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3. The Winning Salesperson and the Losing One

1. Why Specializing as an Agent is So Important

Real estate is a business where if you don't watch out, it can be very easy to slip into becoming a jack of all trades and a master of none of them. But when you look at almost any real estate marketplace, it's the agents who specialize in one particular discipline who are most often the top producers in that area.

Within the field of commercial real estate, for example, we have the disciplines of industrial, office, retail, and investment brokerage. And even within these areas people can specialize in becoming listing agents or tenant rep agents, depending on both what they'd like to focus on, and the desired focus of the company they work for.

In residential real estate, on the other hand, most agents concentrate primarily on selling single family homes, and they'll often focus on either obtaining listings, representing buyers, or sometimes a combination of both of these arenas.

The problem comes when agents try to work within different disciplines simultaneously, not specializing in any one, and feeling that any type of property in any area can be their oyster of opportunity.

To Illustrate what I'm talking about, there's an attorney who continually advertises at my local gym. In one ad he tells people that he'll list their home for just a 4 1/2% commission, and that there's no need to pay anyone a 6% commission when selling their home.

And in his other ads he mentions that he can handle all your needs in real estate matters, business litigation, medical malpractice, criminal law, personal injury cases, divorce and family law, collections, and he'll even do business consulting for you, too.

When I look at all of the areas he's advertising to help people in I find myself thinking, "How good can he really be in any of these areas since he's specializing in none of them?" I mean, think of everything you need to know and do just to be an outstanding real estate agent. With this in mind, how do you think the quality of your service might be impacted if you began offering several other non-real estate brokerage related services to people along with everything you're currently doing for them right now?

With respect to this attorney offering all of the services I've outlined above, I've wondered sometimes if he'd even work on my car as long as I paid him his regular hourly rate.

We live in a world of specialization, and the people who specialize in their own area of expertise are often the ones who are the best at it. (As compared with, for example, the image one could conjure up when a doctor would advertise being both a "Cardiac Surgeon and Botox specialist.")

In real estate sales and leasing, unless an agent is working in an area that is lightly populated, the agent will most certainly meet with mediocrity if they chose to sell and/or lease properties from two or more different disciplines. For example, you don't normally find highly-successful agents who work on selling both industrial buildings and apartment houses. Agents who try to do things like these spread themselves too thin and become generalists in two or more areas instead of specialists in just one. And as a result, they usually get beat by their competition because their prospects feel their competitors are more knowledgeable and present themselves better, too.

And even if you're specializing in one particular discipline, you can still encounter similar problems if you don't focus on one specific geographic market. Unless you're in a lightly populated area, or unless you're selling investment properties on a regional or national basis, you'll probably cost yourself a lot of money if you don't specialize in primarily one geographical area. Once again you'll be a generalist, and people want to work with someone who's a specialist. And when you go up against competitors who are true experts in what they specialize in, your prospects will recognize this and they'll choose them instead of you in most situations.

So take a look at the agents in your area who are continually the top earners. In most situations you'll find these agents are specialists in the properties they work on, not generalists. With this in mind and in working towards maximizing your own income as a real estate agent, the chances are very high that you'll be very well served in becoming a specialist in one particular area if you haven't already done so.

Click here for downloadable E-books and live audio interviews with top-producing real estate agents. These interviews are with industry experts who show you exactly what they do to continually make hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars a year.

2. Easily Utilizing Video On Your Web Site

Here's an example of how you can utilize video on your Web site. This Web page is one of my own and it describes how I work with agents in my coaching business. It also contains a video clip that I've recorded, too.

Take a look at it and you'll probably begin getting ideas on how you can effectively utilize video on both your Web site and in your E-mails to your clients and prospects in your real estate business:

http://www.realestatesalescoach.com/coaching.htm 

The video was recorded with a $100.00 Webcam in my home office with no additional software. If you'd like more information on how you can begin utilizing this technology for yourself in your real estate business, you can click here.

In my next E-zine I'll show you specific examples of how you can utilize both audio and video in your Web sites and E-mail to begin making even more money as a real estate agent.

Click here if you'd like more information on my one-on-one coaching program to take your real estate productivity to the next level. One-on-one coaching is available for both real estate agents and company management.

3. The Winning Salesperson and the Losing One

Within the past week I had two dramatically different experiences with salespeople that I thought would be perfect examples to tell you about.

The first salesperson I dealt with was Frank, who is an insurance salesman. I was talking with Frank about different options for insurance, and while he is a friendly person, he ended up completely repelling me from wanting to do business with him. His answers to my questions were very lengthy, and I'd find myself continually waiting for him to finish talking before I could ask him my next question. This felt very frustrating to me because he was continually embellishing his answers with far greater detail than I needed to hear long after he had already answered my question. And his answers would often go into areas that I had no interest in hearing about. In addition, sometimes he would start answering my questions before I had finished asking them, thereby beginning one of his long and embellished answers once again, but unfortunately it was sometimes an answer to a different question than the one I was going to ask him.

On top of this, he kept trying to get me interested in an insurance plan that I told him I wasn't interested in. I told him what I was looking for, and he gave me my options in that arena, but he kept bringing up this other insurance plan that I had told him was not an option.

He was definitely a nice guy, but he was very tuned out to identifying my needs and taking care of them. And he was much more interested in doing the talking for long periods of time than he was in listening to me.

I really, really felt frustrated in working with him. And while his company actually did have a plan that would have worked for me, I found myself looking for another company to work with because Frank was so completely tuned out to my needs, and I didn't want to establish an ongoing relationship with him. So I found another expert at a different company who was very knowledgeable, attentive, and listened to exactly what I wanted. And in my second phone call with him, he ended up closing the deal.

Now compare that experience to the one I had with Ronny, a man from India whose passion is spreading the word about natural healing therapies throughout the world.

My wife, our daughter, and I were walking through the local shopping mall and Ronny managed to get our attention. He was standing at his kiosk in the middle of the mall showcasing his healthcare products.

Now mind you, neither my wife or I were looking for what Ronny was selling when we were shopping. And we didn't even know that the products he was offering existed. But even if we did know that they existed, we wouldn't have actively been looking to buy them.

But Ronny began talking with us and his passion and love for his products came through. I began talking with him about some things I knew about the culture of his homeland in India, and he became interested that I knew these things. I was also curious about his business and how much he was paying monthly for what appeared to be a 12' X 6' kiosk on the floor in the middle of the mall, and was surprised to find out that these kiosks were renting for $3,000.00! (How's that for expensive rent per square foot?)

He was so passionate about his business and he began giving us demonstrations of what his products could do for us. He had one product that massaged the head that really felt incredible, and another one for massaging the rest of the body. He mentioned that these products contained magnets in them which were supposed to aid in relaxing the body, too.

Another product he offered was a specially contoured pack made from fabric that contained herbs inside of it. This pack was for heating in a microwave oven then placing on the part of the body that needed relaxing, and it was reusable, too. We could even smell all the herbs that were carefully sewn inside of the fabric.

Like I said, even if we had known about these products I don't think they would have been at the top of our shopping list, but Ronny's passion and love for what he did, and his impressive demonstrations of the products themselves won us over. (The fact that he offered to negotiate the prices helped, too!)

In any event we felt compelled to buy from him, and it was simply amazing to watch this entire process evolve. It reminded me of the metaphor often utilized to describe a great salesperson as being someone who could even "sell ice to an Eskimo." We weren't originally looking to buy any products like these, but the process of interacting with Ronny made us feel like we wanted to.

And as I heard well known author and speaker Dr. Wayne Dyer say on one occasion, "When you truly love what you do for a living people aren't buying the product or service you're selling them. They're buying the passion, love, and enthusiasm you exude to them."

And in the case of our experience with Ronny, this is definitely what happened.

So what does all of this mean to you in your real estate business?

Well, do these two different experiences give you some ideas on how you can improve your own presentation skills with people?

Are you listening to your clients' needs?

Are you focused on fulfilling their needs?

Is it more important for you to listen to them than it is for you to be talking to them?

Are you exuding a passion and love for your real estate business that has your clients and prospects feel compelled to work with you? If not, what do you need to do to change this?

And as a final note to this story, the products we purchased from Ronny have been a big hit. The massage products are incredible, and 10 minutes after taking the special herb pack out of the microwave and putting it on my neck and shoulders, all the tension I had there completely disappeared! I could even rotate my neck much farther from side to side, too.

Now I have a much better understanding of why Ronny is so passionate about his products.

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