Prospecting is the study of the future possibilities of a business taking into account the data available. Through this process, the real estate consultant converts his portfolio of contacts into money; although it is not always easy to achieve it, not using this tool diminishes the opportunity to talk to clients who have never been canvassed before, nor to recommend appropriate solutions for their needs, to sign a contract or to offer an excellent after-sales service.
Paul Goldner points out in his book Red Hot, Cold Call Selling that a salesperson must put all five senses into knowing all the information about his buyers. “He has to study every file until he knows how to associate a person’s name with the name of the company to which he belongs. Many salespeople get stuck when they get a call from a prospect they’ve already spoken to because they didn’t memorize the information about that person when they first made contact with them.“
Goldner also says that understanding sales as a process rather than an event makes it easier to assume that “the no’s of today’s customers may be the yes’s of the future. Accordingly, a rejection should never be viewed as a refusal, but rather as extra information about a particular prospect that allows the salesperson to postpone that sale and then redirect his or her education process to those prospects who are ready and willing to buy now.“
In this regard, real estate coach Carlos Perez describes in his blog that every advisor should focus on helping and not just selling, offering advice through effective communication channels adapted to the lifestyle of buyers. On his website he exemplifies the implementation of this sales technique by sharing his experience with a Uruguayan real estate company that decided to write specialized articles for local newspapers and magazines, accompanied by a digital campaign in social networks, forums, related websites and the payment of advertising or Ads.
10 Commandments of Real Estate Prospecting
1st commandment: Prospecting is a process that requires discipline and demands dedication, so it is suggested to set a daily time for prospecting.
2nd commandment: Smart prospecting leads to calling only those prospects most likely to purchase large quantities of your product or service.
3rd commandment: The prospecting call should not last more than two or three minutes: it should include the presentation of the seller or product; it should serve to understand the real needs of the potential buyer and it should become the vehicle to get an appointment.
4th commandment: Identify the main customers and potential customers in your database and look for alternatives to continue capturing effective leads.
5th commandment: It is advisable not to take calls or attend meetings during the time of prospecting in order to try to perfect it as much as possible. Just like any other repetitive task, prospecting improves with prolonged practice.
6th commandment: There are more or less convenient times to make prospecting calls. For example, prospecting at lunchtime works well in the U.S., but not in Latin America, where people have long, traditional lunches. As for individuals, some are more receptive in the morning and others in the afternoon. In general, decision-makers often work overtime or after hours, plus their assistants, or those who separate a salesperson from his or her potential customer, don’t usually get in the way of those hours: hence, they should be fully utilized.
7th commandment: If it is not possible to contact a potential customer at a certain time of the day, a salesperson should learn from the mistake and try another time or another occasion.
8th commandment: Be organized and use some type of contact management software such as ACT or CRM to schedule calls or check the customer’s status.
9th commandment: You must think that the call will be successful before you make it and thus reinforce your self-confidence. Remember that prospecting is more resistant to rejection if the salesperson shows poise and that both confidence and enthusiasm are contagious and a buyer will always go for the individual who conveys them.
10th command: An essential element that adds value to a product or service is the stability of the company that sells it. When a customer buys a complex and expensive product from a certain company, it is in the customer’s interest that the organization survives for the life of the product in order to have the guarantee of after-sales service.
5 Techniques to capture more contacts
Miriam Moral shares in an article for Urbaniza Interactiva a series of tips or tools that every real estate consultant should follow to increase the database of their contacts:
– Use Inbound Marketing to your advantage. Think about your clients (Buyer Personas), reflect on their problems, needs, goals or objectives and create content on your website or on your real estate blog in which you give answers to those topics in different formats such as videos, infographics, live conferences, books or downloadable guides.
– Don’t forget the power of word of mouth. Imagine that you have already managed to attract to your real estate website those people who are considering buying a home. However, they are still not entirely convinced that your real estate is the best choice. A page of testimonials from other customers explaining their buying experience, can be that little push they are missing to verify that your real estate is the best choice for them.
– Add real estate portals to your channels of diffusion. These can provide you with a large number of contacts that in the short term can be very interesting. However, the contact acquisition will end once you stop paying for the contracted services, so you will also have to think about a long-term profitable strategy. On the other hand, the data obtained will not be exclusive, that is to say, they will be almost the same as those of your competitors.
– Invest wisely in Online Advertising. One of the advantages of this type of advertising is its great capacity for segmentation, you can make your real estate ad appear only to people of a certain age, living in a particular area, with specific interests and a particular type of housing desired.
– Get closer, converse and establish strategic alliances. Look for forums on the web or groups in social networks and interact with users by answering their questions as a professional; this method serves as support for the dissemination of content published on your blog. It is also important to interact with other professionals in the sector and establish strategic alliances to meet your established objectives.
