We Are Selling with Lee Woodward

Key Listing Moments with Tom Panos

• Lee Woodward • Episode 4

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We break down the critical moments inside a listing presentation and how great agents use each one to influence decisions. This episode focuses on practical, repeatable techniques to win listings without overwhelming vendors.

• why the audition starts before you walk in the door
• using appointment confirmations to gather pricing and motivation early
• sending digital introductions to win the listing before the meeting
• involving vendors on the tour to uncover “invisible value”
• asking better questions to build rapport and diagnose intent
• avoiding information overload that delays decisions
• using simple visuals instead of long presentations
• focusing the conversation on one thing: how you’ll get more money

A must-listen for agents who want cleaner listings, clearer decisions, and stronger presentations in any market.



Hosted by Lee Woodward Training Systems

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Lee Woodward:

Hello and welcome back to our podcast, We Are Selling. Selling is a transference of feelings. Every day we are selling something. We're selling that decision to get an appointment, that decision to be their agent, that decision to get the marketing, that decision for a method of sale, and that decision to purchase and settle on a property. We are selling. But when we look at the listing presentation as it's so famously known, listing presentations are one in moments. Once you understand there's moments, like delivering price is a moment, you then start to think, what are my moments and how can I best communicate? So let me bring on to the airways one of our greatest coaches for real estate training in Australia, Mr. Tom Panos. Tom, welcome back to the program.

Tom Panos:

Lee, it's an absolute pleasure to join you again. I love these short, punchy sessions that are focused on giving people practical information that they can use, like the next time they go to a listing appointment. And today it is about listing, so I'm pumped.

Lee Woodward:

And Tom, we are pumped to have you back on the program. We're having such a great response from our previous podcast and the great work you are doing. Tom, these are some of the moments that you and I have seen over the years that you can make something special out of or not for all our listeners. You don't need every one of these moments. But if I look at the moments of a listing presentation, the first one is the appointment confirmation. Tom, why is this one so important?

Tom Panos:

Because what this does is it puts a seed in the mind of the person that's having the conversation with you. And often, Lee, the conversation is on the phone when you're setting an appointment, that that pre-listing appointment. And I think it's critical because what's happening is they're generally calling two, three, maybe four people out a lot of the times. The audition has begun. It hasn't begun when you walk into the door. It's actually, you know, begun a long time before that. In fact, if you're a very good real estate agent, the audition has probably been happening for years with that client if you've got a great stay and touch strategy. In the purposes of a listing presentation, Lee, that time that they're talking to you on the phone for the five or ten minutes, the reason why that moment is really important is that you're going to be able to get some information off this client that you're not going to be able to get once you're at the property. Example, if you were to ask a client what they thought the rough range of where their property sat in on the phone at the pre-appointment stage, you might get an answer, particularly if you're intelligent and you prompt them with some comparable sales, make reference to your data set. But if you did that once you're at the property and you've inspected the property, they're going to say, Well, you know, you're here. You've sort of that's why we called you out. That's one of the reasons why I think it's important, the fact that you're able to get information.

Lee Woodward:

Tom, I love this one. At PRD Newcastle, we had a brilliant receptionist on the phones then. People would ring in and saying, I want an appraisal. And she would ask this question, Mr. Panos, so I can select the right agent for you, roughly what price bracket would the home be in? And they'd all tell reception. And oh, look, I'm over a million. Oh, I'll put you through to mark. Probably 450. But the fact, so I can select the right agent for you, roughly what price bracket would you uh she was gold.

Tom Panos:

That's gold. That can be done in that moment. The other thing that can be done in that moment, Lee, is this question. And can I ask you, have you made the decision that you will be appointing an agent in the near future? It's a good question to ask because one of the things that you want to work out as a real estate agent going to someone's house, are they an immediate seller or are they just getting a price update? Are they just sort of suffing things out at a really early part of the process? These are the sorts of things that you can get in these moments, and the moment we're speaking about is the pre-appointment or setting the appointment moment. That's why to me it's it's so critical. And and by the way, I think, Lee, the other bit is what they receive from you, what they receive from you after you hang up in this moment is also important. And I know that today's not the day that we're gonna go dig deep and talk long about it, but you know, digital introductions.

Lee Woodward:

That's number two, that's the next moment. You you've done the phone call and we text the digital introduction, which has got your video welcome, the agenda we're gonna have in there, and there's so many of these great pictures going out. But that was our second one. The second moment is what you send.

Tom Panos:

Lee, if you don't send them, if you don't send them a digital introduction on you, let's be clear, they're doing one anyway. They are gonna be doing a digital interview. So it sort of makes sense that you give them the content and information to do that digital interview. You know, you have this great quality conversation, you build rapport, you're diagnosing, you're finding out information off them, as we talked about in moment number one, and then moment number two, you actually knock them off the feet because they receive within moments a text message that looks like a Vogue magazine. You have already started the game, the listing presentation, with a lead of 6-0, and the game hasn't even started. That's why that moment's important.

Lee Woodward:

Yeah, Tom, I couldn't agree more with you on that. It seems to be what happens. Moment number three for our selection is vendor involvement on the tour. So, Tom, on this one, you might be walking around the property and the owner's saying a few things to you, which is all good. And as a sales professional, you want to show your expertise, and I may say to you, Tom, thanks for showing me around. There's a lot of value that I've picked up. Can I get you to tell me the invisible value? What I can't see. And Tom, as a consumer, you may say, Lee, what do you mean? Well, do you have insulation in the roof? Yes, we do. And these floors seem warm. Do you have underfloor heating? Yes, we do. And that big PowerPoint over there, i is that three phase power? Yeah. Well, Tom, that's about fifty thousand dollars there. Every feature in your home counts, every dollar counts. It's my job to generate profit. Can we go back through the house and just please don't leave anything unturned? No one knows a home as good as you, but I've got to become an expert overnight.

Tom Panos:

Yeah, gold, absolutely gold, love that as well, invisible value, love that as well. So, Lee, here's the situation. You know, if if they can sell the house to you, you can then go off and sell it to someone else, right? That's the way I see it, right? And there is no better sales trainer on the house than that vendor, right? The passion and energy and product knowledge they have on that house can't be beaten by anyone else on the planet. So it sort of makes sense. Rule number one, in this moment, you ask a lot of questions. You've done that with the questions that you're talking about. Example, the invisible value. In the guide of tour, getting the vendor engaged means that you're asking questions and that they're doing most of the talking. And the reason why this is so powerful, apart from giving you information that you can't see that's obvious, it's going to be very useful when you're marketing the property and when you're showing the property to buyers, you'll also find that this is the best rapport enabler there is in real estate. People just love having other people listen to them. It makes them like the person. And you've got a golden opportunity during this guided tour to get them to fall in love with you because you're listening to their problems, you're listening to what they love about their house, and you're potentially listening to what experiences they've had in real estate before. And Lee, it would be remiss of me not to share with you three questions that I reckon that you can seamlessly ask during the guided tour that can actually help you get even closer to the client and understand what they hate and what they love. And here are the three questions. What's the best real estate experience you've ever had? What's the worst real estate experience you've ever had? And the third one is if you pick the perfect agent and things went brilliantly, what would that look like in your eyes? Now, the reason, Lee, I actually bring these questions forward, or my recommendation is that as you're doing the tour of the property, it's it's a good time to sort of chit-chat and have the you know the conversation sort of flow. It doesn't have that yarn event feeling at the dining room table when you start having a business conversation. Does that make sense? Absolutely.

Lee Woodward:

That is exactly how that works. The next one's the presentation and selling plan, and everyone's got their own little kit and visual that they take in. But people are visual, not verbal. And I think working off some sort of diagram or some sort of step process, people can follow you, but that's a personal choice, but it's definitely a moment. The next one, Tom, you've just hit beautifully, which is clear and direct questions. Uh, Tom, one of my favorite questions is Mr. Panos, can I ask you, have you definitely made the decision to sell the property? If they say yes, we have, or no, we haven't, we're thinking about renting out, I can progress further. Clear and direct questions, and Tom, I love this training point of questions get answers, statements get judged.

Tom Panos:

You've raised a very valid point. You need to work out what's the reason that you're at their house. There are too many amateurs, there are too many real estate agents that can't read the play. The owner's not coming onto the market at the moment. Yet the real estate agent goes off and does a detailed marketing campaign, right? And they're talking about all these issues as if the home was going to be on the market the following month. That's not the purpose of the visit if they're not actually selling. And I think questions are gonna help you understand what your purpose is being there, right? Very, very, very important. And mate, you said it. Well, asking questions, that's what the pros do. The amateurs make statements, and the amateurs, quite frankly, spend most of the time doing the talking. Quite frankly, Lee. I find that a lot of them are actually talking about stuff that's got to do more with the agent and the agency and not enough to do with the vendor and the vendor's house.

Lee Woodward:

Yeah, Tom, I couldn't agree more with you on that. And I remember when I first learnt question sequences. You know, I'm studying the art of sales as a young agent coming through, and I remember learning this. I brought it into the listing conversation where I would say to the owner, before I get started, could I ask you, what would you like to achieve out of today's meeting? And they give an answer of one or two. Then say, look, Tom, to get maximum benefit from our time, I'd like to discuss what's the property worth, how long's it gonna take to sell, what are the changeover costs, and how we market the home should you decide to appoint us? Would that be okay with you? And they would love that. We're only going to discuss four things versus I have 109 reasons why you should list with us and let me bore you to death. You don't need all that. And I and just to our agents listening, the biggest number one reason why people don't make a decision on the night of a listing presentation, is actually because they were overwhelmed. Yeah. Not because you didn't do enough. You you did too many things, you could do this, we can go to auction, we've got a timed auction, we've got a timed sale, and they're like, I just blow my brain. I can't make a decision based on all that information. Strip it back is definitely the future.

Tom Panos:

The last thing I'm just going to say, and it's really important that we we cover this, because your success in real estate is highly going to be dependent on how good your listing presentation is when you're pitching to immediate sellers. Agents can get into a habit of talking about so many things during the moment in a listing presentation. But if you're thinking of selling, if you really think about it, Lee, the only thing that you want to walk out of that meeting with is understanding how this agent will get me more money for the home. I don't know why agents don't put more of a focus in their conversation with a vendor to illustrate to them, to actually prove to them, to actually get them to have conviction with them that if you went with me, your home is worth more.

Lee Woodward:

Tom, that's our moments of a listening presentation. Next month, actually, next week, you and I are doing VPA. Now, Tom, VPA's been reworded. It now stands for Value Performance Advertising. And I'm looking forward to doing that segment with you. Tom Panos, thank you for joining us, and we'll see you next week. Thank you, Lee. Looking forward to it. This podcast was brought to you by Realtair, the home of Pitch, Sign and Sell, the all-in-one real estate platform for real estate professionals. Call 1300-367-412 and bring your career together with Realtair.