The Listing Appointment - Who’s Doing the Interviewing?

You answer the phone: “Hello! XYZ Real Estate, Jim speaking. How can I help you?” They say: “We’re interviewing Realtors to list our home for sale. Would you like to come out and show us what you can do for us?”

We’ve all taken this call many times. If you have all the referral and repeat business you need, it’s easy to deal with it. But if you need a listing right now, the chances are that you’ll make an appointment and:

try to get a photo of their home for your presentation;

put together a detailed CMA;

gather brochures and listing presentation printed materials;

drive the neighborhood and look at the competition;

put on your sales hat and show your stuff; and

ask for the listing.

It’s the way most of us do it, and it works some of the time. Unfortunately, if they are “interviewing” five of us, it’s only going to work 20% of the time. Many a sales training seminar will tell you that people will buy a product or service for only two reasons:

to solve a problem or move away from pain; or

to improve their life or move toward enjoyment.

Another accurate statement is that “people buy based on emotion and justify the purchase based on logic.” All of this is quite true. All buyers and sellers of real estate have problems that need solutions and/or they’re trying to improve their life situation. With that in mind, why in the world are they doing the interviewing? How can we solve their problems or help them realize their desires if we’re busy with “show and tell” and not asking them questions? We must learn to creatively turn the interview process around by 180 degrees.