The Six-Shooter Close

Another common mistake that even experienced agents make is to rely too heavily on pre-prepared documents and other sales aids they think will help them convince a buyer or seller to write a contract.  In many cases, information such as comparable sales data and fancy color brochures do in fact help build a relationship with your prospects.  But, quite often this information isn’t really needed. Think of all your sales aids and logical arguments as bullets in an old west six-shooter.  In the old western movies, the good guy would shoot his opponent who would die.  If the bad guy fell down after being shot once, there was no need to keep shooting him.

Although your prospects aren’t the bad guys, the six-shooter example still applies. If you attempt to close your buyer or seller and they agree with you, stop there!  Never go past the close by continuing to discuss many more reasons why they should buy or sell.  If you take the risk of continuing to talk about reasons why, you may end up “killing” the deal by creating the question your buyer or seller didn’t even think to ask.

The six-shooter principle also applies to all of the great information you’ve prepared to give your prospects during your presentation. Being well prepared only makes sense, but don’t bring all of this information out of your book unless you need it.  Once your prospect has signed the agreement, you can use the additional information to solidify the deal.

For example, if you show your seller the comps and they agree to price reduce, don’t shoot them again by continuing to talk about how bad the economy is.  If you talk to your buyers about how the selection is dwindling and they agree to write an offer, don’t continue to talk to them about the prices increasing.  It’s better to discuss prices later on to get the buyer to counter at a higher price.  You don’t have to use your bullets, or closes, all at one time.

Remember to apply the six-shooter principal to your buyers or sellers.  Shoot them once, if they fall down and get back up, shoot them again….and again….and again….and again! And when they don’t get back up (in other words they agree with you), don’t shoot them anymore, its overkill!