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You can’t get the listing without experience, and you can’t get experience without the listing! Here’s how new agents can project confidence with home owners.

We’ve all experienced the dread that comes with the homeowner’s inevitable question, “How many houses have you sold?” You don’t want to lie and say “Tons!” but you don’t want to be honest and say, “None” and potentially lose the listing because the homeowners have no confidence in you.  

TIP: Check out this related article: “How to Gain Confidence as a New Real Estate Agent” 

Why This Question Comes Up 

You may have noticed that those agents that have a lot of experience and sold listings aren’t asked that very often (or at all!). They have the confidence that comes with a lot of experience, and homeowners can pick up on that confidence without needing to ask. You watch with envy as they go to five listing appointments and come back with four listings because they have the credibility needed to inspire trust.  

New agents or agents who haven’t listed a lot may have to go to 10 listing conversations before they get their first listing. Then, you may only need to have 9 listing conversations before you get your second, then you get your third after 7. My point here is that it’s easier to get those listings as you “beef up your resume.” 

TIP: Read “5 Ways to Look Confident In an Interview (Even When You’re Freaking Out)” by The Muse for tips on looking confident, even when you aren’t feeling it.  

The New Employee Analogy 

When you are fresh out of college and out getting your first job, you don’t have a work history. The job you get is probably not the job you really want, but you get the experience, and you prove yourself enough to eventually get a better job with more pay, better hours and perks, and so on. As you get more experience, you keep moving up that ladder. Then, before you know it, you have recruiters calling you because employers are wanting you to come work for them.  

Real estate works in a similar way. It’s hard to get listings at the start, but the more listings and experience you get, the easier it is to build up that resume. Eventually, the listings start coming to you.  

Use Your Company’s Experience As Your Own 

If you haven’t sold many (or any) homes yet, you can approach answering this question like this:  

“Honestly, I am shifting my business to focus on  this community right now, so my track record is not as strong as I know it will be. But, let me tell you about my company, because you’re not just hiring me, Mr. and Mrs. Hunna Hunna, you’re hiring my company. Now, my company, as a whole, when you look at our market, you can see that the listings spend fewer days on the market than other agents and companies. You can see our list price to sales price ratio is one of the highest, and when you look at this time frame of the last 60 days, you can see that we are more successful at getting homes sold.” 

Even if you have no statistics of your own, use the company stats to show why they should hire you, because you work at this company, and the company has proven itself.  

Partnering With an Experienced Agent

Whether you are a brand-new agent, or an experienced agent who’s currently struggling, partnering up with an experienced agent from your company or office, and going to listing conversations with them can help to jump start your own experience. 

If I were this other agent, and someone came to me and said, “If I get a listing appointment, can I bring you with me and we share it? I’ll let you control the conversation and work your magic, and then if we get the listing, I’ll do all the grunt work like the marketing, the open house etc. and we split it 50/50?” I’ll tell you, that’s someone bringing a potential client on a silver platter, and I would say yes. Not only am I making some additional revenue that I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise, but you are learning from me, and improving your own skills.  

This isn’t a formal partnership for all of your listing appointments, but to partner up with an experienced agent for a few listing conversations will help you improve for when you go to an appointment on your own.  

TIP: This article by Z57 outlines some ways that new agents can gain confidence without experience.  

Suggestions for Power Agents®  

If you haven’t already seen our Webinars-On-Demand tab, there is one about how to list three out of four listing conversations. This will walk you through the whole Listing Conversation from start to finish, addressing each part to explain what to do, and what not to do.  

One of the biggest tools we have in the Power Program® is the Power Agent® Directory. We all know the importance of networking, but if anyone has ever doubted the value of it, I want to tell you that if you are a Power Agent® and not in the Directory yet, drop everything and set up your profile. We consistently see referrals passed through this network of agents because finding another agent that holds the same attitudes of “serving, not selling” is the best way they can take care of their clients who are moving to another area.   

What’s Next? 

Are you ready to start taking things to the Next Level®? If you don’t already know what you need to do to get to your next level, we can help!  

Power Agents®, for more strategies for targeting your chosen niche, check out the amazing content in the Farming, Self-promotion, and Mailings tab in the Classroom.  Whether you need a boost of confidence or empowering dialogues, Darryl will help you get the skills you need to be the go-to agent for the buyers and sellers in your farm area. 

Not yet a Power Agent®? Did you know that for LESS than the cost of drive-through coffee, you can have access to hundreds of marketing, prospecting, and objection handling tools – live weekly coaching, podcasts, webinars, and more? And as a bonus, get our FREE copy of our incredibly valuable: “The Farming Field Guide: Plant the Seeds To Generate New Listings and Referrals.” 

Start your Power Agent®  trial and have total access to every tool we have including letters, dialogues, training tips, webinars on demand, eGuides, and marketing tools for just $5. 

Contact our team today to sign up or get the answers you need: (800) 395-3905!