So this session today is about how to prioritize clients. So there was a question in the last workshop that asked about, well, how frequently do I follow up with people, right? Who’s important, who’s not important? And in putting this presentation together, it was really tough to kind of come up with real principles that you guys can apply to your day to day servicing of clients. And I think I’ve done an okay job, right? You guys can be the judge of that at the end in terms of how much value you take from this.
But really what I’ve tried to come up with is highlighting a formula for success. There’s no perfect way to identify who’s important and who’s not important. But I think I’ve come up with a couple of hard and fast rules that will help you guys identify who is higher urgency versus less urgency.
And then we’re going to introduce some service standards. So based on understanding who’s urgent and who’s not, then how does our approach change? Does it change? How frequently do we follow up with these people? Sound good? So a recap from our last discussion. The first thing I want to recap is that our customers are our greatest asset, right? So when we talk about prioritizing clients, we’re not talking about their level of importance, right? We’re not saying that this client is more important than another client, right? When we talk about prioritizing, we’re talking about determining the order of the tasks that we do things.
So that’s really, really important. We treat every client the same, like they’re our only client. And when we talk about prioritizing, it’s just talking about what task am I going to do for who first, right? Not that this person is not important and I’m not going to speak to them, so I just want to make that clear.
That’s not what this presentation is about. So the key to prioritization the first thing actually has nothing to do with time management or tasks. And in order to kind of demonstrate this story, I’m going to give you an example.
But before you service any client, you need to ask yourself two questions. Number one is, do I fully understand my clients requirements? Right? Do I understand exactly what it is that they’re looking for? And number two, do I have suitable properties to propose them? Because if the answer is no to either of those two questions, then it doesn’t matter. Nothing else matters, right? It doesn’t matter if you prioritize them as your highest task and drop everything else you’re doing and spend all your time and energy on them.
It doesn’t matter because you don’t know what they’re looking for and you actually don’t have properties to recommend them. So you can work as hard as you want, but all you’re doing is wasting your time and their time. You will not see the results.
So here’s the story I want to tell you, and I think this sums things up perfectly. Anybody recognize that place? The S? Yes, that’s where I live. Don’t come looking for me.
Don’t come waiting for me in the lobby. But I think this is a perfect example of this introduction, and it’s part of me being a very difficult client. If I was one of your clients, and I want to show you that if you prioritize me just because I’m one of the owners of FazWaz and my requirements weren’t that realistic, you’d be wasting your time on me, right? So I think it’s a really important lesson.
So the background is that my requirements were very specific. I was looking for a condo about a year ago, right? And I only wanted the lofts of Soak. And I only wanted the lofts of Soak because I want to walk to work, right? It’s a new building.
I wanted a new building, and I wanted to walk to work. I wanted west facing, right? So I wanted to overlook the park in the school, right? Because it has an open view. I looked at other units on lower floors, and they were looking into me.
I’d sit in my living room, and I looked out the window, and I was looking at my neighbor. I’m like, okay, this is not what I want, right? I want a bit of privacy. 25,000 baht was my budget.
I keep a place in Phuket. So I know that sounds like a cheap budget for the guy who you think is probably making a lot of money, but I have a beautiful house in Phuket, so this is just a small condo for me, 45 m². For those who know the S, I did not want a studio unit.
I didn’t want one of the 37 square meter ones. I wanted a bathtub that I’m never going to use, but I wanted it. Right? And I was ready to move in as soon as possible.
So the background here is that I found an owner directly, right? I’m price sensitive. I know what I want. And I went in our back end of our system, looked for properties, found an owner, and I found a great unit right about there that was within my budget, was everything that I wanted, but it was facing the wrong way.
It wasn’t very private, right? So I contacted an agent to say, hey, can you help me find anything in this project? And already explained to them that I found this unit. If you can find me anything better, I’m your man. I’ll take it.
Right? So what did the agent do? So the agent listened to my priorities and provided me with recommendations right away. But all of them were outside of my requirements, so they were studio units. I don’t want studio units.
Right. They were 40,000 baht. Hey, I already found a unit at 25,000 baht.
Why would I take one at 40 that’s smaller on a lower floor that doesn’t have the view I want. Right. And that agent made me their top priority without asking me any questions about why my requirements were my requirements.
What the agent not do? The agent did not consult me. They didn’t say, hey, listen, Brendan, when you say you want a west facing unit, why do you want a west facing unit? You wouldn’t take an east facing unit. If it’s above this floor, then there’s no building in front of it.
Well, yeah, if it was above that floor, then I would take that because my problem is I don’t want somebody looking at me. Okay, great. Why are you only interested in this building, right? There’s the S on the other side, right? And I’ve got great units there that aren’t overlooked that are bigger than 45 price point.
Would you consider that? Yeah, actually I would. That would be a great option for me. Right.
So the agent didn’t do those things. They didn’t understand why I was looking for what I was looking for and then they didn’t flex my requirements to open up more recommendations. Right.
So that example I gave you was a perfect example of flexing. Right. Is saying that if you don’t flex somebody and you don’t understand their requirements, then the options are very, very small or they might not even exist.
And again, this agent ran around maybe their top priority and they were never ever going to close me. Right. So when it comes to prioritizing clients, the first point is to understand your client.
Why is that the most important thing to determine if their requirements are realistic? Maybe my requirements that I was looking for, maybe it wasn’t realistic at all. Maybe that was unfair to ask for that unit at that price and to assess if you as the agent, do I have options to show this guy, right. If their requirements aren’t realistic and I have no options and I can’t find options, then I’m not going to have a good outcome for anybody here, right.
So otherwise, if you don’t do those things, you’re wasting everybody’s time, right. And I think that’s pretty clear, right. And that if you’re doing these things again, it doesn’t matter how much you prioritize.
So let’s look at an example of my requirements. So these exact requirements. So if my requirements are realistic and I can source available listings, there’s available listings either on FazWaz or I can co broke with somebody or I can go find listings, then guess what? That’s a good client, right? And guess have as your client and as the agent, we have the same shared expectations and goals.
So when this agent was recommending me studio units on lower floors at higher prices, I was just right. Like, no, I told you, right? Where if that agent flexed me and said, hey, Brennan, I’ve got great units here, higher floors, right. Then that process of doing that gets us on the same page and also opens up more options for you to recommend as an agent, which is really important if the requirements aren’t realistic.
And I tell you what, in all my years of experience in real estate, it is very, very rare that people have unrealistic requirements. They might come to you with unrealistic requirements, but if you go through the needs analysis and you flex and open up options and figure out what they need versus what they want, you’re always going to find a compromise. Right? There’s rare examples where you can’t, and we’ll talk about those in a minute.
But 99% of the time, people are coming with realistic requirements, or by flexing them, you can ensure that their requirements are realistic. So in this case, like I said, no, if I was the agent, I’d be like, hey, Brennan, listen, I rent out a lot of units at the lofts of Soak. Lofts of soak.
I just changed it. The s. Thank you.
I rented a lot of units at the S, and the last studio unit I just rented, which is 37 rented for 30,000 baht. So can you help me understand why 25,000 baht is your target price that you want to get? If the agent asked me that, I would have been like, because I’m not paying commission, right? Because I’m not working with an agent, right. Because the other unit I got, I was able to cut the commission.
I’m your worst client. Right? I’m the person that wants to use an agent but not pay you. Right? Well, Brennan, come on.
That’s not realistic. Right? Okay. Yeah, you’re right.
So if they would have asked that, they would have figured out why I was able to get a better price than they were able to get, right. If they couldn’t find suitable listings, then again, it’s about flexing on the east facing. Why do you want east facing? Well, I want privacy.
Well, there’s other options to get you privacy that aren’t east facing. Right. Makes sense.
Cool. So that’s number one. The second step of prioritizing clients is understanding what stage they’re at in the decision making process.
And this is something that is relevant to absolutely every type of purchase that you make. Right. So there’s five stages that every consumer goes through when they decide to make a purchase, right, in anything.
So number one is awareness and need recognition. So, for example, it can be, hey, I’m 18 and I’m getting kicked out of my house. I can’t live with my mom and dad anymore.
I’m an adult, I got a job. I need to rent a property or buy a property. Right.
Well, I’m going to go online and do some research and gather some information, or maybe I’ll talk to a real estate agent and gather some information. What can I afford? Can I afford to buy a house? How much money do I have? Right? What does a house cost? Can I buy a house? Do I have to buy condo. Right.
All these research and education of what the process is, once the consumer understands that, they move to the consideration stage, which is evaluating options. Right? Okay, great. Now I know that I can’t afford to buy a house and I want to rent a house.
Where do I want to be? What buildings are most popular? Right. Just like the process that I went through. I want to be in the S, I want to be Espacing.
They’re comparing units, comparing projects. Once they’ve found a project or a unit that they’re interested in, then it’s about the decision making process and about understanding the finer details, price, right. Availability, when can I move in? And last but not least is the evaluation.
So the post purchase phase, and that phase is, okay, I’ve moved in. Am I happy? Am I happy with this experience? Would I recommend this project to my friends? Would I recommend the agent and the company that I use to other friends? And that’s the full purchase cycle. So how does real estate change to, say, buying a phone? Right? So if you’re buying a phone, maybe you realize that your phone’s broken, right? Okay, my phone’s broken.
I need a new phone. I always buy apple, right? So I move relatively quick through the research stage because what’s the latest one? iPhone 14. Right.
No brainer. I’m going to buy it. My consideration is maybe do I need the Pro or should I just get the iPhone 14? I have the Pro now and twelve and I’ve taken like two pictures in my entire life.
Right. So do I actually need a really good camera? Right. I’m considering and then I’m like, you know what, let’s go with the 14.
Normal one. And yeah, I’m pretty happy with it. So that’s obviously a quick example of buying a phone.
How is real estate different to buying a phone? Or is it not? Same. Exactly the same. Who wants to go first? Think the research phase is much longer when we talk about properties agreed.
Like buying your shirt or the phone. Agreed. 100%.
So the research stage here in terms of why is it longer? First, bigger budget. And also when you buy properties, if it’s for yourself, you’re planning for the long term, so you’re not buying something to stay six months. Right.
Got you. Even more sometimes. Agreed.
So I don’t know if we can hear that on the camera, but I’ll repeat it a little bit for the people who are watching. Is that the process of buying or renting real estate is a longer process, would you say? Or a process is longer, but also the research. The research has to be longer.
Right. So the research right away, the research and the information you need to make a smarter decision is more. Right.
Because it’s a bigger purchase, you’re spending more money. An iPhone, these are super expensive these days, right? But they’re almost the cost of a condo. But a condo is going to be three, four, five, 6 million baht.
Right? And like Max said, you’re going to live in it for six months. If you’renting it a year. If you’renting it maybe longer, maybe you’re going to own it for the rest of your life.
Maybe you only buy one property in your entire life. Right. So the timing and the information you need from stage to stage is more detailed.
Agreed. Anything else different about real estate? For the house? It’s a family or you have more actors that can help you make decisions. That’s a really good one.
I didn’t think of that. So there’s multiple decision makers, right. When you buy a phone, it’s you buying a phone, you want it.
Can you afford it? Right. It’s yours. Right.
Where a house, generally you have a partner that you’re buying with. Maybe you’re getting a loan from somebody, right? Maybe you’re asking your parents to help you with a deposit, but they don’t think you can afford, but this so there’s other decision makers in the process. Really good.
Anything else? Just to add on to what Kim said, maybe when you’re buying a phone, it’s kind of mixed up what you need and what you want. Okay. Whereas I’ve dealt with investors that are purely logical, that the numbers just have to make them capital gain, rental yield.
And I’ve also dealt with buyers who it has to be beautiful, they have to be perfect. So that’s a perfect segue for me. So the comment was that depending on what your motivation is, you can progress through different stages at different speeds and based on different information.
So let’s take a look at that as an example. If you’re somebody who is renting a property versus buying a property to live in, does somebody who’s renting move faster through these stages, or does somebody who is buying move faster? Renting. Renting.
Right. Because it’s less of a commitment, it’s less capital, there’s less research. Right.
And that you can move through that decision making process. And that’s really, really important to remember. Right.
Because somebody can move from being in the awareness I need to rent a house, right. And they could actually have rented it, moved in tomorrow. Right.
So that can happen very, very quick. If I’m an investor, then I can still move. I can still go from awareness to post purchase evaluation very, very quickly.
But the information I need to get as an investor, if I’m a pure investor, I want a 10% net rental return. The research shows me that I can get the 10%. The agent gives me a great investment option that satisfies that 10%.
I don’t need to see it. It’s an investment. I’ll buy it tomorrow.
Right. So it can go through that process. Now, the last point is a residential buyer, right? So a residential buyer is maybe moving in with their family, their kids, it’s their forever home.
Right. And that there’s a bit more emotion to it than numbers. Right.
So really good point. I think the takeaway is that there’s a start and an end to the process that different types of clients with different motivations move through at different speeds, and they move through based on the information that we provide them. But it’s our job as agents to identify what stage they’re at and guide them to the next stage.
Agreed. So how do you do that? How do you identify what stage a client is at? It’s relatively simple, right? You listen, you ask questions, and you see what questions they ask you. So somebody in the research or information gathering stage is asking very broad market questions, right? What’s the process to buy or rent? How much does it cost? Right? And that example I gave about somebody who was looking getting kicked out of their parents house, right? And that they have to decide whether they want to buy or they want to rent.
They’re going to have a ton of questions. So you’re going to be able to identify that that person isn’t at the decision making stage. Right.
And that somebody that’s in the research stage. If I try and close them on a property before they have the information that they need, I’m not going to work with that guy. Hey, Brennan, I’ve got a couple of questions.
Yeah, okay, well, but you should buy this. It’s the last one. They’re going to take it.
You’re going to lose it. Fuck off, man. I got to get comfortable with the process.
Right? So somebody in the research stage is gathering information, asking broad market questions, the consideration evaluation stage, their questions become more specific and comparative. Right? So should I buy a house or a condo? Off plan versus resale? What’s the most popular project? Well, what about cam fees? Is this unit still available? Can I view this tomorrow? They want to take action. They want to compare different options to understand what is more suitable to them.
And the third stage that we work with is the decision stage. Right? And that’s the purchase phase, where they’re asking price, time, specific questions. Right? What’s the best price do you think I can get for this? Is the owner flexible on price? If I buy this, when can I move into it? Right.
They’re at that point where they’re picturing themselves living or in that property and that they’re ready to make a decision. Right. You’ve satisfied the research, the consultation, the comparison, and that they’re in that decision making process now, and you’ve done a good job to get them to that point.
So why is it important to identify what stage a client is at? This is really, really important. So I think there’s a lot of value to take away in the conversations we’ve had so far. But why does it matter what stage they’re at? Do I treat people with higher urgency if they’re ready to make a decision? Or do I ignore the people that are in the research stage? No, right.
But it’s important to understand those stages so that you can understand where they are in the decision making process. Right? So, like I said, determine what tasks and actions to take next. If they’re at this stage, my job is to get them to the next stage.
So if they’re early, I shouldn’t be trying to close them and sell. Right. Or I should be selling on working with me and selling on Thailand or selling on the market in Bangkok versus selling a specific unit.
Right. And that’s going to help you guide them through. And last but not least, it’s going to help you understanding the stages, helps you identify what clients are actually progressing because you want to spend your time, energy, and effort on people who are responding to you and that are moving through the stages.
And that’s the formula for success when it comes to prioritization. So the most important thing is speaking to your client, right? And working with clients who have clear and realistic requirements, working with clients where there are available listings on the market. So there’s multiple options that you can show them.
The client is responsive in progressing through five stages, they’re responding to you. They started off not knowing anything about buying. Right.
They’re responsive and they’re slowly progressing through the stages. That that’s a good client. That’s a client that you should spend a lot of time, energy, and effort on.
Right? I can think of a lot of clients that I’ve had over the years where I haven’t worked on them. I have a friend in Phuket that has a 10 million US dollar budget and he’s going to buy a hotel, right? And I know what his expectations are for the hotel. I hope he doesn’t see this somehow, but he’s definitely not going to buy it from me now.
But I know what his expectations for what he’s going to get for $10 million are so far off, right? And I’ve educated him. I’ve consulted him. I’ve showed him why.
I’ve showed him the available options, right? That he’s going to buy a hotel. He will buy a hotel one day. It could be 5678, 910 years from now, who knows what’s going to happen.
But based on my workload and what my priorities are, that that is not a priority for me. Right? And I think that if you follow these principles, it’s the right formula for success in terms of prioritizing your clients. Okay? Any questions about that? So far, so good.
So now that we understand the prioritization basics, how do we apply this to our day to day approach to servicing clients? This is what I want to talk about in terms of the faswas service standard. So understanding with this approach, how do I prioritize my new clients? How do I prioritize my active clients and how do I prioritize the clients that I’ve essentially put on hold? Right? So let’s take a look at that. So clients that are new to you, that have come in in your lead in column, new clients that come into you, are they high urgency or low urgency? I heard a couple of lows.
High, low. Okay, so mostly high. So definitely high, right? Because you have to treat all new clients like they’re about to make a decision.
The reality is that you don’t know whether they’re high or low, right. And until you know they’re high. Right? And that’s why we’re always saying call, follow up, right? Introduce yourself, be the first person, because you have to assume that that person is at the decision making stage and they’re going to buy tomorrow.
Right? And that’s why the urgency is there until you’ve made that connection and can identify where they are in the decision making process. Right? So the tasks for new clients that are into your new clients that you’ve received are phone calls to build rapport, conducting your needs analysis, speaking to them, understanding what it is they’re looking for. Are their requirements realistic? Right? Do I have properties that I can show them? Where are they in the decision making process? Value creation, sending information, educating them, and then following up.
Hey, I sent you a great email. Let me talk you through it. Hey, I sent you some great options.
When would you like to go see those? Right? High urgency. So the frequency of tasks that you should have for new clients is daily until you speak to that client, you should be chasing them every day in order to make that first point of contact. Active clients.
So active clients are defined as clients that are in your spoke and met column. Are they high urgency or low urgency? High spoke is between. Depends.
Depends. So the answer is high urgency, but I agree, it depends a little bit. But the reason they are high urgency is that you’re right, it depends.
In that you’ve spoke to these clients, you’ve met these clients, are they in the consideration stage or are they in the decision stage? Right? But regardless that these are people, that your job is to push them through the funnel, right? It’s to push them through the five stages. So the tasks for these type of clients are educating them, proposing them great locations, proposing them great projects, proposing them great units, pitching those units to their needs and their wants. And again, follow up, follow up, follow up.
Right? Hey, I sent you some great emails. Hey, I sent you some great properties. When would you like to go see these? Right? So with these clients, because they’re in the decision making stage and the consideration stage, we want to be that person that’s help guiding them through.
So clients in those stages should have contact from you minimum every seven days, every seven days, you should be giving value creation, adding something for them, right? And last but not least is held clients. So we have a hold column in our pipedrive. We have a hold column in Pop Deal, which is our new app that’s coming out.
Why do I have a hold column? What do I put on hold? Why do I have this column? What does it mean? Who do I put in here? Right? So the Hell column is for low urgency clients, right? So when we say low urgency, these are people that not that have come in and you haven’t been able to speak to because they’re still high urgency because you haven’t spoken to them, right? Call, call follow up, value creation ad, right? These are low urgency because you’ve had a meaningful connection with them, you’ve spoken with them. Maybe you’ve been out to view properties with them. You’ve built Rapport, they know who you are.
They have reasonable requirements, right? You have listings that match their requirements, but they’re just slow in progressing through those stages. So maybe they have no plans to come to Thailand, right? Maybe that they haven’t gotten back to you about viewing, right? But these are people that are just not in a rush to go through those stages. And there’s a lot of people like that.
That doesn’t mean that they’re bad clients, right? And again, the tasks are educating, proposing great properties, providing them with information in new listings and again, following up. But that can come with less frequency, right? If you’re following up with somebody like that on a daily or weekly basis, they’re going to get pretty annoyed with you, right? And that the Held column. And the reason why we have it is that people in this column require less engagement from you.
So a follow up in terms of a contact and value creation, again, we’re not talking about following up, saying, hey, did you get my email? Because that’s a shit way to follow up and doesn’t add any value. We’re talking about the minimum frequency that you should reconnect with this client, provide value creation in the form of new recommendations of listings or educational content or a market update is every 30 days. Does that make sense? So the best agents in our company don’t only prioritize now business.
So what I’m going to explain is that is that when I was an agent, I had two mindsets. I had business that was now business, right? And I had business that was future business. And that’s the way that I looked at everything.
And that now business was people that were in the decision, in the consideration stage that are going to buy in the next few days, the next few weeks, the next few months, this is where my next deals are coming from. My future business are people that are in that research stage, right? And that I’m going to prioritize the urgency in terms of following. Up with them less frequently, but I’m always going to follow up with them and provide value, right? And by doing so, I create this funnel or this pipeline of clients.
Because guess what happens if you service clients the right way that are future business in the research stage, that they become your now business. Right? And rather than doing one deal a month because I’m just dependent on new leads that I get lucky that are in the decision making process and at the right time, I’m doing three, four, five sales a month because I’m always working on future business and now business, right? And the difference is just less urgency and communication. The approach is exactly the same.
The stages are exactly the same. The only difference is how frequently I follow up with them. Okay? So the takeaways, the key to prioritizing is understanding your clients.
If you do not understand your clients, then sometimes it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack, right? Like, think about my example. I can’t find that unit, I can’t service this guy, right? But if you understand what I want, why I want it, flex my requirements, then suddenly you go from zero options to 50 options, right? And that’s going to help me progress through my stages. Clients progress through stages when they have obtained relevant information.
So I can get somebody from stage one to stage five in a day if I guide them through it, provide them the information, and the information is compelling enough that they want to buy the property. Different client types require different information. So we spoke about it.
Sales versus rentals can speed through at different urgencies. Investors versus residential buyers have a different information in terms of what they need and different emotional appeal to buying. You can impact a client’s progress through the sales funnel by being the expert.
It’s our job. It’s our job to guide them through that sales process. So a couple of quick case studies.
Anybody have any questions about that? Does that make sense? Do you agree with me? Do you think that this is helpful? Yeah. Can you question any of that? Is that approach wrong in any capacity with any type of customer? Any examples you can think of? Let’s look. Right? So here’s a couple examples, and this is why I want to walk through this.
So the last workshop we spoke about servicing overseas buyers, right? And I gave you three examples. Customer A who’s never been to Thailand but looking for an investment property. Customer B who comes to Thailand multiple times a year and is looking for a holiday home.
And customer C, who might retire to Thailand in a few years. Right? My question was, who should service these clients? How do you prioritize them? Right? And I think we’re starting to develop a better understanding about how none of those things really matter, right? And that it’s information that you have to then follow the same approach. So here’s a quick reminder.
Right. Are their clients clear and realistic? Do I have available listings for them? Is the client responsive? It’s a good client. Right, so for client, a client has never been to Thailand, but is looking for an investment property, what steps would you take to prioritize this client? Call qualify first.
Yes. And then email. Okay, so call qualify first.
Right. They’re looking for an investment property. So first question what is a good investment property for you, Mr.
Buyer? Right, well, Brennan, I’m looking for 50% net return. Sorry? 50% capital appreciation in one year. And if it’s not 50%, then don’t even send it to me.
Oh, okay. Well, Mr. Client, 50% capital appreciation in Thailand is challenging.
Right. I’m sure there are some properties that investors have been able to achieve that goal. Having said that, the investments that I have access to are generating anywhere between six to a 10% net return.
Is that something that you’d be interested brennan, I just told you, 50% or nothing. Okay. Well, sorry, Mr.
Client, but based on my experience, I haven’t been able to achieve that type of return for my clients. If anything comes across my desk that I think you’d be interested in that is close to those returns, I’ll make sure to keep you in mind. How’s that sound? Yeah, well, you know what, Brennan? I could do 20%.
Still unrealistic, right? Other side of the spectrum. Yeah, well, I’m open to anything between five to 10%. Okay, great.
I have some great options for you. Right. Going back here, right.
There are listings that match those requirements. So could you tell me a little bit about when you would like to go out and view some of these properties? If I could send you across some great recommendations that satisfied what you wanted to achieve in terms of your investments, would you like to go out and look at some of these things? Well, actually, Brennan, I don’t need to look at them. If the numbers hit those, then I’m ready to buy.
Fantastic. Good client, right? Makes sense. How would you progress that person through the sales funnel? I kind of answered that already.
But how do you progress an investor through the stages? Max, explain the process. Timeline in details. Perfect.
Right. So you explain the process. Right.
Explain the timeline, explain how it works. Explain the risks that could potentially come by buying in the wrong project. Right.
Look at talking about some of the best developers, where there’s examples of high risk, high return, or there’s examples of great developers that have a great track record of these things. Right. So you progress an investor through the stages by educating them and building their trust in you in terms of your knowledge and providing them with an interesting investment, because that’s why they’re interested in buying.
We’ve got terrible investments here, but I’ve got a beautiful house, right? That’s right on the beach that you would love to come and stay in, right? That’s not how you progress an investor. Customer B comes to Thailand multiple times a year and is looking for a holiday home. What steps would you take to prioritize this emotion? Yes.
Right? So the point is the process is the same, right? But this person is buying for a holiday home, so there’s some emotional appeal to it, like, okay, Mr. Client, you’re buying a holiday home. Thailand’s great, isn’t it? I love the beaches, the food.
Okay, when’s the last time you were here? Oh, great. Where do you like to go? Oh, you stay in Phuket every time. I live in Phuket.
It’s fantastic. I’ve lived here 18 years, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right? And it’s more of a conversation about that, right.
So tell me about your perfect holiday home. Oh, well, my perfect holiday home would probably be in the Laguna area. I’d be able to walk to these shops.
You don’t have to ask all these questions. Right. So again, how would you progress this type of buyer? Through the sales funnel.
So exact same thing, right? And that’s the point, right? So even customers see that might retire to Thailand in a few years. Most agents would see this and be like, well, I don’t want that, client, we’ll tell them to contact me in two years. Right.
If that’s your approach, you’re going to lose to me, right? Because I’m still going to speak to this guy, right. And I’m going to take the exact same steps and I’m going to progress him through my sales funnel because he’s future business to me and that I’m going to try and close this guy. Well, if you’re going to be living here in two years from now, we better get your properties if you’re going to buy off plan, it’s going to take you twelve months to build, right? We got to get started.
Right? So it’s that approach and servicing all of the clients the same, treating your future business the same, that will become now business. But just prioritizing your tasks in terms of your level of focus that will allow you make a ton of money and be incredibly successful and have very, very happy customers that will bring you their friends and their family and they will buy from you again, they will rent from you again. They’ll bring you flowers and wine and they’ll absolutely love you.
Questions, please. What would you recommend would be the frequency of communication? Like, let’s say he will come next year and quite firm that he will not make a decision if he’s not here in person because it’s a retirement home. Great question.
So the question is for customer C that says, hey, listen, all that sounds great, but I’m not going to buy for a year still, right? What’s the approach with them? Sorry? What’s the frequency in terms of how I follow up with this? Client. So again, I’m treating them exactly the same until I get that answer from them, right? And then they’re becoming my future client. So that they might be in their research stage, they might be in the consideration stage, but their ability to move through to the decision stage and the post evaluation is slower.
So I’m going to say, hey, listen, because I’ve had a great chat with you because I think I can find your requirements are realistic. I have options that I think will suit you. You’re just not ready to move to that next stage.
I’m going to follow up with you every month. I’m going to put you on hold, right? And I’m going to make sure that every month I’m reaching out to you and saying, hey, bet you you’re missing Thailand right now, right? Eleven months till you retire, right? Maybe not as cheeky as that, right? But not saying, are you coming? But just saying, hey, listen, hey, did you hear about the new visas? Hey, did you hear about what’s going on in Phuket? Right? Oh, they just opened a new restaurant in that area that you love, right? Be a person, right? That’s the person that they’re going to reach out to, right? And guess what? It’s an email or a message once a month, right? Guess what? If that guy doesn’t come, he’s going to recommend anybody that he knows, right? He’s going to bring you sellers. He’s going to bring you a lot more clients.
Good question. Anything else? The second one, the clients who want to buy the holiday home. Because I have some clients that come in as a whole holiday or some people live in Europe and then they business come here.
So you sending some property? One property. Second, property that don’t really make the decision yet. Okay.
First, they told me they’re looking from van until from home. So in that budget it’s about 8 million bar. So she’s low point that I educate them.
It’s not very big to get an 8 million bar condo. So I said that this property doesn’t gret. And I said that the property doesn’t gretch.
So what are you doing? Keep sending because I’m not sure if they’re going to make decision or how should I yes, just to talk into the microphone. So people watching understand what we’re talking about is that you’ve made a good connection with somebody, you’ve sent a lot of properties, you’ve educated them about what’s available and what’s not. You keep sending them properties and they’re saying great.
They’re saying, great, thank you. Right. You’ve lost the connection there somewhere.
Right. So what stage are they at in the decision making process? Right? Because to me it sounds like they’re either not interested or they’re not ready to actually take the next step. Right.
So for me, if I’m in your shoes and they’re saying great, yeah, like Max said, well, yes, it’s a great property. Is there anything that you don’t like about it, but more importantly, it’s understanding what you need to do to take the next steps with them. Right.
So there’s a lot of questions that would help me. I’m going to have to ask you a lot of questions to understand that. But they’re not in Thailand or they’re in Thailand.
They’re not in Thailand yet, but they’re coming in Thailand. Maybe Christmas in January. But I know they’re going to buy it.
But I don’t know if I need to send more property because it’s going to confuse sure. Yeah. So I agree.
Just bombarding them with properties, right. And sometimes people feel like they need to respond and give you information. So I think my approach would be educating them versus sending them more properties.
Right. So I would send them updates on what’s happening in Bangkok. I would send them recommendations, but I would really, really personalize the recommendations, and I wouldn’t just make it a bunch of random properties, right? I’d be like, this is a new listing that came on the market, and it made me think of you guys for these reasons, and it needs to actually be a good property that would get them to go, oh, man, she really listened to us.
She really does know what we’re looking for. Right. Maybe we should go look for more properties.
Right. Or maybe we should consider this one. Right? It’s really hard to say without asking you more or speaking to you in more detail, but you’ve lost a little bit of the connection there, right.
Or maybe they feel like you’re trying to sell them something because you’re just sending a bunch of properties across. Right. But it depends how you’re recommending them, how frequently you’re doing it.
Right. So if they had plans to come and they were coming on a specific date, then I would lean more into asking about, well, great. Can we come up with a short list of properties that we could go inspect together, right.
And see what the answer was to that? Well, no. Okay, well, you’re no longer interested. You’ll draw more information from that.
When’s the last time you spoke to them? Yesterday on the phone. What that? So they said, this is good to me. And then I said, that’s a public.
I thought, this is great. Right. But it’s easy to go.
It’s great, but guess what? You know what you’d figure out if you called them. Hey, how are you? I know we’ve been chatting on WhatsApp? But I thought I’d just give you a quick call. Right.
You were talking about coming back in December. I’ve sent you through some great properties. Where are you guys in your decision? What are you thinking? Are any of them actually interesting? I know you’ve given me good feedback, but normally, what do you not like about those properties? Right? Because it’s interesting enough to know what you don’t like so that I can make better recommendations, right.
And you’ll learn so much more about them. Right. And every other agent that they’re working with is just sending them WhatsApps now as well, right.
So it will help you stand out too. Any other questions? Speaking of recommendations, so what would be better for send a lot of recommendation that meet his requirements or send us some recommendation that we think is good? So from what I understand that we should send as much as we have that matching his requirements, so they’re not going to buy other listing from other agent. But in the other hand, if we send a lot, it’s going to be like less value from what we’re sending.
So the question is how many recommendations to send, how many properties to send, right. There’s this approach where you throw a bunch of shit up against the wall and you see what sticks, right, and it’s pretty obvious when somebody does that, right. If there’s so many options that are available to them and suits their requirements perfectly and they’re all great options, right.
Then you kind of don’t buy into that as somebody because all options aren’t great. Right. My approach was always to focus on three or four real options that I’ve seen personally that actually suit their requirements.
Right. My approach is that my needs analysis, I do such a good needs analysis that I understand what they’re looking for and then I pitch them on the fact that I’ve done such a good needs analysis with you. I don’t say that right, but it’s cream, I understand exactly what you’re looking for now.
Right. And the fact that we’ve gone out and seen some properties together, I’m going to be able to find you some really great properties that I’m going to recommend. Right.
I recommend the top three or four. I tell them that if I have 20 that suit their requirements, I tell them that, hey Cream, I’ve got 20 properties that suit your requirements perfectly, but I’ve hand selected the top three or four that I think work the best for you. Right.
So I think it’s that approach and then taking not just sending them those four properties, sending them those four properties, telling them specifically what you like about that unit and what you don’t like about that unit. That’s what I always did. There’s always pros and cons and then that’s building trust.
Right. And if you do that for three or four and then you call them and walk them through it. Yeah.
You know what, brennan really appreciate the time that you take to write through those. I don’t like any of those properties. No problem.
Got it wrong. What didn’t you like? Right? Help me help you. Right.
So it’s a combination of things, right. It’s not a number, it’s not a magic number that makes you a good agent or bad agent. You send five, you send six.
Right. It’s just your general approach to really understanding what they’re looking for, letting them know, and then building that relationship. I think as long as you get the feedback of each property, you can say 1025.
I agree. But sometimes you will send like, ten that you really think they match, and you get the feedback for like, two units that you send, so you don’t know about the order. So at this point, yeah, it’s like not really the best idea.
Would you send 20 recommendations to somebody in this stage? No. Would you send 20 recommendations to somebody in this stage? That yeah, exactly. So it depends on what stage they’re in as well.
Right. It’s like, hey, Brennan, west facing unit 25,000, bought one bedroom. I’ve got 20 options for you.
Let’s go view tomorrow. That’s all you would need to say to me. I’d be like, Cream, I don’t want to see 20.
Right. What’s your top five? Show me your top five. Right, so it depends on what stage you’re at.
Right. If I’m an investor, I don’t want 20 of your best investments. I want your best investment.
Right. If I’m a residential buyer that’s buying for my own personal use, then maybe I do want to see 20 properties because I’m buying my forever house that I’m never going to move out of. Right.
I’m going to die in this house. Right. It needs to be perfect.
I want to see every option that you have available. Right. But I’m in the decision making process.
Great. Yeah, I want to see 20 properties, but I’m going to buy in five years from now. Right.
I need to do this before I buy, right? Well, it depends. Stage depends, all these different things. Very specific.
Sorry. Okay, so in the research part, you send the three four, like what you said is the best suitable to the requirements, right. And then you add the extra value later on.
Let’s say you give talent, property updates, stuff like that. When you send the top four best ones in the following months, maintain to recommend similar, but still kind of push. Like, here are similar options, but I still think the first one was the best.
What would you recommend? So it really depends on the feedback that you’re getting from them on those properties. Right. So it’s really hard, and I’m not going to repeat that for everybody because I don’t think I could.
But I think the key is, and what I always like to do is always show people focus on properties that hit their core requirements, their needs and their wants where possible. Right. But I would always show people properties that were slightly more expensive and slightly less expensive.
Right. Just and say, hey, listen, here’s the properties that match your requirements, also known as I’m listening to you. Right.
I understand what you want. Right. Because sometimes when you recommend outside of people’s requirements, they’re like, you’re not listening to me.
Right. Like that lady that was helping me right. She wasn’t listening to me.
So when she recommended outside of my requirements, I stopped speaking to her. Right. Where if they hit you, if you hit them with their core requirements and great properties and then say, listen, I recommended a couple additional ones that are slightly outside your requirements, but it really helps you understand the available options for you in the market, right.
Slightly above, slightly less. So it depends on what their feedback was to the previous recommendations. But you can always say, hey, listen, I’m going to throw some stuff out there at you.
It helps, gives you a better understanding of the entire market. And that’s my job. If buyer ready to buy, for sure, you show me, here’s the money, ready to buy.
Just find me super geeky. Where would you put them? That’s a tough one. So, yeah, I think anybody that I’ve ever worked with, it’s like, Brennan, I’ve got money, I’m ready to buy.
Those people, the people that have money and are ready to buy don’t say stuff like that cream. And if they do, I’ve seen it just not myself with everybody in this company, right? Like all these people, hey, he showed me a bank slip of how much money if you have money, you don’t show people your bank account. Right.
I don’t know why they do it. There are, right? So there is outside of this, there’s somebody that’s in the crazy stage, right. And it’s a very small percentage, and they disguise themselves as the best clients ever.
Right. But it’s very challenging. But to give you a more practical answer to your question, it’s like my friend who’s buying a hotel, right? It comes back to the fact that are his requirements clear and are they reasonable? And if the answer is yes and you have options for them, then, yeah, I’m just trying to give you the tools.
I don’t know which way it is in a simple way to kind of go one plus one plus one equals three, right? And that’s the best approach. And it’s not true 100% of the time, right, and people are going to fall through the cracks. But based on my experience and the experience that I’ve seen working with you guys and all your clients, that if their requirements are real and realistic and you’ve got properties and yeah, he’s got all the money in the world and here’s my bank account.
Great. Right. I found you a property, right.
It’s like a waiter and a chef in a restaurant, right. They bring you a ticket, here’s the order, cook me the order. If it’s on the menu, you’re going to have happy people.
Right. It’s the same approach. If he’s saying, here’s my requirements, and you satisfy them, then you say here like you’ve done your job, and that’s when you need to ask for the business.
Here you go. You said you wanted it. I know you’ve got money because you’re rich and you showed me your bank account.
Now it’s time to buy. Oh, cream. I don’t like the color of it.
Well, you’re buying for investment. Oh, cream. I don’t like the neighborhood.
Well, you told me you were happy with this neighborhood. So you no longer want this, right. So it’s just a very practical step by step approach to progressing them through last chance.
I have two questions. The first one, the research date. You send them.
You send them, but they’re not ready to buy until next year. And when you send them, you know that very good deal that they’re going to go out the market, you still send them, right? Yeah. It’s how you go about sending it.
Right. Nobody likes to be sold. Right.
But likewise, it’s our job to sell. Right. So it’s a balance.
So it depends on your approach. If hey, listen, understand that your desired investment timeline is about twelve months from now, right? But my job is to recommend you great options, right. So with that in mind, absolutely no pressure, but here’s a great property.
This is why it’s a great property. And with all great properties, there’s a level of urgency to making a decision. And if that’s something that if this is so interesting for you that you would like to explore that further in a shorter period of time, then let’s take a look at it.
If not ignore it. Speak to you in twelve months. Right? It’s just a soft approach in terms of just be the type of agent that you would want to be.
Hey, here’s a real good opportunity. But it requires a level of urgency, right? Not saying that, but it’s my job to tell you these things. Right.
It’s that consultative approach. Cool. All right.
I have a question, please. On behalf of the agents, sometimes they’re going to give priority to the client that they have a good connection with. That means they slightly kind of give a low priority to those that they don’t kind of have the connection with.
But at the end, they spend time and energy with that person more than the others. And eventually, when they follow up those clients, they don’t really have more connection with them, but they find out that, oh, well, that client actually already bought something. They are the real buyer.
So that means they spend a lot of time on the wrong people. They thought that they have more connection with them, they’re more likely to close. But actually it’s not true.
How does yeah, I mean, it’s something that comes from experience, right. Sometimes you spend your time, energy, and effort on speaking to the people that are just the most responsive. Right? You’re right.
That’s something that hasn’t really been covered in this presentation in terms of time management. Right. But it comes back to my mindset of now or future business, right.
Is that if you think that this person is now business but you’ve been working with them now. For now, it’s been right. You’ve got to question yourself, is this actually now business, or is this, like I explained before, unrealistic requirements, not properties or crazy, right.
So, yeah, don’t get drawn into spending your time, energy, and effort on people that you are easy to talk to. Right. That’s very important.
Right? Because you won’t make money. Right. And at the end of the day, yes, we’re here.
We want to help people find great properties. That is what our job is. But if you’re good at that, then the byproduct of that is you make a lot of money.
Right. And that’s why most of us are here. Right.
And that’s a good reason to be here. So you have to really value your time and energy. Right.
But likewise, you have to be really good to value your time and energy. Right. If you’re just flicking through recommendations and saying, are you ready now? Then you’re not worth the money.
Right. You’re not worth the time and energy. Those what, clients? I don’t know.
Vampire. That’s what I thought you said. Okay, yeah.
I don’t know what’s happening with a guy, but all the Joe agent, a woman agent, of course the guy want to talk to us. Okay. Maybe that’s why I can’t relate to this, because nobody’s wanted to spend time with me.
Look at this property. But they don’t buy it. But I can’t do that.
Wow. Max oh, my gosh. They don’t want to post anything, but they just want a dinner with you.
Yeah. So that’s an unfair question to ask me, but I kind of like cream’s approach and just saying, hey, listen, let’s grab dinner or a drink to celebrate after we found you a great property. Right.
You have to be professional. Right. And I understand that maybe we’re in a country that attracts a certain demographic consumer like that, and I don’t think that’s something that most real estate agents have to deal with.
Maybe it is, right? I’m not sure. But again, I think as long as we keep a level of professionalism and say, guess what? Because socializing with your clients is a big part of real estate. Right.
And some people love that aspect, and some people don’t. Right. But I wasn’t going out celebrating and hanging out with my clients while we’re looking for properties.
To some degree, yes, for some. But most of the time, yeah, it’s dinner. It’s drinks after they’ve bought a property.
Right. And there’s people that I still, after all this time, like, the first person I ever sold a property to is now a really good friend that I have dinner every time he’s in Phuket, right. And we still talk about his properties and other things.
Right. So you build these connections with people right. In an appropriate, efficient way.
I don’t know if I answered your question, but at least I danced around it. Cool. All right.
No more questions like that, okay? Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. Thank you.
Thank.