Owners want to know what’s happening with their listing. Therefore, sellers want their agent to creatively market the property, pay attention to detail, and provide excellent customer support as part of their services.
The reason most often cited by owners who were unhappy with the listing agent is not the failure of the agent to secure a buyer; it’s failure of the agent tocommunicate with them after the listing is signed.
Sellers want you to add value by providing much more than the sellers could do on their own.
If they could have found that extra value on their own then what do they need you for?
Sellers want you to look at the entire situation and give good advice.
It’s difficult for sellers to be objective about their own property. Emotional attachment, nostalgia, and good memories cloud their ability to accurately assess their home’s value. That’s why you need to be the voice of reason and wisdom for the seller.
Sellers want you to remember who the customer is and respond to their needs.
Always remember that your relationship with the seller is a mutually beneficial one, and you should remember your role as well as your client’s. This relationship will sometimes require you to swallow your pride.
Okay, you gotta have a cut-off point though.
Sellers want to be treated like partners—keep in touch and update them at least once a week.
There’s nothing more frustrating for a seller than to be left in the dark. Keep them in the loop even if there’s nothing to report. This lets your client know that you care about them and their needs.
Sellers want to see a nice brochure—accurate, detailed, and professional.
A nice brochure shows that you’ve done your homework on the property and that you’re prepared to present their listing to potential buyers in the most professional way possible.
Keep in mind this list of seller desires so you don’t make the same mistake as many agents before you. Check back next time for part 2.
About Larson Educational Services:
Utilizing 30 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Florida real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online.
…LarsonEd is the best real estate school in Florida!
About Larson Educational Services:
Utilizing 30 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Florida real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online.
Utilizing 30 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Florida real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online.
There are plenty of video creation and video conferencing resources available online for free or for cheap. You can use these resources to post videos that improve your brand image as well as your search rankings on Google.
YouTube is the largest free video-hosting website that allows members to store and serve video content. YouTube members and website visitors can share YouTube videos on a variety of platforms (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, a blog) by using a link or by embedding HTML code.
No advertisements will play in your video if you have an upgraded account. Password protection is available so you can post the video to friends/family/colleagues/clients before you share with the world – just forward the video and provide the password.
PowToon is a company which sells cloud-based software for creating animated presentations and animated videos. Powtoon provides all the animation tools you’ll ever need to immediately begin creating your own professional-looking animated explainer videos and animated presentations.
Here’s an example of a Powtoon cartoon from yours truly, Larson Educational Services.
Skype is service provider that offers free calling between subscribers and low-cost calling to people who don’t use the service. In addition to standard telephone calls, Skype enables file transfers, texting, video chat and videoconferencing. The service is available for desktop computers, notebook and tablet computers and other mobile devices, including mobile phones. Included in the free service is a softphone application that can be downloaded to any computing device running Windows, Macintosh, Linux, or Windows Mobile operating systems.
GoToMeeting is a web-hosted service created and marketed by the Online Services division of Citrix Systems. It is an online meeting, desktop sharing, and video conferencing software that enables the user to meet with other computer users, customers, clients or colleagues via the Internet in real time. GoToMeeting is designed to broadcast the desktop view of a host computer to a group of computers connected to the host through the Internet. Transmissions are protected with high-security encryption and optional passwords.
Join.me combines instant screen sharing and powerful meeting tools in an app that anyone can use to present, train, demo or concept. Join.me is designed to be intuitive and accessible, providing features that you’ll use every day for everything from show-and-tell to formal presentations.
A video telephone / video chat service that makes it possible to conduct one-on-one video calls between iPhone, iPad, and Mac notebooks and desktops. Apple’s FaceTime service is free to use but does require an Apple ID and a Wi-Fi connection
TeamViewer is a proprietary computer software package for remote control, desktop sharing, online meetings, web conferencing and file transfer between computers. The software operates with the Microsoft, Android and Apple operating systems. It is also possible to access a machine running TeamViewer with a web browser. While the main focus of the application is remote control of computers, collaboration and presentation features are included.
About Larson Educational Services:
Utilizing 30 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Florida real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online.
How to sell health insurance to small businesses Part 2
Small and medium sized businesses account for more than half of new job creation in the US. Therefore, they offer a great prospecting opportunity for health insurance professionals.
Check out these 10 tips for selling health insurance to small businesses.
6. Empathize
Get an understanding of what motivates your potential client. What are their goals and challenges? What is their budget?
The first question you ask never really gets to the heart of the matter. Follow up with two or three more questions to get to their real pain and needs as a business.
7. Build Genuine Relationships
The key in this tip is the word “genuine,” as in not forcing the issue. Get some knowledge on the prospect’s background (perhaps even take notes to keep for future reference) and ask them a ton of questions.
8. Do More Listening than Talking
We all know you’re a good talker (or at least you should be). Why else would you become a health insurance sales professional? But resist the urge to talk too much about yourself and the products you’re selling. For a start, there’s a chance that you may be providing a solution to a problem that this prospect doesn’t have. Second, you might come across as arrogant. Remember to give a little and give a little in the conversation. If you notice yourself talking too much, divert the attention back to your prospect.
9. Don’t Plan Conversations (Too Much)
It’s good to have an idea of where you want a conversation with a prospect to go, otherwise things may get off course and you will spend more time than necessary with a potential client. But it’s also important that you don’t sound too scripted or over prepared when it comes to talking points in the conversation.
Overly scripted sales pitches and conversations make you sound robotic and they make your potential clients uncomfortable. Learn to think on your feet, get a vibe for the person on the other side of the table, and have fun. This may take some practice if you’re not already skilled in this area, but your conversation skills can always be improved.
10. Find a Mentor
Whether you’ve been a health insurance sales professional for 20 years or 1, we can all improve. Ask one of your colleagues to shadow you on a sales call and get feedback frequently. Ask them how they deal with some of the common problems you encounter. Odds are they’ve had to deal with the same problems as well.
If you’re a one-person operation, then try to network with other health insurance professionals at conferences and different professional events in the area.
Follow these tips and you’ll be more likely to get those small business clients in no time.
About Larson Educational Services:
Utilizing 30 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Florida real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online.
Small and medium sized businesses account for more than half of new job creation in the US. Therefore, they offer a great prospecting opportunity for health insurance professionals.
Check out these 10 tips for selling health insurance to small businesses.
1. Take Your Time
Part of the selling process includes educating your potential clients on what their potential health insurance solutions might be. Likewise, you need to qualify your prospect. If you skip these integral steps in search of a quick sale, then you may lose a deal. And remember: larger companies may require more time for the purchasing process. Utilize their more complex decision-making process as an opportunity to spend more time building a relationship with your client.
2. Focus on Best Leads
When you first meet a potential prospect (or even when you make a cold call) be sure to have a set of questions to ask that let you know whether or not your time will be well spent trying to get their business. Recognize who your most qualified leads are and be sure to give them your expert care.
3. Be Goal Oriented
It might be helpful to think of selling health insurance as a series of offers and agreements. It might start with the prospect agreeing to speak on the phone, then the prospect agrees to meet in person, then the prospect agrees to hear the sales pitch–all the way until the prospect becomes a client by agreeing to buy a health insurance policy from you.
At each potential agreement point, know your desired outcome and know what the next step is. Be sure to communicate these next steps clearly with your prospect.
4. Saying “Yes” Should Make Sense
Selling is not always a logical line of cause and effect; buying and selling is an emotional process. Spend time cultivating a relationship with your potential client and saying yes will make sense for them from both a logical standpoint and an emotional one.
5. Be Okay With Hearing “No”
Some salespeople dread the word no. But as you gain more experience as a health insurance sales professional, hearing no will be part of the process. It’s a good thing. A yes means you made the sale, but a no simply means that the prospect is not qualified and you are able to clear them from your prospects list. Do ask for feedback as to why they said no but don’t be pushy: simply try to gather information that may help you in future sales situations.
Follow these tips and you’ll be more likely to get those small business clients in no time.
Check back next time for part 2!
About Larson Educational Services:
Utilizing 30 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Florida real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online.
People like videos. While the average Internet user spends 48 seconds on a website, the same user spends close to 6 minutes on a website that has a video. If your real estate website and individual property websites include video, your visitors are likely to stay longer. What do videos help you do for your real estate listings?
Build relationships
Video helps develop familiarity and approachability. If someone can see what you look like, know how you interact, and get a sense of your personality it can put you in control of the first impression you have on them.
Stay top of mind
Having relevant video content, like home improvement or maintenance tips, can help you stay top of mind with your clients even after they buy a home.
Only do the home improvement thing if you know what you’re doing.
Be easy to find
When homebuyers are searching for properties one of the first places they go is online. Having searchable videos will help you and your listings findable. Videos are more likely to generate a first page Google ranking. A video on the first page is more likely to be clicked over other content. To market a listing, use the address as the URL and in the video description.
Grab and keep your prospects’ attention
A visitor to a website with videos will typically stay 6 times longer than sites with no videos. However, videos should be no more than 2 minutes in length.
Be viewed as the local expert
Delivering relevant videos to your current, past, and future clients is a great way to separate yourself from your competitors. If the videos you have are truly helpful, they will increase repeat visits to your site, blog, or social network.
Using professional-looking videos will help improve your search listings and the way potential buyers view your brand.
About Larson Educational Services:
Utilizing 30 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Florida real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online.
I found an old photo in the archives of the three LarsonEd founders. Why do we all look so dang serious?? I figured we should change industries if we wanted to act so grim. What do you think?
About Larson Educational Services:
No, we are not a law firm. Utilizing 30 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Florida real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online.
To sell annuity contracts, variable contracts, health insurance or life insurance in Florida, a person must have a license from the Florida Department of Financial Services (DFS).
Before obtaining a license, a person is required to attend a pre-licensing course, pass the state exam and submit an application.
The 3 types of Florida Life and Health Insurance licenses
2-15 Florida Health & Life (Including Annuities & Variable Contracts) Agent License
2-14 Florida Life (Including Annuities & Variable Contracts) Agent License
We’ve created an easy-to-follow 5-step guide to help you navigate the Florida Life and Health Insurance licensing process.
A Step-By-Step Guide
1. Attend class
60 Hour Health and Life (Including Annuities and Variable Contracts) Agent Pre-Licensing Course – $339 tuition includes a 1-year enrollment term in the classroom course.
Click below to view more information including our course dates and times:
Larson Educational Services is a Florida approved Insurance School (License #370501). All applicants must complete the required education and pass the end-of-course final exam with a score of 70% or better. Your Course Completion Certificate is valid for four (4) years from the date of issuance.
Currently, Larson Educational Services is approved to teach the following insurance course(s):
60 Hour Florida Health & Life (Including Annuities & Variable Contracts) Agent License Course – Course ID #96045
Larson Educational Services is required to submit proof of your course completion to the Department of Financial Services Bureau of Licensing within 20 days of your course exam pass date. We guarantee we will do this in no more than 7 days.
Step 2. Pass the State License Exam – $42
You can schedule your Florida insurance exam at any time. Completion of the pre-licensing course is NOT required in order to schedule the test.
Our recommendation is to take the state exam 5-10 days AFTER you’ve completed your course. Scheduling can be completed by calling 1.888.274.2020 or visiting PearsonVUE.com. The state exam fee is $42 for each attempt.
State exam regulations:
Regardless of which exam you take, a 70% score is required to pass.
A passing score is valid for one (1) year from the passing date.
You will be required to re-take the exam if you do not complete the licensing process within that time-frame.
You are limited to five (5) examination attempts during a one (1) year period.
Each exam contains 15 “pretest” questions that do not affect your final score. “Pretest” questions are distributed throughout the exam randomly. Most likely these questions will look very different from the course materials and practice questions covered in our class because we have no knowledge of the content of these “pretest” questions.
Exam Type and Code Number of Questions Time Limit (use the code listed in the table below when scheduling by phone or online. View more detailed State Exam Information):
Step 3. Register for Electronic Fingerprinting – $48.55
Florida requires electronic fingerprints be taken in order to run a criminal background check. To make a reservation with MorphoTrust, click the link below or call 800.528.1358. Insurance license fingerprint records are good for 1 year.
Cost of fingerprinting is $48.55. The results of your criminal history check will be submitted electronically to the Florida Department of Financial Services.
If you are asked for the “ORI” number at any time during the fingerprint process, use “FL921060Z”. This is how the fingerprinting company knows your fingerprints are for Florida Insurance Agent licensing.
Southwest Florida has two Insurance License fingerprinting locations:
Fort Myers: Fingerprint Services – 8192 College Pkwy, Suite A-27
*The application can not be submitted until the pre-licensing education has been completed from Step 1.*
Submit a license application to the Florida Department of Financial Services (DFS). On the application you will share information about yourself and include a fee of $55 payable to the DFS.
Click the icon below to access the MyProfile page managed by the DFS Bureau of Licensing. Either login to an existing account or click on “Create Account.”
When creating an account for the first time, you will select “Individual” as your account type. The license type is one of the following:
After all the steps above have been completed, the DFS Bureau of Licensing will send your license approval by email. You can print your license from your MyProfile page.
The total cost to obtain your Florida Insurance License:
2-15 Health & Life Insurance License is $145.55 plus course tuition
2-14 Life Only Insurance License is $145.55 plus course tuition
2-40 Health Only Insurance License is $145.55 plus course tuition
Utilizing 30 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Florida real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online.
You have three and a half hours to answer the questions, which means there is no need to rush.
Just take a deep breath and trust your preparation.
2. Read all the darn questions…2 times
It’s too easy to skip over key words in the question. Our brain has this nasty habit of filling in the blanks of sentences when we haven’t even seen every word.
Give yourself a chance of getting the questions right by reading them each 2 times.
3. Read all the darn answers…2 times
Before choosing an answer, even if you are 100% positive it’s right, read through all the choices.
It may be that you have prematurely selected a response that is correct, but there could be another answer that is more correct.
If you fail to read through all the answers there’s a chance you may mark the wrong one.
4. Longer is better
If you come to a question that has you completely stumped, usually the longest choice is the most likely to be correct.
This is not a hard rule of thumb, but rather an indicator to go off of when you don’t have any idea what the answer could be.
5. Treat each multiple choice question as 4 true-false questions
Each multiple choice question will have 4 answers, each of which you should regard as a true-false question.
This will help you ensure that you aren’t missing any details when responding to each question.
In order to learn the information necessary to pass the state exam, you need access to hundreds of sample questions, immediate feedback, and explanations covering the content you’ll see on test day.
That’s exactly what you’ll get with LarsonEd’s Real Estate Exam Tutor,available here for $69.
Utilizing 30 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Florida real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online.
Naples Real Estate School 