There needs to be balance and good faith in the broker/customer relationship. My company sells expedition land based vehicles. I believe the sales cycle and expectations are pretty similar. When a new customer contacts us it usually breaks down like this.
#1 - Education. Educate the customer about the product, answer the questions, make suggestions, and make the "sales determination."
#2 - Sales Determination/Qualified Lead/Etc. Bottom line, does the customer have the ability to
purchase what they are interested in and looking at. You would be amazed at the increase in individuals who have absolutely no issue with spending 15-20 hours on the education portion only to find out that they have absolutely no ability to
purchase their dream. (I hate to play into the stereotypes but Millenials seem to really have this trait...)
This is the area that a good salesmen excels at. The salesman/brokers goal is to shorten or lengthen the amount of time they are willing to spend on the customer based upon this determination. It is always good to keep in mind that the "looky loo" today, may be the legitimate buyer in 5 years. Unfortunately, the
broker needs to make the commission to live today.
#3 - Details, Additional Education, Closing the deal. If the deal has made it to this point, then the salesman/broker is well invested, and the buyer should be as well.
It is a legitimate beef of the brokers when people spend a huge amount of their time looking at a Helia 44, only to find out they probably cannot afford a
hobie cat.
My wife and I currently fall into the education phase on our journey. We are not expecting the brokers to do our education.
Boat shows,
research, etc. are all where we are spending our time. In interactions with salespeople we let them know our time horizon and that we are educating ourselves. Those conversations usually last in the 10 minute range and if the salesman is spending more time they understand that they are dealing with potential future business, but that is their choice.
I was speaking with a private seller of a large sailing vessel at a
mooring. He was advertising on craigslist and had spent quite sometime ferrying "looky loos" out to his vessel for viewing. He had spent a huge amount of time with unqualified individuals who ranged from the guy wanting to build his own boat and use this one for ideas, to the guy who wanted to
trade a piece of property.....all of these conversations were had once they were actually on the vessel (a 3 hour affair). He was getting ready to turn it over to a broker!
Just
food for thought.