For want of paraphrasing Roy Bartell, a marketing author and influential sales speaker of note, “Most people think “selling” is the same as “talking”. The most effective salespeople know that listening is the most important part of their job”. Well, this week, I think I’ve been victim of possibly
“listening” more than “talking”. Twice, potential sellers have been let down from securing there ideal home because they are not yet on the market. Twice, despite polite advice, have two vendors expressed there disappointment that the home they wanted to buy has been sold to proceed able purchasers.
At the valuation stage of my job and having explained and offered examples of why this scenario was likely to occur the client presumably thought “He would say that, he wants to sell my house!”. I think the mistake we see here is that of “generalization”.
The reality in retail, whether it be an Estate Agent selling a house, a Sales Advisor selling a Car or my Father selling Bedroom Furniture, is that the “seller” must overcome the customers preconception that all they want to do is “Sell!”. The “seller”, in this instance the seller of a service, must be aware that the customer (vendor) does not initially trust their intentions. Sometimes this is clearly valid. Many Estate Agents have targets to meet and bonus’s to earn whether they sell a house or not. At Elizabeth Davenport we do not earn individual commissions, we are not driven to achieve a high level of instructions to please the “management” or achieve a “target”. The only way we can earn is by selling our clients properties. The advise we give is genuine advice but on rare occasions it only reveals itself as truthful when what could happen, unfortunately does happen.
