By being a listener and leader, you can help sway sellers — you just need to know how.
Hey there, JP here. We’ve reached the 3rd and final article in my 3-part series about building instant rapport with sellers.
Missed a post? You can find part one here and part two here.
I’m sharing all the goods that I learned from my buddy Shaun McCloskey a bunch of years ago. The info is just as valuable today as it was back then.
Now, I want to get right to the 3rd and final way to sway sellers…
Play different roles.
Throughout the course of the conversation — in which you’re mirroring, modeling, miming, and asking open-ended Qs — we’re going to play different roles.
There are 2 different roles that we typically play:
- The listener.
- The leader.
And there’s a time to be one vs. the other.
When we first start the conversation, we want to be the listener because we haven’t built a relationship yet. We need a relationship before we can start giving advice.
We start to build a relationship with people as we’re asking open-ended questions. As the homeowner is answering more of the questions, they’re starting to feel more open to us. They’re starting to feel like they have more of a relationship with us, even though they may not know much about us yet… because they’ve been talking about themselves.
But, they’re now building a relationship and rapport… and getting this situation where it needs to be so we can then turn around and be the leader.
Here’s what I mean…
In the beginning of the conversation, we start out as the listener. We’re asking those open-ended questions. We’re allowing the homeowner to respond. We’re listening. That’s all we’re doing.
We’re not giving any advice yet. We’re not telling a homeowner what they should have done differently. No, we’re simply asking open-ended questions and we’re listening to their response.
That’s it.
Once we’ve listened, at some point the homeowner is going to want us to turn from being a listener into a leader. Because they’re going to want to know: What do I do about this situation?
And there’s a bit of an art to this, you’ll feel out when the time is right for you to gently switch roles… make your best judgment call. The more you do it, the easier it is to time it right.
Once you feel like they’ve opened up to you enough, you can change roles to become the leader. The homeowner is looking to you to not necessarily make decisions for them, but they want advice from you.
They’ll want to know what they should do.
At that point, as the leader of the conversation, you start to give people what their options are.
Now, when I give people what their options are, I never talk anyone into or out of anything. That’s why I love this business… I don’t feel like a slick/sleazy salesperson. I don’t even need to be good at sales…
All I have to do is let people know what their options are at that point when I become the leader, and then I let them make a decision.
Now, if I’m going to give any advice — the only way I do it is by saying: “Here’s what I would do if I were in your situation, but I’m not in your situation, you are. So, Mr. and Mrs. Homeowner, ultimately, you’re going to have to make the decision on what to do in this case, but here’s what I would do…”
I sometimes even reword that to say, “If my mother was in your situation, here’s what I would tell her to do. But again, you’re not my mother, so you’re going to have to make your ultimate decision. But here’s what your options are and you decide.”
I’ll say it again — that’s why I love the business. I don’t ever have to talk anyone into or out of anything. I just simply present them with their options and let them choose.
There you have it…
3 fundamental keys to building instant rapport
When you use those methods — and you don’t make people feel like you’re selling them on something — you’re just mirroring and modeling… asking good open-ended questions… and then changing from the listener to the leader…
You’re building that instant rapport.
And, you’ll get to the point where when it comes time for your seller or banker or whomever to make decisions, they’ll make those decisions much more freely, much more openly and be on board with working with you even more.
Don’t wait. Start these methods with your very next conversation.