According to a recent national radio ad, 80% of all sales production can be attributed to just 20% of the salesman.  This same ad also claims that 83% of sales professionals never even ask for the order.

Unfortunately, both non-verified statistics above are probably even worse in the real estate industry.  Most real estate agents hate to consider themselves sales professionals.  They even define “closing the sale” as what occurs at the office of an attorney or title company when their commission check is dispersed.  It’s not surprising that in real estate over 90% of all business is written by fewer than 10% of the agent population.

The 10% that are producing understand the importance of salesmanship and making it easy for their buyer and seller prospects.  If you’re not one of the 10%, you may want to change your strategy.  You can start by always making sure that you confidentially ask for the order, keeping in mind that if you weren’t nervous about asking your prospect to sign, they will also become nervous about making the decision.

Listed below are great examples of how you could ask for the order.

For sellers:

• Can we go ahead and get started today?
• Is there anything that would stop you from moving forward with your plans to sell immediately?
• I need your “OK” here (replace “signature” with “OK”).
• Do you have any other questions before we move ahead?

 

For buyers:

• What do you think your offer should be?
• Let’s get started.
• I need your approval right here.
• Is there any reason why shouldn’t move ahead now?

 

A cardinal rule that should be applied with all the above closing questions, don’t wait until the end before you bring the agreement out. This is a big step for both buyers and sellers.  By showing them the agreement early, and referring to it often, you can avoid hearing them when it comes time to get the signature.  Above all else, ask the questions as if an affirmative response is already a given with confidence.