Show A House, Sell A House ... By Tapping Emotions

"All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own." Johann von Goethe

A fundamental truth about real estate is that it's a people business. But sometimes Realtors forget that people make decisions based on emotions. Realtors who involve their buyers emotionally in a home will become top producers. Those who don't will be looking for new careers.

Think about how you show homes. Go back to your last home showing. How did it go? Did you feel you were on automatic pilot? Were you just blurting out facts and figures about the house like a robot?

Or, were you able to create an atmosphere that was almost magical? Where clients were fully engaged -- almost floating on clouds of "what could be" in the house? Could you see in their eyes that they were imagining themselves living in this house in the future?

Remember this: people buy emotionally and then justify what they bought logically. To get more sales, learn how to get your prospect into the right emotional states. It's said Abraham Lincoln once explained that if he had six hours to chop down a tree, he'd spend the first four sharpening the axe. I want to you spend time sharpening your axe by making your presentations more emotion-inducing.

So, what can you do to get emotions flowing in your favor in your daily life as a Realtor? Here are four tips:

1. Know the most common emotions. There are five: Greed - "If I buy now, I'll save money with a low interest rate." Fear -"If I don't buy, I'll lose this house to another buyer." Pride - "If I buy, I'll look smart." Shame - "If I don't buy, I might look like a loser." Envy - "If I don't buy, my friends will look better than me." Think about these five emotions and how you can discreetly employ strategies that tickle each of them in your sales efforts.

2. Watch TV commercials. I know, no one likes commercials. But if you take a little extra time to examine them, you can get better at sales. There's a reason companies pay big bucks to air their ads: they work. And they work because they suck emotions out of people like a vacuum cleaner sucks dirt. Think about the clothes washing detergent ads: they reek of guilt. You're a bad mom if you don't have clean clothes for your kids to wear to school.

3. Don't forget your own emotions. Good Realtors are self-aware and can identify their own emotions and they know how those emotions will impact their sales efforts. They also know how to work around negative emotions that might hurt a sale and can switch to more positive emotions. For example, suppose you're ticked because a prospective buyer didn't show up on time. A smart agent would take a short break before his/her next meeting to calm down.

4. Understand the four different types of people. I help my clients quickly identify the four different types of people and how to sell to them with DISC, a behavioral assessment tool. My clients swear by it, and I know it helps agents and brokers connect better with prospects.

Let me hear from you. Are you able to elicit emotions at the right time in your daily work with prospects and clients? Are your presentations geared to put prospects into an emotional frame of mind? What can you do today to be a better salesperson in real estate?


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Bob Corcoran is a nationally recognized speaker and author who is founder of Corcoran Consulting Inc. (http://www.CorcoranCoaching.com/programs 800-957-8353), an international consulting and coaching company that specializes in performance coaching and the implementation of sound business systems into the residential broker or agent's existing practice. Contact Bob at Article@CorcoranCoaching.com.