Do you struggle with generating enough leads?  How about key listing or showing appointments?  Conversion rates?  Closing on contracts?

As the public has accepted the reality that market has changed, the sales skills of the pros have become more and more in demand.  Strong negotiating and closing skills are ever important in today’s market climate.  No longer can we simply make our clients feel “warm and fuzzy” about the experience.  Character must be saddled with competence.  As the DNA agent dies (those who did deals solely with those related to them), the pros gain market share.  The foundations of fortunes are made in down markets. 

The single most important sales skill to get more business is to be fearless about asking for the order.  What would happen to your business if you got 10 new contacts a day by simply asking if they had an agent they currently are referring business to?  It doesn’t even have to be via door knocking, FSBO contact or working expireds (although all of those are good and viable) but it can be as simple as asking those in line at Starbucks.  How about with your current pipeline?  What would it look like to simply ask each one of them to just take the next logical step in the process?  Are you walking out of appointments without the signed contract?  Did you really ask for the order or did you let the prospect take the lead? 

Start with 10 new contacts a day for this week, then translate asking for the order at each of the next steps through the process and watch your business transform before your eyes. 

There are six types of questions that Real Estate Salespeople ask according to Tom Hopkins in his book How to Master the Art of Selling Real Estate.

1. Piggybacking – Piggybacking is asking your next question based on their last answer.
Salesperson – “Where do you live now?”
Prospect – “in San Clemente”
Salesperson – “What do you like most about San Clemente?”
Prospect – “I like being close to the ocean.”
Salesperson – “What do you like most about being close to the ocean?”

2. Alternate Choice – Alternate choice questions have two answers – both of which indicate they are moving ahead.
Salesperson – “We can meet today at 2pm or tomorrow at 4pm, which works better for you?”

3. Involvement Questions – Involvement questions are questions they must answer as if they already own the home.
Salesperson – “Where would you place your couch in this living room?”

4. Tie Downs – A tie down isolates an objection or gives an affirmative answer.
Salesperson- “Wouldn’t you agree that this yard would be perfect for your kids?”

5. Feedback – “Feedbacking” takes a minor objection and gently feeds it back to the prospect in the form of a question.
Salesperson – “You want a larger lot? Could you elaborate on that?”

6. Porcupine – Answer the question with a question, just like if someone threw a porcupine at you, you’d want to throw it right back.
Prospect – “Is the refrigerator included?”
Salesperson – “Would you like to have the refrigerator included?”

“Procrastination is failure on the installment plan.”

Why do we all seem to struggle with putting off the very things we know we should be doing, but don’t want to do?  Most of the time they are the very things that are the most important things we could be doing, those activities and tasks that make the greatest impact on our future. 

Procrastination boils down on a practical level to character and perspective.  A great test of our character is the ability to maintain a resolution after the mood it was made has passed.  We often make resolutions, decisions, and goals when we feel like it.  We are inspired, motivated, or driven in the moment to thoughts of grandeur, but when the mood passes, more often than not, so does our resolve. 

Most of our changing moods and feelings are due to a shift in our perspective.  Rarely has life or the world changed, we just changed the way we think about it.  As our perspective shifts, our emotions follow suit. 

Here’s an example: Have you ever seen a picture of yourself that is, well, less than flattering?  It seemed to show the few extra pounds in a way that you hadn’t ever imagined was on public display in such an unappealing way.  So, in a moment, your perspective changed.  The world around you hasn’t, the people around you haven’t.  You haven’t.  The only thing that has now become different is how you look and feel about something that already was. 

The secret to eliminating procrastination isn’t disciple and willpower.  Sure, those will last for a little while, but the real secret for those who are looking of lasting change is learning the art of managing your perspective.

Sell the skills you have, not your service.  I see so many agents convey the great services they offer; only they fail to recognize most agents offer the same service.  Rather than sell your services, try selling “your skills.”  In an industry where being unique is very difficult, sometimes expensive and seldom achieved, I think selling your skills may be much easier.

Think about it.  What skills do you possess that “benefit” the customer/client?  Is it that your listings sell 25%  faster than the market average, your experience is more than the market average or the education you have achieved earning real estate designations? 

Perhaps it’s something as simple as you provide more information (Internet Marketing Strategy) to the seller than the average agent does.  Whatever your skills are, that’s what you emphasize and quit trying to demonstrate to consumers your “services” are superior.

One company I am working with has an agent average of $7.6 million in sales with an average commission of 2.3%. That’s $54,822 short of a full 3% per side per agent.