A common characteristic among professionals who excel in their business or sport is practice. It is easy to look at an athlete and immediately grasp how practice will help them perform better. Tiger Woods, for example, spends many hours during the week practicing on the putting green. Micheal Jordan spent hours on the court practicing dribbling, shooting and defense. The President of the United States practices his speech and your doctor practiced procedures over and over again. Even at the peak of their careers, you will see them practice. They continue to practice as if they believe that they may lose their talent if they stopped. Maybe they don’t lose their talent yet they will surly lose their competitive edge. We have to assume that your competition is practicing so in order to compete in your real estate business you must practice also.
In real estate, we call practicing; role playing. A real estate agent must role play consistently if they are to improve skills. Any coach would tell you that there is a direct correlation between hours practiced and income earned. So, the big question is; Why don’t real estate agents practice?
Maybe the answer to that question is not all that important. The important question is, are you going to be the one agent that consistently practices and therefore experiences quantum leaps in one’s production?
Imagine yourself giving a speech knowing that you did not practice at all prior to speaking. Maybe you looked at your notes yet you did not practice speaking it with anyone else. How would you do? Maybe you do good and maybe you don’t. Now imagine yourself having to give that same speech knowing that you practiced for 6 weeks straight. You wrote the speech, you read it over and over and you spoke it to you friends again and again. Each time they offered a little critique and timed you to make sure it was not too long or too short. She changed a few times until you were convinced you were ready. Based on the two examples, which speech would be most effective?
Now that you understand the importance of practicing your real estate skills, let’s look at some simple rules to help you increase your skill level and drive additional profits to your bottom line.
Simple Rules
1. Write your scripts over once per week. It is important to write your scripts. Educators have determined that you learn information at a deeper level when you write the information and read the information.
2. Chant you scripts out loud to yourself. The muscles in your body remember frequent movements. By chanting your scripts over and over again, the muscles in your mouth will remember the movements used to pronounce the words therefore enable you to speak more clearly. It is common to see speakers chant their speech many times before using it in order to deliver it with authority and confidence.
3. Record your scripts. Many agents fear that if they use scripts their presentation will sound like a canned speech. In most cases that is true To avoid sounding like you are using a canned presentation then record your scripts on a CD and listen to them over and over again. In fact, do this once per week for 4 weeks and you will hear amazing results.
4. Choose multiple role play partners and rotate them each day. In your real estate business you will meet many people. Sometimes you will be presenting to a female and sometimes a male. You will come across people from different countries and those that talk with different tones and inflection. In order to prepare, you must be able to present to everyone therefore you must practice with different partners. Each person you role play with will give you a difference experience and at the same time, make you better.
5. Take Role Playing Serious. Business and sport coaches will tell you that those who practice the hardest perform the best. In business, performance is often measured by profit. So, performance is profit.
6. Be tough. Role playing is not a time to tell your partner how good they are. This is time for growth. Asked to be critiqued and critique. That is your responsibility to you partner. Of course, be professional in your critiques. Remember, you are on the same team.
7. Mimic your partner. If they talk fast then you talk fast. If they talk slow then you talk slow. Practice changing the rate of speech and voice inflection while practicing. Not everyone is alike so it helps to practice different scenarios.
8. Don’t forget the objections. Handling objections is very important. The more comfortable you are at handling objections the more confident you will appear in the eyes of the prospect. The more confident you appear the more you will get agreement from the prospect. When you know the anwer to an objection, they no longer ask.
9. Take it to Next Level. Get on the Fast-Track of learning by having a third partner who will take notes of the role play. They will always see more then the two who are practicing the scripts. Switch positions and discuss the notes at the end of the role play session.
10. Don’t Forget The Presentation. A common mistake that realtors make is to practice the scripts to set an appointment yet never practice the scripts for making a presentation. Practice the presentation script also because that is the moment you make the sale.
11. Wear a Black belt. The better you are at handling objections, the more money you will make. Often, a prospect will give you the same objection more then once in a conversation. A realtor earns a Black Belt in sales skills when he/she can handle the same objection in a different way at least 4 times in the same conversation. It pays to wear a black belt.
Following these simple rules will catapult you to the front of the line of Top Agents. It is a rare instance when you see a realtor take role playing serious. Be the one who does it different and you will be the one who has a different result; Success.
