Closing on Real Estate Calls: Gain All the Information You Can
The key to real estate sales (and any sales) is being able to close successfully. But before you can even think about closing on your real estate calls, you have to understand what the lead is after—from their own perspective. And more than just understanding what the lead is after, you have to see what their current plan is to get themselves there.
But as a real estate agent or ISA, this isn’t news to you. Your job and your livelihood depend on your ability to consistently set appointments with high quality leads and to successfully close on deals. The question is how you do that.
How to Close on Real Estate Calls: Objections
Objections are the keys to closing. Yep, you heard that right. It might be counter intuitive—you might even be afraid of having a lead object to working with you—but you need an objection in order to find out what the caller is after.
Through dealing with them successfully, you will have had to convince the lead that you can either assist them with their process, or you offered a better process. Either way, though, you will have had to convince them that your process will help them better achieve their desired outcome. Once you convince them of that, all you have to do is set the appointment.
How to Deal with Caller Objections: Information
Real estate agents and ISAs can use objections to close. But before you can close, you have to actually overcome the objection. To do that, you need to gather as much information as possible on the call. What this means is that:
- You need to be a real human on the phone
- You have to find the caller’s pain points
- Real estate scripts can’t help you
The key here is to understand these three parts of the objection from the lead’s point of view, not just from your own. Below are the five most critical aspects of dealing with an objection once they tell you it:
The lead’s perspective is their past experience, knowledge and speculation. Examples of perspectives that may lead to objections are “I’ve sold my home myself before”, “I’ve already met with an agent”, and “I can do what an agent does, you guys don’t do much.”
The lead’s process is their own plan that they have for their situation. Examples of a process is “I’m going to sell my home myself”, “I’ll just use the agent I used before”, or “I am just going to wait until spring to sell my home and get a better deal”. The process is typically what will lead to an objection. They have their plan and you are not a part of it in their mind, so they turn you down.
And finally, the outcome. This is the unique result or benefit the lead believes their process will deliver for them. Examples of these are “not wasting time”, “avoiding disappointment”, and “proving to my neighbors or real estate agents or to the world that I am right”.
If a lead tells you they want to wait to sell their home until the market improves, what are they really telling you? What does “better” mean? If they could find the right buyer would they sell now? The information behind this objection is that they (or the real estate agent currently working for them) have been unable to find a quality buyer willing to pay the price they want to sell their home for.
This means that if you can convince them that you’re the agent or ISA who can find them the right buyer willing to give them the price they want, you’ll be able to effectively close the on the call and set the appointment.
Conclusion
As a real estate agent or inside sales agent, your job is to try to produce the best possible outcome for your client. To do this, you first have to get to the heart of what their desired outcome is. Once you understand that, you then have to determine yourself if you think it would make sense for them to continue on their current path or if you can offer them a better one, given their desired outcome.
Learn all you can on the call, ask questions to gain the necessary information to understand their situation, calmly and confidently handle the objection, close on your call.
