As the calendar turns on another year, it’s time to renew your sales skillset. Remember this: “Prospecting will make me a lot of money, but prospecting combined with practice will make me a fortune.” Here are 10 ideas to sharpen your skills for 2018.
1. Practice, prospect and present 80 per cent of every workday.
Take your leads with you everywhere and call them throughout the day until you set an appointment.
2. Create a practice schedule.
If it’s not in your schedule, it doesn’t exist. The secret to selling real estate is to master the conversation of real estate. Words are our tools and like a fine craftsman, our job is to continually upgrade our craft. Schedule time for this every day.
3. Create accountability with your manager to help follow-through with your training.
4. Create a sales-oriented, service-focused mindset.
Listing consciousness means looking for listings everywhere. Remember when you bought your car and then noticed the same model everywhere you went? We find what we are looking for. When you go to a listing appointment, carry the service mindset, “I am here to sell this home” and not just, “I am here to list this home.”
5. Continually tweak and adjust your presentation (body, tone and words).
Record your prospecting and listing presentation on audio and video. Listen to it yourself and send a copy to your manager or coach. The coach sees things you don’t see.
6. Practice your presentation before every listing appointment.
If you know the objection in advance is, “I want to list higher, then I’ll come down later” you’ll now have a great response. Knowledge equals confidence, ignorance equals fear.
7. After you complete a listing appointment, role-play the parts you feel you could improve on.
You will be ready the next time the same scenario comes up again.
8. Teach what you learned to other salespeople to reinforce your own skills.
9. Raise your standards.
If you find it takes 60 contacts to get one appointment, work hard to get better in the next quarter.
10. To upgrade your skills, be more assumptive with clients.
Here are some examples:
- “When we get together…”
- “When you see our plan of action…”
- “Before we get the paperwork done …”
- “During the time we’ll be working together…”
- “After we sell the home…”
- “Will you be here during all showings or do I need a lockbox?”
Richard Duggal is a sales rep and coach at Re/Max Premier in Toronto. He has made presentations at several international conventions. His diverse experience enabled him to reach the Re/Max Circle of Legends Award, accumulating more than $10 million worth of commissions as an agent in the shortest-ever time. Visit his website.
