A carefully crafted digital Listing Presentation, or marketing proposal, should catch the attention of a seller, build rapport, address objections before they are verbalized, and leave seller’s with no doubt that you’re the right agent for the job.

And if done right, of course, your Listing Presentation should have them signing the listing agreement before you leave the appointment.

Sound good?

In this article we will walk you through the slides you need to create your own digital Listing Presentation — the same one used by Garry Wise, co-owner of GoodLife Luxury and The Paperless Agent — along with the dialogue you need to pull off the entire process!w

This is Part 2 in a three-part series: Part 1 is the 5-Phase Listing Appointment system (read Part 1 here), and Part 3: Tools and Resources for the Listing Appointment (read here).

A Listing Presentation isn’t about telling the seller how great you are; instead, show how you work differently.

The Listing Presentation slides:

SLIDE #1: Branding Placeholder Page

This is simply a starting point, but personalize this slide by adding the seller’s name and address so it looks as though it was created just for your potential client.

SLIDE #2: About the Team Page

This is an opportunity to flaunt your skills and team, and answers the question, “Why should I hire you?” before the comment even comes up.

For Garry, this means explaining how the industry has changed since he first got into business; selling and marketing real estate has gotten complicated, and with all the changes in the digital space, a team of professionals is needed to expertly tend to his clients’ needs (ie: exposing the property to as many qualified buyers as possible).

If you do have a team, go through each member, their title, and how it is relevant to the seller (how that team member contributes to getting the home sold).

If you work on your own, or in a smaller team, don’t worry; you do have a team; think of all the relationships you have built over the years with inspectors, lenders, and so on; include these partners on this slide.

Always bring the conversation back to why this is important for the seller; it’s not about the team and all the people on it; it’s about what that team can accomplish for your client.

SLIDE #3: The 5-Star Promise Slide

We always want to produce the best experience that we can for our clients; this isn’t just beneficial for the seller, but also so that you can extract a 5-star review to show your future clients as well.

Ask the seller if they have ever had a 5-star experience and to tell you about it. Then explain that working together is a partnership, and have the seller explain what a 5-star experience with you would look like.

Asking this question ensures that you can live up to the seller’s expectations (and means that you are more likely to get that 5-star review).

SLIDE #4: Awards and Accomplishments

Everyone has awards and accomplishments. Even as a brand new agent, the agency that you work with will have accolades that you can piggy back on. Think beyond professional as well; accomplishments can refer to personal achievements, such as running marathons; if they show dedication and determination that you have towards life.

Include certifications and memberships that you may have, such as the Real Estate Digital Marketers certification, designations or affiliations (such as member of the National Association of Realtors).

Don’t use bullet points; use logos that will prompt the discussion.

Pull out factual data that will be meaningful to your client to form as a question (not a statement because it evokes a response), such as, “Did you know that my brokerage sells more homes in this area than anyone else?”

Then follow up with why that fact is important to the seller (remember the Listing Presentation is always about the seller and how you help to meet their objectives).

SLIDE #5: The Stats Page

This slide is about indisputable factual data because numbers have power. The Stats Page is your competitive advantage; it’s the difference in hiring your brokerage over someone else.

The seller has two concerns: how quickly can you sell my house and for how much. This slide lets you answer both challenges.

Don’t forget to bring your conversation back to what this means for the seller.

SLIDE #6: How We Do It 

The first five slides spoke about your promise to the seller, talking about the end goal. This slide is a transition into how you are going to fulfill that promise.

Did you know that most real estate agents operate on the old 3 P system?

• Put a listing in the MLS;
• Put a sign in the yard;
• And Pray that it sells!

Let the seller know that your team works on a new set of 3 Ps:

• Preparation: getting your home ready, fixing repairs, and staging your property;
• Pricing: making sure your home is priced at what the market will bear, based on the most recent statistical evidence (this is covered in detail in PHASE #4 in What you need to know to rock your next Listing Appointment);
• Promotion: Stress that you will be promoting the home where the buyers are: online. This is a very specific benefit to offer because this is how you get the listing in front of more qualified buyers than anyone else.

This is not only a competitive advantage for the seller but for you gaining the listing as well. The more interest in the home you are able to generate, the higher the price the seller will get for the property.

The next several slides are all part of the specific Marketing Activity; what you are going to do differently.

SLIDE #7: Staging & Photography

Before you can promote a home you need to get the preparation right. Believe it or not, the photo on the left (above) was the actual photo used in a listing for this particular property! Not surprising, the house didn’t sell (completely unattractive to potential buyers and doesn’t do the home justice) and the owner called Garry for help.

With the help of appropriate staging, and high quality professional photography, Garry and his team staged the home before grabbing eye-catching images (the one on the right) to use in their online marketing campaign.

Always prepare and package the home to entice the buyers with great photos and videos.

SLIDE #8: Pricing the home

This is a great visual slide to help the seller understand the complexity that goes into pricing their home.

We can speak about three different pricing strategies: over pricing (the homes crossed out on the graph), limbo (just over what the market will bear), and pricing within the market.

The real reason many sellers want to price just above the market range is because they anticipate a buyer will negotiate the price down and the seller has ‘added a little cushion’. This strategy usually backfires because most buyers will pass the home by and therefore there is little or no competition to drive up prices.

An appropriately priced home, that is priced within market demand, may even end up making more than expected if there are multiple offers on the home.

That is the power of preparing a home and pricing within the market.

SLIDE #9: The Pre-Launch

This is the portion where we share marketing activities with the seller. We already dipped into this by explaining (and showing) the power of good great professional photography and video.

This conversation kicks off with a discussion about the Pre-Launch campaign which is a critical component to any digital promotion: seed the market and build excitement.

Here’s the question to accelerate this part of the consultation, “Were you aware that Apple seeded the market and pre-marketed the Apple watch 18 months before you could actually buy it?”

Pre-launching creates anticipation and the concept works for your sellers as well; use Facebook and social media advertising to promote the property, and expose it to buyers and realtors, before it is available for sale. Within the industry we call this a just-listed campaign, but think like your client and call it is a pre-launch campaign (which will immediately make more sense to someone outside of real estate).

To set up the pre-launch campaign, create a property landing page on your own website and social media pages 48 hours before you place it on the MLS so that Google recognizes your brokerage as being the authority for this data (in other words when people search the address of the seller, it is your brokerage that comes out on the first page of that Google search).

SLIDE #10: Ongoing Marketing Activities

As we talk about our online marketing efforts, we want to make it abundantly clear that we only spend our advertising budget on the most powerful websites that are attracting the most buyers. You can then let the client know about the websites and platforms you choose to advertise on; and give good reasons why you do, or do not, market in a particular portal.

All of your marketing, including the pre-launch campaign, makes up your 12-week marketing program so go into great detail and share the steps that you will be taking to expose their home to as many qualified buyers as possible.

There are a lot of things you are probably already doing but if the sellers don’t know what those activities are, in their minds, you aren’t doing it!

SLIDE #11: The Marketing Tools

The next several slides talk about the variety of marketing tools at your disposal, such as a property landing page and Facebook marketing (read Simple “Go-to Market” Activities Guaranteed to Attract More Buyers).

If you are already using social media as part of your marketing campaign, the seller needs to know (because let’s face it, if you don’t mention it, the seller will think you don’t have a social media plan) and if you aren’t using social media, you need to!

Here’s your question, “Did you know that people are spending at least 40 minutes per day on Facebook?”

That’s a lot of time and the fundamentals of marketing states that we need to go where our market is and that’s why we advise aggressively investing in a Facebook marketing and advertising campaign.

A key strategic Facebook feature allows you to segment your marketing to the people in your geographic region who can afford your house (income) and who are likely to move (yes, Facebook does have these details and the information is made available to you when setting up an ad).

Slide #12: 5-Star Response

Would it surprise you to learn that, according to the National Association of Realtors, that most realtors took more than 24 hours to respond to a query about a home on the market (if they responded at all)?

That’s not acceptable and it’s a shocking reflection on our industry.

Part of what Garry promises at GoodLife Realty is a 5-Star Response Time (referring to the time it takes to respond to a queries made by a potential buyer who is interested in a listing). This transparency sets you up as the realtor of choice; if the other agents the seller meets with do not address this industry problem (it is not likely that any other agent has brought this up) then the other agents have effectively been grouped into “those who have a less-than-stellar response time”.

Slide #13: What’s the Bottom Line?

The bottom line is how much the seller is going to be putting into their pocket and answering potential questions.

“Do you have any questions about how, when you hire my agency, we excel at marketing and advertising your home, where the buyers are, so that we can generate enough demand to fulfil on our promise to you to get you more money?”

This final slide flows right into PHASE 4 of the 5-Phase Listing Appointment system where the conversation steers into the pricing of the home. By this stage in the conversation you have already addressed and eliminated most objections during the presentation.

What’s next?

Start by editing or creating your digital listing campaign right away (clients expect it to be online so even if you already have a stellar presentation down on paper, get it uploaded and show off your techie skills).

The slides we have shown above are a great start, but they are prompts to the discussion and not the conversation itself so practice the delivery (on your business partner, spouse, and the dog) so that when it comes to crunch time, you are a seasoned professional.