One of the biggest mistakes most agents make is to not prepare properly for a listing appointment.

Believe it or not, there’s a whole lot that needs to go into prepping yourself — and your prospect — for your meeting if you want the best chance at getting the listing.  

Showing up with little more than a CMA and a listing folder is not going to give you the advantage you need to beat out your competition.

I know this because I used to be wildly unprepared when I went on listing appointments...and I often left empty handed.

The good news is that if employ a solid pre-listing strategy and put in even a small amount of effort, you can make the sale at the kitchen table a lot easier.

The best part is that it doesn’t cost a lot of money and it doesn’t take a bunch of time to execute.

In the end, if do things right prior to going on a listing appointment, great results await you from your listing efforts.

What you must do prior to going on a listing appointment

First, before you send ANYTHING, you need to pre-frame for your seller prospects what you will be sending them and why they need to look at/read/consume it.

Simply firing off an email and/or a pre-listing package without any rhyme or reason does nothing more than waste your hard earned money

Plus, it likely won’t get you any closer to building the authority you need with your seller before you walk through the front door.

Which leads me to my next point…

The reason you’re doing all of this is to establish yourself as an expert with your seller prospects.

Even before you meet them.

You want them to see you as the undisputed champion of meeting their needs, goals and wants at the highest level, if you will, so that they want to hear what you have to say.

Your goal is to be able to influence them easily and effectively without having to feel like they’re being sold when you get there.

Doing a great job with your pre-listing process will help you accomplish all of that, and more.

Here’s what comes next:

• Confirmation Email with Calendar Invite

You don’t want your prospects to have to think or stress out about the process of meeting you.

Selling a home is already emotional enough. You don’t want to add to it.

Working with you needs to be easy and painless...you want your future clients to experience as much positivity as possible in working with you.

As part of this strategy, you’ll want to send them a confirmation email with your contact information, the details of your visit and a link that they can click to automatically add your appointment with them to their calendar.

In this email, you should include a video that introduces yourself and discusses what you’re going to cover while you are at their home.

You can even discuss some of the great things you’ve done for other sellers in the past.

As well, you might want to send a video with a testimonial from another client to add some value to the process and strengthen your authority in the eyes of your prospect.

The agents we work with include a capabilities video that discusses how their system helps sellers get their homes sold for more money.

It pre-sells the prospect on what’s going to be covered in the listing presentation and makes the job of listing the home easier at the kitchen table.

• Pre-listing package

Assuming you have a little time (meaning you’re not meeting the same day you set the appointment), you’ll want to send a pre-listing package.

Note: you’re not looking to send your prospects a library of information to pour over.

Rather, you’re looking to send a few meaningful materials that will continue to position you as the go-to listing expert in your market.

The best pre-listing packages include:

• Business card: Seems obvious, but it’s important. You want some credibility and you also want your contact information at your prospect’s fingertips.

• An introduction letter: Tell them who you are, how long you’ve been in the business, why you do what you do and what you’re planning on doing when you get to their home.

• Testimonials: Full-color, glossy page. One page (two sides if you like). Pictures of your clients with you in them...preferably with your sign/brand in the picture. Good testimonials have full names of your clients with city and state in them. Make sure your testimonials say why your past clients picked you and what problem you solved for them.

• Capabilities Brochure/Book: To this day, even with the huge impact the Internet has had on the way goods are bought and sold, writing and publishing a book carries more weight in building authority than any other medium.

Now, before you run out and write War and Peace for Real Estate, please know that there are other ways to establish your expertise using a written medium.

The agents we work with send out a 4-panel, full-color, glossy “tear sheet” to all sellers as part of their pre-listing package.

Tear sheets look like they are “torn” from a magazine and have the look and feel of an actual magazine itself.

They look very professional and give you a tremendous amount of legitimacy in the eyes of your prospect.

Creating your own full-color brochure or tear sheet isn’t expensive, but it will add a lot of value to building your brand with your sellers.

• Reminder email/call/message:

This one can be a “game time” decision.

Some agents like a reminder email. Others don’t.

It’s something you should definitely test in your market to see how it works.

Ideally, you want to confirm with your seller prospects via email, call or message that you’re coming over at a specific time on a specific date to discuss listing their home.

You don’t necessarily have to speak with the seller, you simply want to remind them that you’re coming over.

As I said, some agents don’t like this because it gives the seller a chance to call and cancel with you.

My thought is this: if the seller calls to cancel the listing appointment, he/she may not be the best prospect anyway.

Again, you may want to test this strategy to see which reminder method works best for you (or if it works at all).

The strategy that I’ve outlined for you here is proven and tested. In short, it works.

If you have a pre-listing package you send out, you may want to stack it up against what I’ve laid out for you to see if you can improve it in any way.

If you don’t have a pre-listing package, take the time to assemble one as it will make a big difference in how you’re received at your listing appointments and the results you get while you’re there.