When you attend training courses on 'Winning Instructions' the first thing the super dooper trainer tells you is " make sure you have both decision makers at the valuation". It sounds easy but it is often the most tricky thing as people have hectic busy lives and normally the female of the house is at home for the valuation and the male simply wants to know how much its worth and what the fee will be.
I attended a valuation about 3 miles from our offices. It was a modern 3 bedroom 3 storey end mews/town house/terrace/whatever you want to call it.
The valuation started off well, I instantly engaged with the vendor Miss D (name removed to keep up with my no names policy). Now Miss D was a very bubbly, chatty lady, the house was immaculate and very well dressed (the house, not the owner ;-) ). I went through the usual 'dance' of checking out each room, measuring and writing down details as I went along. Now if you are reading this and you are a valuer/lister then you will understand what I mean when I say the usual 'dance'. The measuring and taking notes is all for show, it makes you look like you are an expert. The fact is you probably know how much you will value the house before you have even set through the door!
We finish up in the lounge. Armed with my marketing material, rightmoveplus comps and 3 comps from the office I go for the kill.
Just as i'm about to get in to full flow, i'm stopped by Miss D. "Ill just call my partner, put him on speakerphone and you can have a conference call with him!!!"
Now I find myself trying desperately to sell our service to someone who I have never seen before, over the loud speaker on Miss D's mobile phone. I wasn't comfortable with this and found myself talking to the floor as I didn't know where to look. At one stage I was looking at Miss D whilst talking to the phone but that felt weird, like she was listening to me but couldn't use her mouth to communicate.
The whole 8 minute conference call was littered with awkward pauses and speaking at the same time followed by another awkward pause and then a "sorry, go on".
I left the valuation thinking and hoping that I will get another chance to impress both the owners and not a loudspeaker on a mobile phone.
To make matters worse as I left the house and got back to my car (no its not a mini or a BMW) I noticed that the tyre was flat. Great!! im completely useless with cars and I have no clue as to what to do next so I called the office and had one of the other negotiators come and replace my tire.
The moral of the storey is ............Refuse point blank to enter into a conference call in an attempt to sell your services to both Parties.
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