Over the years, through focused preparation and hours and hours (and even more hours) of practice...I was able to have a fairly high listing presentation to listings taken ratio.  Most agents will have an average of a 25% closing rate, better than average would be 50%, and the top agents would be converting upwards of 70-80% of the appointments they go on.  What is interesting here is if you take...say...10 appointments and each one is going to payout $6000 CGI, the difference between having average skills and above average skills is an additional $18,000 for the top listing agent - for the same amount of time! Repeat this a handful of times over the course of a year and you can see how you’re leaving, at least, $100,000 on the table - or putting in your pocket!

Here're six benefits you can have when you commit to pre-qualifying 100% of your listing appointments, 100% of the time.

1. Flushes out what's really going on - I like to use this example when I am teaching agents about pre-qualifying the seller.  First, let’s think about what process a doctor follows leading up to a surgical procedure.  Typically, the patient is asked a series of questions; various tests may be run, and we’re told not to eat/drink anything, in most cases after a certain time the day before the surgery.  WHY?  To prevent you from dying or having serious complications.  The doctor is “flushing out” what is going on with the current state of your health. This is exactly what we’re doing when we pre-qualify the seller.  We are asking a series of questions to understand what is going on - the things that are obvious and those things that aren’t as obvious. We’re doing the same thing the doctor is with an intention to take into consideration all factors to allow us to determine how to move forward, if we’re moving forward and what issue may come into play. Simply put, we’re getting prepared for surgery - in this case; it’s not life/death, and it is in most cases the largest financial transaction the seller is trusting you to take them through successfully.

Imagine this - what would it be like to go to a doctor and they don’t don’t ask any questions? They don’t order any lab work and just say “ok, see you in the morning” what would you do?  We’d question what’s going on right? Here’s the thing, the seller doesn’t know any better and when we’re not following this process (knowingly or not) we taking them down a similar path.

Over the years when I teach agents how to do this I often hear things like “what if they get mad that you’re asking questions” or “what if they don’t have the time” here’s what I say, number 1, that in itself is telling you something and number 2 who’s in charge here? You’re the doctor and know what’s best for your patient to get their desired outcome.

2. Gives you leverage to close the sale - Exactly! How many times do you go to a listing appointment and attempt to close for the signature and find it difficult? Have other things come up that hadn’t come up to that point that leaves you wondering what to say?  Maybe all of a sudden the seller starts backpedaling on you with comments like “well, I can just keep the house” or “if we can’t ____ then I guess we will just not sell the house” if you haven’t come across this yet, it’s a matter of time until you do.  What is key to remember here is when you pre-qualify at a high level, you essentially are (as we said a moment ago) FLUSHING everything out which doesn’t give the seller anywhere to “hide”: so to say.  You asked the questions, have all the information, and now that is what you can use as leverage to close for the signature. Jody, let’s look at it this way...imagine you have a large boulder sitting before you...it weighs approximately 100 pounds - with no tools - I ask you to move it forward about 10 feet. What would you say? Exactly, that would be quite a challenge.  Now let’s say I gave you a stick that was about 3 inches in diameter and 7 feet long and I said “go ahead and wedge that in between the ground and boulder and move it forward” what would happen? (snap)  Correct, what I want you to recognize is the stick was the information you normally have going out to list a home - some and not all there was to know.  Now let’s do this...I am going to give you a rod made out of steel, same thing, 3 inches in diameter and 7 feet long. What do you think may happen when you wedge that between the ground and the boulder? (could get it to move forward with less resistance? Yes...) The reason is that you have more in depth information and as a result of more “leverage” to move the process along.  It’s a fact that it’s next to impossible to close for the signature if we don’t have the leverage to work with. If you find yourself having this come up, check in with yourself and ask "am I getting all the information I can possibly get to be in a position to close the listings I go on?"

3. Helps you determine personality style - By going through your pre-qualifying script, not only doing you get to build rapport before you arrive - you have an opportunity to get to know the seller better.  With some practice, you will be able to pick up on behavioral traits and or tendencies show up during the conversation. If you don’t pre-qualify and just get on and off the phone quickly, you are missing out on valuable information that your competition could be taking advantage of (I was) which gives them a competitive edge over you. To really do this a high level you want to have some level of awareness of the most common personality styles.  If we use the DISC, D, I, S, C system you’re likely to be able to zero in on a few things that come up which will help you determine how to communicate with the seller in the most effective manner. Some simple examples of this may be if you determine the seller is really to the point/bottom line oriented and showing low emotions you are most likely seeing the D or dominant personality showing up. If you happen to pick up on the seller tends to talk a lot, fast and with a lot of enthusiasm, this suggests the characteristics of the I personality. Let’s say you notice the seller is calm, steady and very polite and agreeable; you are probably dealing with someone that leans more to the S style. Finally, in conversation you notice the seller comes across in a more deliberate, precise methodical manner, still low on emotion - this would suggest tendencies of a C personality style. We can also pick up on these tendencies based on one's occupation. D - Leadership/managers, I - People-oriented jobs like outside sales or teachers, S - supportive roles like nurses or administrative assistants and C’s would typically hold engineering jobs, pilots or pharmacist.  Again, all this to suggest you are getting more quality information by going through a pre-qualification process, having more in-depth dialogue with each listing appointment you go out on - to have the most favorable outcome.

4. Separates you from your competition & Demonstrates your professionalism - Many times after getting the listing contract signed, as I was heading out the door I would often ask the seller this question “what specifically was it that caused you to go ahead and list with me?”  I heard the same comments over and over again. One that came up almost every time was “I like you over the phone - you took the time to get to know what we were looking to do and asked a lot of questions and showed you cared/were interested in us, not just the sale” they’d go on to say “the other agents we spoke to were just interested in getting an appointment and were off the phone once we set up a time to meet.”  After hearing this over and over it was evident that I was beginning to win the listing on that first call during the pre-qualification process.  If we step back and compare a homeowner hiring an agent and a person looking to get their taxes done or finding the right attorney to represent them, one common denominator is present in all cases - the professional being hired is going to have questions they have to go through to know exactly how to proceed.  For whatever reason, in RE, we hear someone wants to list their home, and we get laser focused in setting the appointment and in the majority of cases that is all.  If you want to differentiate yourself from your competition, following an effective pre-qualification process will show the seller you are the true pro!

5. Take more listings on the first appt - Here’s a question to consider - of all the listing appointments you go on, how many are you getting signed/closed on the first appointment? If it’s less than 80%, you likely have room to improve your approach. It's a fact that your odds significantly DECREASE to get the listing if you leave he house without a signed listing agreement. The more information you have walking in the front door, the more you increase your odds of getting the listing agreement signed on the spot.  You either are in “discovery” while at the meeting with the seller, OR you can strategically use what you have flushed out in the PQ process to move the seller down a path to a buying decision to hire you.  We all base our decisions on two primary factors; they are pain and pleasure. It’s our desire to move AWAY from pain and move TOWARDS pleasure. It’s been proven we will do more to avoid pain than to gain pleasure.  So, I realize this is a more advanced strategy and yet, if you are at the top of your game or have plans to be there soon, this type of knowledge is going to have to come into play.  What we want to notice is as we’ve taken the seller though the PQ process, taken detailed notes and have uncovered the underlying issues or goals the seller has, you now can use this to get the seller to commit to working with you.  How? By using pain and pleasure to influence them to list with you. If you don’t PQ, you don’t have the information and therefore, can’t do this effectively.
6. Protects your mindset - How could PQ the seller protect your mindset?  Good question - here’s how.  Have you ever gone out on a listing appointment, not gotten the listing and ended up driving home or back to office feeling lousy? I have!  With these emotions comes some great questions/self-talk too...like..why did I ever get in this business?  This isn’t for me; maybe I need to get a real job?  OR you may have some really empowering thoughts like this - I’ll never be successful.   Will I ever catch a break...how am I going make my car payment.  You get what I am saying, not getting the listing can take it’s toll on you mentally and emotionally.  Now, let me stress there may be several factors that have lead to this outcome and just because you took the seller through a solid PQ process doesn’t guarantee you will take the listing.  There may be other areas of your presentation that need improvement - that isn’t what I am saying here.  What I want to emphasize is this - if the seller isn’t qualified, no one would get the listing - they don’t qualify.  The top agents in the business would get the same result. When you do a thorough PQ, you may have been able to uncover information and decided not to go on the appointment after all. This would have been much less of a blow to your mindset than all the time and effort made to go on an unqualified appointment. This doesn't encourage us to stick to our daily schedules, make our contacts each day and be out there proactively looking for the next sale. If someone happened to get the listing, it’s likely to be at the wrong price, not staged correctly or other variables that would prevent it from selling.  Here’s the point - if you are going out on unqualified appointments, leaving empty-handed and find yourself in this vicious circle of beating yourself up and having doubt set in - you can avoid this by committing to a PQ process before accepting the appointment.  PQ upfront will allow you to avoid falling into these self-defeating situations.

Vital signs (often shortened to just vitals) are a group of the 4 to 6 most important signs that indicate the status of the body's vital (life-sustaining) functions. Pulse, blood pressure, temperature, respiration rate are a few of these “vital signs” for life.

Appointments Set - Obviously, we all know that this is where the magic happens.  If we’re not getting face to face with people, it will be a challenge to sell anything.  Again, this all comes down to your annual sales goal.  If we take an agent looking to sell 24 homes in a year, we want to break down how many will be a seller side, how many a buyer side.  Let’s say 60% seller and 40% buyer. This would suggest we’d be setting a goal to close 15 listings (rounded up).  Ask yourself, how many listing appointments do you need to go on to get 15 to list with you?  If you are closing 50% of the listings you go out on you’d be setting a goal for 30 listing appointments. If you are closing 70%, you would be looking at approximately 21 appointments. As you see, when you have higher skills through practice and role-play, you can work less and make more!!  I always suggest adding in 10% for fall out (or what you know to be your true #’s or typical for your market). So, if you wish to close 15 listings, I would establish a goal for 17 to be safe. You can work the numbers the same for your buyer sides.  The key to this vital sign is to know the exact amount of appointments you will go on each week, month and year to meet/exceed your goals. The example used here if you are targeting 17 listing appointments breaks down to 1 appointment every 21 days.  (perspective) If you have any challenges with the math, I would reach out to your broker/manager or someone that can help you break down these details with you.

Written Contracts - Listings Taken/Buyer Agreements Signed -  I’d like to suggest a minimum standard here of 50%. What this means is for every appointment you go on, you generate a written contract at least 1 out of 2 times.  Again, this is a MINIMUM, not a goal.  The goal, with time, practice and as your skills increase, would be to get into the 80-90% range.  The reason I don’t say 90+ is the more you do this you will find you are going to turn business down. Not everything will make sense for you to pursue or always meet your business standards.

Contracts Executed - This is always a great feeling!  Making deals happen and helping your clients win in Real Estate.  It’s always good for at least one good fist pump.  Contacts written is just as it sounds, you wrote the contract, took the listing, a buyer rep agreement, or wrote an offer.  The contract executed is when you sold that listing or the offer is accepted as a result of your amazing negotiation skills.  What we’re looking for here is what percentage of what you are writing converts into an executed contract?  If we’re taking listings and they aren’t selling, why?  Is it the price? Condition? Location? Or all the above?  Are we writing offers that aren’t competitive? Why? Are you having a hard time carefronting the buyer and laying out the hard core facts of what it will take to get their offer accepted? Or could it be other skills that are getting in the way of you getting more deals executed?  This is the part of our business where a solid diagnosis can allow us to have more success.  Unfortunately, we often can’t see what is getting in our way and how a 3rd party can bring perspective to what we may have a blind spot around.

Closed Sales - As it relates to our goals, this is how many homes we are going to sell this year. Funny that this comes at the end as it’s really where it all starts. When I am coaching a client, we use this number to back into the other vitals we’ve gone over today.  I realize for some of us; all the “numbers” can be overwhelming and for others, it comes naturally.  Here’s what I want to emphasize if you don’t know your numbers it’s likely you will miss them 100% of the time.  That reminds me of a quote I saw years ago on a Michael Jordan poster.  MJ is standing on the free throw line, and the captions says “You will miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”  I added and “if you don’t have a target.”

Wrap up:

All this is designed to bring you a more peaceful approach to your year. Notice I said “peaceful” I know first hand there is nothing more stressful, frustrating and disempowering than to go out there everyday not really knowing if what you’re doing will work. Just as we opened with here...as it related to our health or vital signs indicate the status of the body's vital (life-sustaining) functions.  These areas we covered in this episode are your “business life-sustaining functions.  If you don’t have this figured out yet, don’t go another day without knowing.  If you were walking around with a life threatening condition, you wouldn’t just keep walking around with it. You would get to a doctor. You deserve to have a plan, work your plan and have a thriving business each year!