Serving Buyers:
Help Them Make The Right Decision
Serving buyers is more than just helping them find the home they think they want.It also means considering other possibilities that they may not have thought
about.
Go Deeper...Learn Even More About Your Clients
Once clients have been qualified and you have been hired, you are ready take the next step in serving buyers.Before starting to search for suitable properties, take the time to conduct an in-depth interview of your clients.
This interview is not intended to confirm what you already know about these clients.
Nor is its purpose to re-qualify them.
By conducting a more in-depth interview, you can learn more about satisfying your clients.
Specifically, you will want to learn how open your clients are to possibilities that have not been discussed.
Will they insist on
the criteria they
told you?
Or will they be open to acceptable alternatives?
Which criteria must they have in a new home?
Why are these criteria important?
Or will they be open to acceptable alternatives?
Which criteria must they have in a new home?
Why are these criteria important?
Certainly in serving buyers, it is important to know what they want.
It is just as important to know why they want it.
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Knowing why specific criteria are important offers more flexibility in finding suitable properties for your clients.
Serving clients also involves knowing which of their criteria are optional.
These are the features that would be nice to have but are not necessary.
Absence of features will not prevent the buyer from making an offer.
If however the features are there, the property is more attractive to the buyer.
Even though your clients may know exactly what kind of home they want, properties that meet these exact criteria might not be available.
By understanding how open your clients are to new possibilities, you can identify and suggest alternative properties if they don’t find exactly what they are seeking.
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Go Wider...Broaden The Choices
Once you learned more about what your clients want and why they want it, you can start researching properties for them.But in serving buyers don’t just search the criteria that they specified.
Include in your search areas and properties that might meet their needs and wants, if not their criteria.
For example they may
want to live in a
specific area because of the ease of commuting to work from that
location. In this case, the ease of commuting is probably more
important than specific location. Similarly, clients may specify a neighborhood because of a school, shopping, or other some other feature.
Try to avoid becoming so narrowly focused on the features that clients specify that you miss the benefits that seek from these features.
By all means show your clients properties that best meet their stated criteria.
If they see a property they like and are prepared to buy, help them prepare and submit an offer.
If however, they do not see a property they like well enough to buy, tell them about alternative properties that you have researched.
Explain how these properties can also meet their needs. Easy commute, good school shopping etc.
By expanding the search criteria you add quality and value to your service as you continue to help your buyers find their new home.
Another way of adding value to your service, is to provide sound reliable information to your clients. But try to avoid just duplicating what your competition offers.
Instead of simply offering your own version of the same mortgage information as everyone else in your market uses, why not go outside your market to see how other people provide similar information.
For example, here is how Abacus Finance Ltd, a New Zealand company, describes its mortgage services.
What can you learn from this approach that you can apply to distinguish your mortgage information from the competitors?
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What Next?
Even with expanded search criteria, it often turns out that serving buyers does not always result in an quick and easy purchase.Prospective buyers do not always find properties they are prepared to purchase.
At this point, involve your clients in deciding the next actions to be taken.
Appropriate action could include changing any or all of:
- criteria for property to be purchased
- clients’ time frame
- the nature of your service
Whatever the action to be taken, make sure your clients understand and agree with what will happen next.
If your clients decide not to proceed with purchasing a home, respect their decision, as difficult as it may be, with the prospect of a lost commission.
With your clients' permission, keep in touch with them as if they had purchased.
Just because they didn’t purchase at this point, it doesn’t eliminate their lifetime value or remove them from your client pipeline.
At some point they may change their mind and hire you to help them find a new home.
Also even though they may not have completed a purchase, they might still refer others to you.
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