The Crucial Step So Many Agents Are Skipping

The last few weeks on the podcast, I’ve been talking about the five pillars of a successful real estate business. These five pillars when implemented into really any, any business, when you really think about it. But specifically, obviously, we’re talking about real estate, it creates an unbreakable unshakable foundation, sustainable profitable foundation in your business that not only can you build anything on top of whatever you want it to look like, however, you want it to look with these five pillars as the base, you can, you can build anything with them in your real estate business, but not only that, but it creates that solid structure that really you can depend on and rely on. And by the way, you know, as we’re, as I’m recording this, we’re starting to look towards the end of the year. And you know, so many real estate agents focus on business planning. I’m like, you don’t need a business plan. Like this is the plan, put these five things into your business and you’re good to go. So the first week I focused on just telling you what the five pillars were and each week since I’ve been explaining or going down deeper into what is that pillar? What does that really pillar really mean? How do you implement it into your business, but mainly how do you want to think about it? What is its purpose? So last week I talked about marketing. You really just saying, who do you want to help? How do you want to help them? And then communicating that to people, you know, and people you don’t know, so people understand why they should choose you above all other options, including staying put and doing nothing at all. That is the point of marketing. You having people reach out to you when they need help with something specific that you offer in as a real estate agent. And when we, as real estate agents kind of all look the same, because very difficult for consumers to understand when or how they should pick one of us from the other. That’s, oftentimes, when you confuse a consumer, they kind of just don’t choose anything. And so of course, that created an opportunity for all sorts of what do they call it. And then in the real estate news innovators, I think is the, is the nice word for it. But you know, really people coming in and changing our industry, which I think there are pros and cons to that. But regardless you, as a real estate agent, you need to learn how to bring clients to you. If you want to create a business right now, today, I’m talking about the second pillar, which I personally believe. And in my business has been the most important pillar, but really without each pillar, it’s, you know, it’s like a table it’s like each one creates legs or creates a stable environment without this one. There’s no way you can have a stable real estate business. And yet this is the one that so many real estate agents are either being told to Skip or creating a business where it gets skipped. And that is The Initial Consultation. So I’m going to talk both about how to have initial consultations with your Buyer clients, how to get them, to show up to them, how to get them to want to meet with you, and really just how to create an environment in your business. That is part of your process, both on the buyer side, and then, you know, and the listing side, I don’t think I have to do so much convincing on why you should meet with your clients first, but I want to, I will be touching on the way to think about that initial consultation, which generally in the real estate industry, people say, it’s the listing presentation. I don’t do listing presentations. I don’t teach listing presentations. Nobody really wants to be presented to. So I’m going to offer you a different way to think about your initial consultations with both your buyers and your sellers. On today’s episode of Confessions of a Top Producing Real Estate Agent, I’m going to give you a framework for you to use so that people want to do these initial consultations with you. And so that they’re actually enjoyable for both you and them, and they provide the clarity necessary for you all to make a clear decision about working together and then know what that’s going to look like moving forward. That is the point of initial consultation. So let’s dive into some of what I’m going to say after the music is going to be a little controversial. That is okay. It needs to be said. And here we go. Welcome to this episode of Confessions of a Top Producing Real Estate Agent. I’m your host, Jennifer Myers, listen in, as I share exactly what I did to go from not being able to sell a house for years to becoming one of the top 1% of agents in the US even opening my own brokerage full of agents taught me to serve all the clients that were coming my way. I taught those agents. The same strategies I use in date two became top producing agents. Now through this podcast and agent grad school.com, I’m sharing those same modern marketing and business strategies with you. Most of which I learned from looking outside the real estate industry, no fluff, no theory, no outdated sales techniques or paying for leads, just the exact steps to get you the real estate business you’ve always wanted. And the life outside your business, you’ve always wanted to let’s make it happen and dive into today’s episode So when it comes to truly helping clients, both buyers and sellers as a real estate agent, I don’t know how you can do that effectively. I know that you could sell houses, but I don’t know that you could effectively truly help your clients, especially your buyers, but also your Sellers without having an initial consultation or initial conversation with each and every client before showing them houses in this case with buyers. So I’m going to talk about Initial convoluted conversations or consultations. That’s how I refer to them because really they are truly thinking of them as an initial conversation, showing up with a level of curiosity about how can I help this person? What are they trying to do? Do I understand it? Do they understand it? And how truly can I help them more than they could help themselves achieve this goal? I don’t know how you can do that without first talking to people before showing them houses on the buyer side. And when it comes to your listing presentations or what I call the initial conversation or consultation with your seller clients, it can’t be about selling them on you or telling them what their home is worth. So my intention of today’s episode is to help you start, hopefully convince you, on the buyer side to please stop meeting people at houses. And then on the listing side to please stop doing listing presentations. I’ve talked about this a lot, please don’t show up to Seller’s houses with the intention of presenting, how great you are or focusing on what the house is worth. That is a listing presentation that is typically the goal of a listing presentation. I totally get it, but I don’t believe that that should be the goal of your initial conversations with your potential clients. What I call the initial consultation phase in your business, the goal of Initial of an initial consultation is to truly understand what are they trying to do? Why are they trying to do it? When are they trying to do it? And how can you help them achieve those goals? That is the mentality, the mindset that I recommend that you bring to your initial consultations. So I’ll start with the listing side, because I think it’s the most easily convinced version because most agents, every single agent I think is me. Most 99% of agents are already convinced of the fact that you need to meet with a seller in order to work with that seller. That’s a kind of a no-brainer. I don’t have to do much convincing there. So I am going to address how to change your thought about how you show up to those quote unquote listing presentations or listing appointments. I’m going to call that the initial consultation with your seller. And then I’m going to dive deep into having initial consultations with your Buyer clients. And really my hope is to convince you if or any agent to stop meeting strangers at houses. It totally cheapens what we can offer our clients, not just individually, but collectively as a group. And I’m going to get into why meeting clients at houses, meeting strangers at houses without first doing an initial consultation and truly diving into what they’re trying to do, why they’re trying to do it when they’re trying to do it and how you can help them do it really just, it skips over what we as real estate agents can provide as value for the public and for, for, for our clients. Okay. So that’s a two-parter and I’m going to, especially on the buyer’s side, I’m going to introduce a framework that you can use. This is a framework that I teach inside agent grad school for The Initial Consultation because most agents will say something like nobody wants to meet and, or it’s waste of time, or there are all these excuses as to why the initial consultation is not happening in the business. So I’m going to teach a framework for what you need to do before the initial consultation, to get people, to actually show up and want to meet with you. Then what to say and do during the initial consultation, how to think, how to show up at the initial consultation in a way that creates what needs to happen at that initial consultation, which is clarity, and then what to do after the initial consultation to bridge the gap to the part everybody wants to get to and jump to, which is the seeing houses part. I know that’s the fun part, but if the initial consultation isn’t done first, then the seeing houses part never, never works out quite right. So I’ll get into that. So I’m going to talk about that on the buyer side, but I’m going to start with how to kind of re-adjust your thinking on the seller side with your initial consultations, AKA your listing appointments with Sellers. So I think again, every agent knows they should meet with a seller before working with them. So I don’t really need to go dive, dive deep into that. But what I want to offer you today is a way of thinking about who you are showing up as at that listing appointment, at that initial consultation with the seller. And so rather than thinking about it as a listing appointment where you’re going to get the listing or tell them how great you are or tell them what their home is worth, what I would offer you is to change the way you think about showing up to those listing presentations. And instead of showing up, trying to get the listing, trying to do any type of convincing of anything in that quote unquote listing appointment, instead show up truly curious about why they want to move. Right. I think oftentimes with, with us as real estate agents, because we do this every single day, we forget that like we’re dealing with people’s like lives here, right? I mean, showing up and asking truly being curious, like you’ve built a life in this home, truly. Why do you want to move? Let’s talk about that. That is always the first question that I ask my seller clients in those initial conversations, AK the listing appointment. So I teach a framework where you start getting a little tour of the house when you first walk in, and that’s a great way to build rapport, build connection, kind of get to know them before you sit down and kind of start talking business. So after that tour, and you’re sitting down the very first question you should ask again, not being in that convincing mode, not being in that. Let me tell you all the things I know and how great I am mode really, truly take that totally out of the conversation and be curious about them. If you’re curious about them and truly focused on listening to what they’re doing, why they’re doing it when they want to do it, and then asking yourself, how can I make this easier on them in some way? And typically that way is either save them time, money, or effort. If you show up with that kind of energy, you will get the listing because everybody wants to every, every seller, everybody wants people to be curious and helpful, but it’s not about them being helpful. You don’t go spew out all the ways that you’re helpful. You then tell them your, your strategy, your planning, your tactic, and specifically, we’re going to cover that next week in the doing or the during phase that I call. Once you have a client, right, then you need to create a framework, a plan, a strategy for how you actually help people. And you need to be able to communicate that, especially at the listing appointment, but for today, when it comes to your initial consultations with Sellers, what I want to impart part on you is the mentality that you show up with and who you show up as. And so specifically, let’s just make sure it’s clear when you’re walking into an initial consultation. Yes, you need a plan. You need to tell them how specifically you’re going to help them. And specifically what I teach and what I do is a four-step process for getting a home sold. And I’m going to explain what that process looks like next week in the doing phase. And so in the listing presentation or what I call the initial consultation, there is a point where I will kind of dive in to my approach, to selling homes. But before I start there, the place I need to be is purely focused on them. So the first question I always ask Sellers. When I sit down with them, after that little tour of their house is why are you selling? Why do you want to move and truly listen to what they’re saying? And it’s funny many times, like more than one handful of times when I have met with a seller client. And I said, tell me why you want to move. This is a great house. This is a great neighborhood. Like, why do you want to move when they start describing why they want to move? There are times when I say, well, you don’t necessarily have to move for that. And we dive in deep and they might say, oh, it’s too expensive. Or, and I’m like, well, let’s talk about what your interest rate is. Maybe you could refinance and make it cheaper, right? The answer is not always to move 90% of the time it’s moving, but I want you to show up in a way of like, is moving, is going through the stress and hassle and expense of selling their house, going to actually help them achieve their goals. And most of the time the answer is yes, but just pause and ask yourself is what they’re doing truly the way to accomplish it. And always, always put their interests and what they’re trying to do before the sale quote unquote, right? So, you know, several times I’ve had to say to clients, look, if you want a cheaper house, I can help you make this house that you’re living in cheaper just by refinancing. Would that interest you would, you want to stay? And sometimes they say yes, and then they don’t move. But the majority of time, right? If I come with that energy and I understand truly what they’re trying to do and how I can help them make that happen. And the way that I make that happen is a bridge that they actually want to walk down to get there. Then I get the listing totally different approach, totally different energy. And I don’t mean like, woo energy. I mean, like who you are showing up as for them. And then initial consultation is not from a selling place. It’s from a truly like, what is happening here? Why do they want to do what they want to do? And how could I being the expert that I am in real estate? Which all of you are, how given what I know how to do, how can I help them accomplish it, using my, my flame, my framework, or my approach. Okay. So that’s all I’m gonna say today when it comes to The Initial Consultation on the listing side, but, and I, I will link to this episode, don’t present. Nobody wants to be presented to. And what I teach when I do is I do a pre-listing package that goes to their house, or, you know, is sent to them electronically depending on the client before we meet. So all of that quote unquote presentation and all of that kind of how great I am and what I’ve done and all that fun stuff that goes without me having to say any of it, because they’ve been instructed to read through it before we meet. So they already have all that information by the time I get there. So that way my focus during the initial consultation, which by the way, really, your initial consultation should not go longer than an hour. I teach a two-step listing two to three. Sometimes there’s a lot more Step listing presentation, but do not try to get like the listing agreement sign that night, that the point of that initial conversation is really to understand what’s going on, why they want to do it, where they’re headed, when they want to get there and how you can help them. And then that’s why I called the initial consultation with your Sellers or conversation. And then the next appointment is actually the listing appointment to go through the listing agreement and talk more about, you know, the listing of the house. You will talk about your plan, your approach, or strategy for selling a house at this, at this initial conversation that comes really last kind of right before you leave. And then you walk through your, your plan, your strategy, and then you say, okay, here’s what we need to do next. And then you outline one of those things is we got to sign that listing agreement. Let’s not do that tonight. Let’s schedule a time to do it. And you schedule that day right then and there. And you just keep things moving forward. So another tip for ending, especially a seller listing appointment, quote unquote, but the initial consultation is, do not ask what they think, do not say, you know, tell me what you tell me what you decide. No, you, you just keep things moving forward as though they’re there, they’re going to work with you. And the way that you do that is you schedule the second meeting, the listing appointment meeting right then and there. And then if at that point, they’re saying, well, we’re interviewing a few more agents. You say, great. Well, here’s what it will look like. If you decide to choose me and you explain what those next steps look like, okay, let’s switch. Now. Let’s switch gears to the initial consultation on the buyer side, because that is the side where so many real estate agents still to this day are skipping. And before I dive into how to have an initial consultation, that framework, I mentioned about how you get people to show up what to think about who to show up as the questions to ask during that initial consultation, and then what to do after the initial consultation. I just need to pause and really impart. If you are skipping initial consultations with your Buyer clients, and you’re just still meeting clients, strangers at houses, listen, if it’s repeat clients, if you know that and you worked with them before, that’s not what I’m talking about here. What I’m talking about is new people in your world, strangers who might or might not want to use you as an agent. So the five pillars build on each other, right? So if you don’t have your marketing dialed in, then chances are you’re going to have to get leads on the internet. And that is one of the things that I think is so detrimental to our industry right now is real estate agents, not knowing how to market themselves effectively enough to have clients say I want to work with them. So one of the biggest pieces of advice that I have about how to get people to want to meet with you is learn how to market yourself effectively in a way that makes people kind of wake up and say, I want to work with her. She’s got, or he’s got something that I want to know more about, or he or she is talking about something that I don’t know about, and I need to meet with them. So many of many agents I talked to, they CA this is the pillar. For some reason, that is the most contested, the most debated, the most convincing that I need to do. But it is also in my opinion, the most important pillar, because without an initial consultation, you really are cheapening. What you can help your clients do. You’re not a door opener. You’re not an order taker, right? Like we do not as an industry, want to create an environment where people can open an app, pick any stranger that happens to be there and then push a button and wall out. We show up. That is not what our value is. Our value is not an opening. The doors, our value is not in being present. Our value is in helping people accomplish something in a way that they did not think was possible. And that is where your marketing comes in. So if you are saying to yourself, well, my buyers, they don’t want to meet with me. It’s because you’re not giving them a reason to meet with you. Okay? So we have, I have so many students inside agent grad school who have done their business differently. We have brand new agents, but then we have agents who’ve been in it for years. And this is the thing that I have to convince them. Most of. And the minute they start doing their initial consultations, they say everything from then on with that client was completely different than how I’ve ever worked with a client. And that’s exactly the point of the initial consultation. So the reason that an initial consultation must exist in your business is there are so many reasons, but it really sets the tone for your relationship with that client, truly forevermore, not even just the first transaction you do with them. It, it really even sets up the referral that could come and, or the repeat client that they could become years later, the initial consultation is that important to the relationship and establishing your relationship with your clients specifically, in this case, I’m talking about your Buyer clients, but also the point of the initial consultation, right? If buying a house and I, and I know that people from outside the real estate industry are trying to convince even us real estate agents, but mainly the public that buying a house is as easy as opening up an app, pushing a few buttons maybe, or maybe not even seeing a real estate agent. I know that there are many, a technology that is trying to even avoid having real estate agents have to be there to open the doors. So if your value isn’t opening the door, think about how replaceable that is. And so our value proposition cannot be opening doors. It has to be counseling our clients and truly helping them do things in a way that they don’t know how to do because they haven’t done it before, or they haven’t done it as many times, or they don’t have their ear to the ground doing it six times this month. And for your newer agents that are saying, well, I haven’t done it six times a month this month, or I haven’t sold any houses. Why would somebody want to choose me? I had that same exact issue I had. I could not convince people to meet with me. The only reason that I can say what I’m saying is that I also was that person running out to meet people anywhere. And not only did my life and my health suffer, but it felt so frustrating, such a waste of time, such a waste of gas. And I realized this is not the person that I want to be in my business. I want to help people who want help. And for me at that time, it was those first-time homebuyers. You guys know my story, but first-time homebuyers, they definitely don’t want to meet. They want to open an app and show up at a house. So I had to give them a reason to meet with me. And I have a very specific initial consultation, invitation conversation that happens, whether it’s in person on the phone, you know, at an open house or by email, if somebody has reached out by email, which is the goal. If your marketing is doing its job, people are reaching out to you saying, Hey, I heard about you. I heard you’re great at X, Y, and Z. And I want to meet with you, or I want to, here are the five houses I’ve seen whenever they say, when they, when they reach out to you, you say, here’s how I work. The very first step is I want to meet with you. I want to sit down and talk to you about what you’re looking to do when you’re looking to do it. And I want to figure out how I can help you do it in the most, in my case, cost-effective way possible, which by the way, works for most people who don’t want to save money. And so then I would go on to say, in my case, and you have to find your reason for your particular clients. This is where your marketing genius has to come in. And I would say there are so many first-time homebuyer programs out there that make your first home more affordable. I need to dive into a lot of personal information, like what you make, where you want to buy in order to know which of those first-time homebuyer programs you qualify for so that we can get you some down payment assistance up to $80,000 in my, in, in Washington, DC, for example, or some of the other programs that will make your money go further, or at least make you feel less nervous. And not only that, but I also want to walk through the process of buying a home. So it’s a lot less scary and you know exactly what happens when that is giving people a reason to want to meet with me. Now you have to figure out your reason based on your audience and the way that you figure out who your audience is you go back to the marketing section, the marketing pillar, which I will link to in the show notes for this episode, this episode’s URL is agent grad school.com forward slash An initial consultation agent grad school.com forward slash initial consultation. And I’ll link to that, but see, it was no coincidence when your marketing is on point and people are reaching out to you for the reason that you’re telling them to reach out to you again, at the beginning of my career, it was first-time homebuyers reaching out to me because I was known as the person who could help first time home buyers in my case, make their first home more affordable. So those are the leads that were coming to me. I hate him and saying the word leads, cause they’re like people who have hopes and dreams and want help. So, but leads is like the, you know, it’s people who have not yet been in client, right? So they’re raising their hand and they’re saying, I’ve heard about you, right? But they still have the mentality of feeling like they have to have it all figured out or feeling like they do have it all figured out by the time they reach out to me. And what I’m saying to them is no, no, no, you don’t have to figure it out. I want to teach you the process of buying a home and let’s dive in deep and figure out, do you have, can you qualify for some of these first-time homebuyer programs? Right? So I made it a no-brainer in your marketing and marketing, by the way, is not just the thing that gets a person to come to you. That creates a lead. Marketing is not just that. Marketing is also how I got people to The Initial Consultation. So if you’re thinking that initial consultations are a waste of time, they could not be further. That’s one thing I hear, they’re going to be a waste of time. Not if you understand how to bring qualified leads to you using your marketing. If you set yourself up to be known as an expert for something, they are never a waste of time. What a waste of time is, is dropping everything the minute, anybody, some stranger wants to meet, meet you at a house that they’ve picked out. If they have this all figured out and your value proposition or an agent’s value proposition is simply showing up, we’re in trouble. This industry will not like that’s not worth the tens of thousands of dollars of a commission. It’s just not. So if you want to uphold, you know, the commission structure, if you want to truly add value to people that is worth the tens of thousands of dollars of commission is truly helping people do things they couldn’t do before. So take that approach and getting people to want to meet with you and your initial consultations set the tone for the entire relationship. It defines your relationship. It creates clarity for both you and for them clarity being a, are we working together? That’s how you’ll, you’ll figure that out at the end of your initial consultation, there’s a very kind of scripted is almost too harsh of a word, but like there’s a framework I teach an outline. I teach that creates an initial consultation experience for both you and your clients. That is like, the point of it is to gain clarity and educate each other on again, why they want to do what they want to do, where they want to go, how they want to, you know, when they want to get there. And your job is to figure out how you are going to help them make that happen in the way that is most advantageous for them. So the initial consultation with your Buyer-client and your seller-client, again, cannot be about selling you on them, cannot be about how great you, your experience. Nobody wants to hear that. All people want to know is how can you help them do something more than they could do it on their own. It’s kind of like, show me what you got, right? But not from a convincing standpoint, from curiosity, what are you trying to do? Where are you now? Where do you want to be? And I can help create a bridge to get there in a way that you didn’t necessarily, as the client know-how to get there on your own. And even with the savviest clients, I have investor clients who have for years been buying and selling houses on their own. And I’m constantly looking at how can I add value here? How can I show them something or offer them something that they aren’t thinking about? So it’s not just the first-time homebuyers that this stuff works for. It’s for really savvy people. So the initial consultation is where you really create this environment of you being a counselor, a guide, an expert, right? If you think about every other kind of highly regarded personal advisor for people, tax person, lawyer, doctor, I’m sure I’m forgetting other people, even your dentist, right? The first thing they’re always going to do, they’re not going to just start doing your taxes. I mean, yes, there are places that go that you can go and they will purely just do your taxes while you sit there for an hour. But if you really want to be highly regarded as a CPA, you are going to have an initial conversation with your client and then have a mutual agreement about whether you’re going to take that client on or not even my own hairdresser, right. Sits me down in the chair first and says, okay, what are we doing today before they start washing my hair? So really the skipping over the initial consultation does not put you in the light of being this guided expert counselor for them. And that for me, at least, is, is who I want to be for my clients, whether they’re a buyer or seller. So come in with that energy and your initial consultations also really make everything from that point on, go so much smoother in the transaction, because when you’re at the initial consultation, you’re, you’re asking so many questions like again, so you’re telling you want to buy your first home. Why, why, why are you feeling like buying a home is a good time. This is a good time to buy her first home and then listen to them. If it’s not a first-time homebuyer, then just say, what’s making you want to move. I’d love to know. Maybe they’re moving from another, another area, whatever it is. Aren’t you curious? Don’t you want to know why they are going through this huge life experience of buying a house? We really, as real estate agents need to stop thinking of our goal of selling a house, getting a client and really focused on helping people make this big life change happen in a way that is more enjoyable, less stressful than if they did it on their own. And instead of focusing on the transaction, focus on the big thing that this person is doing in their life and be curious about why they’re doing it and how you can help them do it in a way that kind of blows their mind, or is out of the box for our students who, you know, have been doing things a different way. And then finally, almost like kind of beating it into them, just do The Initial Consultation, do it this way slowly but surely, right? They get the courage to require it. And I had one student in our class just last week, say I will never not do initial consultations again. I cannot believe I’ve been doing them this way. I’ve been working this way because of what happened after the initial consultation, right? She followed our script. She wasn’t selling them on anything. Truly curious, trying to figure out what is this client trying to do? How can I help them and having a framework to have a conversation and educate the client about how the process works. And she said from that moment on the initial consultation, well, I mean the entire relationship with that client was completely different than any relationship she’s had with her by her client clients in the past, without doing the initial consultation, the buyer was so much more educated, confident, and that is the point of the initial consultation is to educate your clients about the process, even if they’ve bought or sold so many times, that was the major pushback with this particular student. In fact, the client was a real estate agent from New York, moving to Florida. She was like, this person doesn’t need this. And I was like, yes, they do. And lo and behold, New York has a totally different way of buying and selling real estate than Florida. And so she was able to take that opportunity and say, Hey, I know that you’re a real estate agent. You’ve done this a million times in your own business, but how we do it here in Florida is totally different than buying and selling houses in New York. And I want to explain the difference so that you know what to expect moving forward. The buyer was totally flabbergasted, totally grateful. And the process from that moment forward for somebody who was not even in the area, this was somebody who was relocating. She said, the agent said was completely so much better than ever. And a client experience had been in the past. That is the point of the initial consultation is to create that connection, create that clarity, educate each other. You’re educating your client, but your clients educating you on what they’re trying to accomplish. And together you figure out, okay, when and how are we going to do this with you leading the way. So I want you to think about your initial consultations in this kind of before the initial consultation, during the initial consultation and after the initial consultation and the point of before the initial consultation, if you are apprehensive of having people meet with you first, ask yourself why and the nine times out of 10, it’s because your marketing isn’t bringing people to you. So if you don’t have people who want to meet with you, you’re not giving them a good enough reason. And nine times out of 10, that starts in the marketing you face bringing good quality leads to you, who then you just have to say, great. I’m so excited to help you with X, Y, and Z. Here’s my process. If people see that you’re valuable before they ever meet with you, meaning like your marketing has done something to draw them to you. And you say, this is how I work. I start by having an initial consultation then totally like kind of stops them and like, oh wow, this person’s different. And we always want to be different. Right? And we want to be curious, right? This person can really, really has an interest, not just in selling me a house, but interested in what I’m trying to do and educating me and making me a stronger Buyer in this case. Okay. You want to set up that structure? So the before is gives people a reason to A, want to reach out with you, and then B, want to meet with you. And then at the initial consultation, again, show up with that curiosity with the goal, being clarity, not selling clarity and education. Even if they’ve done this a million times, they haven’t done it with you. They might not have done it in your county. They might not have done it in this market. Okay. And then after at the end of that initial consultation, just like I mentioned for the listing Consultation, you want to just end with, and here’s what the next steps will look like. And you line item out with those next steps look like, and in my process, it’s, I’m going to introduce you to my lender and, or introduce myself to their lender if they came with one and you always want to offer your lender as well, just so they could have some comparison. And then we’ll schedule a time to talk about the finances and schedule our first outing. And you just keep things moving. Okay. That’s crucial how you end. The initial consultation is crucial. You don’t end it by asking them what they think or how they want to move forward. You end it by saying, here’s our next steps. And then outlining what those are. And then last but not least after the initial consultation, you need to bridge the gap between that moment and getting them into the buying phase. Because there are so many times when buyers, I’m talking about Buyer specifically, but also listers kind of fall through the cracks after the initial consultation. And so you want to have absolute clarity. Remember the goal of the initial consultation. One of the goals is clarity. So you don’t need to ask them, when do you want to start looking at houses? And then depending on whatever they say, you want to make sure you have a plan for following up with them between now at the initial consultation and then, and making sure that you’re not just following up to say, Hey, how’s it going? Right. You know, how, what I teach is you have a weekly email that educates them between now and when they’re ready to start. But also just saying like, here are the things that we need to do between now and then, and really creating a plan for them to get prepared to start. And sometimes that start day is this weekend. It’s two days away, you know, or sometimes that plan is January. Okay. And so you tell them, Hey, here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to reach out to you this day and this day, and I’m going to, you know, and you move them forward and you help. And you give them support between now and whatever date they want to get started. So that is the before, during and after an initial consultation. So my hope and intention today is that this conversation about initial consultations hopefully has convinced you a, to do them and B how to do them both in a, with your buyers and your seller clients in a way, but it is not about selling or telling, but about listening, asking questions, being curious, and really after clarity on what they’re trying to do when they’re trying to do it and how you can help them do it, and then presenting your, your strategy, your plan, your framework, your approach for how you help them, how you help those types of clients accomplish that. Okay. All right. I hope this has been helpful. This is pillar two and next week, I’m going to talk about pillar three, which is what I call the doing or the during phase, which is how you create your plan, your strategy that you communicated in your initial consultation, but that doing and during phase is so crucially important that you have a plan. You have a framework, you have a system for helping both your buyer and your seller clients. And so I’m going to tell you how to come up with it. And then that I hope will give you clarity and confidence that when you’re in these initial consultations after you go through what I call like the intake portion, the exploration portion, and the part where you’re asking questions and listening to a lot with them, then you move on to your kind of quote unquote presentation. But I hate to even use that word, but you are presenting your approach and your strategy. And you’re probably thinking, well, I just show them houses and they buy one. No, you have to create a framework and a process. That’s more than that same thing. It’s like, oh, I just take pictures and list it. No, you’re going to do a lot more than that. And you’re going to present it in a way, because, because if you’re able to say, here’s my approach, here’s my process. And really explain that in a way and truly have a one-of-a-kind experience that you create for your buyers and sellers. That is how you get repeat clients and referrals without having to ask for business. When we get to that after phase, all right, please, please position yourself as an expert, bring people to you who want to work with you. And then the next step is this initial consultation. This will set up so such a strong relationship and make the rest of the journey with your client better for both you and them. All right, I’ll see you next week. When we talk about that during phase that doing phase and creating that process for your buyer and seller clients, see you, then thank you for listening to this episode of Confessions of a Top Producing Real Estate Agent. We purposely keep this podcast sponsor and commercial-free so we can focus solely on providing real estate agents with the content that will help them grow their real estate. And how about like, they love outside but business too, but we need your help to get this podcast in the hands of other real estate agents. So please, if you liked this episode, leave a review on iTunes or wherever you’re listening, and also tell your agent friends to listen in to thank you so much for supporting this show for being a listener and supporting other agents along your way to success. That’s what this is all about. See you next time. On another episode of Confessions of a Top Producing Real Estate Agent. And until then come hang with me over at agentgradschool.com. 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