Comments on: Imagine If Everyone “Sold” This Way…

By: jackforde

jackforde — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:09:20 +0000

I couldn’t agree more…

By: Greg Eames

Greg Eames — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 09:42:18 +0000

I have been selling a lot of different types of services and products for most of my life now. And the single biggest thing that will influence a sale is whether the customer trusts the sales person or not. You can sell anything to anyone as long as they trust you to tell them the truth. Now here is the real catch, it does not matter if the sales person is trustworthy or not, of course it helps in the long run, but the buyer has to trust them in either case. The sales person has to establish trust and then has to keep it by not trying to hoodwink the buyer. You, as the sales person, never know what sources of information the buyer has access to, as illustrated by some of the above stories. Most people have access to the internet so probable have more information the most sales people. Sell the thing just get and keep the trust of the buyer.

By: jackforde

jackforde — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 11:03:33 +0000

@Bernie:

That’s a terrific idea. I’ll bet it exists on the high, high end of home sales… but today, when realtors have… er… a lot of free time on their hands to work on their business models, I see no reason why some enterprising soul couldn’t put something like this together. Less of a property sales service and more of a total property service manager. It wouldn’t take much more than creating a pool of sub-contractors in a kind of home prep care package.

By: Bernie

Bernie — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 02:35:16 +0000

The challenge is most realtors are only looking for a one time, front end sale. Imagine if they were to realize there was a tremendous amount to be made on the backend. They could become the hub not just for the sale of the home, but for all the services a new homeowner will need, i.e., carpet cleaning, A/C maintenance, plumbing. They could negotiate a 10% referral fee, and either pocket the money or pass it back to the person who buys as a pre-negotiated savings. Imagine the word of mouth or repeat business they would get!

In this case the realtor could line up all the service providers needed to get the house in shape, and sell it all as a package deal.

Hmmm…, the plot thickens.

By: jackforde

jackforde — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 11:34:48 +0000

@Hayes Thompson:

Great example… and it just goes to show you, Hayes, how important TRUST is in all seller-buyer transactions. It’s popular these days to identify ‘trust building’ as solely an online selling principle, but you demonstrate that well right here. The bottom line is that relationships are relationships… and never was anything sold honestly or well, in my opinion, without cultivating one first, with credibility being the cornerstone of how those relationships begin.

By: Hayes Thompson

Hayes Thompson — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 12:10:47 +0000

We tried to buy a property in UK, London all summer.

Having viewed around 30 flats and houses, put an offer in on three, and had one excepted to fall through at survey stage, we finally managed to buy.

How did we manage it? By avoiding the salespeople altogether. We saw the house on the net, drove up and the vendor happened to be outside and said ‘come on in’.

We’d suspected the agents had actually been getting in the way of the sales in these troubled times - and this kind of proved it for us.

The vendor didn’t bullshit us and even told us what they’d accept under the asking price (which was already a great deal under what the agent had recommended to them.)

Or so they said. Which brings me to your point of perceived value. We THOUGHT we were getting a good deal because we didn’t have to talk to unbelievable agents who just came across as con artists. Our salesperson (the vendor) had credibility.

If an estate agent can’t make a deal happen, what can they do? Nothing is often better than a bad something.