2016 PROSPECTING
Be a Magician by Making Your Prospects Reappear
Quite often you’ll have a hot buyer (HB) or a hot listing prospect (HLP) vanish into thin air. They won’t return your calls or respond to your emails. They just disappear even though they seemed so interested during the appointment. You can’t understand where they went. You must ask yourself 2 questions: “Why did this happen?” and “What can I do to avoid this in the future?”
The first step in understanding why this happened is to recognize that you are not the only priority on their list. They may have a strong interest in moving forward, but sometimes life just gets in the way. When this happens, it becomes your responsibility to maintain communication until buying or selling becomes a priority. Instead of assuming they’re not interested, make the assumption that they want to move forward and govern your activities accordingly.
The best way to avoid having buyers and sellers that disappear is to proactively deal with the situation before it happens. Use a third party story that compliments your client’s integrity and reinforces their commitment to treat you as a professional. Consider the following:
“John and Mary, I have to tell you how much I appreciate spending time with the both of you. It’s such a pleasure to be treated with the courtesy and respect you’ve shown me because you appreciate the effort I’m making to provide you with the highest level of service.”
“Occasionally, I’ve bent over backward helping people that don’t seem to appreciate my effort. I’ve even spent a great deal of time with people that just disappear and never even respond to my emails or phone calls after we’ve met. I’m sure you can appreciate how frustrating it is for me when I make that kind of effort and don’t hear back from people, don’t you?”
If your buyers and sellers are sincere about their interest, they will not want to be categorized as being disrespectful. By sharing your third party story, they are much more likely to communicate, even if they decide to go with another agent. Finally, when do you stop assuming they are still interested? The answer; don’t stop bugging them or communicating until they tell you to stop. The timing may not be right for a while.