Are you making these 4 sales mistakes?

It is no secret that real estate is a competitive industry, with other brokers speaking with the same landlords and tenants as you are. So, how can you ensure you are staying ahead of the competition and closing those deals?

Here are 4 sales mistakes you should avoid at all costs if you want to be top of your game:

1. Not Qualifying Your Leads

Both tenants and landlords alike will have specific criteria when it comes to looking to buy, rent or sell a property. Ensuring you get as much information from both parties will make it much easier for you, as the agent, to match the right tenant to the right property and provide the best service to both parties. 

So, what can you do to improve your qualification skills? It can be tough to get information out of a client during the initial call stage, as you have yet to build a relationship and gain their trust, so first and foremost, get to know your client. 

Once you have done the initial introductions, spend a minute or so building rapport. How was their weekend? Have they had a busy day? How has work been this week? Simple questions like this can often lead to your client giving you snippets of information about themselves that may be useful later on. Having an informal chat about non-business-related things can make your client feel at ease to share additional information with you. 

When it comes to qualifying, it is important that you don’t come across as robotic to the client. This can make them feel like they are taking part in a phone survey, and they are likely to end the call a lot quicker, resulting in a lack of information for you. Clients need to want to share the information with you and feel comfortable doing so. Asking open-ended questions makes the qualifying stage of the call flow more naturally and seem more like a general conversation.

Make your questions relevant to ensure you get the right information. It could be as simple as ‘What are your non-negotiables?’ If a client says a balcony is a must, you won’t take them to see a  property without one. If a landlord is looking for a single-tenant, you won’t put an offer forward for a family of five. This saves both you and the tenant time and leads to you only showing properties suitable for the client. 

Of course, enthusiasm and passion about your properties are vital when engaging with your clients, but remember to talk less and listen more. Asking relevant questions and careful listening gives you the best chance to match the right tenant to the right property. Getting the jitters when cold calling prospects? Take steps to overcome them here.

2) Not doing your research

You will always get those salespeople who genuinely believe they could sell snow to an Eskimo with no background knowledge needed. However, your clients are savvy, and they have resources available to confirm if what you are telling them is true, so inadequate knowledge could mean losing sales. 

So, you need to know your stuff. Not just about the property but about the surrounding areas too. Knowing the unit inside out gives you a competitive edge, and it’s the small details that make a big difference to your clients. How many square feet is the unit? Does it have enough bathrooms? Is the building old? When was the AC last cleaned? Find out as much as you possibly can from the landlord, the building security and the maintenance. These small, seemingly insignificant details are what will make you stand out in the market. 

When it comes to knowing the area, you can tailor these details to your specific clientele. For example, if you are working in a villa community dealing with families, be sure to know what schools are around, what children’s facilities are close to the property, and if there are any social children’s clubs run in the community? Where is the nearest supermarket? ATM? Petrol station? Again, it may not seem like a huge deal but throwing in these minor details when showing a property could be the difference between you closing the deal or another agent.

3) Not being organised

A good salesperson goes into every day with a solid plan in place. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail! The role of a real estate agent is so varied that you need to be on top of every aspect. If you have viewings booked in, make sure that you leave yourself enough time to travel from the office and between properties. Arriving early to your viewing gives you time to ensure the property is in good condition for the viewing, and if there are any issues, you can have them resolved before the client arrives. 

If you need to replenish your stock, prepare your call-out session accordingly to attack it with full steam ahead. Know what you are looking to achieve, prepare your data and read any existing notes before making your calls. Adding notes after every call helps you keep on top of stock coming available in the near future, and physically writing this in a diary that you check daily will ensure you never miss following up on a lead. 

Speaking of following up, make sure you are keeping in contact with your existing clients. The deal may be done, but your work is not. Sending a message a couple of weeks after the key handover to see how your client is settling in will go a long way. Providing great service throughout the entire process is the best way of ensuring clients will not only do repeat business in the future but will also recommend you to friends and family. Referral business is the easiest way to do business so spending that little more time with your existing clients, adding value and a personal touch to the sales process, gives you a higher chance of being referred. 

You also have the opportunity to ask these clients to leave a review about you online. And what do most people do before they try a new product or service? They read reviews online! 5 stars on Google goes a long way for an agent, and the more of these you receive, the higher you will be rated on Google searches. 

4) Not maximising your resources

There are many ways to generate leads and convert these leads to clients, but are you really making the most of the resources available? If you have a solid database to call through, are you ensuring you reach as many people as possible? Do you have a tried-and-tested script in place to make a killer sales call? If not, you need to pick up the phone and see what works for you and what doesn’t. 

When you have an agreement in place to market a property on behalf of a landlord, make sure you are generating an attention-grabbing listing that will rank highly and the portals and get maximum exposure. If you have access to a professional photographer or camera to get the best pictures possible, make sure you accentuate the key selling points in the description. 

Same with viewings, make sure you know what the client is looking for and point these out as you show the client around. As well as property portals, are you using social media to showcase your services? With over 4.2 billion active users, social media is a cost-effective way of reaching as many people as possible. It’s free to create an account and takes very little of your time to produce engaging content for your target audience. Working with colleagues can also help you reach double the amount of potential clients and increase the volume of deals done. Win, win for everyone!

So, if you are looking to grow your career in real estate, join Betterhomes, the biggest real estate agency in Dubai.