The quality of your sales skills can dramatically influence your income. Once we all had tremendous sales skills, and we did not even know it. We intuitively learned and perfected our presentation to the highest level. We persistently pushed forward and never took, "No!" for an answer without a fight, then we usually wore our opponent down and got the sale. We had it all going for us, we had it all figured out, and then we stopped. Most of us stopped being great sales people around ten or eleven years old. Up until that point we were highly skilled sales people. Have you ever watched children under ten at the store? Most are very good sales people. The highest skilled are the three to six-years-old age group. They know what they want, and they do not take, "No!" for an answer. They usually manage to sell their parents on their idea or thought. They are highly skilled because they know their scripts and dialogues. They know what to say to get the parents to do what they want. Agents must also have scripts and dialogues down to elicit the desired response from the client. Successful agents need to have scripts for sellers and scripts for buyers. Brokers need scripts for other agents and for staff. The better people define what they are going to say the more successful in saying it they will be.

Many think using a script is manipulating the sale. I think creating a script is part of being completely prepared. Clients who hesitate in a selling situation can be saying that they need a few more facts to make them feel comfortable. The agent’s job is to give them the data to help them make the decisions that are best for them. I view scripting as being able to help the client at the highest level, by accurately communicating in a convincing fashion the benefits of a particular decision. To be well-scripted is to be prepared to help the client evaluate the situation carefully by weighing all sides less emotionally. The telephone solicitors who sound as if they are reading from a cue card, are not well-scripted. An agent who is well-scripted can give an automatic response to a given situation he has been in before. He has practiced and prepared for the question before he get the opportunity to answer it. Do people want to have a heart surgeon who is well-scripted? Sure, they do.

Many professionals in other fields are well-scripted. Many professional football teams have the first 25 to 30 plays of the game planned. Ask the coaches of either the San Francisco 49ers or the Denver Broncos. They know exactly which plays they will run. They will evaluate how the plays work, then continue to use the best ones. Other well-scripted professionals are the defense attorneys who use the same argument that worked to get their client acquitted last week, the surgeons who look at the x-rays and books to perform the appendectomy for the 500th time, the pilots preparing to land or take off in a 747. They have all scripted out what they are going to say and do. You or I would not want to be on that plane, in a courtroom, or in an operating room if those experts were not well-scripted. Real estate agents need to be at that level of professionalism and knowledge with their scripts.

Agents need scripts for all occasions:

A. Prospecting: Past clients, expireds, FSBO’s, cold calls, door knocking, apartment renters, and referral clients.

B. Buyers: Ad calls, sign calls, when it is the right house, qualifying the buyer, commitment to work with you, open houses, and for all objections.

C. Sellers: Listing presentation, qualifying, price reduction, weekly communication, and for all objections.

D. Other agents: Getting them to do their job, create urgency, show your properties, and negotiating.

E. Affiliates: Send more referrals and take over more functions.

This is a short list of the scripts agents need to use to be skilled at the delivery of the information that they need to provide to buyers, sellers, agents, and affiliates. To join those successful agents, they must learn to develop and deliver scripts with effectiveness. If you do, there will be no cap to your income. The different scripts will not change nor will the basic questions, problems, objections, and solutions. Once you learn to effectively cover these areas, you will be unstoppable. There are not many new objections created by buyers and sellers annually. If you have learned all the objections and can deliver your response to the objections well; you will be rewarded. You may need to make modifications and practice them regularly, but you will not have to go through the process of learning 40 to 50 new scripts and dialogues. The difference between the amateur and the professional in all things in life is the skill and delivery. Everybody can throw a football, but he cannot throw it like John Elway without dedication and practice. Elway has perfected his skill with long hard practice.

Professional sales people have perfected their delivery of words. They have practiced how to overcome all the objections. They have practiced how they will list a home. Many of us make new presentations every time we go out. That would be like Elway drawing the game plan in the dirt in the huddle every time. How effective would that be?

Do not become sidetracked by the poor salespeople who have poor delivery. Scripts and dialogues are often knocked because of poor delivery. Tremendously skilled salespeople are well-scripted; you just cannot tell they are speaking from a script. Constant practice makes the difference.

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