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
Broker Submissions Accepted
CREATIVE FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS
For your unique commercial real estate transactions
Phone: 800.649.0311 or 801.944.4320