Winning Ways Magazine Q2 2022

That Elusive Thing Called Motivation

BY GARY PITTARD

S S

Salespeople often talk about the need to discover a seller’s motivation. “No motivation, no sale”, many say. While I believe this to be true, I also believe that many salespeople do not understand what motivation really means, and therefore don’t know how to question sellers deeply enough to discover their true motivation.

In his book, The Secret of Selling Anything, author Harry Browne said, Everyone is already motivated. The only question is “By what?” Your job is to find out what it is that motivates your prospect. And then show him how he can get what he wants through your product or service. Only then will he buy.

There is one little word in that paragraph that many salespeople miss: the word, WHAT.

What motivates your sellers? Too many salespeople mistake ‘what’ for ‘where’.

For example, a seller says, “We’re selling because we’re moving to Brisbane”. So the salesperson thinks the sellers are motivated because they want to move to Brisbane. In truth, all the salesperson knows is WHERE the seller want to move to, not WHY they want to move there.

Where is not the same as what. The salesperson still does not know the sellers’ true motivation (the ‘real’ reason), but often he thinks he does. This is dangerous.

You can work hard to get a property sold, only to have the sellers decide not to sell because their reasons for staying were more compelling than their reasons for selling. All that work for no result. And all because the salesperson didn’t question deeply enough to discover the sellers’ true motive.

I believe the problem begins with the words “motive” and “motivation”. I know that these words are common in sales training – Harry Browne himself said, “All it takes is this one simple rule: Find this prospect’s motivation and appeal to it. Selling is easy for the person who does”

But “motive” and “motivation” are sterile words that disguise the most important thing a salesperson must discover before attempting to list a seller:

What is Their Real Reason For Selling?

In Pittard’s 3-day sales program, Winning Ways, we call this the ‘Emotional Centrepoint’. This term more accurately describes what a salesperson must discover.

‘Discover the motivation’ really means to discover their Emotional Centrepoint, to understand your sellers sufficiently to find their real reason for selling. To make this mission clearer, let’s lose the word motivation altogether. Try this:

How will the sellers’ lives improve as the result of this move?

This is a much better question, because it reveals to the sellers the benefits in moving. Ask this question and you will find the ‘what’ instead of the ‘where’. We call this ‘what’ the sellers’ Emotional Centrepoint.

“Motive” and “motivation” are sterile words that disguise the most important thing a salesperson must discover before attempting to list a seller

Using our couple moving to Brisbane as an example, when you ask how their lives will improve as the result of moving there, they may say that they used to live in Brisbane, but moved away because of a job opportunity. But after moving they found it difficult because they didn’t know anybody. They couldn’t go out at night very often because they didn’t have anybody to babysit the children – no friends and no support base.

Emotional Reason For Moving

Now you are getting to the emotional issues – loneliness, isolation, a lack of support. The motivation behind moving is to be back among family and friends, and their lives will improve when they do. They will have support and can go out at night on occasions. Emotional stuff.

Once you know the emotional reason why they are selling, you now know WHAT motivates them: they don’t want to be lonely anymore.

At the time of listing, this might not seem too important, but think about it. When you list sellers, is it important to your integrity that you only list them if it is right for them to sell? It is to me. Before I ever listed anybody, I wanted to know whether they should sell or not, because I believe that you should not convince anybody to do anything that is not right for them.

After the property is listed, however, knowing the ‘what’ is even more important.

Should, for example, these sellers say that they do not want to accept a fair offer because they believe that it is $10,000 too low, you can use their Emotional Centrepoint for selling to offset the $10,000 they are holding out for.

“You told me that you are lonely, that you cannot wait to move to Brisbane, is that correct? So why are you saying ‘no’ to something that is so important to you, your family, and your well-being?

We all know that this offer is fair. Saying no to it will mean that you stay here, and remain lonely, without the support of the people you love”.

I am sure you agree that there is far more to this for our example sellers than merely a move to Brisbane. It is that ‘far more’ that you need to uncover.

How will their lives improve after they make this move? Ask the question, and take your time to uncover what motivates them.

Motivation is elusive, but if you ask the right questions you will find the real reason, the emotional reason.

Motivation is elusive, but if you ask the right questions you will find the real reason, the emotional reason.

The Law of Value

BY BOB BURG S S

Shifting your focus from getting to giving (“giving” in this context meaning constantly and consistently providing immense value to others) is not only a more pleasant way of conducting business; it’s the most financially profitable way, as well.

But isn’t that naïve? Not when you consider that your prospective customer or client is not going to buy from you because you have a quota to meet, because you need the money, or even because you’re a really nice person. No, they’re going to buy from you only because they believe they’ll be better off by doing so than by not doing so.

And, in a free-market based economy (freemarket meaning that no one is forced to do business with one another but rather they do so willingly) that’s the only reason why they should buy from you…or from me…or from anybody.

The good news is that the entrepreneur or salesperson who can genuinely move their focus off of themselves and onto their prospect – that’s the person who is most likely going to create the sale.

Value is The Foundation

In Law #1 of John David Mann’s and my book, The Go-Giver, we introduce The Law of Value, which says, “Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment.”

But, does that mean you don’t make a profit, or even that you lose money? Obviously that wouldn’t be a productive way to run a business. It would actually be a recipe for bankruptcy. And that wouldn’t benefit anyone. No, it doesn’t mean that.

So, let’s dig a bit deeper and define the word, value.

Actually, let’s first explore the difference between the words, “price” and “value.”

Price is a dollar amount, it’s a dollar figure. It’s finite.

Value, on the other hand, is the relative worth or desirability of a thing, to the end user or beholder. In other words, what is it about this thing; this product, service, concept, idea that brings so much worth, or value to someone that’s they’ll exchange their money (or time, energy, etc.) for it and be very glad they did? This while you make a very healthy profit.

A Real-World Look

Let’s say you eat at Ernesto’s Italian Café, a fairly high-priced and upscale restaurant. From the moment you walk in you’re made to feel like a VIP. You’re greeted with kindness and respect; you feel right at home. Your wait-team is professional, friendly, handles themselves with class and has that way of knowing when you need their attention and when to leave you free to enjoy your meal and your company in peace.

The food is amazing and the presentation spectacular. The ambiance is wonderful, and the entire experience is absolutely superb. As you leave, the door is held open for you and you are

thanked and bid farewell by everyone on the staff whom you pass.

Your bill was certainly higher than at most restaurants. But you didn’t mind because the overall experience was worth much more to you in value than what you paid. Yes, while the price was $150 the value you received was ten times that.

The restaurant owner, Ernesto, gave you significantly more in value than he took in payment. However, his costs for providing the meal, including staff, equipment, space, and food, were much less than what he paid so he made a very healthy profit.

Giving more in value than you take in payment doesn’t mean you don’t make a profit. It means you and the buyer both make a large profit… because you both come away better off afterwards than you were before. This is actually the essence of a free-market based exchange.

It’s up to you and your team to communicate that value through everything you say, do, and are.

And, the key is that shift in focus. It means that rather than being focused on the money you’re focused on providing massive value to your customer.

Know that “money is an echo of value.” As such the value must come first. The money you receive is simply a natural result of the value you provide. Bob Burg is a Hall of Fame Speaker and recognized authority in referralbased selling. He is coauthor of the international bestselling business parable, The Go-Giver (more than 975,000 copies sold in 30 languages) and the sales classic, Endless Referrals. All-told his books have sold close to 2 million copies. Bob’s website is www.burg.com where you can receive a free chapter of all of his books. For information on his Go-Giver Success Alliance Membership Community visit www.gogiversuccessalliance.com.

Giving more in value than you take in payment doesn’t mean you don’t make a profit

BY GARY PITTARD

Fun

We all like to have fun, but you can have too much of it, and too little.

Too much fun

Salespeople occupy their positions for one purpose: to make sales. When there is too much fun in the office it can often be at the expense of results. Leaders tread a fine line between balancing results while still making their offices a happy place to work.

Notice that I said ‘happy’ and not ‘fun’. Happy offices are not always fun offices. Sometimes the team focuses on work, happily, because everybody is pulling in the one direction without office politics, hidden agenda, or other negative issues chipping away at morale.

But there have to be regular pressure releases or the work will grind your people down over time.

Remember the saying, “All work and no play makes…” Some leaders put too much pressure on their people but don’t diffuse it with a bit of fun. Sure, we have to focus on results, but a team that laughs together is a bonded team.

It doesn’t cost the agency much to down tools occasionally and order in pizza, wine, beer and soft drinks, and to show appreciation to the team that generates the income and profit.

Too little fun

Some office are joyless places. You can never imagine the leader cracking a joke. Everybody is serious and, often, scared. Scared to do anything

wrong for fear of the leader becoming angry. People stay because many find starting a new job daunting, but these people can’t wait for the weekend, to get out of their workplaces.

These offices are often notable for their small teams and for high staff turnover.

One leader I know was a superb salesperson, but in twenty years of running his own business had never been able to build a long term winning team. I can’t remember how many times over the years I said to him, “Lighten up will you?” but he wouldn’t: perhaps he couldn’t.

He enjoyed longevity in business simply because of his selling ability but he never truly built a business because he didn’t bring people along with him. Nobody succeeds alone.

In my opinion, his office was a dour place to work. Even those who made money didn’t stay long. Some even went into opposition with their former leader, meaning that loyalty was zero.

Balance is the key

Being a leader, we should control the intensity within our businesses – the intensity at which the business focuses on results, and the intensity at which our people play when at work.

Get this right and we build happy environments, with a blend of focus and fun. Build an environment like that and people might just want to stay… and produce results.

When there is too much fun in the office it can often be at the expense of results

Q2 2022 High performers

GOLD

Leader Gerard Gray Dickens Real Estate

Gross $691,156

Sides 80

Time in Sales

2 Years, 7 Months

GOLD

Alison Aitken

Leader: Danny Edebohl

Danny Edebohls Property Sales

Gross $404,764

Sides 80

Time in Sales

1 Year, 10 Months

Kirsten Benton

Leader Chris Martin King & Heath First National

Gross $1,008,211

Sides 189

Time in Office

4 Years, 5 Months

Scott McCallum

DIAMOND

BY DRAYTON BIRD

Digital Voodoo!

Typical is the claim made by some digital types that you need specialist digital copywriting skills for the internet - skills that of course only their binary scribes possess. With due respect, what a load of old bollocks.

Are you ready for Beauty and the Beast?

The pop-eyed fool on the right is me. The one on the left is Maya, my Aussie partner Mal’s little girl.

We’re on the balcony of his office in Manly, a short ferry ride from Sydney.

Mal was one of the first people to talk sense about marketing on the internet, and has written a couple of very good books. He just sent me two pieces I thought would interest you, which lead to...

My next helpful idea: Don’t fall for digital drivel: stick to your guns!

Here’s the first, expressed in Mal’s usual subtle style.

Beware the Digital Voodoo

There is only one skill needed to write copy for online advertising, website content or e-mail messages. It’s the skill known as copywriting. And you need to be a copywriter to possess it.

What has binary code got to do with copywriting and communications? Next you’ll hear claims that specialists are needed to write copy for ads on the back of toilet doors, or for writing stairway advertisements at railway stations. Or does it really mean a digital copywriter has no talent for writing press, or radio, or outdoor, or television, or mail, or brochures or...

Nearly every digital expert making the specialist claim is not a copywriter. They’ve never trained as writers or journalists, or written copy in the real world. They may have written copy in the virtual world, but typically it’s rather ordinary, just like most

Here I was thinking times were good in digital marketing land, but maybe they’re not so rosy. Because it appears digital agencies are going to extraordinary lengths to con marketers to part with their budgets.

copy written in traditional media by people who aren’t copywriters.

One of the biggest shortages in the marketing industry has always been talented experienced copywriters. In particular, direct response and retail writers - which are the type of writers you need for online advertising and content. The internet is a pure direct marketing channel, as every ad and much of the editorial content seeks to get readers to click-through and respond in some way. So your writer needs to know how to use words to make this happen - not an easy task in any media.

And as it has been for decades, it is the job of the copywriter to adapt the content to the medium, be it television, mail, website, e-mail or outdoor poster, etc. Because internet users (or should that be visitors?) are likely to scan web pages and e-mails (miraculously in the same way they scan printed newsletters, mail, press ads and articles) the writer must use headlines, sentence and phrase structure, cross-heads, sub-heads, indents, bold type, bullet points, layout and other techniques to attract and keep the attention of the reader.

If you subscribe to any professional copywriters’ e-mail newsletters you’ll discover that many of them produce their newsletters in text format. And they publish them with serif fonts and often many pages long. They do this because they know their craft and they conduct tests. They discovered for example that content published as text can often work better than HTML for newsletters and e-mail messages. That’s because often their readers print the newsletters to be read and stored as hard copy, or because text is regarded as more personal.

I recently saw a test where the text version of a newsletter achieved over 320% higher response rate than the identical newsletter delivered as HTML.

But ask any alleged digital copywriter about testing and you’ll likely receive a blank stare - they’ve never done any copy or creative tests. They haven’t tasted blood. Sadly they won’t have a clue what you’re talking about and won’t be very useful to you. Yet digital marketers perpetuate the claim they possess amazing black magic that poor simple analogue marketers don’t understand.

The main skill digital marketers possess is usually related to binary code - they produce ads using slightly different software to those who produce ads for newspapers or catalogues for example. Much of this digital skill, such as HTML programming, is taught in high school these days. And as far as I can tell most copywriters of all persuasions already use a digital technology to produce their copy - it’s called a keyboard.

It seems that getting a digital expert to write your copy is like getting a software programmer to write the ads for a new computer brand, or a motor mechanic to write the brand plan for a new vehicle launch. Why would you risk it?

So beware the digital voodoo and avoid any big mouth who claims mystic digital copywriting powers. Look for copywriters who are experienced in all media, not just online - you’ll get much better results and be safe from the mumbo jumbo.

Best, Drayton

In 2003, the Chartered Institute of Marketing named Drayton Bird one of 50 living individuals who have shaped today’s marketing. Other names included Philip Kotler, Tom Peters and Theodore Levitt

During his career he has also worked in PR, research, telemarketing and franchising and run exhibitions. Over the years he has helped sell everything from Airbus planes to Peppa Pig

His book, Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing, out in 17 languages, has been the UK’s best seller on the subject every year since 1982. Advertising immortal David Ogilvy described it as “pure gold.” He has written 4 other marketing books, including How to write a sales letter that sells, now in its 3rd edition, and well over 1,000 columns for publications around the world. In 2007 he founded the European Academy of Direct and Interactive Marketing

Real Estate Marketing Strategies: Do Your Beliefs Create Your Reality, or Does Your Reality Create Your Beliefs?

BY DR. MAYA BAILEY

• I always screw things up

• I’m not good enough

• I need to please people

• I’m not worthy

And the last one...

• I must be defective

I was talking to a client the other day and it became clear to me that there is some confusion about which comes first; Beliefs or Reality.

My client was comparing herself to other agents and putting herself down, because she wasn’t getting the same results that they were. Then she said to me, “that proves that I must be defective.”

She had used that term about herself before, so I thought it was time to finally explore why she thinks of herself that way. Her reasoning was, “I’m not doing well in my real estate business; therefore something must be wrong with me.” Actually she has it BACKWARDS.

She is putting the “cart before the horse.”

She doesn’t realize that her beliefs about herself, such as; “I must be defective” are actually creating her reality, not the other way around.

Have you ever done that?

Here are some Self Limiting beliefs that my client discovered in herself:

Here’s a question for YOU... can you resonate with any of those beliefs?

If so, are you aware that those beliefs are creating your reality, and not the other way around?

Getting back to my client, I told her the truth: that she is not defective because her real estate business isn’t going the way she wants it to go. Rather, it’s the other way around: her beliefs that she is defective are interfering with creating a successful business.

Are you putting the cart before the horse?

Here’s some categories of self-limiting beliefs:

1. Beliefs about yourself. Do you look at your business and think: “I must not be good enough.”

2. Beliefs about money. Do you ever think: “there’s never enough money”

3. Beliefs about success: do you ever believe “to be successful I have to work long hard hours, struggle and sacrifice”

4. Beliefs about picking up the phone: Do you ever tell yourself, “If I call people, I’m bothering them”

Whether you’re aware of it, or not those beliefs are creating your reality.

So, most likely what’s showing up in your reality is a lack of money, working really hard, and inability to pick up the phone.

Should you put yourself down for this?

ABSOLUTELY NOT! This is not your fault, this is your conditioning.

You, like most people, have hidden self-limiting beliefs that are creating your reality.

Just remember this: “Your Beliefs Create Your Reality”

For example; if you believe there never enough money, then you’ll experience never having enough money.

So what should you do?

1. Refrain from judging yourself

2. Do a self-inventory of your Self Limiting Beliefs

3. Increase your awareness of these Beliefs

4. When you find yourself thinking something negative like “Success means working long hard hours”, change it to a more positive belief; “I create success easily by working smarter, not harder”

5. Learn to install Updated, Empowered Beliefs, such as:

• I am more than good enough

• Money comes to me easily and effortlessly

• I work smarter not harder

• I have a valuable service to offer and people are happy to hear from me

6. Self-limiting beliefs are often in our “blind spot”, so get outside support to help you with the process of discovering and releasing all Self Limiting Beliefs.

In conclusion, become mindful about your thoughts because your beliefs are creating your reality.

If you want a successful reality, then install success beliefs.

In other words, “Change Your Thinking, Change of Your Life” and watch your business grow so that you can achieve a Multiple 6 Figure Income easily and effortlessly.

Dr. Maya Bailey, Multiple 6 Figure Income Business Coach for Real Estate Professionals, integrates her 20 years of experience as a psychologist with 15 years of expertise in marketing.

Her powerful transformational work creates a Success Formula for Real Estate Professionals ready to create a Multiple 6 Figure Income. To get your free report: “7 Simple Strategies to More Clients in 90 Days” and to apply for an Initial Complimentary Consultation, go to www.90daystomoreclients.com.

For example; if you believe there never enough money, then you’ll experience never having enough money

Discipline

BY GARY PITTARD

DDDiscipline. It’s the difference between success and failure.

Disciplined leaders produce disciplined salespeople. The team ultimately mirrors its leader.

You would be forgiven for thinking this is not correct. For example, you may have a salesperson who produces great results, but whose office is a disaster. I can think of many like

this – desk's a mess, time management all over the place, but they get results. How can anybody think that people like this are disciplined?

But they are disciplined at some things and this is the point.

We don’t have to be disciplined at everything, just the IMPORTANT THINGS. Clearly, these messy salespeople are disciplined where it matters and as leaders we should be, too.

Think about the standards and actions that are important to your business. Are you and your team disciplined at the important things?

This is not a definitive list, but these items are all important to team success.

If you are experiencing difficulty in any of the areas I mentioned above, think about joining us for a presentation of the Agency Profit System. We teach our leaders how to bring out the best in themselves and their teams.

Nobody can teach you discipline, but they can be shining examples of disciplined people and inspire others to be disciplined too. Be this person.

• Dynamic sales meetings that focus on results.

• Weekly training meetings – high quality real estate training that is compatible with your company’s culture.

• Monthly planning meetings.

• Yearly planning meetings that chart the company’s course for high results over the year ahead. Very important in December.

• Training and coaching individual team members to peak performance.

• Working on yourself as a leader – attending leadership conferences and seminars and reading as much as possible on the topic of leadership. Remember, your team won’t get better until you do.

• Goal setting sessions with individual team members. Only do this if you want them to focus!

• Attendance with your team at real estate training seminars every quarter. Be willing to travel for good real estate training. As a team, sit in for online webinars and, especially, webcasts (television quality). Check out Pittard TV (pittard.tv) for examples of what I mean.

• Time out to think and to plan. To keep your team focused, you have to keep each team member INTERESTED. Design eight good team results challenges each year. These stretch the team and dramatically boost the office’s results.

Focus on the important, become disciplined in actioning tasks that are crucial to success.

To keep your team focused, you have to keep each team member INTERESTED

and Coach Leader

BY GARY PITTARD

D

DDo you have a team of winners? Do you have salespeople who are new? What about established salespeople who are in slumps? Or salespeople who are doing well but want to take their performance to new levels? Or plodders? Or people who really should leave?

Many teams are a blend of these and if you have such a blended team it is your task as leaders to develop these people into a cohesive team comprised entirely of winners

You are their leader. If you are their leader you are also their coach. You might not think so, but it’s true. Even leaders who do not consciously coach their salespeople are doing so without knowing it.

Like children, team members do not listen so much to what you say, but watch what you do. Your actions speak volumes about your intentions, culture and character.

Leaders who tell their salespeople they need to do more training, but who never open a book, nor run a training meeting, are not seen as credible to their teams. By default, they train their people to be mediocre.

Actions have consequences. So too does inaction.

Real estate training is serious business.

If you don’t take real estate training seriously, you won’t have a serious business!

If you want your team to win, you have to train it to win. Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly… forever.

You have to weed out and remove those who either will not train, and those who will not use their training in the field. All team members must increase their knowledge, develop in skill

and improve in their results. If they will not do that, the best place for them to work is with your competitor, but certainly not with you.

I believe that training and coaching is the missing link between individual performance and team performance.

Leaders try to work with ‘teams’ but forget that teams are made up of a group of individuals. Leaders try to train teams but often neglect to coach individuals.

Of course you must conduct team training, but you must individually coach each person on your team so that you become aware of his or her weaknesses. You then coach the individual to improve in their areas of weakness.

Better trained individuals, when put together, form a team that is easier to train and easier to lead to peak performance.

Coaching is a major part of the leadership role. Want to be a leader? Then you must be a coach!

Show

BY GARY PITTARD

SSSome real estate agents really look the part. Glossy brochures, impressive marketing delivered before, during and after listing presentations, luxurious offices, flash cars… you know the type.

Looking professional is a must, but professionalism goes far beyond appearance.

Agents who look good but who cannot back it up with competent service and proven results are nothing more than show ponies. And there are plenty out there. These people are good looking order takers.

You can only hide behind your marketing and your company image for so long. At some point you have to impress clients with what you can do for them. During your presentation you should give clients compelling reasons to choose you. This must be more than just because of the advertising you do. Advertising is the listing tool of the order taker.

How to blow 12 years’ work

A friend told me about an agent that had been following her up for 12 years. Over that time he posted her some very expensive marketing, and to his credit he kept in touch with her by telephone too. Finally he set an appointment for a listing presentation.

And then he blew it.

He was two hours late for the listing. A simple basic courtesy of punctuality cost him a $20,000 fee. You could argue that his hourly rate is $10,000 an hour, because that’s how much he lost each hour he was late. Twelve years’ effort blown by one thoughtless act.

This salesperson turned out to be all gloss and no substance. A show pony.

It is my experience that show ponies often tend to believe their own press. They think they are so impressive that they can get away with being late, taking shortcuts, being all show.

Substance and competence

People aren’t going to list with you because of your glossy marketing. They are going to list with YOU: and you’d better be competent – substance over show.

Your success lies in making people feel at ease with you, with your ability to convince sellers that you can get them the highest prices with the least amount of stress. Often, it’s those little things, such as being punctual, listening, asking the right questions – these things carry far more weight than glossy handouts.

I’ve seen many good salespeople of substance worried by show ponies. They shouldn’t be. Study, train, and let skill be your beacon of success.

Competence trumps show.

Study, train, and let skill be your beacon of success

Doomed to Fail

BY GARY PITTARD

There are more, but these, and other barriers, all have something in common. Winners know the answer; untrained people do not:

These barriers are all PREDICTABLE. And another thing:

You can learn techniques that prevent them from being barriers. There are no new objections. It is possible to learn every likely objection and learn how to prevent it from becoming a barrier to a sale.

Sure, training is expensive. It might cost money to attend seminars to learn how to overcome these barriers. But have you ever calculated the cost of incompetence?

TTThe importance of training is underestimated in sales, and by this I don’t mean just real estate sales. Industries worldwide are staffed predominantly by untrained salespeople.

Salespeople who do not train are doomed to fail.

It need not be this way. We train so that we can learn to overcome all of the common barriers to sales.

These barriers are things like:

• Rushing to make the sale, instead of taking time to understand our clients

• Determining what is important to clients, and demonstrating that we can give them what they need

• Overcoming objections, many created by our competitors

• Delivering an honest estimated price range, despite what competitors may quote

• Proving to clients that we are the best choice

• Closing the sale

Would it be reasonable to estimate that a salesperson could lose one listing per month through incompetence? If so, the salesperson loses 12 listings per year. Let’s say that half of those would have sold, again conservative. The salesperson loses 6 sales a year. At an average selling fee of $15,000, the salesperson has lost $90,000 in fees through lack of training.

The Cost of Training Looks Like a Bargain by Comparison!

It is fascinating that many salespeople keep hearing the same objections again and again, and are still blindsided by them. With training, they would learn to anticipate these objections and prevent them from arising.

At some point in our sales careers we should ask ourselves, “Am I in, or am I out?” By this I mean, are you a professional salesperson, or are you one of the majority of salespeople who don’t train and who form the mediocre majority?

If the answer is, “Yes, I’m a pro”, then you will train. Hard and often.

It is possible to learn every likely objection and learn how to prevent it from becoming a barrier to a sale

Before the Close

BY GARY PITTARD

C C

Closing has received a lot of bad press over the years. Many view closing as adversarial, thinking that if the closer ‘wins’, by default they have defeated the person they closed.

But closing is not like a Wild West gunfight, with six shooters at ten paces and only one walking away. There is nothing adversarial about closing, in fact, it’s quite the opposite.

Closing is the simple act of helping somebody make a decision. Closing is a process that ties down agreement so that neither party has to go back over old ground, re-discussing issues that were previously agreed upon.

Because somebody agrees with you, it does not mean they have lost. They are actually closer to making a decision, which has to be a good thing for all parties.

Closing is not just that one final close that happens at the end, when you place the pen into the hand of your prospect. Before the final close, there is much to do if you are going to get agreement and have a happy client as a bonus.

With closing comes responsibility. As professional salespeople, we must ensure that whenever we close somebody, whatever it is we are closing on MUST BE RIGHT FOR THE CLIENT. To close somebody on something that is not in their best interests is incompetent, irresponsible, and unprofessional.

This means that we have a responsibility to uncover client need. This must always come before the close.

What is it they need? What is the right decision for them to make? Lead the client to the understanding that they have a problem that needs to be solved. Get them to AGREE that this is indeed a problem. Many salespeople skip this, never knowing why they lost the sale.

Once we have identified a problem to be solved, and have the client agree that this is a problem to be solved, we then present our SOLUTION.

Next, we ask the client if this solution will indeed solve their problem.

THEN WE CLOSE.

They haven’t lost and you haven’t won. You both have won: the client has agreed to the solution that is right for them and you have made a sale.

Close correctly, and on the right things, and everybody wins.

The Closer’s Formula is:

• Uncover client need.

• Get the client to AGREE that this is a problem for them, one to which they would like a solution. You get nowhere if you try to present solutions to something clients don’t believe is a problem in the first place.

• Show your solutions to the problem.

• Close.

Get the order right, take time and show care, and it is difficult for the prospect to say no.

Care about the client and only close on things to which they should agree, and they will never feel as though they were pushed into anything.

As you can see, there is a lot to do before you close, but put the client first and they will trust you; close responsibility and you do them a great service. Look after them and they will refer you to their friends and family.

The Hard Way

BY GARY PITTARD

W W

When it comes to success, there is the easier way, and the hard way. Note that I said, “easier”, and not “easy”. Success is never easy, but some routes to success are easier than others.

Many choose the hard way. This is the way with no goals, no plans, and no focused action. People who choose this way go to ‘work’ each day and drift. These are the people who are most often heard saying, “I’m going to do some prospecting” or “I’m going to make some calls”.

How much prospecting? How many calls? When will these tasks be completed? What result is expected from this activity? Drifters never consider these questions. They’ve chosen the hard way.

The easier way appears to be harder, but because it leads to focused competent action, it proves to be the easier way to long term success.

This is success by design.

People who choose this road to success first decide what success means to them. They design their ‘big picture’ by setting goals and deciding upon deadlines to reach them.

They then decide on the production required to reach those goals, the targets required and they put in place clear plans to follow.

These people never fall for the ‘market victim’ mentality, where the market is seen as a supreme being, determining who is and who is not successful. They understand that the market is the market and no amount of blame or whingeing

will change it. They plan actions that will make them successful regardless of the market.

To trick themselves into thinking they are higher performers than they are, these winners write Affirmations regularly. Affirmations cement our belief that our goals are possible.

Training is the foundation of all success for winners. Winners know that without training, mediocrity is assured. Winners constantly hone their skills. They identify areas of weakness and improve those areas. They build on their strengths.

Show me a winner, and I’ll show you somebody who values training.

It is easy to maintain a high level of competent activity when you have a compelling reason to do so. Winners perform actions competently, and in sufficient amounts to reach meaningful goals. They stay focused because they write Affirmations and follow plans.

Goals, Plans, Affirmations, Training and Competent Action: this is the easier path to success.

Drift, Dream and Drown is the hard way.

Forget the hard way – it’s just too hard

Hard Truths

BY GARY PITTARD

CLIENT CARE – for many salespeople these are words they use often, but as we know actions speak louder than words.

Over and above service, client care means giving clients the right advice, whether or not it is in your best interests to do so. It means telling the truth to clients at all times, never ‘gilding the lily’ – distorting the truth or omitting certain elements of the truth in order to persuade.

Telling the truth means telling the whole truth. This includes the hard truths.

Salespeople often forget this.

Many prefer to tell only the ‘happy truths’: “The buyers liked the property” or “The buyers thought the décor was lovely”; etc. But many often avoid the hard truths – “The buyers thought the property was too small for the price”, or “The buyers felt the property was $25,000 overpriced”.

If sellers’ properties are overpriced, they need to know it. In real time, as you receive the feedback from buyers.

They need this information so that, over time, they arrive at the understanding of how much their properties are worth in the current market. Without facts they cannot make intelligent decisions.

The reason that salespeople avoid delivering hard truths to sellers is that some salespeople don’t want to risk the sellers’ displeasure. It’s that old chestnut fear of rejection.

Image if surgeons felt the same way – too scared to tell patients that radical surgery was

the only option. Surgeons like this would do more harm than good.

The Whole Truth

Likewise, salespeople who are too scared to tell clients the whole truth, including the hard truths, do more harm than good. Clients expect us to communicate every aspect of their sale to them. If buyers aren’t positive, the clients need to know. If their properties are overpriced, sellers need to know. If the property needs to come down in price in order to sell, the clients need to know.

You do clients no favours by shielding them from the hard truths.

But this is not what is happening: salespeople aren’t shielding their clients from the hard truths; they shield THEMSELVES from perceived client displeasure.

Fact: if you are a ‘people pleaser’ you will not make it in sales. These people avoid any chance of conflict by only telling others what they want to hear.

I call these people “Nice guy, buts’. “He’s a nice guy, but I listed with the other agent because I think she can sell my house”. You know the type.

Be diplomatic, watch the words you use, but tell the whole truth. Tell the hard truths.

For people of integrity, there can be no other way.

If sellers’ properties are overpriced, they need to know it. In real time, as you receive the feedback from buyers.

Coasters

People work in different ways and at different paces. It pays to know your personal work patterns.

BY GARY PITTARD

Rare is the person who can work steadily for every working hour of every working day. Energy levels ebb and flow and work concentration ebbs and flows with it.

Many people are ‘Sprinters’ – they do focused work for finite periods and then coast for a while. If this is your work pattern, don’t beat yourself up, understand it and work with it. The trick is to ensure that your ‘on’ periods of focused work last long enough for you to get results. If they do not, you need more work spurts!

Coasters, on the other hand, are people who seldom sprint – they coast all the time. This is not a good thing. Coast for long enough and it can become an ingrained work ethic that can guarantee a mediocre career.

The younger you are, the more energy you should have. Don’t waste your prime energy years by coasting. There is a time to coast and a time to work.

I love Mark McKeon’s idea of having a Go Zone every working day. For one hour per day, you do nothing else but focus on an activity that produces results. No interruptions, no excuses, just focused work for one hour per day. Everybody is capable of doing that, but many who know about it choose to not do it.

Think: how much could you achieve if you worked harder?

Hard work won’t kill you and nobody is suggesting that you sacrifice your family for your career. But let’s face it, many relationships are not under strain because one or the other partner is working too hard. Many relationships are under strain through financial difficulty.

You can fix that. Work harder. Plan, follow your plans, save money, invest wisely, and financially set up yourself and your family as quickly as you can.

To quote the late Jim Rohn:

“The sooner you get money out of the way, the sooner you will be able to get to the rest of your problems in style.”

Something else to consider. Don’t coast during your play time either. Plan plenty of fun activities with your family and friends. Make the most of your life, and that includes your leisure time.

Relationships can suffer through lack of communication. This means that

couples do not talk with each other. Turn off the TV. Do something with your partner – something fun, something that creates memories. Talk. Listen – this especially applies to men. Be together, not together in front of the TV.

Don’t make a habit of coasting through life.

Sink or Swim: Surely there's a Better Way

BY GARY PITTARD

that makes up the team. You do this one-on-one in individual coaching sessions.

Training & Coaching is the Fourth Essential Element in the Agency Profit System. We believe that training and coaching has been the missing link in team leadership.

TTThe old real estate joke, “Here’s your desk, here’s your phone, good luck – you’re on your own” is no joke in some offices. ‘Sink or swim’ is the hard way to begin a career, but in many offices it’s a sad fact of life.

If you want your recruits to get off to a flying start and climb to greatness, it is essential that you forge a bond with each of your people. You do this at the individual level, and not with the team as a whole. That comes later.

A team is a group of individuals who work together as a team. The beginning of team success lies with your success in bringing out the best in each individual

Leaders often spend more time talking to their people in groups than they do one-on-one. Often, little attention is given to the rookie. And

experienced people often do not receive as much of the leader’s time either. Over time the leader pays a price for this neglect.

Every salesperson, experienced or not, needs a certain amount of one-on-one time with their leader. This should continue for as long as these individuals remain with the company. You must also get to know each team member’s spouse. Real estate can affect relationships if the spouse is not supportive.

The highest calling of leadership is to bring out the best in your people. You need training systems to do this effectively.

Do you have these systems in place?

• Recruitment systems – to ensure you choose the best people at the beginning

• Start-up and induction systems, beginning from the recruit’s first day

• Training systems, where they learn about the company’s culture, procedures, and methods of dealing with clients

• Ongoing training that is relevant, convenient, and in video, audio and written format

• Real estate training that is suitable to all skill levels, from beginner to pro

• One-on-one session systems to keep you focused on helping your people to perform better

This is only a small sample of the real estate training and development systems you need if you want to build a winning team.

Individuals, when you have enough of them, become a group of individuals. It takes a leader to turn this group into a team. To do so, the leader must have a good relationship with team members and their spouses. This occurs over time through care, the gift of the leader’s time, and through support at the individual level.

Never allow your team members to sink or swim. Care enough about them to help them grow into their roles and to achieve their goals. Be their trainer and coach. Then focus on the team.

2022 Seminar Schedule

March

Winning Ways, Sydney, March 7 – 9

April

Agency Profit System, Sydney, April 4 – 8

May

Winning Ways, Melbourne, May 9 – 11

Leadership Conference, May 30 – 31

June

Winning Ways, Auckland, June 27 – 29

July

Agency Profit System, Melbourne, July 18 – 22

August

Winning Ways, Brisbane, August 22 - 24

September

Winners Circle Workshops

Hobart, September 12

Melbourne, September 13

Sydney, September 14

Brisbane, September 15

October

Agency Profit System, Gold Coast, October 10 - 14

November

Real Estate Agents’ Convention, Sydney, November 21 – 23

Australasian Real Estate Awards, Sydney, November 22