Is There a Place for Assumptive Selling in Generating Outgoing Referrals?

Posted: June 1st

Tags: assumptive selling, carlotta landschoot, jana coleman, mary lou lee, referrals, responsiveness, seasons 52, watson realty corp

Funny thing happened at lunch the other day. I was dining along with Carlotta Landschoot and Mary Lou Lee (Watson Realty Corp) at one of the newest restaurant chains of Darden Restaurants known as Seasons 52. If you are lucky enough to have one in your market, you’ll understand it’s all about the seasonal offerings, each under 460 calories and their wonderful mini-desserts.

Well, when it came time for dessert, the waitress, Kyla, came to our table, laid down fresh cutlery and napkins assuming we were all having dessert. I immediately pointed out to Kyla that I had noticed this bold selling gesture, and she responded indicating it was known as assumptive selling and all waiters are trained on this practice. Of course, it helped tremendously that she also had on hand a tray of 10 different freshly prepared mini-desserts just waiting to be selected – no waiting for dessert here! We each had a different dessert and enjoyed every bite.

The first question is: how can we incorporate assumptive selling into referral generation? How about instead of saying: I understand you are moving to Orlando. May I have someone contact you to assist? Say this: I understand you are moving to Orlando. I will have our Leading Real Estate Companies of the World^® member in Orlando contact you immediately to offer their assistance. At this point, the only questions should be the “what” (needs) and “when” (timeframe) of the move. Try it once and see what happens.

The second question is: how can we provide immediate response with virtually no waiting? (Remember, the desserts on the tray were fresh and ready to eat, not a display of what we could order.) With technology today, it is entirely possible to have an agent in Orlando call your customer while you are still sitting in their living room. It takes efficient coordination between you, your relocation department and the relocation department and agent in the destination market. While we may not be able to literally deliver the destination agent to the customer’s living room (yet!), conversations can happen immediately via mobile phones and video conferencing is available via Skype.

If reading about this has made you hungry and you are lucky enough to have a Seasons 52 nearby, check it out. I bet you have dessert!

Posted By: Jana Coleman

Steve Favill

Jana,

1. Assumptive Selling: I used this all the time, however I took the time to build a relationship with the customer prior to going for the “close”. I assume that’s what you implied one should do, but there are some who will take you literally and make that their opening statement. ;-)

2. Immediate Response: Yes, it is possible with today’s technology to make this happen. In order to make that happen there would have to be a paradigm shift in the way that referrals are made. Currently, the agent initiating the referral has to contact the company’s relocations department. Assuming that the outgoing coordinator is at his or her desk and able to take the call right away the next step is to pass on the details. Then the coordinator contacts the incoming coordinator at the company selected to provide assistance. Again, assuming that this second coordinator is available and able to take that call immediately, again details are relayed and the receiving coordinator is then expected to call the customer to follow up. It is only then that he or she contacts an agent. The agent selected must also be able to take the call right away.

The odds of these factors coming together to enable an immediate call from your agent in Orlando are extremely low….. The system has been designed to add steps, checks and balances, and it is rare for someone on the originating side to be able to contact an agent in the destination market directly. I have done it in cases where I knew the agent from previous transactions, and time was a factor or if it were outside of business hours. I always followed up with my counterpart at the destination company ASAP in order to provide details of what I had done and to pass on the customer’s information. Needless to say, that could only be done where there was a good working relationship between the two relocations departments. I know several coordinators who would not appreciate being by-passed in the selection of an agent, only being informed after the fact….....

It’s a good suggestion and one that deserves attention. The question is, will the RDs allow it to happen?

Tom Gongaware

Excellent post, Jana. “Assumptive Selling” is also an approach to take when referring any of a firm’s ancillary services to clients…mortgage, insurance, title, etc.

Kevin Koitz

Jana – well done…an engaging, thought provoking piece. Thank you…

Assumptive selling – yes, like that principal in the context of outgoing so long as I’m comfortable with the Agent. I work in Washington DC (relatively transient!) so many of our outgoings are for clients who we’ve worked with for years. You know where I’m going with this one. Networks, conferences and real estate 4.0 have given us an opportunity to befriend our colleagues to a point where we know what kind of professionals they are. These are the easy – when I know our past client/friend will be exceedingly well represented.

And I’m just going to assume (for fun!) that you weren’t necessarily referring to a relo situation where work (3rd party relo companies are involved—those are always fun).

If we’re talking the ability to field a call (past client or not) and find an agent in “real-time”, IMHO, the technology is there so long as you have an system to audit Agents who you don’t know. The one caveat (for me…and perhaps others) is Brokerage policy…it’s certainly worthy of post. But let’s just say they take a hefty sum of any outgoing referral from a sale outside of the Brokerage…

It all close to what what Steve (or how I read his comments): You can be quick and nimble with the right systems in place. And part of “systems creation” is putting yourself in a work environment where you can avoid “hyper-bureaucracy” (most Large Brokerages, IMHO)...

Thanks again for the great thoughts, Jana…

Jan Harbor

Jana,

Great thought provoking piece! I am definitely going to send this on to our sales associates. Maybe the fear of asking for the referral will fade away into the ether.