One of the great things about our real estate
business is that so many different kinds of people can be successful using
their own unique personality and approach. Of course our clients have their own
personalities, too, and we can be most successful if we understand those
personality types, whether we’re competing for a new listing or guiding our clients through finding
the right home, negotiating the purchase agreement, counters, and the
inspection response process.
Most folks
recognize four broad personality types, and two of the most obvious ones are
the Directorial/Competitive type and the Analytical/Methodical type. The
Directorial type is used to taking the lead and being in charge, and they
typically see the big picture and the bottom line. If we approach this person
by working through all the details, we risk losing their attention, and
possibly their respect. This type may
also need to feel they’ve come up
with ideas on their own, so we need to gently guide them toward the position we
recommend!
Conversely,
with the Methodical type, if we start with the big picture and our bottom line
recommendation, they may tune out and lose confidence since they need to have
all the details first, so they can reach their own conclusions.
Of course
there’s a lot
more to it, but it can help if you make sure you know and understand each of
your clients’ personality
types, so you can better guide your clients through the process.
So
remember, it’s your job
to herd those cats, especially those buyers who can’t seem to make up their minds.
In a recent coaching session, an agent told me about a couple who hadn’t found a new house that
suited them yet, even after their own house sold and they had to move an hour
away to stay with family while they kept looking! It turned out one of the
buyers was an engineer of some sort and insisted on finding the absolutely
perfect home, and who said they were in no hurry! (I wonder what the in-laws
thought!) It also turned out that they were looking at homes priced at about 60%
of what they were qualified for (not an unwise financial decision) yet of
course they were disappointed since they actually wanted a home with features
and finishes that would cost just a bit more. Talk about a potential for
showing a hundred homes and never writing an offer!
So, how
deal with that personality type and those expectations? Well, let’s remember our basic training
and go back to square one: grab that list of topics and questions for an
initial consultation with a new buyer client. Step one, set a timing goal and
remind these particular buyers that as we head toward cooler weather there will
be fewer and fewer new listings becoming available. Are they eager to drive
that extra hour in a foot of snow? Okay, let’s set a target date for them to move into their
new home!
Next, what
are their objectives? We’ve all
given the speech about how no buyer, at any price, no matter how high, ever
really finds the perfect home, so it’s time to refresh their memory and to insist
they make the tough decisions on what they could compromise on or do without. Or
raise their pricing range a tiny bit, at a cost of $30 to $40 a month, of
course. And then those engineering types will likely be making any offer far
too low, calculating triple the cost of replacing the blind in the powder room,
so remember to give them tons of data so they can analyze and find that correct
price—and if they
don’t, you can
treat it as a pure math problem with the market price as the answer! Engineers
LOVE math problems and hate to be wrong! Do the math!
Anyway, it’s of course not that easy, but
if you can stop, step back, and understand the way your client is thinking,
hopefully you can use their own approach to open the door to decision making. That
way, you’ll find
greater success and enjoyment in your real estate career!
David M.
Hassler
Director of Coaching
No comments:
Post a Comment