(article previously published in April 2016)
In the RRSS, apartments are NOT sold. So, what’s the point of this article?
What I mean is that the sale of an apartment is not closed in the RRSS.
They help to sell, as much or more, as is achieved through other channels.
PATIENCE – TIMELINESS – AGILITY
You know that, as a real estate developer, you have to play with these three fundamental virtues in the sales process.
There are many types of customers but, for the most part, when faced with the most important purchase of their lives, they do not make the purchase decision on the first day.
Although they will make the decision with their heart, their head tells them they have to think about it.
That is why the seller should not run. You have to be patient.
The salesperson’s experience tells him or her when to speed up the process. When to “push” for a decision to be made. For that there are several mechanisms that we will talk about another day. Seizing the opportunity is crucial and is a mix of the other two concepts: patience and agility.
The sales transaction is not a closed act. It is not a box of cookies with a marked price that you choose or not. Although it may be just another sale for you, for the buyer it is the most important sale of his life. You must be agile enough to adapt to the individual situation of each prospect.
If you don’t, you will sell worse and less.
So much for the generic reflection.
THE 5 MISTAKES
For some time now, social media have been a part of our lives.
Real estate developers who understand how these new customer relationship channels work are more likely to succeed. If they don’t, their chances are reduced. That’s a fact.
For me, these are the 5 most common mistakes:
MISTAKE 1 : CONFUSING MARKETING AND SALES
This error transcends the scope of social media and its use.
Do not confuse the moment of marketing with the moment of sale. If you get ahead of yourself and confuse both stages, you will lose your sale.
You need to work on the trust of your potential customer.
“Before winning (sorry, selling) you have to convince”.
There will be time to get into sales mode.
First you have to work on the marketing process and that includes both social media and more traditional actions.
MISTAKE 2 : PUSH INSTEAD OF PULL
One of the most common mistakes when entering social media with this intention is to interpret this new channel as a new invasive channel (PUSH).
It is not a new medium in which to launch our ad and hope that the 500,000,000 Facebook users collapse our lines asking for an apartment. Nothing could be further from the truth.
You have to ask yourself the key questions: the ones that are answered in the brain and in the heart.
But above all, don’t push. Let them pull you (PULL). Take the necessary steps so that they want to know more about you, about your past, about how you approach your projects. But don’t just talk about yourself.
Talk about what interests them.
MISTAKE 3 : NOT DEFINING OUR IDEAL CUSTOMER
It is also a reflection prior to the use of the RRSS.
It all comes down to a thought:
“Think about what your ideal customer is like and give them what they need and want.”
Only then will you succeed.
If you do it the other way around, your apartments may be fabulous but you will have a much harder time finding buyers.
Once the ideal customer has been defined, choose the social networks in which he/she is found and propose the appropriate strategy for each medium.
The common mistake is to open profiles of our company in all the social networks imaginable, to “have a lot of presence” and thus succeed on multiple fronts. This strategy only leads to a lack of results and loss of trust in social networks.
MISTAKE 4 : REPEATING OUR MESSAGE EXCESSIVELY
It is an obsession linked to the traditional way of selling. Since it is apparently free (it does not take into account all the time that has to be dedicated to it), this “advantage” is confused and the repetition of the message is exploited to the maximum.
That way, you will only bore your prospect. He will become immune to your messages.
I believe that good advice is to treat the prospect as an individual. Do not fool yourself into thinking that we are speaking to a community and that the percentage of those who listen to us is small and therefore the only valid strategy is to insist.
Actions such as press advertisements and door-to-door mailings use this approach. Remember: PULL vs PUSH
MISTAKE 5 : BEING IMPATIENT. THE 80-20 RATIO
It is normal, the real estate business has to do with time.
The more sales in less time, the higher the profitability.
That is why impatience is always present in the real estate business.
This need for results is incompatible with the time to invest in social media. Once we have overcome MISTAKE 1, that of confusing marketing mode with sales mode, we must give time to time.
You can’t expect someone to buy from you because you insist on it. You have to convey trust and that takes time and effort. Your mission is to understand your ideal client. Make them see that you are not only concerned about selling them an apartment. I would even go so far as to say, when the latter is not true.
For this purpose, it is recommended that we use our broadcast channels with an 80-20 ratio.
80% of communications related to what our customer is interested in and 20% of what we are interested in.
Take it for a spin and think about whether you make any of these mistakes.
Thinking and planning can solve anything.