Closing the Sale with Obsessive Compulsive Behavior

While we certainly don’t suggest you go out and try to contract an obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) as a career move, it’s not the worst thing in the world to adapt a few of the characteristics when it comes to closing the sale with a seller. The obvious reason you want to cross every “t” and dot every “i” is that there is a large chunk of money riding on the anticipated transaction. If you were a Fuller Brush salesman going door to door, where each sale might mean a few bucks commission, there’s no need to get your nose bent out of joint on every single sales call.

But in real estate, closing one sale that might have escaped can be a big deal worth thousands or tens of thousands of dollars. A single closing could be a large chunk of your annual income. What should you be OCD about? Here’s a list to start with.

1. Appearance. Do we need to tell you how important a first appearance is? If so, consider yourself told. Breezing into a meeting doing your best rumpled Lieutenant Columbo impression is not conducive to creating the kind of professional trust you need to succeed. This means no ink or food stains, iron your shirt and wear nice shoes. We’re not trying to weed out your personality here but choosing a controversial fashion is still a risk.

2. Confident. Act like you’ve closed a thousand deals. Heck, act like you’ve closed every deal on the planet. Chances are, the seller is looking for a reason to be scared off and hesitant ambivalence from you just might do the trick.

3. Enthusiasm. Does anyone here like doing business with Eoyore? Even if you ran over the neighbor’s cat backing out of the driveway and had to bail your son out jail immediately prior to the meeting, you better be bouncing-on-the-balls-of-your-feet eager to help these people sell their house. The time for moping is not while closing the sale. You’ll have plenty of time for that later.

One other sort of odd thing we’d like to mention is that people like to hear “ly” words like “certainly” and “absolutely.” It’s more impressive than “yes” or “yep.” Consider it the equivalent of saying “I will move heaven and earth to make this happen.” All this borderline obsessive compulsive behavior could be the difference between eating Spam and filet mignon tonight.

The Bonus Commissions Team

Flickr / zolierdos