A Very Happy Realtor

One day I received an email from a former client. He wanted to see me.

He's a very successful realtor here in Toronto, ON. He has been my coaching client in several occasions.

I replied his email and made the appointment and as soon as I arrived he, excited, said:

"-I needed to go to New York, to a Real Estate International Conference, just to confirm that the 4 points strategy that we designed for me, was the right one. You're a genius!" (Yes, from time to time people tell me that.)"

The only thing that I could say was: "Good!"

He continued:

-"Yes, do you remember?"
-"Not all of it but..."
-"When we had our coaching sessions, we designed a selling strategy because I didn't have one. I was going through a revaluation period and I needed some grounding. Since then, I've been applying it with great results and, when I attended the Inman Conference in New York, I participated in several seminars inside the conference. You know, a lot of very successful realtors from several places but mostly from the United States, gave seminars to share how did they built their successful careers and the 'know how' that they shared was mostly what we talked about in our coaching sessions! OK, let me tell you..."

-"Please!"

-"The first part of the strategy was that I needed to chose one: residential or commercial. I was starting to open my market because I thought that that could have brought me more clients but, given my experience and knowledge, we agreed, that I should focus only on one and I decided to go for residential only. I closed the commercial side. And that was a relief. And in New York they kept repeating: focus, focus focus! The second point of the strategy that we created was, and I remember it clearly because it hit my notion of doing business, to focus only on one, maybe two, neighborhoods. That it wasn't business running all over the place. I was hesitant to start with and I didn't like it but it paid off. And guess what? Several speakers, repeatedly said exactly the same: focus on one neighborhood max two. The third one and I didn't think that I needed to do that but again, as soon as I started I got results. The third point of the strategy was to walk the neighborhoods that I have chosen and introduce myself to the people. You know, this is difficult but I remember that the speakers repeatedly said the same: it is something that we should do, walk our neighborhoods, always, as if the neighborhood belonged to us. Walk, introduce yourself, make them feel your presence. And it has been quite an experience because, of course, we have gotten a lot of rejections but at the same time we have sold several houses. The last point was, and that, let me tell you, I didn't believe you. Why? Because, writing a blog about my neighborhoods, mostly about what happened there but less about real estate? Sounds crazy isn't it? Well, that, I didn't do it. Sorry, I didn't even tried it. But I was surprised to learn in the conference that several very successful realtors have a blog and they write about what happens in their neighborhoods: schools, restaurants, movies, events and more. And one seminar was about that precisely: the blog and what to write there. This realtor suggested that if we are going to be their representatives, we need to know what happens there because if people are looking to buy there, they can read it in the blog and contact us because we are the experts of that zone. Makes sense! So that's it. I needed to go to New York to confirm that the selling strategy that we created for my business was the right one, and maybe I'm exaggerating because before I went I started to apply these strategies with great results but when I listened to them there, I felt not only excitement but a confirmation that I was doing the right thing. Thanks!"

-"Well, thank you for telling me this. So now you have confirmation from two sides: your results and New York. Congratulations! Thanks!"

The Four Parts of the Strategy:

1. Chose: residential or commercial. Why? Because this realtor didn't have any experience doing commercial so based on that and in that he still had a lot of opportunities in his own area of expertise, he decided to focus on residential.
2. Focus: Put his efforts in only one, maybe two neighborhoods. He was all over the place and he wasn't known nowhere. Yes, he was already successful but he realized that following made more sense. He chose two neighborhoods and started to work them with great results. Specialization pays. 
3. To walk them: now that he has chosen his neighborhoods, he needed to walk them. This means, that he needed to knock door to door to introduce himself to the people living there and maybe, this was the best part of this strategy. He made himself known by going door to door.
4. Write a blog about the neighborhood that includes mainly info about what's happening there not about real estate. And this was difficult for him because then he needed to know more about the place that he was going to serve as realtor but he was going to be his representative.

These strategies were designed in several coaching conversations with me. They were crafted according to his situation and his goals for the coaching process. This may not be an universal selling strategy for realtors but some of these points could be used together or separately as selling strategies. 

Basic and Powerful Self-Coaching Strategies for Sales Representatives

We know (you and me), that in sales, almost everything is about execution. That selling, like it or not, is how you execute your sales repertoire in the right moment with the right person in the right place. Now, I have been a sales coach for years and what I haven't seen much, is a development for self-coaching strategies. Here I'm going to present four that have been incredible useful for most of my clients.

Coaching and Self-coaching is about receiving feedback from a different perspective

Have you seen NFL games? If you have, you might have seen some players take a look to photographs of videos to see themselves how did they perform in such and such play, They see pictures or videos or how the play was executed and they see them to have a different perspective. This means that they could see and hear from outside, like if they were taking a step back, how they performed. Because you know, they can't see themselves and that's exactly what happens with sales representatives.  But before going there, just one thing about the NFL, they have coaches too and they help them to find out what went wrong with that interception. 

Now, in sales, sales representatives can't see themselves performing during a sales interview. They just can't. The only one that can see them is the client and they won't know if they did well just until the end of the sales interview. On the other side, there's no way that they can see photographs or videos of how did they perform in their interviews or have feedback about how they handle the sales interview. Only the manager can give them some feedback and we know that that just don't happen.

Self-coaching techniques

These are four very effective self-coaching techniques that most of my clients have used with excellent results: 

1. Record a real interview (and your cold calls) - Your smartphone is not only equipped with Facebook or WhatsApp. You can record some interviews and later listen to them. It's one of the best ways listen to yourself from a different perspective and change whatever you need to change in your execution. For better results, record three interviews in a lapse no longer that two weeks. It doesn't matter if you are a B2C or a B2B sales representative or if you're in the 3rd or final interview of a long sales process. It can be very helpful if you can listen, not only to the words and ideas and questions and answers but, if you can notice your tone of voice, the prospect's tone of voice, the pauses, the mood behind the prospect tone of voice and other voice characteristics, it will help a lot.

2. Ask a colleague or the sales manager of even a friend to go with you to a sales interview so he can later give you feedback. Don't worry, you can tell your client that he's your assistant or another sales rep in training. Have the feedback conversation right after the interview so the comments of your coach are fresh. Otherwise, they will be lost.

3. Record your presentation with a video camera: This is one of the best ways to find out how are you doing your presentations and what to correct, if needed.

4. Ask a friend or a sales manager to act as prospects and present to them: Your friend can give some feedback but it wont be specialized as the one that your sales manager can give but it will be helpful too. Your sales manager will give you precise feedback because he's able to see and listen what's missing in your presentation.

It's great if you can do this by yourself. You will notice aspects of your presentations that need to be fixed and some that are missing. However, it's highly recommended and you will get better results, IF somebody else can see and/or listen to your recordings and yourself. If the sales manager is not available ask to one of the best sales reps in your organizations. There are reasons why they are there.

Here are some key aspects that you might find helpful to notice, among many others:

• how you close the sale or manage to get the client to agree to move to the next phase of your sales process
• the type of questions you ask, the order and if the client answers them or not and what did you do if he didn't answer what you asked
• your tone, volume and speed of your voice and the client
• if your presentation is robotic, disorganized, improvised or made with confidence and power

Try them and I will be glad to hear how they worked for you. 

Ramon Ruiz