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The Power of Asking the Right Questions
in Real Estate
As
a salesperson, learning how to ask the
right questions can be one of the most
effective tools you'll ever utilize when
it comes to successfully closing a great
number of real estate transactions. What
I'm talking about here is asking
questions of your clients and prospects
that are specifically designed to move
them towards successfully
closing transactions with you. When an
agent is talking about the positive
features of a property, or the reasons
why the client should proceed with a
particular transaction, the client can
sometimes feel like they are being
"
sold" by the agent. But when an
agent instead asks a client one or more
questions, and the client's responses in
their own words to these questions
indicates that they should continue
moving forward on the property, the agent has
just
created a very favorable sales situation.
And in real
estate sales and leasing, it's the client's
opinion in their own words that really counts. Let's
take a look at the
following scenarios: In
the first one, the agent is discussing
the location of a particular property.
In a situation like this, an agent might
typically say something like, "This
property is located in a great
area." The
problem with this statement is that if
the client doesn't agree with it, the
agent has just lost credibility
with the client. The client now knows
that the agent's opinion of what a great
area is, and the client's opinion of a
great area, are different. Also, when
an agent makes a statement like this, the
client can feel that the salesperson is
just giving them a sales pitch...and
this is not something that any agent
would want to have their client
believing. As
an alternative, the agent could simply
say something like, "A lot of
people tell me they feel this is a great
area. But what's really important is
YOUR opinion. Do you feel this is a
great area?" An
approach like this one both informs the client on
the opinions of other people the agent has
talked with, and also allows the client
to freely respond with his or her own opinion on the
matter. If the client likes the area,
the agent wins as the client is
beginning to move forward. And if the client
doesn't like the area, he or she
will not feel that the
agent has poor judgment on what
constitutes a great area. This is
because the agent did not openly state
that they thought the location
was a great area. Here's
another example: "I
think this building would be ideal for
your business." For residential
agents the statement might be, "I
think this home would be ideal for your
family." Again,
if the client doesn't share the same
opinion, they're going to feel more
distant and out of rapport with you as
their agent. And this is not something you
want to have them feel. An
appropriate question to ask instead is,
"Can you envision your company
working in this building?" For
residential agents it might be,
"Can you envision your family
living in this home?" Notice
here how you're leading them to the
desired outcome with how you've phrased
this question. You're asking them to
envision themselves already in the
property, or in the home. And you're also allowing them
the flexibility to
say, "Yes" or "No"
to the question. Clients and prospects
like to feel that you're giving them
options instead of forcing your own
opinion on them. And
if they respond by telling you that they
CAN envision themselves in the property,
or in the home,
you might then follow-up with a question
similar to this one: "Now, if you're interested in buying
this property, we first have to successfully
negotiate and reach an agreement that
you're very happy with. But once we
accomplish this, what do you think it will
feel like for you six months after
you've already completed your move?" This
is an extremely powerful question to
ask. This mentally moves the client
beyond the negotiations to the point six months after
they've completed their purchase and
relocation.
And almost anyone in this situation is
going to envision themselves both feeling
great about the purchase they've made,
and about how their life will be going
six months after the move has been
completed. This will then help to propel
the client even more in the direction of
wanting to purchase the property. When
you learn how to master asking the right
questions, you'll learn
how to move your clients towards successfully closing real estate
transactions with a greater amount of
ease. 
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