Chris Walsh

Leader in the Real Estate Game

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Building Rapport With Clients

December 14, 2018

Building Rapport With Clients

It is so important to know the situation you’re going into; the atmosphere, the climate that you’re heading into, are all part of being prepared. I’ve had situations before where maybe I didn’t research the client ahead of time enough can think about one in particular where the guy was a huge football buff. I don’t know anything about football. Looking back, maybe I should have just learned some basic stuff, you know, who a top team is, maybe his favorite team, do his children play sports. I went to the meeting at their home, and did my listing presentation.  I was able to go through all the market data. I was able to give them experience that I give them as a listing agent, but maybe I didn’t make that personal connection and build the proper rapport and maybe someone else did.

Well obviously someone else did because they didn’t list with this guy.

Knowing who your client is, being able to identify, connect and build that rapport. That means everything, that that’s what sales is really all about. And again, you’ve got to remember we’re not selling the house necessarily, we’re selling the client on you from the get go and then there’s a multitude of things that we’re going to sell along the way, especially if things don’t work out the way as planned.

Put it this way. If they do work out, and you get multiple offers on a property, well, now you’re selling them on. “No, no, no, you didn’t price the house too low,  we didn’t underpriced the house; this was actually the right price”.

“If you’re going four to six weeks and the house hasn’t sold, well, now you have to sell them on “We didn’t overprice the hospital overpriced house, but maybe the market’s shifting,” or something similarly clever.

You Are Always Selling

So you’re constantly selling different things. It’s like the last thing we sell is real estate, right? You have to know who you’re meeting with. I mean, if you don’t know what the prospect is all about and you don’t know who the prospect is and what the prospect values, how are you supposed to close the prospect?

Information Is Easy To Get

Google, LinkedIn, Facebook… You’ve got to creep on these people a little bit before the appointment, each and every time. I do it all the time.

You could find out an abundance of information online these days about the prospects that you’re going to meet.

Look, I’d never taken appointment day of. If you take an appointment day of you look like you’ve got nothing going on.

There’s a famous saying in the world. Ben Franklin said, “If you want something done right? You’ve got to go to someone who’s busy doing it.”

If I can accommodate you day of, guess what? I’m not busy doing it.

So typically when someone requests an appointment with me, I usually counter them by saying I’m available Tuesday 1-3, I’m available Wednesday, 12-2 and I’m available Friday 9-11. Which one’s best for you?

Once I lock into an appointment, it is imperative to conduct your due diligence. At this stage, simply find out who they are, what they’re all about, where they work, what kind of background they have.

I’ll still ask them these things on the appointment so that they can so that they can answer it for themselves. If I just go in there already knowing everything about them, they’re going to think I’m a creep.

I still ask them, but I already have my answers preloaded and have many ways to pivot and respond. With this technique you’ll appear witty and bright, with intelligent answers that are going to help you build that rapport and ultimately… secure them as a client.

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