I heard a pitch from a business broker that had a great way to make sure that he was not wasting time with buyers that had a small chance of ever buying. These prospects were coined "the black hole" of the business brokering business because they work the brokers to death with no money to show for it.
This idea is used by Realtors too, but probably not to the extent that the Business Broker did it. His idea was that the buyer had to be pre-approved AND the potential buyer had to put up $250 that would be forfeited if no deal was ever done after a pre-determined time frame. If a deal was done, the $250 would be applied as a credit to his commission. He had this mainly to weed out the bad ones and he put together a good program for the ones in his VIP Program. He would do weekly updates on business listings and even do mailings to business owners to see if they wanted to sell.
Realtors can also provide a VIP program to their buyers with some stipulations. Things like requiring that the buyers sign an exclusive right to represent for 12 months and that they get pre-approved with a pre-approval letter. A realtor VIP program could have some timing requirements put in to make sure that the sense of urgency is there first.
Then, when you get calls from other prospects, you will not get too distracted from your VIP buyers that should be your first priority along the buyers in your closing pipeline. You can use this VIP program idea to let your other prospects know that they need to get in your VIP program too!
Here are some ideas for you to do for your VIPs:
1. Send a hotsheet for any listing that pops up that meets their criteria (Most MLS systems have a way to do this automatically)
2. Weekly updates on market conditions including what was added to the MLS and what sold and at what price.
3. Send mortgage market updates with locking recommendations that you can get almost anywhere like on Realtor.com at this link http://www.realtor.com/home-finance/market-commentary-news/.
4. Take them to lunch occasionally with your phone turned off for some valuable one-on-one face time.
Good Luck and if you are in the Carolinas and if you want to add a good mortgage resource to your VIP program, call me!
Great ideas. I try to treat all of my buyers as if they are VIPs.
Sam,
The VIP approach is always a good thing to do. Asking for a retainer is not something I do. I offer them all the incentives I can and let them know the benefits they will have by working with me. I spend more time talking with customers to insure I have their commitment and that they have bonded with me. If I get the feeling that they are not serious, I move on.
I like the idea. I've even thought about it many times with possibly putting together a card of some sort to make it look credible.
Interesting ideas. I agree that the pre-approval is so important. I don't know if asking for a monetary deposit would work in my market, but it's not a bad idea for someone who is so busy that they can afford to take that risk of turning some people off with that request
I love the idea of taking them to lunch and spending uniterrupted time with your serious clients. That personal time is so crucial to building trust and confidence and often leads to referrals down the road.
Thanks for sharing this!
I agree, all buyers are special in this market!! This just helps people see that they are really special and it can be a neat marketing strategy and time saving strategy.
Some very interesting points. I don't put them in the car unless they are pre-approved and of course, we have to have a Buyers-Rep agreement.
That signed agreement to represent is very important once everyone is comfortable with each other to seal the relationship in my opinion. I posted a funny story about this a few weeks ago http://activerain.com/blogsview/2589021/working-for-peanuts-funny-story-