How to use social networking to fire up house buyers

Internet psychologist Graham Jones provides today's Modern Estate Agent guest blog, with an interesting look at the brain functions of house buyers.

His consultancy offers advice and mentoring, using psychological techniques to help companies improve their sales and marketing.

"One thing we know about the psychology of sales is the fact that it involves a part of our brain called 'The Prefrontal Cortex'. Brain scans show that when someone is in the “I'm going to buy this” mode of thinking, their prefrontal cortex is lit up like the proverbial Christmas tree. When you have buyers sitting in your office, smiling and about to sign on the dotted line, you can bet your last ten sales bonuses that their prefrontal cortex is firing on all cylinders.

So, how can you use the Internet to have the same impact? What can you do online to get a house-buyer's brain into 'buying mode', with that prefrontal cortex clicking away like crazy?

Luckily you don't have to do a brain scan, or worry about any complex psychology. Research has already been done which you can benefit from. The single most important thing that makes your brain light up is someone talking about you and your interests. Several studies confirm that if you talk about your clients, rather than your amazing service, or the property itself, then the sale is more likely.

When you are face-to-face with a client you probably chat about their family, what they'll do in their new house, how they'd like to use the garden and so on. Instinctively, you talk about them and “their world”. You may have learned through bitter experience that when you focus the conversation on your company's history, prestige, expertise, or value for money, the chances are that you lose sales.

So, if you accept that focusing on the house buyer achieves more sales in the 'offline world', why is it that most estate agents do the exact reverse online? Websites focus on the property, on the service, on the fees, on the history of the business and so on. In other words, the opposite of what you know that works.

Luckily, as a modern estate agent you can reverse that situation thanks to the use of social networks, such as Facebook or Twitter. The real benefit of these networks is that you can talk about the world of your house buyers – not your world. The people who use social networks to talk about and promote their business are missing a trick. No-one is remotely interested in them or their offer when they make it on Twitter or Facebook.

However, if you are a 'listening' estate agent, eavesdropping on the conversations in Twitter and Facebook about buying houses and you can then join in on those chats and offer advice and information – and guess what? Yes, you are talking about 'their world'. And the result of that is that you light up their prefrontal cortex, making them hugely receptive to you. Even if they aren't going to buy from you, they are almost certain to recommend you.

So, here's what you need to do. Go to Twitter and set up an account if you don't have one. Then use the 'search' box (in the right hand column) to search for words and phrases that are specific to you – for instance, “house buying Crawley”.

The search will be saved and you can come back to it every day to see what people are talking about. You can then join in that conversation, talk about what those people are talking about and in the process get their prefrontal cortex firing away.

You might not sell a house directly through Twitter, but you will make it much more likely than just promoting your business. Use social networks to talk about the world of your potential house buyers and not to talk about you and your business.

You know that this approach works in the real world, so why shouldn't it work online?"

Graham Jones
@GrahamJones
http://www.grahamjones.co.uk/
Telephone 0118 336 9710