Rules of Engagement for Realtors: Two Ways to Engage Prospects and Build Trust
When you became a real estate agent, you knew that you were entering a very competitive field. For every community there are multiple agents, all vying for the same handful of buyers and sellers. While experience and track record is important, you need to build rapport and establish trust as quickly as possible. This is especially true for younger, millennial clients with short attention spans and geared towards more instant gratification. Here are two keys to building the kind of lasting client relationships that keep your pipeline healthy and profitable:
Build an emotional ‘connection’. For most people, buying or selling a home is more than a business transaction. Finding ways to effectively engage emotionally with your prospects means getting to know them as people, not properties. Younger clients are ‘me’ oriented and expect to be listened to, not talked at. That means fine tuning your ‘active listening’ skills to learn what excites your prospects, right down to remembering the words and phrases they use. Instead of listing off all the recent properties you’ve sold, you can weave them into a narrative that engages the prospect, even using their own phrases to create that important emotional connection.
Tell your story from their perspective. Whether you are making an introductory video or meeting a client at an open house, avoid starting the conversation with “I”. Instead, ask open-ended questions that will help draw out the personalities of the people you are attempting to engage. Written introductions can paint a picture of what you do in a way that includes their vision as well. We found a good illustration of this in a recent blog on agentsboost.com, where marketing expert, Kathy Kliskey, gives the following example: “My name is Jane….I am a realtor. I can help you purchase your next property.” As contrasted with the more inviting “Home is much more than bricks and mortar. It’s the place where families grow and memories are made; the place we come to feel loved and safe. I will help open the doors to your new home. Hello. My name is Jane…”
As you get better at centering your communications around your clients and prospects remember too to communicate with them in their way. As more millennials enter your prospect pool, you’ll need to make sure you are are using the same tools as they are. That means making short videos, texting and making sure you have a ‘responsive’ website, which will adjust itself automatically for mobile access.
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GLTYR is a mobile multimedia content creation and sharing service for real estate professionals and other small business service providers to quickly engage and build trust with their customers. GLTYR makes it faster, simpler and less expensive to create multimedia ads than what currently exists today.