As a modern real estate agent, a significant part of your everyday life revolves around your smartphone. This little piece of technology can do absolute wonders for your profession, which includes reaching out to clients, researching effective tools and methods, and sourcing out leads — the list goes on and on. Of course, the core use of your mobile phone is always to communicate — either through text or call — to people with similar devices, which is why in this business you have to have the ability to do so effectively.
Recent statistics reflect the timeless potency of short message services (SMS) or text messages as opposed to calls in terms of seeking out a response from a prospective and/or an existing customer. This known fact conveys naturally in real estate, as agents constantly have an urge and a need to make contact with their clients. So, for you to do so as efficiently and as smoothly as possible, here are a few practical tips:
Have A Clear Response
It is important for a realtor like you to work on and build on leads constantly. Essentially, you can take advantage of the many advancements in the industry such as using real estate text lead capture techniques that aim to make it easier for you to respond to your customers. Now to supplement this, you also have to be clear with your replies.
Messages to your patrons should not be like hieroglyphics. Your job is to make it simple for them to absorb certain information about a property, not show off how good you are at spewing jargons left, right, and center. You should be as straightforward as possible with your potential buyers and to, ultimately, close the deal in the process.
Keep It Concise and Refined
To further build on the previous tip of having an easy-to-understand message, a pro-active listing agent like you should also keep your replies as short and as direct-to-the-point as possible, especially when exchanging text messages. SMS today can exceed what was once the 160-character limit per message. However, you do not want to turn off would-be clients with long-winded spiels that miss the mark completely.
The idea here is to make your messages short and sweet, yet still pack useful tidbits of information. It is also advisable to keep questions open-ended so it will encourage a back-and-forth type of communication. Keep in mind that, at the end of it all, these details should always look to fulfill your main objective of clinching a sale.
Personalize Your Message
Despite the seemingly heavy dependence on technology, it is still — and will always be — imperative to not lose your human touch when it comes to dealing with your clientele. You do not want to fall under a trap of relying way too much on an immensely particular way of reaching out and replying to your customers. From their perspective, this can give off the feeling of speaking to a robot, not a person that truly cares for their needs.
Simply make your messages more personal to make your customer feel like it is actually intended for them. Additionally, make it a habit to use their name, location, or even previously talked about areas of interests so you can further emphasize its intent. By personalizing your messages to your client, whether seeking leads or providing additional information for current ones, you can significantly increase the probability of them reading and replying to it.
Put A Positive Spin On Your Statements
Have you ever talked to someone who just sucks the life out of every conversation with his or her negativity? If so, then you — at the very least — have an inkling of how not to talk to your clients. You want to be more like a ray of light for them, not the bearer of bad news.
As a realtor, you are a solutions provider who should be dependable all the time. If an unfortunate incident comes up, it is part of your duty to deliver the news to your potential buyer in a more positive way. The key here is to structure your messages in such a way that you first present the problem, then come up with a valid resolution.
Proofread
Last but certainly not the least, it is absolutely critical to read through your messages before hitting the send button. You do not want to have typographical mistakes or, worse, wrong critical information in your text message, as it constitutes unprofessionalism. These errors, regardless of magnitude, can have adverse effects on your relationship with a client.
A basic yet effective way to alleviate this is to proofread your message. Double check if you misspelled something and make sure whatever info you have on the text message is completely accurate. Reading the content out loud first is also a proven proofreading technique when reviewing what you have typed.
Creating an effective text message template isn’t that difficult. All you need to remember is to exercise both common sense and common courtesy at all times. If you’re able to convey your message in a simple yet straightforward manner, then you’ll be sure to close out those deals.
