Stop selling property! Start selling the benefits.

Posted Date: Oct 18, 2012 By: Edmond Yap

This is a recap of a session during the recent 1st Thursday learning event. The speaker himself, Edmond Yap, Chief Education Guy [sic] of EduNation Sdn Bhd, wrote a special column recapping his talk. Here are the reactions I’d be getting when I tell real estate agents and negotiators to “stop selling property”: “But I sell property” “I’m a property agent, you’re asking me to stop?” “What’s wrong with property?” That’s not what I meant when I said “stop selling property”. Being a property agent or negotiator are both fantastic career choices that are both financially and emotionally rewarding. Helping people increase their financial worth and helping families find their dream homes is an amazing career. When I say stop selling property, I meant: 1. Stop selling the number of rooms and toilets 2. Stop selling the “square feet” 3. Stop selling the “location” or “gated community” or even price. These are all the features of your property. In essence this is what every property agent tries to sell. People don’t buy the number of rooms and toilets they buy space. Space that allows their family to live in comfort and harmony. People don’t buy square feet; they buy a place that allows their kids to run around in the garden in front or a place to put their dream office or home theatre. People don’t buy location; they buy peace of mind knowing that their kids will go to good neighbourhood schools and location that is known for a low crime rate, ensuring that their families are safe. People don’t buy features of a property; they buy the benefits of the property. Although we should tell them what the features are, don’t stop there, instead go on to sell the benefits. But before you begin selling benefits, understand that everyone buys different kinds of benefits. To know what benefits to sell, ask questions, spend most of your time getting to know your clients and less on talking about the property. Only once you deeply know your clients, start selling the benefits. The benefit for selling benefits is that it helps you paint a compelling buying picture to your prospect. If you know he wants an office, walk to a room that is most suited to be an office and start talking about his future office. Discuss where he would place the tables and computer and what sort of furniture he’ll get. If your prospect wants a garden for her kids to run about, then bring her to the garden and start talking about how she wants to spruce up and decorate the garden and how she intends to make it children friendly. By selling relevant benefits to your prospect, your prospect begins to imagine being the owner of your very property. They picture themselves already owning the house and loving it. Once they imagine owning the property, your battle is half won. So stop selling property. And you might just end up selling much more. Edmond Yap Chief Education Guy EduNation Sdb Bhd Email   letschat@edunation.com.my Website: www.edunation.com.my Latest News: LPL Capital Posts 20 Per Cent Rise In Pre-tax Profit For FY13 (Jan 12, 2014) Maybank IB Maintains "Underweight" Rating On Property Sector (Jan 12, 2014) Iskandar Malaysia's Paradiso Nuova Breaks Ground (Jan 12, 2014) Mah Sing Group Named 'Overall Best Managed Company in Malaysia' by Euromoney Magazine (Jan 11, 2014) Dr M Asks Tabung Haji To Invest In Hi-tech Industries (Jan 11, 2014)

The Client Always Comes First

Success comes from old fashioned values and real estate team leader Emery Sum from Oriental Realty personifies thatPosted Date: Dec 26, 2012 By:

What makes a real estate negotiator successful? Hard work is one, but nothing beats timeless values such as discipline, punctuality and being there for the client all the time. These are the values that made Emery Sum one of the most successful real estate personnel in Malaysia, having recently closed four deals worth a total of RM10 million. However, success is not new to Sum. Before she entered the real estate industry, Sum was a Chartered Financial Planner. She was then working at Public Mutual where she managed to bring in sales worth RM5 million and won two trips to Hokkaido and Shanghai. In 2009, during the economic uncertainty when many businesses, especially financial institutions, were going through a tough time, Sum decided to look for a new industry to join, where ‘it is always green’. One day, she saw a banner showing a recruitment ad by a real estate agency. Inspired, she managed to get a job at one agency, but left after eight months because she felt she was wasting her time there. For her, it was an unproductive eight months. “I started to look for other agencies. I wanted to be with a very established agency, especially one with many branches,” she said. She started by shortlisting 3 of the biggest agencies and gave them a call. “The first call I made, the person who answered the phone was very rude,” she said, thus she decided to avoid the company that seemed to be nurturing such an attitude. It was a different scenario when she called the second company as the person who answered was polite. She even spoke directly to the boss who was even more polite and helpful. Sum’s fate was sealed when she joined the new agency, namely, Oriental Realty. She worked really hard, up to 3am or 4am in the morning at the office (not from home as many agents would do). In the morning, she would meet up with the homeowners and take many photographs of the units she helps to sell. At night, she would email and post up new property listings at iProperty.com. Her efforts paid off within a month as she managed to earn a commission of RM120,000, almost 100% more than what she scored at the previous place. Currently focusing on the Mont Kiara area, the majority of Sum’s clients are expatriates, with most of the dealings related to the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) scheme. Multinational companies prefer Mont Kiara for the sake of their expatriate employees as it offers a good ambience and amenities such as international schools. There are also many multinational companies with offices in Mont Kiara. These clients come from Japan, Taiwan, Korea and Hong Kong, and most of them are interested in residential properties. Sum was especially ecstatic about one Japanese investor who spoke highly of her. The client, who conducts property seminars in Japan, invested in a RM500,000 property, and later introduced two more Japanese investors, who invested in a RM1 million and RM800,000 property respectively. Later, one of them came back and bought a RM2.4 million property. One of the biggest factors that contributed to her success is that she is with the client throughout the entire property buying process. “Having a sense of responsibility is important; the customer comes first before you,” Sum noted. She is with her clients right up to the final moment of signing the dotted line. For her expatriate clients, she has even helped to provide additional services such as translation. “One must know everything, the A to Z of buying a property. I make sure I am present even during the signing of the sale and purchase agreement, even though some agents would not bother to be there,” Sum said, noting that the agent’s presence also makes the clients more comfortable and confident. She noted that all emails must be answered, and requests responded to. “If some clients require a property in a location that is not my niche, I would send them to iProperty.com to look for listings in that area. One should not be greedy by trying to grab every deal. By doing so, you cannot serve the client properly,” she added. iProperty.com has been a boon for Sum, it is where she has been listing her units for the past two and a half years. She noted that iProperty.com is especially appealing as its customer base is very popular with the expatriate community. Sum has also supported many of the packages launched by iProperty.com. “I have only one tool – iProperty.com. I trust iProperty.com, not even the newspapers, to deliver more leads,” she said. Latest News: LPL Capital Posts 20 Per Cent Rise In Pre-tax Profit For FY13 (Jan 12, 2014) Maybank IB Maintains "Underweight" Rating On Property Sector (Jan 12, 2014) Iskandar Malaysia's Paradiso Nuova Breaks Ground (Jan 12, 2014) Mah Sing Group Named 'Overall Best Managed Company in Malaysia' by Euromoney Magazine (Jan 11, 2014) Dr M Asks Tabung Haji To Invest In Hi-tech Industries (Jan 11, 2014)