At Be Better DSM, we like to use a technique called LPMAMA when talking with potential clients. LPMAMA stands for location, price, motivation, agent, mortgage, and appointment. Today I’ll walk you through some great questions to ask using the LPMAMA technique when discussing future plans with a potential client:

“Being open-ended with your questions helps you get as much information as possible.”

  1. Location. “This property is located in [X]—what other areas are you looking in for your real estate search?” Many agents will simply confirm the area the property in question is located, but no more. This shuts down other possibilities for the buyer, as well as the agent. Being open-ended with your questions helps you get as much information as possible.
  2. Price. “This property is listed for [X amount]; what is the budget you have in mind?” If they say they’re not sure, try a follow-up question: “This one is about [X amount]. Have you ready any payment calculations or anything that helped you have an idea of what’s comfortable for your family?”
  3. Motivation. “Why are you interested in making a move? What has you interested in this particular home right now?” Digging deeper into their drive to move instead of taking their answers at face value will help you be more successful.
  4. Agent. We prefer the technique of not simply asking if they’ve been working with an agent. We find that consumers have a reflexive response to that question, often saying they had gone to an open house and spoken with an agent, or else they had called a brokerage with a question and then were set up on an automailer list. When they don’t know or trust you yet, that’s when they give the reflexive responses.
  5. Instead, we like to frame the question as, “Have you been looking inside any home so far in your search?” And then we follow up by asking more questions about how that works. People will contact you, even if they’ve been working with another agent, often because they haven’t been told how the process works, or that agent wasn’t available when they needed them. It’s important for us to collaborate with our clients. Ask them if they’ve done any research about how agencies differ and if they’d be open-minded to a consultation to compare your services to other agent’s they’ve spoken with.
  6. Mortgage. “Will you be paying cash for your next home, or will you be using financing?” After that, follow up by asking which lender they’ve been talking to, and let them know that you can give them referrals to lenders you know and trust. We always suggest that people we’re working with get a second opinion.
  7. Appointment. This is the step in which you set up a consultation or a showing. We love to structure things, since we know the highest quality clients will be the ones who feel a connection and feel the value proposition enough to sit down in our office to do a buyer consultation before they look at homes. We also know that in today’s internet-reliant society, everyone wants everything quickly, so we’ll need to be flexible with our own goals as agents in order to customize the process to suit the clients and connect with them.

When you hit all six points of LPMAMA in conversation, you’ll have a total picture of who these people are, what their knowledge is, and what their timeline is like. This helps you be more successful in getting them to the next step.

If you like tips like these, this a topic we cover in-depth at my business planning workshops, where agents from all types of companies in Des Moines collaborate and talking about the various keys to building our businesses. If you’d like to see future opportunities to attend these workshops, click here. For other questions you have, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’m here to help.