BY DIRK ZELLER

One study after another has shown that your body language and tonality account for over 90 percent of your presentation’s effectiveness. What you actually say accounts for less than 10 percent of the delivery. If you’re scrambling to find the right words, as most salespeople are, you’re spending your energy in inverse proportion to what impacts your effectiveness.

The solution is to plan what you are going to say beforehand, so that during the presentation you can focus on language, tonality and the following four steps to a great delivery.




Conviction


Webster defines conviction as “a fixed or firm belief.” I’d add that there is nothing more compelling than conviction. Your belief that you can get the job done draws the client to you. Your belief in the value of their home or how their home should be sold earns their trust. Your firm belief about where the marketplace is headed backed by statistics that prove your point sells you and your recommendations.

Before you go face to face with sellers, determine the three things that you are going to express with absolute conviction. If your sellers share your views (you’ll know based on your prospect qualifying work), that’s a bonus. If their views are opposite yours, be doubly persuasive and resolute in order to win them over to your point of view and gain their signature on the listing contract.




Enthusiasm


Enthusiasm sells in spades. People want to work with those who are enthusiastic about their home and the market. If the market is tough, you have to be frank and honest; you can’t just hide market realities. But you can still be enthusiastic and show that you are excited about the opportunity to “beat the odds” of the marketplace.

Your listing presentation will be more interesting if you are enthusiastic about your career, your business, their home and the sellers as people. There is an old sales adage: “Enthusiasm is to selling as yeast is to bread. It makes the dough rise!”




Confidence


I believe that in my early sales career, confidence was my secret edge. Even when I was new to the game, I was confident I was the best agent for the seller, the result of a deeply grooved expectation of victory that came from athletics. 

Where have you experienced victories? Tap into those past experiences as you pump up your confidence in preparation for prospect presentations.

If you lack confidence, determine what you need to do to increase the level of belief in yourself and your ability to achieve success. What activities would help increase your confidence? What skills do you need to master to dramatically affect your confidence? What one thing, if you did it with excellence, would change your self-confidence?

Webster defines confidence as “a belief in one’s powers or abilities.” The great success motivator Napoleon Hill says, “What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”

I saw evidence of this truth a few years ago while working with a great agent in North Carolina. She didn’t have confidence in herself, nor did she think she was a great agent. Even when she closed 100 units a year, she was still self-sabotaging her success.

I asked her to write out her standard of a great agent. She did so with great and specific clarity. Six months later, she had met the standard to a tee but was still in self-sabotage mode. Fortunately, I’d saved her written document and could present it to her as proof of her success. She has never looked back.




Assertiveness


Agents don’t want to come off as pushy or aggressive in their sales approach, and, by mistake, they shy away from assertiveness, as well. 

The definition of a great salesperson is “a person who convinces someone to do something that is beneficial to them or convinces them to do it faster. Going for the close or asking for the order is not pushy. It’s assertive. As a real estate agent, your job is to persuade prospects that you have the best service, the best value and the highest probability for their success to convince them to sign up for the benefits you provide, now!

One of the easiest ways to exert your assertiveness is to tell the prospect what’s coming. Early in the presentation explain, “At the end of my presentation tonight, provided we’re all in agreement, we’ll finalize the paperwork, so I can begin to work for you right away.” This bit of foreshadowing may come in useful should you encounter resistance at the time of the close, at which time you can use one of these scripts: “This should be no surprise. I told you I would ask for your business. You want me to follow through on what I commit to you, don’t you?” -or- “I’m proving to you right now that I follow through, right? Listen, Mr. and Mrs. Seller, homes are sold, not bought. The reason conversion of leads is so low is because many agents lack assertiveness with the buyer. So my question is: Do you want an agent that you know will for sure ask every buyer to buy or an agent that you hope will do that? Which gives you more comfort?” Being assertive in selling is a good thing.


So plan what you are going to say beforehand by following the four steps of conviction, enthusiasm, confidence and assertiveness. Then you can focus on what is going to be the most effective and have the greatest impact your presentation’s body language and tone. 





Dirk Zeller is a sought out speaker, celebrated author and CEO of Real Estate Champions. His company trains more than 350,000 Agents worldwide each year through live events, online training, self-study programs and newsletters. The Real Estate community has embraced and praised his six best-selling books; “Your First Year in Real Estate,” “Success as a Real Estate Agent for Dummies,” “The Champion Real Estate Agent,” “The Champion Real Estate Team,” “Telephone Sales for Dummies,” “Successful Time Management for Dummies,” and over 300 articles in print. To learn more, please visit: www.realestatechampions.com/SuccessasaRealEstateAgent/