The 9 Principles of Salesmanship

If throughout your career as a real estate salesperson you live and breathe by these 9 principles you will be considered a professional, ethical agent that people like doing business with.

1. Never Criticise, Condemn or Complain. This includes the competition, your boss, your colleagues, your home sellers or buyers, tenants, properties or life in general. Many people believe the fastest way to have the tallest tower is to knock the others down.  The problem with this approach is people see through it and you end up knocking your own tower down. It’s simple if we speak about people as though they are standing behind us. People don’t want to hear criticising, condemning or complaining otherwise they will wonder what is being said about them when they walk away.
2. Show Appreciation. Even for the simple things, someone taking the time to speak with you when your prospection, for the way a seller presented their home, for the way the children conducted themselves on an inspection.  Obviously for the larger things too, when you get invited in for an appraisal when you get a listing and to both the seller and buyer when you make a sale. This can be as easy as saying thank you or can be as grand as a gift given with genuine thought.
3. Create in the other person an eager want. One of the simplest ways to do this is to keep the conversation based on the outcomes the person is looking to achieve.  By this I don’t mean to sell their house, it’s about how things will be different for them when they are settled in their next stage (whatever that may be).
4. Show genuine interest. GENUINE is the important part of this statement.  In our industry, we need to care for others and put their interest before our own. To be able to do this we need to have and show genuine interest.  Part of this can come down to listening with the intention of understanding rather than listening with the intention of replying.
5. Smile. Such a simple thing to do can have a huge effect. People like to deal with happy likeable people and a smile conveys this.  It should be a part of your everyday uniform.
6. Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language. The first step of this is taking enough of an interest in the person to actually listen and hear their name as you are introduced.  You should use their name a couple of time each time you mean with them or speak to them on the phone.  Don’t fall into the trap of overusing their name, that is very ‘salesy’ and that’s not we want.
7. Listen; encourage others to talk about themselves. Once you have number 4 down pat this one becomes easy. If you are interested in the person you will want to know more. Maintain focus on the other person rather than bringing the conversation back to you. It has been said ‘ask enough about them and eventually they will get to you’.  This again reinforces the theory that you are best to be interesTED rather than interesTING
8. Talk in terms of the other person’s interest. If we can keep our conversation focused on how the other person will benefit, rather than by what we can do for them, they are more likely to want to continue the conversation. We should continually be looking for ways to bring the conversation back to them and what they need.
9. Treat the other person as a very important person. No matter who we are talking to it is important we show them the same level of respect and interest. By sticking to the previous 8 principles this one happens automatically.