All real estate professionals have to present their proposals to potential clients in order to win listings. While it’s an essential part of prospecting, agents reveal and rank the 7 consistent challenges that are hindering their business.
We conducted a survey at the recent AREC 2019 conference on the Gold Coast, asking Real Estate Agents to rank their biggest challenges when it comes to Real Estate proposals.
Hundreds of Real Estate professionals participated in the survey and their responses were collected to reveal the top 7 proposal difficulties preventing them from winning more listings.
(1) Not being seen differently from other agents (47%)
It’s no surprise that this was ranked as the number one challenge.
Competition is fierce across Australia when it comes to property sales and property management. Highly empowered vendors and landlords have become more discerning and tech-savvy so it is important to be able to present something which stands apart from what other Agent’s are presenting.
Agents are currently struggling to not only differentiate themselves and their service, but are also trying to find ways to demonstrate their differences in a way that a client will understand.
(2) Too hard to personalise for each new prospect (38.6%)
Coming in second is the difficulty of being able to personalise each presentation easily for each client. Potential clients demand and deserve a tailored solution when deciding who to list their property with. This is important in real estate, where the money involved is hundreds of thousands of dollars or more!
Every home and every vendor or landlord is different. Presenting a generic proposal doesn’t make a good impression, especially if other agents are taking the time to customise their presentations.
It looks far more impressive to a potential client if the proposal discusses their unique circumstances and addresses their requirements for their home.
(3) The time it takes to produce it (31.9%)
Real Estate is a busy profession and time is one of the most precious resources you have.
There are a limited number of hours in a day and it can take a disproportionate amount of time to produce real estate proposals that help agents stand out at every listing presentation.
Even with an assistant or a team, producing a personalised proposal can be difficult and is time consuming which means it is a costly and inefficient process.
(4) Not knowing when the prospect is looking at it (26.5%)
Most presentations involve an in-person discussion. After this, the prospect takes their time over the next few days to look through their collection of proposals to consider their options and make a decision.
Agents regularly follow up with potential clients during this time, as this will generally keep them top of mind – however, the challenge is how to know the best time to call.
As digital technology transforms the real estate industry, with it comes the ability to track and monitor client interactivity with a proposal. Once an agent is notified that a prospect has read their proposal again, the agent can contact them immediately.
(5) Too hard to produce visually appealing ones (26.5%)
Both the content and design of a real estate proposal needs to be impressive to have an impact.
This helps separate one agent from the others and conveys a message in an engaging way. However, the time and effort to personalise and update a proposal with the right creative elements can be prohibitive.
(6) The delay in getting it delivered to the prospect (15.1%)
When an agent is dedicating time to construct and personalise their proposals for each client it can significantly delay when they’re able to send the proposal. To a Vendor or Landlord, this can seem like poor service or that they’ve been forgotten.
(7) Difficult to track all the ones produced versus won (14.5%)
Just like in any other profession, numbers matter.
Agents need to be able to track their success rate of how many listing presentations they undertake compared to how many they win in order to improve. However, this can be difficult as it requires ongoing manual monitoring.
Looking for a better solution to overcome all 7 challenges in 1?
It appears that every real estate agent can relate to the above proposal challenges. You understand how important it is to get your proposal right, but there are a lot of difficulties.
So, what’s a simple and effective solution?
You may wish to try ProposalPoint – an agent’s best tool to help win more listings.
ProposalPoint is a fully branded, interactive and customisable digital proposal solution which can be used by Sales Agents, Leasing Agents and Property Managers as an intuitive, fast and effective way to showcase your unique services and earn more business.
As a web-based proposal which can be sent via a link or presented directly on your computer and smart device, ProposalPoint offers you the perfect way to demonstrate value, differentiate your services, impress leads and convert potential vendors and landlords into satisfied clients.