Consulting does not mean misleading your prospects

I was reading this book on Real Estate success, and I was absolutely amazed at how manipulative it was. And the funny thing was that the author believed wholeheartedly, even specifically stated, that he was approaching the cold call through the consultative approach rather than applying manipulative techniques. Unfortunately, he started off chapter two of the book describing the process of deliberately misleading FSBOs to get in the door.

“What works best with FSBOs is, after you find out what they are committed to, you ask, ‘If I can help you move to Hunna Hunna and you wouldn’t have to pay a brokerage fee out of the monies that you need in order to make this move a success, would that be of interest to you?’ This is also great and here’s why. This dialogue sounds like we are working for free. But if you look at it closely, it says they wouldn’t have to pay a fee out of the monies they need, not the monies they want! What they want and what they need are two different things.”

That is not what I would call consulting and making sure you have your client’s best interest in mind. Sounds to me like a sleazy scam to get in the door as fast as possible. Unfortunately, techniques like this are what give Realtors a bad rep. Why are you misleading your prospects right from the start? Sure, technically, you didn’t lie to them, but you’re deliberately manipulating the situation to give you the opportunity to stop by. And you’re not going to make a good impression on them when they find out that you mislead them. Why would you jeopardize the rapport you are trying so hard to establish?

The author goes on to practically beg that the FSBO let him come over and that if he can’t help them,

“I promise to tell you in the first five minutes that I’m there, so I don’t waste your time.”

Yeah, right. He already is convinced he can help these people - it doesn’t matter what they think. He sees a house in his grasp and money in his pocket with no regard to the owners’ motivations or concerns.

In another dialogue, the author describes his method of tactfully insulting the prospect when inquiring why their house didn’t sell a year or so ago.

“The reason why I ask about your house is because we listed a lot of homes in your area around that same time and they did sell. Where were you folks planning to move?”

“By saying that other sellers hired us to market their homes in your area around the same time and those houses did sell, you are gently zinging the person: “Obviously you folks tried selling. We have clients who were successful. You weren’t. Why do you think that was? Maybe it was because you didn’t call us to begin with.” (But remember to be nice when doing this!)”

Forgive me if I sound a bit skeptical, but books like this make me cringe. I realize there are very few good books on selling out there - I must have read a good 20 or so, and I’ve only found a handful that were great. None so far have been real estate specific. It seems that this industry is still stuck in the 80s before consumers had more information than they needed at their fingertips and had to rely solely on the information their agents provided them. Regardless, the two I recommend most are Spin Selling (and the workbook that goes along with it) and Mastering the Complex Sale.

I think I’ll spend the next couple of blogs outlining the sales process and how you might consider less manipulative lead generation techniques.