TheBusiness
Julian O’Dell is founder of TM Training & Development
TheDilemma
One of our challenges at the moment is getting buyers and sellers to make decisions: There is a lot of inertia in the market at present – any ideas on dealing with this?
JULIAN SAYS… The property market has remained relatively unchanged for some time in terms of many key performance measures. The bank base rate of interest has celebrated its third birthday, transaction levels have been similar for the same sort of period and property prices, depending upon which report you read, have been broadly stable for a good long while in terms of the national averages. A recent report ‘Lifeless Housing Market Lacks Direction’ summed it up in both title and content. “Prices in this three month period were 0.5 per cent lower than in the same period a year earlier.” Hardly worth writing home about. The media likes house price stories as they
always attract readers. The problem is the various reports are sourced from a wide base and end up contradicting each other – and sometimes even themselves. For those of us within the industry, these mixed messages may raise a wry smile or create a sense of irritation. For the wider public they perpetuate confusion and uncertainty as to where the market actually stands. Therein lies the reason for some of the lack
of housing market activity. People tend not to act unless they are ‘disturbed’. This means estate agents need to develop a new skill – the art of ‘disturbing’ the buyers and sellers out of the prevailing ‘wait and see’ mentality. Historically consumers were ‘disturbed into action’ by market forces – particularly rising or falling prices – now many sit on their hands in a state of inertia fuelled by the aforementioned media-driven confusion. In other words, “I am waiting to be un-confused before I do anything,” or put simply, “No action is better than taking action I am unsure of.” When I look back on my own house moves,
from 1984 through to last year, it is patently clear that those moves that went the distance were driven by a state of ‘disturbance’. My fi rst time buy was solely based on a fear of missing the boat, whilst a sale some years later was agreed with a smile despite the price being
38 ● July 2012 ● TheNegotiator
closer to work or to an ailing relative, or by the penalty of not seeing their grandchildren grow up or by continuing to live next door to noisy neighbours. If a negotiator can establish the perceived
penalties and/or goals behind the possible house move, they can use that information to ‘disturb’ the customer into taking action. ‘Disturbing’ customers is a higher level skill and is built upon a strong foundation of broad industry knowledge. If a customer simply thinks you are trying to cajole them into increasing their off er; reducing their price; putting their property on the market now rather than next year or moving out into rented accommodation to break the chain simply so that you secure a bit of business for yourself, your suggestions will fall on deaf ears. However, if the customer is suffi ciently
“Estate agents need to develop a new skill – the art of disturbing.”
many thousands of pounds less than I paid for it prior to the early 1990’s price plummet. The smile was linked to the fact that another week or two and even more of my precious equity would have evaporated. There is an old adage in selling – ‘Emotion
creates motion’. In other words where there is an underlying emotion, people will move. Agents have to identify those clients and customers who are motivated and what the true nature of that motivation is. Customers act to achieve a goal and/or to
avoid a penalty; for example, people are driven to move by the goal of giving their children a better lifestyle/safer environment or by fear of fi nancial loss. Equally, house buyers may have a goal of making their life easier by living
convinced by your knowledge, authority and advice, you are far more likely to succeed. Confi dent salespeople will use carefully worded questions to gently get the customer to think about the repercussions of not taking action. “What will happen if you miss out on that
property…?” “As you’ll know, there is 30 per cent less
property for sale now than there was fi ve years ago…” “What will the implications be if house
prices do fall this year…?” “I would hate to see you reach a situation
where…” “Are you confi dent that you will secure a
better off er than this one…?” “No doubt you’ve read about the reduction
in the number of house sales in recent years…” “What would be the impact if you were still unsold at the end of the year?” The market demands exceptional sales
people rather than order takers or polite dispensers of information. The skill of ‘disturbing’ customers sets the best agents apart from their competition and gets results. Do not disturb at your peril! ●
www.thenegotiator.co.uk
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