Real estate professionals are constantly meeting new people and making strong first impressions. Sometimes these impressions are good and sometimes those impressions are not so good. Whether you are meeting a new potential buyer or seller or even meeting with a client to talk strategy, you must communicate your ability to help these clients within the first few minutes you meet them. You need to lead the conversation with a balance of content, connections, and questions.

Let’s drill down those three components:

Content – Always prepare for meetings. That means doing your research to obtain the data needed for the conversation or coming to the meeting with an agenda. These indicate you are prepared to speak to their particular situation and have a plan. Content is required to instill confidence.

Connection – This would be the schmoozing or the fun factor you bring to the meeting as appropriate. Strong listening, affirmation, and visual observance are all important components of connecting as is remembering details you have discussed in the past.

Questions – Although when we think of a presentation, we think of one-sided delivery, the best personal presentations (such as a listing presentation or meeting with a buyer the first time) are a combination of your content as well as questions that you ask throughout to get information on their specifics. Strong listening skills are needed for the best questioning. Picking up on clues and asking more questions when the buyer or seller hesitates helps you get to the root of what is really going on and how you may best be of service.

For example, say you receive a call from a past client homeowner who has been thinking about moving for a while, but they are reaching out to you because they learned that their neighbor just sold their home for an enviable price. You set the appointment two days from now. What do you need to do in that two days to prepare yourself for this meeting? First look for the clues. You should brush up on pricing in the neighborhood to make sure the seller may be able to get the price desired (you don’t have all the information yet because you haven’t seen their home recently, but you can come to the meeting with some data as well as neighborhood trends), you will need a list of questions that need to be answered (when might they sell and where are they planning on moving), and you should check your notes about things like how old their kids are now so if the conversation veers off in that direction, you can remain engaged.

Too many real estate brokers find themselves mastering one or two of these skills but very few ever master all three. If you find yourself losing listing presentations or not being able to connect with someone new you meet the chances are that you haven’t applied all three skills in your conversation or presentation.

The best presentations are those where the client feels listened to, they have an open forum to ask questions and be heard and they are provided with strong data and visuals to help them make sound decisions. The biggest mistake brokers make is they rely too much on their personalities to win clients over when it is the combination of all three skills that clients really respond well to.

Make sure that you carefully examine the balance between your connection skills, content skills and your ability to ask questions to get the information you need to better help your clients. Strong presenters don’t just present. They interview, supply data and visuals and they listen intently and watch body language. The best personal presentation you will ever make is the one that encompasses all of the above. Be a leader in your presentations by utilizing your first five minutes to incorporate all three components.

Source: The Real Estate Zebra Blog