Improve your closing rates with these effective follow-up techniques for commercial real estate brokers.
In this article:
- Don’t Assume the Sale
- Prepare Yourself
- Schedule Your Calls
- Use the Right Tone/Language
- Ask Probing Questions
- Call for the Truth, Not to Close the Deal
- Keep the Conversation Balanced
- Know the Functions of Your Phone
- Make a Recap
9 Proven Tips to Make the Perfect Sales Follow-Up Call/Email
1. Don’t Assume the Sale
Believe it or not, clients can tell when an agent or broker is desperate for a sale during a follow-up call. If you sound too aggressive, you’ll easily lose the sale faster than you can redial their number.
Before calling your client, take a moment to meditate and assess the situation. Try to recall your previous conversations with them to determine whether they were giving out any buying signals.
Once you find out exactly what they want, you can then steer the conversation in that direction.
2. Prepare Yourself
Whether you’re sending out follow-up emails or making sales calls, it’s necessary to prepare yourself beforehand. Take a moment to curate your script or email before actually doing the follow-up.
For calls, it’ll help prevent you from stuttering, or worse, mistaking them for another client. Clients can tell if their CRE broker is not prepared.
Regardless, if you’re making calls or sending out emails, it’s important to know your purpose. List the points you need to tackle in this follow-up call or email. This will also help you understand how to steer the conversation.
3. Schedule Your Calls
Keep in mind that your clients have their own lives to live. Nothing’s worse than calling a client at a bad time.
Scheduling your follow-up calls is a polite and professional practice. Plus, it increases your chance of actually closing the deal.
Apart from avoiding any distractions, scheduling a call beforehand gives them enough time to think about you and your CRE proposal.
This saves a lot of dead air where they need to recall something they wanted to ask during a call. Similarly, it’s also the perfect opportunity for you to gauge how warm a client is.
As sad as it may be, if your client can’t even set aside a few minutes of their day for you, then the chances of you getting a “yes” are very low.
4. Use the Right Tone/Language
Whether you’re calling or emailing a client, you’d want to use the kind of tone they use with you. Take note of their intonation or their word choice and mimic it.
Be careful not to seem too obvious. It’s easy to tell when a salesman is blatantly trying to pretend they understand the customer.
With this in mind, it’s important to use unique sales scripts or copies as much as possible. This is easier to implement with calls since you can easily shift your tone to suit your client’s. However, it’s a different story when you’re sending out a follow-up email.
To avoid sounding robotic or spammy, try to narrow down your client list by dividing them into different categories. For example, you can send out different emails to hot, warm, and cold clients. It might take a lot more work, but it’s definitely what you need to land that deal.
RELATED: How To Increase Email Open Rates For Your CRE List
5. Ask Probing Questions
Most CRE brokers spend too much time wondering about what their client is thinking. In fact, it might be much easier to write sales follow-up copy if you knew exactly what was on their mind.
The truth is, you don’t have to be a mind reader to know what your client wants. All you really have to do is ask them.
Toward the end of your call, ask probing questions so they can easily tell you the truth. Most of the time, clients will honestly voice out any concerns they have if they’re truly interested in working with you.
After this, it becomes easier. Take note of everything they said and model your future follow-up emails and scripts according to that.
Make sure to address the majority, if not all, of your clients’ concerns. That way, you’ll also know which areas you really need to work on.
6. Call for the Truth, Not to Close the Deal
Every broker wants a follow-up call to end in a sale, but you don’t want your client to know that. Create a follow-up script/email that aims for the truth, not just the words you want to hear.
Most clients expect you to beg for their signature when they give any hints of not pushing through with a deal. Instead of doing that, tell them that it’s okay if they don’t agree with your proposal.
Rather than forcing your way in, take a step backward and give them some space to breathe. Make them feel that it’s okay to say no. Do everything you can to remove the sales pressure off of them.
This creates a whole new level of trust and communication between you and your client. Plus, you’re giving them the time they need to think about your property proposal.
7. Keep the Conversation Balanced
It’s very easy to lose yourself and keep rambling to your client during a follow-up call. But if you want to get a positive answer from them, try to make the conversation as balanced as possible. It should consist of equal parts where both parties talk and listen to one another.
If you do all the talking, then the client won’t have any opportunity to voice their opinions. This may lead to unaddressed concerns which will only delay the possibility of a sale. Similarly, if your client does all the talking, then you won’t even get to address their queries and concerns.
Make sure to allow a decent amount of time for them to respond to your questions. Be both an attentive listener and active participant. This will give you the momentum you need to steer the conversation in the direction you want.
8. Know the Functions of Your Phone
It might seem trivial, but it’s very important to know the different functions of your phone. How embarrassing would it be if you didn’t know how to mute your microphone during a follow-up call?
You don’t have to become a tech wizard to do follow-ups. You just need to know the different features that will make the process easier.
If you’re sending out follow-up emails, you should know how to create and store templates for easy access. For sales follow-up calls, it’s a given that you should at least know how to mute, associate, or transfer a call.
Tip: Before calling a client, set aside a few minutes to familiarize yourself with your phone’s user interface. This is a foolproof way to avoid encountering any technical difficulties during your follow-up call.
9. Make a Recap
Nothing ruins client-broker relationships faster than misunderstandings. No matter how good you are at listening, there’s always the chance of miscommunication between you and the other party.
To avoid these types of scenarios, always repeat what the client says in your own words. This practice is very common in sales.
For example, when you place an order at a restaurant, the waiter always reads back your order in detail. You should do the same thing.
When your client answers a question, make sure to repeat it to them in your own words. But be careful not to sound annoying. This works for both follow-up calls and emails.
Similarly, after ending a call, make sure to send them an email recapping the highlights of your conversation. It’s professional and it serves as proof of everything you and your client discussed.
These are just some of the things CRE brokers can do to improve their closing rate. Feel free to create a specialized marketing plan or email that suits you and your client’s specific needs.
Overall, the important thing is to stay true to your purpose. Remember that your goal isn’t to milk every single dollar out of your clients. Rather, it’s to provide viable commercial real estate solutions clients can truly be happy with.
Are you still cold calling? There is a better way! Top producers don’t cold call, they execute a targeted and proactive prospecting campaign. Here is a 5-minute audit to see how your prospecting stacks up against the best in the CRE industry! Take the Prospecting Audit
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