Real Estate Deals: How to Get a 90 Percent Close Rate

Next time you’re out and about, take a minute and observe a sales transaction for a while. Watch what happens at the first contact – how the salesperson opens the conversation, how the customer reacts to the salesperson, and how the conversation moves along. Does it look like the customer is there on purpose? Does it look like the salesperson has to try very hard to make the sale?

Then watch for the close. When you’re selling something, it’s all about the close. That’s true whether you’re selling cars, houses, or services. Everything rides on that one moment when that person decides to move ahead and work with you. That’s the moment you know that you closed the sale.

Here’s the question: At what point did the salesperson look ready to close the sale? Was it at the beginning of the conversation, after the encouragement of hearing the customer’s interest, or right when the customer was about to walk out the door?

When we go out to meet with prospective sellers, our goal is to get the deal (or close the sale) at least 90 percent of the time. That means, on nearly every new appointments, I go in there expecting to walk away with a deal. How can I believe this – and, more importantly, how can you believe this?

By branding our company and positioning ourselves in the area as the expert on short sales, we already have half the battle won. When it comes to meeting a potential client for the first time, there’s no selling taking place. Our gourmet marketing makes selling easy!

Take a look at these posts to learn about branding and positioning. You need a message, you need a way to get that message out, and you need to be consistent about it. Everything you have done to create a brand for your company and position that company in the market around you is done with the end sale in mind. You are basically pre-selling your professional services, and that’s what opens the door for you.

Once the leads start coming in and you meet with someone who is in trouble with their mortgage, you have to break through what we call their Ceiling of Uncertainty, which occurs when individuals know, without a shadow of a doubt, that they have a real estate problem, but feel paralyzed when it comes to finding a solution. They cannot seem to break through this barrier no matter whom they seem to talk with. They ask themselves questions like: “Who can I trust?” “Where do I look?” “Can I sell it?” “Can I afford to keep it?” “What should I do?”

You have to understand that people facing foreclosure have been bombarded with phones calls from their lenders. They have been inundated with marketing materials from investors and attorneys. How do they make the decision to commit to doing business with you and selling their prized possession, their house, to you?

It may not be easy at first, but you can help them through it. By giving the straight facts and taking the time to teach about the foreclosure process, you gain trust. In essence, your goal at that point is to educate and inform, and if it looks like there’s going to be a way to help, you move on it. That educational information is part of what we call the Positive Results Conversation. Read more about that here.

Once the Positive Results Conversation has taken place, we create the Hope-Filled Blueprint. Each situation is different, and only through thoughtful dialogue can a solution be created. At this stage we will create a blueprint for their future, and we work with the seller to put together a game plan that we know will help the homeowner. Before you know it, you have closed the sale.

Establish your business message, get it out there, and learn how to communicate it in a way that helps the seller see the light at the end of their financial tunnel. If you can be ready to close the sale before you even talk to the seller, you can have a 90 percent close rate. And that, my friends, is where you get your positive results and begin to make money.