While there are a number of aspects to being successful in a real estate sales career one of them is the most obvious and most overlooked.  It’s called salesmanship.  The lack of use of closing techniques to motivate your clients and overcome objections is why many real estate professionals “show” dozens more properties than they “sell”.  Being a good “closer” makes us think of the pushy salesperson that no one likes.  No one enjoys being sold. You should lead your clients and not push them. You don’t necessarily need to use prewritten scripts either to be a good closer.  However, if you don’t you need to understand how they work.  Motivating, closing, and overcoming objections are basically the process of doing one thing.  Asking questions.  Here are a few types of questions to help you motivate, overcome objections and close the sale.

The Tie Down
A tie down is making a statement and ending with a question.  Such as, “This home has certainly been well maintained, wouldn’t you agree? Wouldn’t it, shouldn’t it, couldn’t it, you agree with that don’t you, are other examples.

The Hot Potato
This is when you are asked a question and you throw it back like a hot potato.  Buyer: “Do you think the seller will pay our closing costs?” Agent: “I don’t know for sure. Would you like them to pay your closing costs? I’ll just write that into the contract”

Reduce To The Ridiculous

This is where you take an objection that seems large and insurmountable and break it into little pieces.  Buyer: “The sellers counter offer is $1,000 more than we are willing to pay.” Agent: “Well, $1,000 is a lot of money. However, if you look at the entire scheme of things most of the cost of this home will be financed with monthly payments over 30 years.  So in reality the $1,000 really breaks down to less than $3 a month or less than 10¢ a day.  You think this great home is worth an extra dime a day don’t you?

Improve your skill by making a habit of asking questions to over come objections and you will be “showing” fewer properties and “selling” more of them.