Posted on 17/09/2021 by pat

Sellers are savvy and will do their research before selecting an Estate Agent.

Although your high street presence will help to raise your profile as well as being “local” will attract new business, sellers are clearer these days about what they want from an Estate Agent.

Therefore, it helps to know what home sellers want but also how to win their hearts and minds.

Let’s delve into the top 6 things your prospective sellers want from you as an Estate Agent.

1. Do your prospective sellers know the value of your service?

Some sellers may want to negotiate your fee and rather than focusing on price, be sure to be armed with all the features and benefits that come from using your Estate Agency. Knowing your value proposition will greatly benefit your sales and marketing strategy, and help improve the chances of getting new clients

You’ll also want to add that your service is highly personalised, you have a strong sales team that sells houses like theirs all day, every day.

Come across as the safe pair of hands and you’ll win that new business.

If you are unsure of what your value proposition and USP is, it will benefit you to carry out two actions:

1. Competitor Analysis - The goal of competitor analysis is to give you a better understanding of your competition, their strengths and weaknesses, and how they operate in the market. By knowing your competition better, you can make more informed decisions about how to market your business and what strategies to use in order to be successful.
2. SWOT Analysis - Swot analysis is a technique used by businesses, organisations to help them identify and evaluate their internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as external opportunities and threats.

2. How is the selling price determined?

We all have heard of the Estate Agents who deliberately give optimistic valuations, to win new business and to lure sellers into a false sense of security.

And the seller is sold on the idea that they will achieve a higher price with this Estate Agent, only for them to reduce the price a few weeks later following a lack of viewings.

Of course you aren’t that Estate Agent! But your prospective seller doesn’t know that.

Reassure them that you give realistic prices and take into account the seller's objectives around price.

3. How will you sell their home?

This is where you can really show off years of experience, local knowledge and share your all singing and dancing marketing plan to sell their home.

A point on your marketing plan- sellers may expect their home to have some online presence whether that be on a portal, through social media or Facebook advertising.

And if you are an Estate Agent that is ahead of the game you will naturally have an email nurture journey that includes marketing new properties - so be sure to tell them that.

And a high five to you for creating and managing the email nurture plan!

Perhaps you’re an even savvier Estate Agent and actively call people on your list that are interested in buying a home or moving.

If you have a CRM system that captures when people are planning to move, the calling experience could be very fruitful indeed.

And the perfect reason to keep in touch with people on your list, don’t you think?

Will details of their property be shared with your colleagues?

They just want to know that you are not the only person in the office that can talk enthusiastically and with knowledge about their property.

Let sellers know that there are a team of highly experienced call handlers that will be as clued up about their property as you are.

When can prospective buyers make enquiries? Prospective sellers will want to know if you are open on weekends.

If you are able to open outside of the Mon-Friday 9-5pm you will naturally be more accessible to potential buyers.

Even if you can’t open 7 days a week, is there a voicemail facility that means that messages are picked up within 2 hours Monday - Sunday from 9am - 5pm?

Seems unrealistic? It might just be the edge you need to win new business.

In addition to your opening hours for prospective buyers, let them know your own working hours, when you are available and if there is any flexibility around that.

4. How quickly will their home sell?

And another thing they want to know (but may not ask at the enquiry stage) is how often do you achieve the asking price?

These are very important questions and as an Estate Agent share the evidence to back up any statements you make in response.

Based on your answers, some sellers will compare your performance against other local Estate Agents.

5. Trust

Sadly, if you were to ask the general public what they thought of Estate Agents, not all the replies would be positive or charming!

But of course, you are different! So show them how you do things; in an open and consultative way.

In the interests of transparency let prospective sellers know what their rights are around entering into a contract with you. And what their obligations are under the contract.

Many sellers will thank you for pointing out what their options are, also in relation to what they could do if they want to market with an additional Estate Agency at a later date.

Having these conversations early on could save a lot of awkwardness and confusion down the road.

6. How will disagreements be managed?

There will always be clients who will let you as their Estate Agent take the lead in selling and doing the property deal, because you are the expert.

But the seller’s relationship can break down, which is often where an Estate Agent can earn a bad reputation.

To minimise this from happening, let sellers know that you are always looking for ways to keep them happy and that you welcome continual feedback. And of course you will address any concerns as soon as they are brought to your attention

A potential disagreement could stem from how you would manage a property that wasn’t selling as quickly or at the price the seller expected?

Have a plan in place as to what you would do in this scenario. And better still let the seller know in advance of taking on their new instruction.

In summary, any prospective seller has to have trust and confidence in you and your Estate Agency.

Show that you can offer constructive, unbiased advice and take the time to understand what clients want is the most successful way for a prospective seller to seriously think about instructing your Estate Agency.

Will you be implementing any of the suggestions in this blog?

I’d love to know if you are!

Are your call handlers and sales team as skilled as they could be in phoning people on your database? If not, training sales teams is one of our many specialisms and we’d really like to show you how you can achieve success in this area.

Get in touch and let’s talk about how you can win more instructions.