In my last two posts, we’ve talked about knowing our customer, and connecting with them using a variety of methods. Now, let’s take a moment to consider what to do when those customers start to react to us. Just how do you translate your customer interactions into business opportunities?

For starters, it means examining how you react when customers reach out to you. Whether it’s an email asking for information, or a posting on your Facebook page reacting to something you’ve shared, it’s important to react with one core message:

I value you!

All other considerations pale in comparison to this method. Certainly, reacting quickly helps, because it gives a sense that you’re listening. Responding in kind – an email for an email, a phone call for a phone call – also tells people you respect the way they wish to engage you. But when you boil it all down, it’s not just the method, but the message, that will determine your success converting these moments into sales.

Ask yourself: Do you turn every engagement into a hard-sell moment? Must customers “decide” immediately to sign, seal and deliver, or are you willing to work at their pace, nurturing and guiding them to a moment when they are ready to move forward. Think about the last time you responded to a consumer by email: Did you say, Let me know if you want to sell/see homes tomorrow! when what you should have said was, Let me know how I can help you?

The impulse to “get on with it” can be useful, for example, when you’ve shown a buyer their fifty-third property and they still haven’t made an offer. On the other hand, it can be a major turn off when it’s the first-response (or even third or tenth) when a consumer is still in the learning and understanding phase. Keep in mind that most consumers spend four or more weeks doing online research before contacting a broker; but they’ve spent four to six months dreaming about real estate before even going online. If your first reaction is, Call me if you’re serious!, you might have caught the consumer at the wrong point of the process. They might still be dreaming while you’re “qualifying” them as a lead.

Instead, consider ways in which you can say, I value your effort to reach me, when you respond using any format. The easiest way to do this is to talk less and listen more. Ask questions rather than offer directions or decisions. Rather than offering to show buyers homes right away, send them a two sentence email that says, I’d love to help. Let’s start by exploring what’s important to you! Then ask one or two questions that get them talking, and you listening.

The same thing can happen in a listing presentation: Most presentations start with a deep breath, followed by a 45-minute monologue on personal achievement, systems, tools and finally price. By the time the agent stops talking, a potential seller can be confused, or simply exhausted. Consider how using an iPad could change that. Place the tablet in front of the consumer, with one image that has some key words on it, like price, convenience, stress, time, and then ask the seller, What’s most important to you – we’ll spend our time discussing that. Skip the laundry list and open yourself up to a conversation.

Whether it’s reacting to an online lead or interacting in person at an open house, understanding the subtle meaning behind our messages is crucial to converting prospects into sales. When we stop making every customer response about us and start making it an opportunity for them to tell us what we need to know, our opportunities to listen our way into a sale expands exponentially. Converting leads into sales can benefit from technology, as long as we remember that on the other end of that email or tweet, there’s a real person with real dreams waiting for our help.

Matthew Ferrara will be speaking at ERA IBC 2013 in Austin, TX March 21-24, 2013. Register here.

photo credit: Rego – d4u.hu via photopin cc