Selling: The Secret to Becoming a Million Dollar Communicator

Truly successful people all have something in common. They are all excellent communicators. Not necessarily polished or eloquent, but they are incredibly effective at conveying messages, inspiring team members, and telling their brand story with conviction.

The biggest hurdle to overcome on your way to becoming million dollar communicator is this: You have to sell. There’s just no way around it.

The secret is that there is no secret. I wish there was a cheat code or easy button to by-pass the sales function, but unfortunately it doesn’t exist! You just need to come to grips with the idea that you’re going to have to go out and sell your product or service, no matter what your passion or job is in life. No matter how hard you try to avoid the “S-word,” there’s never been a business that succeeded without sales.

Cold selling, warm selling, bartering, haggling and negotiating have been around since the dawn of time when merchants had to sell things to survive. Persuading someone else to see value in your goods services the same way you do requires some degree of sales (and an even greater degree of communication skills).

The notion that prospective clients will just be pre-sold on us before we’ve even met, is so unrealistic, but it doesn’t stop agents from hiding behind their marketing and social media profiles. In fairness, I can’t blame them because social media is flooded with everyone’s glitzy photos and TikTok videos, but what we rarely see is the consistent grind - the real blood, sweat and tears. The simple stuff isn’t sexy, but it is probably the thing that matters most.

The problem with sales is that most agents know nothing about it, and what they do know is usually all wrong. You’re not out to convince someone to buy or sell something against their will, or trick them into making a decision that is not in their best interests. Leave that to the crooked spam callers!

Selling is helping someone to make a decision that they already desire to make for their own reasons, but need help in doing so. Sales is simply getting someone comfortable with a decision they already want to make. It has nothing to do with talking prospects into things. Our job is to qualify their needs and wants, and be the best possible service provider and facilitator in fulfilling their objectives.

You have to believe in what it is you’re selling in order to have any degree of success. Likewise, the prospect needs to recognize that they have a clear need. You can’t sell a product or service, no matter how good of salesperson you are, to someone that doesn’t need it. If the prospect doesn’t think they have a problem, there’s very little you can do to convince them that a problem exists. If they don’t think they have a problem, it’s the same as them not actually having a problem.

Selling is not you asking someone for a favour, or tricking them into believing that you are something that you are not. You are a professional businessperson exchanging a good or service for money. Define your value proposition and refine it until the immense value you offer to your target audience becomes effortless, and glaringly obvious!

Let’s face it, real estate is a contact sport and selling is how we score a touchdown, or hit that home run. It’s just a part of the game. And the better you are at your craft, the more fun and rewarding the game gets. Meeting people and having meaningful conversations is essential for sales success, and the more you do it, the better you get at it.

Now it’s your job to make sure that the public knows you, likes you, and trusts you enough to reach out to you when it comes to anything to do with real estate.

Fear and anxiety consumes your productivity, and a head full of worry will eventually drain all of the positive energy right out of you, and spill into every facet of your business and personal life.

Productivity requires positivity, and to simply “fake it, until you make it” is terrible advice, and leads to imposter syndrome and burnout. It’s this idea that you can’t keep up the facade, and that someone’s going to find out that your fairy tale life and business has human flaws just like the rest of us. It’s a house of cards ready to collapse!

In order to participate at the highest level and bring real value to your clients, you need to release the constant pressure on yourself to somehow always be superhuman. It isn't real, and certainly isn't something you can maintain.

You risk your health and your sanity. You can't help others if you can't help yourself, and "you can't pour from an empty cup,” as they say.

Every client call you make, must create value (for them!):

Avoid using email for your client communications if they’re reachable by phone, and make sure every contact with them is high quality and brings them value. Don't call them only when YOU are looking for business. Come from a position of service and contribution.

Call them with pertinent market information, creative ideas, solutions and constructive input.

Building rapport is so much easier when you can speak directly to someone, a live person, and you each get a real sense of both personalities. Embrace whatever fear you have of making the call, and know that your client or prospect will appreciate the time and effort you’ve put in, and it makes you look that much more professional.

Bonus Tip: Call them just to check in, and ask how you can help them with their business. Do they need any contacts, or are there any people that you can introduce them to? Is their company hiring, or are they looking for specific talent? Are their kids looking for jobs?

Be the connector.

When there’s a consistent frequency of interaction, the relationships grow and strengthen, and the unpleasant confrontations never materialize.

Practice more than you think you need to…

There’s a popular quote that says, “Don’t just practice until you get it right. Practice until you can’t get it wrong.”

Whether you’re going to be meeting with prospective buyers or sellers, negotiating a deal, or trying to land your next listing, practice your pitch, master your story, anticipate the questions and objections, and talk through them in your head, or out loud, until you absolutely own them!

Practice, practice, practice. Once you get good at it, you’ll feel like you can’t wait for someone to ask you that question, just so you can step up and knock it right out of the park.