest Technologies, Inc.
gary@yourcompetitiveadvantage.com
1-800-959-3959

In the Zone: Focusing on the 4 Profit Pillars of Real Estate

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“In the Zone” is a Proquest Technologies publication.
(C) Copyright 2005. Proquest Technologies.