How to answer the question “What are you offering?”

[Betty Hahn]

Hi, please advise. I have sent letters to homeowners and follow up with a phone call. They are not distressed or motivated. I always get the question what are you offering since I’m the one that’s contacting them. I have told them it depends, what have you done with the property, etc. They want to me to give them a number and if I don’t they most likely want to hang up. What’s the best way to answer this question?

Thank you!

[Barry Pekin]

Your first goal in the call, if you're cold calling, is to find out if there's any potential for a deal.  If they're not distressed, then you probably don't have a deal.

You need to start with the conversation that you would like to help them if they're interested in selling their house.  If they ask how much right from the beginning, tell them you need to collect some information from them first.  Get a little information about the house, then tell them you think it's a nice house and are curious why they want to sell.  This will help gauge motivation.  Ask them when they want to sell by.  Again, you're gauging motivation.  If they're all about getting top dollar and have very little motivation to sell, it's probably not a deal.

I listened to a podcast yesterday about cold calling.  It said that you're going to get a whole lot of no's before you get to a maybe or a yes.  You really don't want to waste time on the no's.  You should be able to determine almost immediately when it's not going to be a deal, and politely move on.  Figure if you're "no" call takes 2-5 minutes, and you have to go through 50 of them, that could be 4 hours of calling or more.  If you are quick to assess a no, and get off the phone, those 50 no's will only take about an hour of your day.

You said it at the beginning.  They're not distressed of motivated.  If that's the case, it's not a deal.  The podcast said to say something like, "Well homeowner, I'll have to see if there's a way we can help you.  If there is, I will be sure to call you back.  Thank you."  In other words, b'bye!  :)