Sunday, February 24, 2013

Real Estate Sales Skills Can Be Improved

     There is an old joke about a tourist in New York City that asks a policeman how to get to Carnegie Hall.  The policeman replies," Practice, Practice and Practice ".

     Almost any skill can be improved with practice.  Even a simple skill like driving a car can be improved with practice.  Why do you suppose teenagers have more accidents than adults?   They don't have much practice.  After ten or twenty years of practice, they get better. 

     Selling skills are no different.  Prospecting on the phone is a skill.  You get better with practice.  Establishing rapport with strangers is a skill.  You get better with practice.  Negotiating is a skill.  You get better with practice.  Qualifying buyers is a skill.  You get better with practice.  Doing a perfect listing presentation is a skill.  You get better with practice.  Answering objections is a skill.  You get better with practice.  Closing is a skill.  You get better with practice. 

     If you are new in real estate sales, you need practice.  You can not get any practice sitting around the office talking with your co workers.  How can you get practice?  If you want to get good at prospecting on the phone, dial the phone.  If you don't like dialing the phone, maybe you will like it when you are good at it.  You can't get good without practice.  Does that make sense?  It makes perfect sense to me.  Can you be a super star real estate salesman if you are not good at talking on the phone? 

      How can you learn to create instant rapport with people that you have just met without practice?  You have to practice creating rapport with strangers.  If you rarely talk to strangers, how can you learn to establish rapport with strangers?  Meet some strangers.  Practice your rapport building skills.  The easiest way to meet lots of strangers is to try to list their house.   You could call forsalebyowners and expired listings and foreclosure victims.  It would seem to me that any of these people would be delighted to meet a knowledgeable,nice, polite,pleasant real estate agent that seemed to have a genuine desire to help them solve one of their largest problems.  What a great opportunity to practice rapport building skills. 

       How many strangers would you have to talk to before you became really good?  Do you think ten would be enough?  Do you think you would be good after a hundred?  I bet, by the time you talked to a thousand, you would be very skillful at creating rapport. 

     Can you learn to qualify buyers without talking to buyers?  I suppose you could read about it and study it.  You would never get really good without talking to buyers.  You need to ask a bunch of buyers,"If we found the home of your dreams today, would you want to own it today?".  Then you need to learn to ask more qualifying questions.  Pretty soon, you will be able to tell the real buyers from the people that are wasting their time and want you to waste time with them.  Read  my previous article.  http://ronclimer.blogspot.com/2011/04/when-in-doubt-blow-em-out.html 

     If you want to earn an extraordinary income in real estate, you need to be able to do a masterful listing presentation.  You need to be able to tell people why they should list with you instead of the competition.  How many times would you need to practice this presentation before you got really good at it?  Find some people that will listen and start practicing.  I think after a couple of hundred presentations, you will get good.  In the meantime, some of those practice presentations will have a successful conclusions.  You will get listings.  After you have done a thousand listing presentations, how good will you be?

     What about answering objections?  Do people still have objections?  Do people still say," I would list with you BUT......."?  If you would take the time to learn the answer to the only two real objections, you could become very skillful at answering objections.  Practice this skill after your listing presentations.  It is almost impossible to get highly skilled without practice. 

     You need to practice.  Practice is the magic elixir that makes poor salesman,good and mediocre salesman great.  You don't need any one's permission.  You don't need a special permit.  Just decide that it is time for you to start practicing the sales skills that you need to be a great sales person.

     Ron Climer  www.climerrealestateschool.com Orlando, Florida 32810  

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