How To Build Credibility With Buyers – Part 3

In the last two posts, we talked about building credibility with Buyers.  We have covered four steps so far.  Last month, we talked about the importance of having a real deal and doing your own due diligence as key points.  This month, we will talk about how to continue creating credibility and maintaining it for the lifetime of a deal.

Step 5: Maintain Open Communication

In a world where social media dominates and text messaging is overused for serious matters in my opinion, almost if not every Buyer I have met over the years prefers phone communication or in person when it’s time for real things to happen.

For most deals, we are talking about tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.  Millions for the even bigger players.  It is quite reasonable to assume that at some point, people want to talk to another human when doing a deal together.  This is step 1 of what I call ‘real communication’.  Talking to a real person on the phone achieves magic that an email or text rarely can accomplish. 

When you talk to someone on the phone, they hear you.  They can ‘feel’ you.  They can sense your sincerity (or lack of…hopefully this isn’t you!).  They feel like they are building a relationship.  They can do this by phone without ever meeting you.  While not a replacement for in person meeting, do not underestimate the power of a phone call.  It is priceless.

Not only that, but maintaining communication for the lifetime of a deal is paramount.  When a Buyer feels like you are thinking of them throughout the lifetime of a deal, they will remember this.  I have been able to build up a lot of ‘brownie points’ with Buyers by simply ensuring they were taken care of until the deal was closed.  This includes handling any issues that may arise as quickly as possible.  If there is an issue, most people are very reasonable and understand.  They can work with you as long as they know your effort to resolve it promptly is sincere with steady updates.

Buyers are people first, not money machines.  Take care of the person and the money will come.  Which leads to step 6.

Step 6: Follow Up and Growth

Take care of a Buyer and they become repeat Buyers.  Take care of them repeatedly and they become business partners.  Maybe even a great friend or business mentor.  Sometime they become your lender when you start rehabbing.  Sometimes they will partner with you on that ‘awesome bigger deal’ that showed up on your desk.  Or maybe you just become someone they know they can trust over time because you have their back.  Or maybe they recommend you to their friends who want to buy or lend.

Point is, taking care of the person builds the relationship.  And when the relationship gets strong, your credibility goes up and doors of opportunity open.  People LOVE to do business with people they know, like and trust.  People with money love people that sincerely respect that.  They have enough people ‘asking for things’ then they care to.  They much prefer to be generous with those they trust.  These are generalizations but the patterns tend to be pretty consistent among successful Buyers. 

How do you become this ultra-trusted person?  Take care of the person first.  Always take care of your Buyers with the utmost of integrity.  They will know it, sense it, feel it and ultimately respect and appreciate it.  Every Buyer has their own personality.  Tune in to it and they will know you are sincerely looking to honor their time and respect their world.  The benefits are paramount.  Put in the effort…believe me it is well worth it!

This concludes our series on building credibility with Buyers.  We have come a long way since the first post and I hope you can recognize that isn’t just about the ‘now’ but about having long term vision.  With the long term vision in mind, you can use these steps regularly.  Over time the rewards stack and multiply pushing you to higher levels of success.  It is a journey but a very rewarding one.  I wish you the best with your Buyers in yours. 

And lastly, we are Buyers as well as wholesalers ourselves.  Keep us in mind!  Best of luck!