All real estate agents have to present their proposal of service to potential clients in order to win new business. While it’s an essential part of prospecting, agents are facing 7 consistent challenges that are hindering their success.
A survey was commissioned by ProposalPoint in June at the AREC 2019 conference on the Gold Coast, asking Real Estate Agents in attendance to rank their biggest challenges when it comes to vendor proposals.
Hundreds of Real Estate agents participated, 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 in all suburbs across Australia when it comes to property sales, and with highly empowered vendors becoming more discerning and tech-savvy, it’s important to be able to present something distinct which stands out.
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 Vendor 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 unique client. Today, people demand a tailored solution – especially when it comes to real estate services, where the money exchange is in the million-dollar vicinity.
Every home and every Vendor is different, and presenting a generic proposal doesn’t make a good impression; particularly if other competing agents are taking the time to customise their presentations.
It looks far more impressive to a potential client if the presentation discusses their unique circumstances and addresses their specific requirements to best sell the home.
(3) The time it takes to produce it (31.9%)
As busy professionals, time is one of the most precious resources you have.
There are a limited number of hours in a working day, and it can take a disproportionate amount of time to produce several customised vendor proposals every day to help agents stand out at every meeting.
Even with an assistant or a team, it can be difficult, especially if an agent is presenting many times a week to prospect for new business.
(4) Not knowing when the prospect is looking at it (26.5%)
Most presentations involve an in-person discussion. After this, the Vendors take their time over the next few days to look through their collection of proposals to discuss their options and make a decision.
During this period, an agent should follow up with the Vendor, as this will generally keep that agent top of mind – however, the challenge is how to know the opportune time.
As digital technology quickly shifts the real estate landscape, with it comes the ability to track and monitor vendor interactivity with an agent’s proposal. Once an agent is notified that a Vendor has read their proposal again, the agent should contact them.
(5) Too hard to produce visually appealing ones (26.5%)
A presentation needs to be impressive to have an impact, both in content and in design.
This helps separate one agent from others, and convey the message in an engaging way. However, this also requires a lot of time and effort to continually update the proposal with the right creative elements.
(6) The delay in getting it delivered to the prospect (15.1%)
This challenge ties in with some of the earlier ones.
When an agent is dedicating time to construct and personalise their presentation for each proposal meeting, it can significantly delay when they’re able to send it to the potential client. To a Vendor, it can seem like poor customer 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.
It’s important for agents to be able to track their success rate of how many 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 shortcomings. 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. Managing Director of ProposalPoint Ben Gaze says
“ProposalPoint is a fully branded, interactive and customisable digital proposal solution which can be used by Sales Agents, Leasing Agents and Property Managers alike as an intuitive, fast and effective way to showcase your unique services and earn more business.”
Ben further indicated that ProposalPoint was currently working with some of Australia’s largest network groups to roll their digital proposal solution out to their franchisees. At the same time they work with both small and large independents delivering them solutions which mitigate the 7 challenges highlighted above.
Steven Fan, Managing Director of Ray White Parramatta says:
“It’s always good to get proposals out as fast as possible and with a product like ProposalPoint, we wouldn’t have any issues adjusting the formatting of our proposals.
It won’t take up a lot of our time when we need to make changes. Also, it means it would be quite simple to personalise our proposals enough to stand out from our competitors.”
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.
Note: ProposalPoint is a product owned and operated by NetpointGroup Pty Ltd the publisher of Business2
