Needs Analysis
Purpose
To ascertain the needs of the vendor. If you can understand the needs of the seller, you can provide better service.
If you can work out whether a seller is motivated, you can decide whether to spend time and resources on the sales listing.
Procedure
A Prospective Seller is someone who has not recently sold a property through the company, or an existing client who is embarking on a different type of sale to previous ones.
Sales Consultant
- Identifies and makes an appointment to interview the Prospective Seller
- If the Prospective Seller is an existing client, studies all information on record about the Prospective Seller’s needs. This includes the results of any Sellers’ Surveys
- If there is no current Prospective Sellers Survey, asks the Prospective Seller to complete one.
- Identifies the property potentially for sale and asks for the Prospective Seller’s price range.
- Inspects the property.
- Invites the Prospective Seller to describe any previous experience of selling property.
- Asks the Prospective Seller about their plans after the property sale. If the Prospective Seller uses the word ‘When we sell …’ it suggests a motivated seller. If they use the words ‘If we sell …’, it suggests lower motivation.
- Offers a sales appraisal and presentation to the Prospective Seller.
- Assesses the motivation level of the Prospective Seller
Assessing the level of motivation
Ask the following questions:
- Why are you selling (Pressing needs like moving to another town or having bought another house increase motivation. Simple boredom with the current house or not knowing the reason could mean low motivation.)
- How motivated are you to sell (Ask for a self-assessment)
- Have you bought another home If yes:
- When does it settle (If the house settles soon, the client probably needs to sell quickly)
- Do you have bridging finance (bridging finance is expensive and increases motivation to sell)
- For a motivated seller, deliver a formal presentation.
- For a seller with low motivation, a verbal sales appraisal report may be enough.