ONE LESSON

Early in my career, I had a buyer reach out to me from Zillow. After speaking for a few minutes, we set up a time to meet a week later. This was my first opportunity to do a buyer’s presentation, so I asked agents around me what I should talk about. Most of the agents mentioned providing the buyer a detailed background on myself and walking the buyer through the buying process. So I designed my presentation to do just that.

I worked on the presentation all week and practiced it as much as I could. When the day came, I felt confident the buyer would want to work with me. So it surprised me when a few days later he told me he was going to use another agent. Confused but wanting to learn, I asked him why he chose the other agent. He told me, the other agent explained to him all that they do to help make the process easier for him, and I did not.

LESSON LEARNED: People care more about what you can do for them than anything else.

This experience was eye-opening for me. I didn’t understand it at the time, but the mistake I made was not focusing on how I could benefit the buyer. I provided the buyer a lot of information on me and what to expect, but so did the other agent. The difference was that the other agent took the time to explain the value they offer and appealed to the needs of the buyer. While including a section about yourself and what a client can expect is part of it, to convince someone to choose you, you need to explain what you can do for them that no one else can.