You Talked Yourself Out of a Listing

Summary

Did you know that you can possibly miss out on a potential listing when you allow your assumptions and emotions to influence your decisions?.

There are two critical mistakes agents usually make:

1. The first mistake is allowing emotions to make you a "crystal ball reader"... when you make assumptions about your prospects' intentions and your likelihood of success based on limited information. This leads to prematurely talking yourself out of potential listings. Maybe you’ve had a not-so-good initial conversation with a prospect, so you don’t follow up with them. 

2. The second mistake is defaulting yourself out of listings because you've formed a negative narrative about your prospects. This negative story can lead to neglecting lead follow-up because you’re quick to assume that the prospect wouldn’t be a good fit… and then you lose the listing.

Agents tend to lose listings because they don't follow up effectively. They don’t understand the importance of consistent lead follow-up, as over 70% of listing appointments are set after the initial conversation with a prospect. 

The key is to trust the process, remain diligent with lead follow-up, and always expect a positive outcome. While not every prospect will say yes, maintaining a positive mindset and actively pursuing opportunities can significantly improve your success.

Full Transcript

Do you realize you just talked yourself out of a listing? Yes, that actually happened. I literally had one of our coaching members that had a prospect that they had talked to, and they weren't really excited about it. Their conversation didn't really go good, and so they're like, "I'm not going to follow up with them anymore." So they had them in their lead follow-up system in their folder, but they weren't doing their lead follow-up consistently.

Number one mistake is they weren't doing consistent lead follow-up, and number two, they had decided, "Oh, this person is probably not going to be a good fit because they were kind of rude and they didn't really give me a good vibe when I talked to them, and, you know, I'd rather go work with the low-hanging fruit, the easy stuff." And who was the, here's what happened, that seller, that prospect just listed with another agent, and you talked yourself out of that listing because you decided, "No, it's too much of a pain. They're probably not going to sell. They're probably not going to hire me." That's what they said, and so you didn't call them, and you lost the opportunity. Guys, this happens.

So two mistakes, number one, stop letting your emotions make you a crystal ball reader. This was what happened, and I did the same thing as an agent, so I get it. I would get down there, and I would look at them, and I would maybe I'd had a conversation with them. Maybe not, maybe I just look at it in location, the price range is like, "Oh, that's intimidating. It's an ultra-luxury home," or I've talked to them once, and they were like, "Yeah, they were kind of tough." So I look at my crystal ball and say, "So, Crystal Ball, will I be able to get this listing?" And the crystal ball is just going to reflect back your own belief, your own story, and your own expectations, going like, "No, probably not." Okay, so what am I going to do? Okay, then I'm not going to call them, and you just talked yourself out of a listing.

The second thing that can happen is you default yourself out of the listing, and that is you, because you have that story, and you've been crystal balling everybody and thinking that you can read the future, and you're predicting who's going to say no to you, and it tends to be more people than are going to say yes to you because you're going with that belief. You're like, "Well, then why would I do lead follow-up when I prospect? I never know who it is. I talked to them first time, and maybe they're going to be super nice, and maybe they're motivated. Maybe they'll give me an appointment." So with them, I got it, but if I have to talk to them more than once, like, "Um, I don't know. The first time didn't go well, so the second conversation's probably not going to go well." So guess what? I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do my lead follow-up, and this is what happens to most agents. Most agents suck at lead follow-up.

Why do you suck at lead follow-up? Because you don't do it. You don't have it in your schedule. You do have it in your schedule, and you don't do it, and you lose over 70% of all listing appointments are set after your initial conversation with the prospect, meaning lead follow-up is 70-75% of your business, but you're not doing it. So you were talking yourself out of listings, and now you're just giving up on the listings, my friend. Trust the process, prospect, lead follow-up, prospect, lead follow-up, and always expect yes. Is this not the mantra? Always expect yes. Are you going to always get it? No, but you're going to get it more when you expect it and when you ask for it. So, 3, 2, 1, off you go.