Communication, Presentation, Conversation

Chapter Ten from the book Less Blah Blah More Ah Ha – How social savvy real estate agents become trusted, preferred, referred — and rewarded.

Are You Prepared to Reap While Sluggards Sleep?

“Spectacular achievement is always preceded by unspectacular preparation.”  ~ Robert Schuller

 Every day, no matter the location and market conditions, people choose a real estate agent and properties are listed and sold.  When the market is lush with green grass and low-hanging fruit, even the lazy and unprepared reap oodles of opportunities.   When the market is drought-dry, opportunities are scarce, and civilian expectations are lofty, only the poised and prepared plow deep and succeed.

In any real estate market, especially a challenging market, when an opportunity presents itself, victory favors the prepared.

Questions Are Opportunities.

Because you’re cool, attractive, hard-working and perceived as trustworthy, people are going to ask you real estate questions.

Some of the questions will be asked in a casual setting and spur of the moment; others will be deliberate and direct, like questions asked on a listing appointment.  Whether casual or deliberate, for the prepared, these questions provide conversational opportunities to outshine the average and unprepared and demonstrate your value.

The key to turning conversational opportunities into business opportunities and commission checks is knowing how to confidently, accurately, and attractively answer questions.

Simply stated, preparation is the difference between an unpaid amateur and a paid professional.  If you’d like to become a well-paid professional ask yourself this question.

Am I PREPARED to Answer Their Questions in a Relaxed, Confident, Persuasive, and Attractive Way?

Your future in this business is sealed by your Yes or No answer.  Specifically, the more prepared and perfect your conversations, the greater your success, even in tough times.  Bottom line: to fly high, you must know what you’re going to say BEFORE you say it.  You must be prepared.

About now, you may be thinking that being prepared and knowing what you’re going to say BEFORE you say it sounds like I’m promoting scripts — and you detest scripts.  Let me assure you, I understand “script-aversion,” and I know that nobody, including you and me, will sit still if we feel our ears are being stuffed with canned-cornpone.  I get it.

B.U.T

Behold the Underlying Truth: we both know that the highest paid speakers, communicators, connectors, entertainers, and presenters all have one thing in common. Even geniuses prepare, perfect-practice, drill, and rehearse.  That’s why what they do looks impressively effortless. They know exactly what they’re going to say and do, before they say and do it.  Do we?

Let’s face it, everyone knows the difference between professionally polished and awkwardly amateurish, when they see it.  We don’t hire or recommend the awkwardly amateurish, and neither will they.

The question we have to ask ourselves is this. . .

Are We Perfectly Prepared to Answer Commonly Asked Questions?

There’s a laundry list of questions commonly asked by homebuyers and sellers, before and during the transaction.  These questions are asked with different words, but the concerns that spark them are similar.

The average and ordinary agent will answer commonly asked questions lazily.  Their answers are routine, impatient, uncertain, nervous, and stuttered in an uninspiring fashion.

The high-paid professionals answer commonly asked questions as if it’s the first time they’ve heard them, and they are the most important questions of the century.  Because they practiced delivering their answers before they’re asked, their delivery is received as confident, persuasive, informed, and professional.  When people feel their important questions are being answered effectively, they relax and move forward.

For example here are eight questions we must be prepared to answer in a relaxed, confident, persuasive, and attractive way:

• How’s the real estate market? (More on this in Chapter Twelve)
• Is now a good time to buy?
• Have home prices bottomed?
• Will mortgage rates rise?
• What are mortgage interest rates these days?
• What commission do you charge?
•  Should I sell now? Is it a good time?
• How hard is it to qualify for a loan?

Here’s A Simple Nine-Point Preparation Plan:

1.  Sit quietly and think about these questions.

2.  Think hard.  Harder than that.

3.  Craft an answer, or two, or three, that you can be proud of.

 4.  Write your answers out. Stephen King said this in his book On Writing, published by Simon & Schuster, Inc. 2000.

5.  Record (use your smart phone to audio or video record) your response.  Review, re-craft, record, review, rinse, lather, and repeat, until you feel conversational, relaxed, and confident.

6.  Go meet people (In Real Life), connect, and engage.

7.  Wait for it.  Here it comes.  The question you’ve prepared for.

8.  Smile, relax, shine, impress.

9.  Rinse, lather, and repeat, for all common moments-of-truth-type questions.

 Are You Thinking This Is Too Much Trouble?

Well, you’re half right.  It’s definitely extra effort to do this, and because one of the secrets of success is “Doing what other’s won’t,” this extra effort will set your new standard for excellence higher than the average and ordinary are willing to climb.

Like I said, the level of our preparation seals our futures.  It’s a natural law: if you want to reap deep while sluggards sleep, be perfectly prepared to answer questions.

Now that we understand the importance of preparation, in the next chapter I’ll go into detail about how to take your question-answering skills to even higher levels.  The more effective you are at answering big and small questions, the better you’ll perform, which leads to more success.

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Cheers and thanks for reading.  If I can be helpful, let me know: Ken Brand 832-797-1779.

PS.  The book is available on Amazon.com, click HERE and order your copy now.

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