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2. A Tip to Assist You in Closing More Listings

Whether you liked Ronald Reagan as a President, loved him, or didn't particularly care for him, his presentation skills were among the best of any politician in United States history. He was a man of conviction, and he had a way of speaking to the American people that conveyed the message that everything was going to be OK. In fact, he had a way of assuring many of us that everything was in the process of becoming even better. His legacy of inheriting a recession when he first became President, and then transitioning the country towards the greatest economic boom it had yet experienced, will long be one of the many achievements he will be remembered for.

In contrasting his presentation skills with those of Jimmy Carter, the man who preceded Ronald Reagan as President, we can see very dramatic differences in the two styles of communication. President Carter, while being a very well-intentioned President, often seemed to communicate doubt and uncertainty about what he was doing when speaking to the American public. And when a leader communicates doubt and uncertainty to the public, it will often be reflected in the country's economy. And clearly we as a nation did not experience the best of economic times during the Carter Administration.

With Ronald Reagan, it oftentimes felt as if we had a father continually telling us that everything was under control, that better economic times were coming our way, and that he always would be firm as a leader when necessary to protect our best interests as a nation. And it's clear that the economy of the United States responded in a big way.

Let's segue for a moment into what all of this means to you in your real estate business. Well, how you communicate with your clients and prospects will determine whether they will work with you, or with one of your competitors instead. If you project doubt or uncertainty about who you are and what you can do for them as their agent, or if you project that your own interests in earning a commission come before their interests as a principal in the transaction, you run the risk of having them work with one of your competitors instead of you.

But on the other hand, if you project that you're out to protect their interests as your number one priority, and that you're the best choice they could ever make in a real estate agent, you have a much greater opportunity to continually be chosen as the agent your clients and prospects will want to work with.

So how good are your presentation skills right now? If you're not sure, maybe it's time to practice one or more of your presentations with a partner in front of a video camera. When you see yourself on videotape making your real estate presentations, a whole new world often opens up for you. You often see subtle mistakes you've been making in your presentations that up until now you've been completely unaware of. And then, with a little practice and rehearsal on your part, you'll now be able to move forward more effectively in your presentations and successfully close more business with a higher percentage of the clients and prospects you meet with.

Politicians like Ronald Reagan have the advantage of continually seeing how they perform by looking at videos of themselves. If they make a mistake in front of an audience, they'll get immediate feedback about it, and they'll be able to adjust and put in the correction before their next presentation.

But you as an agent don't have the same luxury. If you're making subtle mistakes in your presentations with prospects, they'll simply hire another agent to work with. And in the process, you'll probably continue to be unaware of the mistakes you're making that are driving business away from you.

Your presentation skills are one of your greatest assets as a real estate agent. While few of us will ever be able to master our public presentation skills at the level that Ronald Reagan did, most of us can still do so at a much higher level than where we're at right now.

When you continually work on your presentation skills, you'll increase the number of times people will choose you as the agent they'll work with over your competition.

Click here for live audio interviews with top-producing real estate agents. These are interviews with industry experts who show you exactly what they do to continually be top producers.

2. A Tip to Assist You in Closing More Listings

One of the greatest skills you can have as a real estate agent is the ability to know when to ask the right questions. It's one thing when you're telling an owner all the reasons why they should list their property with you. It's quite another when you guide the owner in a direction that has them conclude this for themselves.

Mike Monteleone, CRS, CCIM, is an old friend of mine. He's an agent who has averaged $42,000,000.00 in sales every year for the past 31 years in his real estate business. In total, he's sold over $1.3 billion in real estate throughout his career. In a recent audio interview that I did with Mike, he mentions a very effective question he often utilizes with owners during his listing appointments with them. This question, when used appropriately, can completely shift the tone of your conversation from feeling you're defending your own opinion, to having the owner begin to question and doubt what they've been told by another agent.

Here's the situation:

You're making a listing presentation to an owner and you tell them the price you think their property is worth. Upon hearing this, the owner then tells you that the agent you're competing for the listing with has appraised the property at a substantially higher value.

If you've been in our business for awhile, you know that this is a trick that some agents will often utilize in an attempt to get the owner to list their property with them. They figure the owner is more likely to list with them if they tell the owner they're confident they can sell the property for a higher price. Then oftentimes this agent will later get the owner to reduce the price if the property hasn't leased or sold in the weeks and months after the listing was originally signed. This is clearly a case of an agent looking out for their own best interests above and beyond those of the client the agent is supposed to be serving.

When Mike Monteleone encounters a situation like this, he first goes over the comparable sales information with the owner. Ideally in this situation the owner will see that the value the other agent has quoted is not warranted based upon the comps themselves. Then Mike turns to the owner and asks a question like, "What do you think an agent's underlying motivation would be in telling you your property is worth more than it really is?"

This is a very, very brilliant question to ask, particularly after the owner has seen that the comps don't substantiate the higher value he's been quoted. With 31 years of experience in the business, Mike knows what property is worth in the areas he serves. He also knows when a price is extremely unrealistic, too. But compare the difference in Mike asking the question above with what it might feel like to the owner if Mike instead said, "The other agent is just giving you that price because they want you to give them the listing." Those two situations feel very, very different don't they? The latter statement feels more like sour grapes and resentment on the part of the agent saying it.

In asking the question that Mike has chosen, he's directing the owner to think on his own about why the other agent would be giving him an inflated value for his property. Once the owner starts thinking in this direction, the chances are extremely high he'll say something like, "Maybe the other agent is just trying to get me to give them the listing." And when the owner both thinks this and says it out loud himself, it's far more powerful than if Mike had made the statement out loud himself.

I would add one more question to utilize in this situation. When the owner says, "Maybe the other agent is just trying to get me to give them the listing," I would follow-up with the following question right back to the owner:

"And what's your opinion of any agent who would tell you your property is worth more than it is just to try to get you to give them the listing?"

The owner's response to this final question ideally will eliminate the other agent as your competition for the listing.

When you learn how to ask the questions that guide your clients towards listing their properties with you, you'll continually become more successful and you'll close a greater percentage of your listing appointments.

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