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5You Can’t AffordNot to Qualify!Ready to win more listings?Do you qualify your listings?6 “W” QUESTIONSMr. & Mrs. Seller,Has there ever been a time when you got an appointment, and you were so excited to get it, that youdidn’t qualify them first? You just showed up.1. What’s your goal?Have you ever just show up and no one else wasthere? Ouch!4. When would you like to be in?What about showing up, and not all the decisionmakers were present in the room? That’s not goodeither.6. What’s important to you in the agent andfirm that you choose to represent you?2. Where are you moving to?3. Tell me why you’re moving?5. What’s your plan B, in case this doesn’twork out?Has there ever been a time when you showed up,assuming something was going to happen, that youwere fired up about, and when you got there, yourealized, you’d been bamboozled? That it was goingin an entirely different direction?The answer is probably, yes, yes and yes. “Asthe market continues to heat up and you putthe previous strategies into action and getmore and more listing appointments, I wantto remind you, qualifying is an essential partof mastering your skills and being highlyeffective.”Why do most agents not qualify? Fear. “What if I aska question, what if I don’t look good, what if I say thewrong thing early? They called me; I’m just so happyto get the appointment, I don’t want to mess it up.”Or it’s excitement; “Woo Hoo! I’ve got one, I’m readyto go!”This saps energy, mojo, time and results in massivelost opportunity costs.WANT TO DISCUSS OR NEED HELP? CALL US AT 888.866.3377 OR GO ONLINE AT WWW.TOMFERRYGROUP.COM/INVENTORY

The following will arm you with the tools you need to qualify, increase conversions, drive up earnings, andoutlist the competition again and again Six easy “W”questions to helpyou qualify andwin more listingsbefore you goout on theappointment:2. “Where are you moving to?”What if they say, “We don’t know”Houston, we have a problem! Ifthere’s no motive to act, there’s apretty good chance you’re going toshow up and they’re not going tosign the listing agreement.3. “Tell me why you’re moving?”“Why” can be a conflict-basedquestion if you ask it with the wrongtonality. Why?If you say, “You’re moving toNewport! Tell me more about that.Why are you moving to Newport?”They’re like, “Actually, we’ve gotfamily there,” or we’ve got this andthat, whatever it is. Remember,the why also gives you their value,so you know their motive to takeaction.1. “Mr. & Mrs. Seller, what’s yourgoal?”4. “When would you like to be in?”“What’s your goal? Why are youselling the home?” “We want to gettop dollar, we want to move to here,we want to do this, it’s time for us toretire, we’re getting a job transfer,we’re downsizing, we’re upsizing,”whatever it is, “what’s your goal?”What’s your timing? When doyou guys want to be in Newport,best-case scenario?” “Gosh, we’dlike to be there right away, but wedon’t want to sell our house too fastand leave any money on the table.”All those are really good motivational thoughts if you’re a seller.5. “What’s your plan B, in case thisdoesn’t work out?”This is one of my favorite questions.“What’s your plan B in case thisdoesn’t work out?” “We could justrent the house out, because wedon’t owe anything on it, we’ve gotenough cash to buy the next one.”Uh-oh; now I’ve got a situation. I’vegot a condition. Not an objection,but a condition I might have toaddress, but I’d rather know thatgoing in, than discover it once Iarrive. That’s why I qualify.6. “What’s important to you in theagent and firm that you chooseto represent you? What’s mostimportant to you guys?”“We really want someone that’sgoing to out-market everybody, wewant somebody that’s going to holdit open seven days a week, we wantsomeone that is going to do it forzero percent commission.” Uh-oh.Warning, warning!I’m not going to respond to this.I’m going to listen. I’m going to payattention, and I’m going to alter mymarketing message in my conversation to match the needs of mycustomers. That’s why I qualify.How do you get really good at qualifying? Practice! But don’t practice on your leads. Find a friend, spouse orcoworker and practice. If you want constructive feedback on your question asking skills, call my office and booktime with a coach.Ask these questions on your next appointment, buyer or seller,and find out how much more information you can have to helpthat customer make a good decision and ultimately select youas the right agent for the job.WANT TO DISCUSS OR NEED HELP? CALL US AT 888.866.3377 OR GO ONLINE AT WWW.TOMFERRYGROUP.COM/INVENTORY

6Mastering Pre-ListingAppointmentsThose that really want to succeed it every time will recognizethe power of this law of contrast. It’s something you can dobefore every listing appointment, and done well will virtuallyguarantee the listing before you even meet the sellers.Remember we’re always competing, even when a friend calls and says, “Hey, we’re curious about thevalue of our home,” or “Hey, we’re thinking about selling.” We’re always competing. There’s always anotheragent. There’s always another brand. So never leave it to chance. Always do what it takes to guaranteewinning the listing.Obviously, we’re always going to pre-qualify every appointment to know theneeds, wants, desires, values, what’s important and what’s not important. Thenhere’s the big one. Send an email: a pre-listing appointment email to your meetingbefore you show up includes a few of the following ideas EMAILwill do. Prove to them you arethe best with these next fewkey marketing strategies.3. Proof of Success1. Thanks forthe OpportunityFor example; “Dear Eddie,Thanks so much for the opportunity. Really excited aboutthe chance to work with youagain, or to help you guys sellyour home. Want to reaffirmyou said you wanted to moveto X, you wanted to be there Yand what was important to youwas Z.”You really let the customerknow you’re listening andreaffirm their motivation.2. Marketing PlanRemember to stack the coolin your marketing plan – makethem “wowed” by what youIf you’ve had any sales in thatarea, if your company has hadany sales in that area, it’s alwaysgood to include a Googlemap showing all the differentsales that you made or simplya list of all the photos and allthe transactions you’ve beeninvolved in.For those objecting; “But Tom,I’m a brand new agent.” Goback to your office managerand say, “Where have wecompleted transactions? I’dlike to publicize those with theagent and the office’s permission, of course.” You want toshowcase success.Cultivate and showcase yourreviews too. Recently I wastalking with Marc Davison, agreat guy with Thousand WattConsulting. He and I weretalking about just on Yelp alonein his local marketplace therewere only six agents that wereactive on Yelp. I’m a bigger fanof Zillow or Trulia, Yelp is Okay,and LinkedIn is phenomenal.Bottom line is you’ve got tohave reviews.Here’s what Marc said. “When Idid the search, there were onlysix agents. There were only twoor three with any positive stuff.Who would you go with?” Thepower of reviews is so goodfor you.4. Shoot a VideoHere’s the closer; the big one.At the end do a video in frontof their house, where yougrab your phone and you say,“It’s Tom Ferry with BananaReal Estate. Really excited tointroduce you to my brand newlisting coming on the marketin the next two weeks.” Youassume the sale so aggressivelythat you record a video of youintroducing your new listing,their house, before it evencame on the market. If you’retech savvy, you take that videoand you embed it right ontoa landing page, which is theiraddress, ‘1234 Banana Street’and there’s the video.Now if you do all of this beforeyou get to the appointment,who do you think is goingto win? Who do you think isgoing to stand out? If you’recompeting, and we know wealways are, if you do this andanother agent just shows upand talks about what they needto do to get the house readyfor sale, who’s got the degreeof separation? Who’s got theadvantage? That’s what I wantfor you.WANT TO DISCUSS OR NEED HELP? CALL US AT 888.866.3377 OR GO ONLINE AT WWW.TOMFERRYGROUP.COM/INVENTORY

Marketing StrategyStrategy is more important than ever when goinginto a listing appointment today. To win the listingevery time there are two marketing strategiesyou’ll want to employ; ‘Stacking the Cool’ and the‘Law of Contrast’.Don’t go through all the effort to get listing appointments only to let yourself down and haveother agents out-market you.STACKINGTHE COOLThe first thing you want to do is set the stage. “Myjob, Mr. and Mrs. Seller, is to expose your home tothe highest number of buyers and their agents, andhere’s how we’re going to do it ”We’re going to Stack theCool, and we’re goingto list out every possiblething that you do, andunderstand that whileyou’re stacking the cooland showing them all thedifferent marketing you’regoing to do, you’re alsobuilding a case aroundyour value, which is goingto come up later in thecommission conversation.So the more you stack the cool, the more you showthem. “I’m going to do professional photography,have your own custom website, do a video, professionally stage the home, and, and, and ”Listen. You always need one or two things that youdo in your marketplace that either nobody elsedoes, or is a little bit special. So as you’re goingthrough and they’re saying, “Yeah, I kind of knoweverybody else does that stuff,” you’re stacking it.You get one or two that are like, “But wait; there’smore. We’re also going to.” and again, right,you’re standing out amongst a crowd. They’regoing to look and say, “Wow, you do so muchmore!”THE LAW OFCONTRASTThe real kicker is the Law of Contrast. When you say“professional photography”, you’re going to show,right out of the MLS, perhaps, how other agents dophotos, versus yours! You’re going to show otheragents market their properties online this way andyou do this and this and this, and you’ve got Xnumber of eyeballs (unique visitors) going to yourwebsite, plus the exposure of Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com and your company’s website. You’re separatingyourself from the competition.I don’t want you to lose a single listing this yearbecause you didn’t stack the cool in terms of yourmarketing and then compound it by creatingcontrast between how you do it and others do it.So think about it. What will you do differently? Howbig is your stack the cool?I’ve had many agents say to me, “Tom, today thereality is when I’m talking to somebody aboutgetting their home sold, it’s about being pricedcorrectly and hitting enter into the MLS, and boom,it’s got multiple offers.” But that’s not how you winthe listing.That may be the reality in the heat and the frenzyof the market, but you win the listing by creatingvalue, saying “I do more than anybody else. Here’show I do it. This is why I do it, and this is ultimatelywhat’s in for you.”So think about it; Stack the Cool and Law ofContrast, contrasting what you do versus whateverybody else does; and we know who does itbetter.That would be you!So what are going to be those one or two thingsyou do separately and differently, and how will youdemonstrate you versus the competition to ultimately have you stand out and win every appointment you go on?WANT TO DISCUSS OR NEED HELP? CALL US AT 888.866.3377 OR GO ONLINE AT WWW.TOMFERRYGROUP.COM/INVENTORY

7Smart Pricing StrategyAt a recent Thrive! event in Washington, D.C, one of the conversations that were brought up was the market’sfrenzied pace and how important it is to get pricing right every time.Many agents revealed the huge breakthroughs they wereexperiencing in their businesses. However, even for thesetop producing agents the one challenge that was consistentwas that they had all lost a few listings that they should havereceived due to a pricing issue. Someone else offered more orless commission.So how can you learn to talk about price better, to market better, and to talk about commission more effectively to win more often? When sitting down with a seller today, why not give them multiple options in terms ofpricing their homes?SAMPLE MARKETING PLANSELLER’S AGENT SIDE4.53.04.03.0MAXIMUMBUYER’S AGENT SIDE{ 7.5%Newsletter{ 7.0%MINIMUM3.0 3.0{ 6.5%3.0Newspaper GeneralHyper Local NewspaperEXPOSURE!3.5Full Color Just Listed Post CardOffice TourBroker CaravanEstate Video Tour with CDsMega Open HouseYard Sign & Brochure Box800 Call Capture SystemStrategic MLS InputE-Mail BlastsCustom Property Website{ 6.0%Featured on ZillowOn Line Sellers AdvantageWANT TO DISCUSS OR NEED HELP? CALL US AT 888.866.3377 OR GO ONLINE AT WWW.TOMFERRYGROUP.COM/INVENTORY

Multiple options, not just the MLS, not just the comps, notmaybe just the comps plus a little appreciation, but givethem options that make you stand out from the crowd.Consider a dialog like this:“Mr. and Mrs. Seller, we have threeoptions to choose from. Let’s lookat the pros and cons of the threepricing options together:”Option #1“We list as high as possible; abovethe comps,” then talk about thecons. One of the cons might be ifyou have a 500,000 house, andlisted it at 575,000, we know usingthe MLS, they’re going by 50,000increments; so we’re actually goingtwo increments over.“What’s thedisadvantage, Mr. and Mrs. Seller?You’re now competing against perhaps bigger homes, nicer homes,with better upgrades, and largerlot sizes. What happens is they willsee your price and they think you’rein the running; then they do theirresearch, and they realize you’redefinitely not in the running at all.”Option #2“We list at market value based onthe comps, which everybody knowsmarket value, and say; “Look, Icould line up a thousand agentsoutside your door tonight, andevery one of us is looking at thesame MLS data. We’re looking atthe same data points. Plus or minusone or two basis points, we’re allgoing to see the same exact price,and buyers today are so muchmore savvy than they’ve ever been.They have so much more access toresearch and data than they everhave. They’re also going to seeit. Let’s talk about the pros andcons of listing it right at fair marketvalue ”Option #3“Mr. and Mrs. Seller, what aboutpricing the home to create anauction-like frenzy?” A goodexample, especially if you’re in thehigher end is; “Christie’s is doing anauction. Let’s say they’ve got a Picasso that they know is going to sellfor 15 million. Mr. and Mrs. Seller,where do you think they start thatauction? They’re going to start thatauction somewhere around 1.5M.Why? They know it’s going to sellfor 15 million, but they want to create as much of a buying frenzy aspossible to hopefully get this at anunbelievable deal. What happens?Everybody starts bidding, the frenzybegins, and in most cases that 15million painting ends up selling for 15.5M or even 16 million becauseof the hunt of the bid, because ofthe frenzy that’s created.”Then go in for the golden close. “My question for you, Mr. and Mrs. Seller, is where should we list yourhome tonight? Where do we think we’re going to have the best possible route to get you as much money aspossible? Listing high and potentially being outside of the range and having people see your house as smaller,the lot that’s not as big, et cetera, listing at fair market value, which everybody is going to see and that willcreate a certain amount of activity and a certain amount of buzz, or do you think we want to price it to createthat auction-like frenzy? Which is better for you?”I don’t want you to lose a single listing because somebody out-priced you. I want you to be the knowledgebroker, you to be the educator that gives your customers options.Speak intelligently about all three of them; the pros and the cons, the advantages and the disadvantages, soyou’re empowering them to sell for the highest possible price, and you’re separating yourself from thecompetition because you’re standing out and looking different because you’ve got more than just one pricingoption.The pricing conversation can often be challenging and always requires tact. Youshould practice these dialogues often and my team is more than happy to helpyou master this essential skill.WANT TO DISCUSS OR NEED HELP? CALL US AT 888.866.3377 OR GO ONLINE AT WWW.TOMFERRYGROUP.COM/INVENTORY

8Win More Listings withoutCompromising CommissionWe all now know just how challenging (and extremelyrewarding) it can be to secure large amounts of listings inthis market. It is imperative to master the talent of outlisting the competition for sizable earnings now and longterm success.So far we’ve covered how to continue to generate seller leads, create your own inventory even as othersstruggle, qualify prospects, set up listing appointments for success, how to Stack the Cool and leverage theLaw of Contrast to gain the upper hand when it comes to marketing plans and even how to get the edge whenit comes to pricing.However, if you really intend to win the listing every time and get compensated fairly for your expertise andeffort there is one more factor you can’t afford to ignore, or not outperform on; that’s commission strategy The rule in life is there is always somebody that’s going to list it at a higher price, that’s going topromise more, that’s going to out-bid you. They’re going to lower their fees. You know you can’t jointhe race to the bottom when it comes to commission, otherwise you’ll be racing yourself out of apaycheck, out of a career and back into the rat race at the whims of a boss that treats you terribly.The real question is, do you have a way to present your fees that empowers you, that makes youfeel confident?Try saying this, “Look, here is the seller commission. This is what I charge as your listing agent; I charge 3% nomatter what. You just have to decide how much exposure you want your property to get amongst the agentpopulation, 2%, 2.5%, 3%, 3.5%.” The more you offer the other side the more exposure your property will get;the more agents that will be motivated to show the property to their clients and the more potential frenzy andoffers.You can explain, “No matter what, Mr. and Mrs. Seller, I’m going to bring you all this value in my marketingplan. I’m going to do my stack the cool items no matter what, so you have to decide on the additionalexposure level. I charge 3%. What do you want to offer the other side?Agents take 3 and offer 2.5% on the other side. It could be 3 and 3 or 3 and 2. The reality is it’s entirely up toyou. If you have a way to present your value, “I stack the cool and do all this stuff and this is what I charge,”you’re empowered to go out and earn the money you deserve and win. That’s what I want for you.WANT TO DISCUSS OR NEED HELP? CALL US AT 888.866.3377 OR GO ONLINE AT WWW.TOMFERRYGROUP.COM/INVENTORY

9Getting Into ActionNow that you are armed with new strategies and tacticswhere are you going to start? Do you have some expireds tocall? Or maybe some sellers to send your pre-appointmentemails to? What are you going to put into action today, nextweek, this month? How will you measure your improvement?DOWNLOAD NOWSCHEDULE A CALLMy team wants to help you solve your personalinventory crisis and help you outlist yourcompetition. Schedule a call to discuss howyou will create your own inventory.SCHEDULE CALL NOW!DOWNLOAD NOWOUR AVERAGE CLIENTHAS ACHIEVED A109%INCREASE IN GCIYEAR OVER YEARWANT TO DISCUSS OR NEED HELP? CALL US AT888.866.3377OR GO ONLINE AT WWW.TOMFERRYGROUP.COM/INVENTORY

Door knocking might not be everyone’s cup of tea, so here is another extremely powerful way to convert more owners into active listings to close more deals quickly One of the biggest challenges out there today y