Building rapport with sellers

The first four seconds

You have to make a good first impression and you can't do it just using words.
Its your tonality and the way you use your body. Your tone of voice is extremely influential and
you can create massive amounts of rapport on this alone. You want to be sharp, enthusiastic
and be aware of the seller’s voice tone and pace at which he speaks. You want to essentially
match him as much as possible. “ People like people like whom…” ? Like themselves, or how
they aspire to be.

To keep rapport from the start of the phone call you want to be matching and mirroring their
tone of voice and even certain words they use.

Build a rapport

Now you have their attention, you need to open somebody up to want to talk to you.
"It's how you phrase your questions and how you listen to somebody," ​"And when it's emotional,
about the struggles they're facing or if their family comes up, you become more engaged in the
conversation and match their emotions at the time.
You should also match the general posture and pace at which the other person is talking.
"So if someone is unenthusiastic and seems disconnected to your message ​you don't keep
talking at them in a tone that is overly positive and enthusiastic - you match their tone​and build
up to a level where you sound enthusiastic again…..

Always be asking questions

When you ask someone a lot of thoughtful questions you make the person feel at ease. They
feel like you are the expert and you're asking them “questions” to find out how you can help
them. This is extremely important when doing any business deal.

"The thing with great sales people, top level entrepreneurs and business people is that ​they're
experts in asking questions and based on that they know how to offer a solution,".....

So what counts as a "good" question?

Your goal is to work out what people need, but you also need to understand the context.

"What do they value? What are their beliefs about selling and making decisions? What's causing
them the most discomfort right now?".....

You have to listen and don't try to solve their problem while you're still working out what it is.
How to identify what's wrong with people...

First of all they have to trust and like you. You want to be building up more rapport with the
seller as you’re moving along the conversation. If you follow the match and mirroring steps they
will feel they connected to you and will want to do business.

You need to identify their emotional pain​. Why are they motivated to sell their house at a
discount….? Why would they want to do a lease option…? What is the emotional pain….. ? ​
By
identifying this through asking questions you can get them focused on what they “don't like”
about their situation and you can be the one to offer a solution.
"I wouldn't ask it first but as I get into deeper and tighter rapport it opens me up to ask those
more invasive, troubling questions and if they already sense I'm an expert and a figure of
authority they'll reveal their pain to you,"....

Mirror and matching example:

“ What is the reason you're selling if you don’t mind me asking….?

“Ummmmmm….. I just want to get rid of the place to be honest”.
“Ummmmmm…. OK. If I can make you a cash offer so you can move on and get “rid” of the
place, would that interest you at all’?

Example 2:
Floating the idea past the seller. Using a recent example of a recent “seller” I helped. ( This
gives them the certainty that others are doing it, its puts them at ease ).

“ We worked with a lady up in Doncaster that was in a similar situation to you. You don't mind if I
float the idea past you to see if its something that might work for you…”?

“No, No, that fine. Please, go ahead”.

Thats fine. I will go ahead, thanks. Yes, she had the property up on the market with little luck.
She was renting the property out for a year but she didn’t like being a landlord, I mean its not for
everyone is it…?

The only problem she had was that she didn't have much equity in the house. The mortgage
was about the same as the current market value, she bought in the 2007, so she was unlucky at
the time.
We have worked with many people that bought around 2006 - 2008 and they just wanted to
move on with their lives but they couldn't sell the house, and they didn’t want the hassle of being
a landlord either.

We had a chat, and we “both” agreed that we could make her a full market value offer but
complete the sale in the near future. This way it could work for us, we could allow the market to
recover before we purchased and she got full market value for her house and she could move
on with her life without all the hassle.

I mean her other option was to reduce the price and actually owe the mortgage company a
lump sum at the end so it wasn’t good. So we agreed a fixed price, and we agreed would
purchase anytime within 5-7 years to allow us enough time for the market to fully recover. In the
meantime all the responsibility, the mortgage and insurance payments are paid by us. We
babysit all the existing payments up until we purchase.

This is agreed and obviously goes through both of our solicitors at the start. To simplify, all the
responsibility YOU would have had as a landlord becomes ours. This is not for everyone but I
thought I would float the idea past you, as its very similar”.

“I dont know if you have any questions at all, or…..”?

“Ok, I sort of understand. So you rent the property out”?

“ Thats a good question. Yes, we usually place long term tenants in the house. The
tenants are good families and couples that are looking for a long term rental and would
like to buy the property in the near future. This works well because they look after the
property like their own and are very low maintenance because they plan to buy the house
in 3-5 years.

“ Does this sound good to you…”?

“ Is this something that might work for you”?

“ Yes, do you have any more information you can send over”?

“ I will send some information over that we usually send out. Its explains this step by step and in
more detail”.

“ Just to confirm, your email is ​xxxxxxxxxxxxx@hotmail.com​. Is that correct?

“Yes, thats my email. I will have a read through tomorrow and I will get back to you”.

“ If you can let me know by tomorrow that will be great. If you send me an email or give me a
text to arrange a call I would appreciate that.

In the meantime, this is new to some people and when you hear something that you haven't
heard of it can sound strange. I suggest writing down any other questions you may have and I
will go through them with you on our next call..Does that sound good to you….?

“​Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.” - Henry Ford