Discovering Pain Points:
Questions to ask your Prospect
1
TECHNOLOGY
1.1 How have your technology costs affected your bottom line?
1.2 What is your return on your technology investments?
1.3 How are you taking advantage of technology, the Internet?
1.4 How much do you plan to spend on technology this year?
1.5 How does the consumer find your website?
1.6 How many qualified leads do you get through your website?
1.7 How do you know if your website is effective?
1.8 How are you tracking leads from the Internet?
1.9 Do you know what percentage of those leads end up closing?
1.10 What does it cost you to lose a lead?
1.11 How have your technology costs affected your bottom line?
1.12 Are you happy with the return on investment for technology?
1.13 How do you track your leads and is this system effective?
1.14 Can you quantify how much each lead costs you, and therefore, determine how much a
missed lead affects your bottom line?
1.15 Do your agents have a consistent listing presentation? Does it always send the same
company message?
1.16 Have you determined how much a lost listing affects your bottom line?
1.17 What kind of technology is your competition offering that you are not?
1.18 What percentage of your leads comes from out of town?
1.19 Do you have the technology to provide you with real time reports so that you can react to
negative trends?
1.20 NAR says 90% of homebuyers search the web, what percentage of your clients found
listings on the web?
1.21 How Internet-savvy is your organization?
1.22 Do your agents utilize databases and professional software packages?
1.23 How quickly do your agents respond to email requests?
1.24 Do you have a dedicated, trained staff person(s) responsible for receiving, distributing and
following up on e-mail leads? Do you charge for those leads?
1.25 What are your technology plans for the future?
1.26 What are your plans for technology and how much are you going to spend?
1.27 How has the Internet affected your business?
1.28 How does your company promote the use of Internet tools (email, etc.) to Sales Associates
to communicate with current and prospective customers?
1.29 What percentage of your Sales Associates has their own profile page?
1.30 Are you satisfied today with the revenue your company is generating from Internet leads?
1.31 How many Internet leads did your company’s website generate last year? How many
converted into sales?
1.32 How many Internet leads do you think you lost last year due to Sales Associate inaction?
1.33 Do you have an Internet lead management system?
1.34 Do you have an auto-response system to acknowledge consumer requests?
1.35 Do agents desiring to upgrade or make initial purchase of laptops or PC’s have a clear
direction on recommended systems?
1.36 Have you established a company policy on available reimbursement or cost deferral for
technology bundles by agents (hardware and software)?
1.37 Do agents desiring to purchase wireless communication devices have a clear direction on
recommended options?
1.38 Do you have Internet connectivity (Broadband) installed in all offices? Dedicated service,
DSL, VSAT?
1.39 Is there network access provided to agents at each work station for laptops or desktops
(direct network or wireless)?
1.40 Are there digital cameras available for agents?
1.41 Do you have an IPIX camera purchased or agents supportive of the concept?
1.42 Is there enough walk-in traffic to consider establishing a Consumer showroom?
1.43 Are there email addresses assigned to all agents?
1.44 Are your agents in the habit of checking email daily?
1.45 Are agents able to open email attachments and forward attachments to fellow agents and
consumers?
1.46 Is a contact management program in use by most agents?
1.47 Is there back office productivity software purchased and installed?
1.48 Is there a transaction management platform concept accepted and understood?
1.49 Is presentation software in use by most agents when warranted?
1.50 Do you have any kind of ad kit on CD-ROM’s used by marketing director/secretary?
1.51 Are electronic farming newsletters in use by agents?
1.52 Do you use recruiting software used by owner/branch managers for organizing the
recruiting process?
1.53 Is an E-Pro designation for all agents a priority?
1.54 Is there justification to consider establishing a technology fund (with monthly agent
contributions) to defray costs if re-tooling company & ongoing support?
1.55 Have you established minimum proficiency performance standards for all agents?
2
PROFITABILITY
2.1 Does your marketing budget give you the return on investment you expect?
2.2 Does your company provide for your financial needs or are you faced with competing with
your agents for listings and selling?
2.3 How much is your time worth?
2.4 What types of additional ancillary revenue streams do you have for your company besides
the transaction revenue that is decreasing every day?
2.5 How has your overhead changed in the last three years?
2.6 What percentage of your GCI do you spend on technology? Do your agents pay for any of
this?
2.7 What percentage of your GCI do you spend on advertising? Do your agents pay for any of
this?
2.8 How has your profit changed in the last three years?
2.9 What is your annual ROI?
2.10 Are you happy with your net profits?
2.11 In the past year, how have you cut your administration costs?
2.12 What percentage of your operating expenses do you pass on to your salespeople?
2.13 What is the administrative structure of your company?
2.14 Do you know exactly the profit per transaction per person?
2.15 What is the typical sales cycle relative to your company and marketplace? (the less time it
takes to sell something equals more profit)
2.16 Do you know what your production costs are (listing and selling)?
2.17 What revenue expansion opportunities are you planning to utilize this year?
2.18 Is your EBIDTA high enough to justify the sale of your company based on national average
multiples of 2-3 times?
2.19 How long will it take you to get to an EBITDA that would produce a sales price you would
accept? How are you going to get there?
2.20 Are you a selling broker? Are you the top producer?
2.21 What are your agent splits? Are they higher or lower than the rest of the market?
3
RECRUITING / RETENTION
3.1 What kind of issues are you facing regarding recruiting?
3.2 Are agent demands making it more difficult to recruit and retain agents?
3.3 Is your competition aggressively recruiting your agents?
3.4 If I were an agent, why would I select your company over the others in the market?
3.5 Do your agents consider your current training program valuable?
3.6 Have you recruited any new agents recently?
3.7 Is it becoming more difficult to retain high producing agents?
3.8 What is your average split and do you see it rising on a regular basis?
3.9 What type of programs do you have in place to keep in contact with your past customers?
3.10 If the agents keep up their customer base themselves, who owns the database?
3.11 What services do your agents leverage to gain consumer advantage in the marketplace?
3.12 How effectively do you recruit on a regular basis?
3.13 Do you have a recruiting plan or program?
3.14 What is the average age of your agents?
3.15 Since the average life of an agent is 5 years, what will happen to your business if you don’t
effectively recruit?
3.16 Do you feel you have lost control of your agents?
3.17 What sets your company apart from the competition?
3.18 If I were an agent, why would I choose to work with your company, instead of a
competitor?
3.19 Have you lost any good agents? What made them leave?
3.20 Have you gained any good agents? What made they come?
3.21 What does it cost your company to develop a new sales associate?
3.22 Are you looking for a more effective way to recruit agents?
3.23 Are you actively doing anything to retain your agents?
3.24 Are you worried about the competition’s ability to recruit your agents?
3.25 How are you reacting to the lower number of available agents?
3.26 What makes recruiting difficult for you?
3.27 Are you recruiting mostly new or experienced agents?
3.28 What effect does not being able to hire proficient sales people have on your ability to retain
other good agents?
3.29 How do you think it will affect your bottom line if you can’t retain your best producers?
3.30 What is your current turnover and what are you doing to reduce it?
3.31 Do you have a minimum production standard?
3.32 Do you find yourself using commission splits as a way to recruit top agents?
3.33 Do you find yourself having to offer higher splits to keep agents?
4
INDUSTRY / MARKET CHANGE
4.1 How have you seen your business change in the past 5-10 years?
4.2 What are you currently doing to stay ahead of your competition in regards to the changing
industry?
4.3 Where do you want to be 1 year from now? 3 years from now?
4.4 What do you think top agents will require 3 years from now?
4.5 What services are you providing to meet the challenging demands of today’s and
tomorrow’s consumer?
4.6 What is the consumer going to demand in 2 years?
4.7 Do you operate from a business plan? How often do you review this plan? How often do
you review the plan with your managers?
4.8 What would you do differently today than 3 years ago?
4.9 Do you think we can learn from other industries that faced similar changes?
4.10 What are your agents doing differently today than they were 3 years ago?
4.11 Is there anyone shaking up the market?
4.12 Have any 100% concept companies made any impact in the market recently?
4.13 How has technology changed the way you do business?
4.14 How has technology changed the way you recruit/retain agents?
4.15 How has technology affected your profitability?
4.16 How has the entry of large Wall Street companies (i.e. Realogy, Home Services of
America) changed the way you do business? Your operating budget?
4.17 With all the consolidation in the industry, does it concern you that you will be locked out of
a chance to partner with the top franchises in the market?
4.18 What impact has the industry’s consolidation had on your company?
4.19 Would you agree that the big are getting bigger and the small are getting smaller? What are
your plans for growth / contraction / exit?
4.20 What is your opinion of banks coming into our business?
4.21 What are you doing to safeguard your business against this?
4.22 Are you aware of the fact that banks are already in the business?
4.23 Are you aware that every time your agent gives customer information to a mortgage lender
that they are potentially giving away their customer?
4.24 What are your technology plans for the future?
4.25 How do you train your agents to take advantage of new opportunities?
4.26 What are you currently doing to stay ahead of your competition in regards to the changing
industry?
5
5.1
5.2
5.3
5.4
5.5
5.6
5.7
5.8
TRAINING
What types of training programs do you have?
Who does the training?
How do you gauge effectiveness of your training?
Do you have training for experienced agents as well as new agents?
How do you train them to take advantage of new changes in the industry?
How would better trained agents affect your profitability?
What does it cost you now to train your agents?
If you do the training yourself, what is your opportunity cost to do so? What else could you
be doing?
5.9 How many hours a week/month do you spend on training your agents?
5.10 Tell me about your training program. When is the last time you attended a training class?
5.11 How do you monitor your sales people’s productivity?
5.12 What are salespersons’ non-productive activities?
5.13 Do you have minimum standards for your agents? What happens when they are not
meeting them?
5.14 Do you hire mostly new or experienced agents? How does that affect your training
program?
5.15 Does your training program help you recruit new agents?
5.16 Does your training program help you recruit experienced agents?
5.17 What type of training do you think agents are looking for?
5.18 How many platforms do you use to train agents (i.e. live, tap, CD, online, etc.)?
5.19 How old are the agents you typically recruit?
5.20 How old are your existing agents? How “trainable” are they?
5.21 What is your turnover and how do you use training to reduce it?
6
6.1
6.2
6.3
6.4
6.5
ADVERTISING / MARKETING
What does it cost to create a brand?
What does it cost to maintain a brand?
Where does most of your business come from?
How much do you spend on advertising?
How much do you spend with the newspaper? Is it effective? How many leads did you get
last month? How many closed?
6.6 How much do you spend on the Internet? Is it effective? How many leads did you get last
month? How many closed?
6.7 How much do you spend with the real estate magazines? Is it effective? How many leads
did you get last month? How many closed?
6.8 Do your agents contribute to help offset your advertising costs?
6.9 Do you think you are spending more or less than other companies in the market?
6.10 Do you think you are spending more or less than other companies your size in the industry
in markets this size?
6.11 How does the consumer find your website?
6.12 Do you have a lot of walk-in traffic?
6.13 How do you track leads that come in to the company?
6.14 Do you charge for leads that come in to the company that are company generated?
6.15 What does it cost you to lose a lead?
6.16 What is your return on advertising dollars you spend?
6.17 How do you decide what to spend on advertising?
6.18 How do you decide what to spend on each of the different advertising mediums?
6.19 How does your advertising affect your ability to get listings? Buyers?
6.20 How does your advertising affect your ability to retain and recruit agents?
6.21 Do you do any sort of advertising strictly for recruiting purposes?
6.22 What type of advertising do you do to maintain your “brand”?
6.23 How well-known is your name in the next town/county/state?
6.24 How does someone from out of town know to stop at your company?
6.25 Do you think that your competitors that are affiliated with a national brand get more leads
than you?
6.26 How do you get referrals?
6.27 What do you do differently today than you did 3 years ago in terms of advertising?
6.28 Has your advertising budget increased or decreased in the last 3 years?
6.29 Do you monitor how your agents advertise?
6.30 Are your agents advertising themselves or your company?
6.31 Do agents come to work here because of your “brand”? How do you know?
6.32 Do consumers list their homes or want to buy from you because of your “brand”? How do
you know?
6.33 Do you use an advertising agency? What does it cost you every year?
6.34 Do you do your advertising on your own? How much time does it take you every week /
month? What else could you be doing?
7
GROWTH / EXIT STRATEGY
7.1 Do you have an exit strategy? If yes, how do you plan to obtain the value you think you
deserve?
7.2 With all of the consolidation in the industry, does it concern you that you will be locked out
of a chance to partner with one of the top franchises in the industry?
7.3 Do you have a business plan for growth? Can I look at it?
7.4 Do you think it is important to have a growth strategy?
7.5 Do you plan to grow through M&A or recruiting or both? How?
7.6 Have you ever attempted to buy any of your competitors? Tell me about it. How did it
work out? How much cash did you have to put in? Did you have any help?
7.7 What financing vehicle do you have to help grow your company or do you just do it from
profits?
7.8 Are you profitable enough to fund growth?
7.9 Do you believe the big are getting bigger?
7.10 How do you think companies are valued today?
7.11 Is there any consolidating in your market?
7.12 Have you considered selling your company?
7.13 When was the last time you took a real vacation?
7.14 Why do you think so many large companies have sold out over the past three years?
7.15 Do you believe the complexity of the real estate business is forcing certain owners to
consider selling?
7.16 Do you believe that, due to the cost and time required to keep up with technology, certain
owners are considering getting out of the business?
7.17 Do you believe that many owners, since they do not have an exit strategy, might be in a
position where they need to sell?
7.18 Do you believe that owners who are not making enough money in their companies might
consider selling their business?
7.19 Do you believe the big are getting bigger?
7.20 Do you believe that if banks actually get into the business that this will force smaller
companies to grow to be able to compete effectively? Are there fewer companies in your
market today compared to 5 years ago?
7.21 Do you believe it is easier to recruit multiple agents versus acquiring multiple agents
through M&A?
7.22 Do you believe you can take advantage of certain synergies by acquiring companies in your
market?
7.23 Do you have enough critical mass to take advantage of ancillary revenue opportunities?
7.24 Do you believe that agents want to go to where the momentum is?
7.25 How much space do you have in your current office(s)?
7.26 How many empty desks do you have? How are you going to fill them?
7.27 Do you have any struggling office locations? How are you going to help them?
7.28 How much time do you have to dedicate to M&A activity? What could you be doing in that
time?
7.29 Are there companies you would like to fold in to your operation?
7.30 Are there other markets you would like to enter?
7.31 Is there anyone you would like to do business with?
7.32 How much capital do you have to invest? Do you have a financing source?
7.33 Do you have anyone to help you do it?
8
OPERATING SYSTEM / SUPPORT
8.1 Who helps you run your business? How much does it cost?
8.2 How do you plan for the future while still running your company day to day?
8.3 Who creates the systems that you run your business with? How much did they cost?
How much time did they take?
8.4 Who can you “bounce” ideas off of?
8.5 Do you believe there are better ways to do what you are doing?
8.6 What systems are in place to make your agents more productive?
8.7 Who supports agents? How much time does it take?
8.8 Do you believe you need to install better systems?
8.9 Do you believe that better systems would help you free up time?
8.10 Do you think you could make more money if you had better systems?
8.11 Have you ever hired a consultant?
8.12 Have you ever picked apart exactly how to run your business?
8.13 Do you have a business plan? Do you follow it?
8.14 Do you have a 3-year plan, 5-year plan?
9
9.1
9.2
9.3
9.4
9.5
9.6
9.7
REFERRALS / RELOCATION
Do you belong to a referral network?
Do you belong to a relocation network?
How many referrals did you get last month? Last year?
Do you get quality referrals? What percentage actually closes?
How are referrals distributed in your company? Do you charge agents for them?
Do you have a relocation department? Is it a profit center?
Do you have a corporate caller?
10
SITUATION QUESTIONS
DEFINITION: Finding out facts about the buyer’s situation.
EXAMPLE: How many agents do you employ at this location?
How many referrals do you get from your existing relocation network?
How much money did you spend on technology last year?
What is you per-person productivity for this office?
IMPACT:
Least powerful of SPIN questions. Negative relationship to success. Most people
ask too many Situation Questions.
ADVICE:
Eliminate unnecessary Situation Questions by doing your homework in advance.
The busier the buyer, the less willing they will be to answer these types of
questions.
Busy brokers do not want to educate franchise salespeople about information they
should already know.
Collect factual information from more junior people in the company or from
others in the market.
HOW TO TURN A SITUATION QUESTION INTO A PROBLEM QUESTION:
1)
2)
3)
4)
Are those enough agents for what you are trying to accomplish?
Are you satisfied with the number of referrals?
What was your return on your technology investment?
What are you doing to increase your per person productivity?
11
PROBLEM QUESTIONS
DEFINITION: Asking about problems, difficulties or dissatisfactions that the buyer is
experiencing with the existing situation.
EXAMPLE: How many agents do you employ at this location?
How many referrals do you get from your existing relocation network?
How much did you spend on technology last year?
What is your per person productivity for this office?
IMPACT:
Least powerful SPIN questions. Negative relationship to success. Most people
ask too many Situation Questions.
ADVICE:
Eliminate unnecessary Situation Questions by doing your homework in advance.
The busier the buyer, the less wiling they will be to answer these types of
questions.
Busy brokers do not want to educate franchise salespeople about information they
should already know.
Collect factual information from more junior people in the company or from
others in the market.
POINTS TO PONDER:
 The more Problem Questions in a sales call, the more likely it is to succeed.
 Most people asked a lot less Problem Questions than they should.
 The more complex or expensive the product (franchise), the more important Problem
Question is.
 Try to think of at least 5 problems that each of our services solve.
 Look for less obvious problems because they are often the ones that make or break sales.
HOW TO TURN A PROBLEM QUESTION INTO AN IMPLICATION QUESTION:
1) Do you think it might have a negative impact on your agents when they see you can’t fill
desks? Might it make them question why they stick around? What impact would that
have on your ability to recruit?
2) Is it possible that certain agents might leave you if they can get more referrals elsewhere?
What impact would that have on your other agents, on your business?
3) What impact does not having the latest technology have on your business? Could it lead
to decreased profits? Lower producing agents?
4) Does your per person productivity put you in a position to compete for listings? What
impact would it have if all you could do was to continue with these lower end listings?
12
IMPLICATION QUESTIONS
DEFINITION: Asking about consequences or effects of a buyer’s problems, difficulties or
dissatisfactions.
EXAMPLE: What effect does that problem have on production?
Could that lead to added costs?
IMPACT:
The most powerful of the SPIN questions. Top salespeople ask a lot of
Implication Questions.
ADVICE:
Implication Questions are the hardest to ask. Must plan them carefully.
Must have developed a strong rapport in order to be able to get away with it.
Must have developed a lot of pain in order for the implication Questions to really
mean anything and create more pain.
POINTS TO PONDER:
 Top Salespeople use a lot of these Implication Questions, but thousands of experienced
but less successful salespeople who participated in a study didn’t ask these questions at
all.
 Because experienced salespeople see how the solution fits the buyer’s problem, they
often jump quickly to the solutions before the buyer is ready. In contrast, the most
successful salespeople hold back and discuss the effects of the problem before talking
about products or solutions.
 Implication Questions are powerful because they induce pain. They build the
consequences of the buyer’s problems and, in doing so, they make the buyer more
anxious for a solution that will take the pain away.
 That’s why top salespeople hold back from early answers and instead ask Implication
Questions. They skillfully build pain. They create a stronger need before introducing
their solutions.
HOW TO TURN AN IMPLICATION QUESTION INTO A NEED PAY-OFF
QUESTION:
1) If you are able to resolve that production problem by having a better training program, do
you think that will lead to more business and potentially more profits? Would you like to
see how our program works for our customers?
2) If you are able to control your costs utilizing our business systems, will that put you in a
position to put more money in your pocket?
13
NEED PAY-OFF QUESTIONS
DEFINITION: Asking about value or usefulness of a proposed solution.
EXAMPLE: How would a more effective recruiting program help your bottom line?
If you had a better training system, would that improve your return?
IMPACT:
Versatile questions used by a great deal of top salespeople. Positive impact on
customers who rate calls high in Need Pay-Off Questions as helpful and
constructive.
ADVICE:
Use Need Pay-Off Questions to get buyers to tell you the benefits of the solutions
you are offering.
Can use Need Pay-Off Questions in the “trial-close” process.
POINTS TO PONDER:
 The common factor in questions like these is that – unlike Situation, Problem, and
Implication Questions – they focus on solutions. Because of this solution focus, buyers
rate calls that are high in Need Pay-Off Questions as positive, constructive, and useful.
 Need Pay-Off Questions are often the mirror image of Implication Questions. Where
Implication Questions are designed to cause pain, Need Pay-Off Questions relieve that
pain.
 Skilled salespeople usually use a mixture of Implication Questions and Need Pay-Off
Questions to explore the consequences of problems and solutions.
 Need Pay-Off Questions have a unique function in that they get the buyer to tell you
about the benefits your solution offers, rather than forcing you to explain the benefits to
the buyer. By getting the buyers to talk about the benefits you can offer, you can have a
greater impact while sounding a lot less pushy.
HOW TO TURN A NEED PAY-OFF QUESTION INTO A CLOSING QUESTION:
1) If you can see how our recruiting program might help your bottom line, would you be
inclined to move forward with us?
2) If you had a better training system, which, you agreed would help retention, would that
make you feel better about an affiliation with our company?