To better serve potential clients with their real estate needs, you need to leverage effective luxury real estate marketing strategies. You not only need to appeal to them, but you also must show them why you’re the right real estate professional to partner with as they either buy or sell a home. If this is your strategy, and you’re still having a hard time turning potential leads into more qualified clients, the problem may stem with the words you choose to use with your client base.
In the world of luxury real estate, potential clients tend to expect more. Many potential buyers and sellers have heard the same old sales pitch time and time again, and they tend to lump all of these pitches—along with the real estate professionals who pitch them—together into the same large, indistinguishable group.
Remember, how you speak to clients needs to be more personalized. It should never come across as scripted. Rather, it needs to be tailored specifically to each client in order to form a stronger bond with them and build a lasting rapport. It needs to be unique, and make the potential client feel as though you not only understand their every need, but you recognize that their needs align with your needs and that you’re partnering together with them rather than simply working for them.
Changing how you speak to potential clients is key, and a simple shift in vocabulary is the perfect place to start. In fact, it may only take using two simple words to forge a stronger bond with your clients.
Using we and us in conversations
A conversation can significantly impact how an individual perceives you. Telling stories and attempting to connect with the client on a more one-on-one level will not only help you stand out from your competitors, but it will also help potential clients get a better idea of how you might work together with them. Remember, potential clients are hoping to be the main characters in the same type of stories that you’re telling, so making sure that you address how they fit those roles is key to building the foundation of a stronger overall connection—that will hopefully develop into a successful partnership.
When you’re speaking to the potential client but use language such as “they” or “them” in your speech, it could contribute to a bit of a disconnect—and even worse, the potential client may quickly lose interest as a result. While you’re pushing the hard sell, your potential client may visualize themselves as nothing more than the “them” or “they” in the next story you tell. Rather than adapt your approach to include your client as the main character in your narrative, you instead inadvertently alienate them because you’re failing to tell the tale of how you’re going to partner with them in their luxury real estate journey.
However, by placing “we” and “us” into the conversation, you’re beginning to directly influence how the potential client will view working with you. Rather than offering a more transactional approach, you’re signaling to your potential client that you’re going along for the ride right along with them. Rather than act as a professional who works for them (not with them), you’re helping establish the concept of collaboration. Whether they’re looking to buy or sell a home, you need them to feel as though you’re just as invested in working with their specific needs as you are in closing the sale.
Using this more inclusive, first-person language helps to create more opportunities for potential clients to positively react to what you’re saying. By placing them within the narrative, they’re more likely to buy into exactly what is being said. Rather than build yourself up as the main character in the story, build up your potential clients in that role instead. As their real estate professional, you’re obviously still playing a very important role, but you’re working towards their happy ending rather than your own, so to speak. By using words such as “we” and “us” in conversation, you’re helping show your potential clients that their stories are what matters and that you’re fully dialed into making sure those stories are written exactly as they would want them to be.
When crafting a story using these two vocabulary words, you are using it as a relationship phrase, and a potential client will gain a sense of a shared experience and/or goal in the conversation as a result. Using relationship phrasing will help you say something the potential client will more easily relate to and will help show them that you not only understand their exact needs but also fully intend to do everything you can to get them the outcome they’re looking for as their luxury real estate partner.
Practice how you speak to customers
It will take time to turn every presentation into a conversation that matters. Yet by practicing using “we” and “us” in conversations, your listing presentations will quickly turn into more meaningful exchanges, and those meaningful exchanges will have a higher probability of turning into future sales. On top of that, a memorable client experience is potentially going to lead to more referrals as well, meaning your client base will continue to grow and your opportunities for future partnerships will multiply as well.
These two, short words can have a significant impact when it comes to building trust with potential buyers and sellers. Using these words helps frame a better narrative, positions you closer to the potential client as a valuable luxury real estate partner, and will potentially impact your bottom line in more ways than one via potential future referrals.
Become a part of our team at the institute
“Us” and “we” are powerful words in the world of luxury real estate. At The Institute, we love to see our members succeed, and want to empower everyone to reach their full potential as a luxury real estate professional.
If you’re looking to take the next step towards long-term real estate growth, consider joining our team and earning the CLHMS™ designation. Become an active member of The Institute Network, and start building the career you always envisioned for yourself.
For more information about partnering with The Institute for Luxury Home Marketing, don’t hesitate to contact us today.
Diane Hartley is the president of the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing, a premier independent authority in training and designation for real estate agents working in the upper-tier residential market. Hartley brings her passion for luxury marketing and more than 20 years of experience growing and leading businesses to her role as president of the Institute.
