Scotsman Guide - February 2012 Commercial Edition

By Bob McComb
Creator
Top Dogs

Ask the Right Questions
Let your clients know you’re interested in helping them

great commercial mortgage bro- kerage is about discovering clients’ needs and wants and then prescribing a path to fulfill them. Yet, brokers and agents frequently struggle to ask the right types of questions to accomplish this. Often they focus on presentations and do all the talking. As ineffective listeners, they frequently forget — or have not been taught — to ask effective questions.

The risk to this approach is that clients may feel that they have not been allowed to express themselves or that they have not been fully heard — ultimately causing a client to lose confidence in the broker.

To sell your professional services effectively to commercial client you must learn to ask quality questions. To begin with, understand that your clients have logical reasons and psychological reasons to buy. Here are a few steps:

• Start a needs analysis based on
the client’s answers to logical,
information-gathering questions.
These help you understand the most
basic needs of clients or what they
need in order to accomplish their
goals and objectives. This approach
also sends the right message: You
are interested in helping them meet
their needs.

Once you’ve established the logical grounds of your client’s objectives, move toward questions that access the emotional or intuitive reasons for the deal. You need to have a clear picture of how the client feels about the purchase.

Develop and employ pleasure-ac-cessing questions that center on the client’s desired outcomes. There are two types of these questions:

1. questions that elicit positive emotions: These are necessary to engage your client’s excitement and motivation. They may be general questions: “Of what are you most proud?” They may also be specific follow-up questions to your information-gathering questions. Inquire about their wants and desires above and beyond the basic necessities.

2. questions that access clients’ dif-
ficulties: These questions help you
explore the clients’ needs. Be sure
to ask questions that uncover the
problems they are trying to avoid,
such as: “What challenges have
you experienced in the past?” Con-
sider asking questions about the
past consequences of not working
with professional service providers:
“Have you tried doing this on your
own without a broker before? If so,
how much time, effort and money
did it cost you?”
Ask a variety of each type of ques-
tion. Take the time to develop a pow-
erful set of needs-analysis questions.
In the needs-fulfillment world of com-
mercial mortgages, the focus must be
on what the clients want to achieve and
how you will act on their behalf to help
them arrive at of their destination. •

Bob McComb is the creator of the Top Dogs commercial real estate training programs. The website of Top Dogs is tdogs.com. Reach McComb at (888)894-2039 or bob@ mccomb.com.

SUMMIT FINANCIAL AND INVESTMENT GROUP

LOAN TYPES

•;Construction •;Acquisition;and;Development •;Permanent •;Bridge •;Renovation/Rehabilitation •;Refinancing •;Land;(no;land-only;loans)

•;Hard;Money;on;a;select;basis
LOAN PARAMETERS

•;LTV;60%-75%;subject;to;property;type
•;LTC;65%-75%;subject;to;project;type
•;Minimum;loan;amount;for;USA-based;transactions
is;$2MM;USD.;For;selected;International
transactions;the;minimum;is;$10MM;USD.

•;No;maximum;loan;amount;(subject;to;underwriting)
EQUITY PARTICIPATION
•;SFIG;can;arrange;equity;participation;to;facilitate
a;transaction;in;conjunction;with;debt;financing.
PROPERTY TYPES
•;Mixed;Use
•;Retail;(Anchored;and;Unanchored)

•;Office;Buildings •;Hotels •;Resorts •;Single;Family;Subdivisions •;Golf;Courses •;Condominiums/Apartments •;Industrial •;Marinas •;Special;Purpose;Properties