Hey, Hey, are you in sales? And you want to know how to smash that glass ceiling. Do you want to make more money than you ever thought was possible? You're in the right place. My name's Sandra Carder. I've been in commercial real estate for over two decades, and I know how to sell. I'm going to teach you the habits, the formulas, the tips, the tricks, and the tools that you will need to be a superstar salesperson in whatever field you're in.
So, sit back, relax, tune in and listen to my podcast, million-dollar agent and let's smash some glass ceilings together. This episode is brought to you by M2 moringa. Hey, Hey million dollar agents at Sandra again, welcome to episode 18.
Oh my, wow I'm so glad to be back. I tell you why I haven't been able to record anything for the last week and a half, maybe a bit longer than that.
My house, my home, my home office is in the middle of a construction zone. So, I'm building my dream barn, which has been on my vision board. For those of you who listen to the other episodes about having a vision board. I've had this on my board for a while now, and I'm finally getting to build it, but man, is there a lot involved?
There are so many moving parts. Anyway, I'm here. I'm back, let's get on with episode 18, which is all about my favourite thing to do, which is closing deals, the most important thing you need to be able to do when you're in sales and when you do these things, you get such a kick out of it. You get such a buzz from closing a deal.
I walk away on an absolute adrenaline rush and on a high from doing a deal from closing the deal, knowing that deals done. It's kind of why we keep going with it and it keeps you motivated. So, let's get started, closing a deal really is the lifeblood of any sales role.
And if you can't close, then you may as well go and do something else. Go and get a desk job, go and get a job where you don't have to finish the process off for closing, you might be assisting somebody in sales and you might love that part of the process, but if you want to be a salesperson, closing is part and parcel for the job.
So, get used to it, get good at it and enjoy it, because it doesn't have to be a terrible part of the process, it's it can be really fun. And the more you do it, the better you'll get at it. There are five key approaches to closing. There's probably more than that, but there's five fundamental ones that I love and that are my go-to.
What are they? The first one is the now will never approach. The now or never approach is about creating urgency. If you're in property at the moment, this approach is fairly easy to use because demand is way higher than supply, particularly in commercial property, particularly industrial property.
But whatever industry you're in. If demand is higher than supply your approach now or never will serve you well. There are certain ways you can do now or never creating the urgency. It not a good idea to have an aggressive approach where you say to your clients, “if you don't buy this, someone else is going to buy this and you're going to miss out.” Don't do this. What you want to do is you want to go softly, softly, and sometimes people are not going to believe you because it's like real estate agents, car salesman, we're all kind of thrown into the same pool blanket thrown over us. We're all see perceived to be shonky and trying to do the deal.
Nobody trusts you until they know. But what you need to say to people is “look seriously the market is very, very firm and we do have a lot of interest. So, I would suggest that you move your hands if you don't want to miss out.” that might sound a little bit aggressive, but at least you're doing it nicely. You're not saying “YOU’RE GOING TO MISS OUT!”
make sure that you do these things. when demand outweighs supply, it works in your favour because people have what we call the FOMO effect and they don't want to miss out. They usually move their hands. And if they haven't done that and they've procrastinated and they haven't jumped on something because they've been hanging over the fence, speaking to the neighbour about it, or they've been talking to their accountant about it, or they've been umming and ironing about it or talking to grandma about it or whatever.
And then somebody else has beat them to the deal. They're going to be on their toes next time and you can look at that person with a look on your face and never say this, but the look of, I told you so, and make sure that they know that they're in a FOMO market and they need to move their hands. So it works in your favour and you might not get them on the first deal, but I can guarantee you're going to get them on the second one because they won't want to miss out.
So, this is the right time for. In a market that's not so firm where, there's less demand and a little bit more supply, perhaps that's probably a good time to auction a property. And why is that? The auctions create the urgency. There's a lot of hype and a lot of pressure and the vendors have had to pay money to take the property to auction.
But when the market is like it is now, there's absolutely no need to auction. You'll actually probably get a better price. And I've seen this in our market recently, you get a better price, not taking it to auction because the pressure's out and the buyers are there. They're there anyway and it opens up the market to more buyers because some people can't buy under auction conditions and some people just purely do not want to.
When it's like this market's really, really firm, no need to do. Because of COVID, regardless of whatever industry you are in supply is down because we can't get the stuff in. There is a limited amount of stock for supply. This means that whatever you are selling, whether it be couches, widgets, Coca-Cola, vacuum cleaners, whatever.
You're going to be able to leverage off this right now. This is a definitely a now and never approach market for closing. So great time to be in sales people because the hard work's really done for you, the urgency is a powerful motivator for people because, COVID has made everything hard to get.
People are really patient. I think C's taught people to be way more patient than they used to be. I mean, we are a generation of Instagram and we want everything instantaneously and we want everything, we want to be validated now. But when it comes to buying stuff, everything's a six-week waiting game and if not longer.
If you're buying a car right now and you want your dream car and you want it tripped up and you want everything on it, once upon a time, you go to a showroom and pick it up. Now you got to wait 9, 10, 11 months. We are becoming more patient, but we also don't want to miss out. So, people are putting the orders in and waiting so lovely, whatever industry you're in. How good is that?
I think we've got the gist of the now or never approach creating urgency, easy to do, particularly in this market. So, the next approach is the summary approach. This is where you're going to do it a little bit softer and you want to tell them all about what they're getting every single detail so that you're leading them into the yes.
I like to get excited about this approach. Not because I love the approach, but because some people just need more so than the FOMO effect because you have to adjust your methodology for different people. Don't be a one trick pony just because the market's good. There might be some people that will absolutely freak out under pressure when you try and push them because of urgency, you're just going to lose them.
You have to be able to read that person. And once you've established that they're really probably more suited to a softer approach, summary approach is a good idea. So how do I do the summary? Well, it would go a little something like “Hi, Joe. I just wanted to run through the property that we had a look at yesterday. This property is perfect for you and I can't believe we've actually found something that's going to match. So, what I'd like to do is I'd like to just go through what we would need on the contract. It'll be 850,000 plus GST. The deposit's going to be five, 5%. They want a 45-day settlement, but they're going to allow you 21 days to get your finance sorted. Now, is there anything else that you would like included to put in a contract? Well, I'm happy to get your solicitor to check it. I can do it in a draft format. If you just provide your solicitor's details, I'll send it through.”
Now you want your buyer to say at this point, “yes, please send it across.”
Once you've got them to that point, they're committed their boots and all, they know, in the back of their mind that the documentation processes started, they can actually relax. They can stop looking for a property. People use agents because their day-to-day business is not looking for properties.
It's laborious, it's time consuming, and it's not their main source of income. They don't want to do this. They want you to solve that problem. And once you've done that, and you've explained to them, you're going to take all the work out to their hands and you're going to go and run with it now, but most people are relieved and they're like handing the brains over and go, yes, please go. Your job is done.
Now, the third approach is the assumptive approach. That is making an assumption that the deal is going to happen. You're a hundred percent confident you're going to be assertive. You can almost be a little bit aggressive, but not go there. Now it's a combination of this summary approach and it's taking it to the next level. So, you've made an assumption that this is going on full steam ahead. You're not going to get a no. And you just finishing the deal off and you're asking the questions that are going to make it all lock into place.
So, you go with your summary. The price is this, your deposit is this, this is 45 days settlement. Can I please have your email address because I'm going to send you the contracts now via DocuSign so that we can sign this off. Can you also please transfer the deposit this afternoon? The amount is this, I will send you the trust account details for the deposit. So, the assumption of approach, you are their boots and all, but you are finishing that deal off. You are closing it off. This is a very, very nice place to be. My friend when it comes to closing deals.
Now the fourth approach is the sharp angle approach, and this is where the buyer is ready to buy, but they want to counter offer they want to have an additional to the offer that you may or may not have authority to provide.
So particularly with property, we don't always have authority to move the price. Sometimes when you're working on a project, there might be a little bit of leeway and where you can slice things off, but most of the time you need the vendor's permission to actually countersign or counter offer.
You need to navigate around that. And the best way to do that is to get the buyer onto paperwork onto contract so that you can negotiate with commitment. So, they've signed something they've put their money with their mouth is they've put a deposit down. They're ready to start the negotiation process.
They're committed to that particular property. They've stopped shopping. They've down tools. They're not online looking for something else. They want to get this one across the line. People don't often throw multiple offers into one particular property unless the market's really, really bad. And there's loads of stock online and they're making silly, silly offers.
So, uh, in this market, not going to. so again, if your buyer's ready to go and they want a counter offer, I would say, put the offer in writing. Let's get it into a contract and let's get it under the vendors' nose and start the process that way. Because that's not a that's a I'm ready to go, but I want these terms.
And if you're selling something else and they might want to discount, they might want 25% off the price, or they might want whatever, you need to really play with that unless you do have the authority, you need to go and seek management advice, et cetera, for the same thing. But you still want to talk, keep talking to that buyer because you know, they might still want it at the full price, but they're just testing their luck.
People do that. There's a little bit more to the sharp angle approach as an agent, and it can get a technical, and it does take a little bit of time to get to this point, but a very good agent will often be able to see the end result in their mind. And I call this the Bobby Fisher approach.
This is where you are manipulating both sides to get to the end result that you already know is going to happen. Now, whether it's a psychic ability, I'm not quite sure, but I can actually do this. I can tell you where a price is going to land. And I can make sure I'm one step ahead of each party on either side to get to that point.
So, this takes a bit of practice and there's a lot more to it than I can explain in a podcast. I do go through this in my training course though. And it's the Bobby Fisher effect. I'm not sure if I can actually use that term, but that's what I call it. And this is where you are one or two steps ahead of each party on either side so that you are.
Massaging the deal so that it comes together. Anyway, if you want to know more about my course, drop me an email at sandra@milliondollaragent.info and I can tell you how to sign up.
The fifth approach is the question approach to be a superstar agent. You have to be a really, really good listener, but what are we listening to?
We're listening to the right questions. We are asking the client. If you are asking the right questions, your clothes are going to be a lot easier because you will find their Achilles heel. You will also be able to work out pretty quickly, which approach is going to work the best for this particular client.
Again, do not be a one trick pony my friend. Do not get a script for your clothes that you use over and over again. You have to be adaptive. You have to be authentic and you have to be able to be relatable to that particular person, because every personality's different. And some people you need to catch flies with honey and the other people, you need to track them with a big net.
So, with the question approach, it' summarizing everything that's going to happen. And then letting that particular client take control, you want to say, does this deal cover all your needs? You want to let them speak about that? What else do they need? What other problems can you solve to get them across the line?
Does the timing work for you? Is there anything else you need to move forward? What do you need to move forward? Get them talking, get them, answering the questions. So that you, there's no room for them to move any further. They've told you everything they need. And then you can say, okay, if I get all of these things on paper, into a contract, are we ready to go?
Yes, sign, please sign here. So, it's about them taking control. And look, I'm not going to tell you which personality type suit, style, you have to work this out yourself and the more you do it, the easier it becomes. Now, I often find the urgency approach works with younger people because they are part of the Instagramers and they want things straight away and they understand that they need to move their hands and they all have a large dose of FOMO.
So, it works out well. If you have an older client, who's been around the block a few times, usually the questioning approach works the best because they're taking control and it's not their first rodeo. And they're going to tell you exactly what they want. So, let them do that. Don't drive them into an approach that clearly, they're not going to want to listen.
They don't want to hear that urgency approach. They know the market they're seasoned at this. You really need to switch hats a lot. Use the five approaches where you need to, don't become a one trick pony and don't work off a closing script. So, that's about it for episode 18. I'm just going to do a quick summary on the five approaches we've got the now or never approach, which is creating urgency.
We've got the summary approach. This is where you're telling them everything that's going to be in the deal and you're going to let them know this is all going into the contract and that's what's going to happen. We've got the assumptive approach where you're assuming that deal is done a hundred percent, you are just finishing it off and tying a big bow and tying the knot.
And sending them the contract, we have got the sharp angle approach where they're going to counter, they're going to hit you for a discount or anything additional that they want. It might be pallet racking. It might be whatever, but you need to still give the baby its bottle and get them on contract where they want to be.
So, you can start negotiations. This is getting their boots in. And finally, number five is the question approach where you, ask the right questions, let your client take control. Let them tell you what they need to close the deal. Let them put it out all out there so that you can just say, right, I'm going to do all of those things.
If we do this, have we got the deal closed and make sure that you listen to your client's needs and close that deal. Okay. So that's a wrap for episode 18. Thank you so much for listening. I really appreciate it. I also really love getting phone calls from people and emails. When they tell me that they're listening to my podcast and they're getting stuff out of it.
So, if you've done that and you know who you are, thank you so much. If you haven't drop me a line, please get in touch. It really just motivates me to keep going because I have so much to say, and I have so much to download and tell you my name's Sandra Carder. I'm a commercial real estate agent. You can find me on LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook under Sandra Carder commercial agent.
Keep selling hard. Don't be a one trick pony. Get your closing game ON and smash that glass ceiling.
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