And welcome to Mike Ferry TV the week of August, the second it has been now two weeks since we did our first in two years live Superstar Retreat hopefully some of you were there. We had about twenty-six hundred alive bodies in the room. It was an exciting event for us at MFO and hopefully for all the attendees. In addition, I think we had about nine hundred people watching it virtually. Plus, we have a big group in Europe watching at this time. So, thanks for your participation. We covered a lot of thoughts and what I’m going to do over the next couple of weeks is pick a couple of the topics and give you a couple of points from each of those topics to help you better understand the message that we are trying to propagate and help you learn so you can increase not only your productivity, but your profitability at the same time. For probably twenty-five years, I would commonly start every event by taking a whiteboard and writing the letters P as in Peter, P as in Paul and C as in Charles on the board. And then I would always ask the audience the simple question. These three letters stand for prospect present and close. But I’d like you as an audience to decide which of those three is the most important steps. We’re going to do a vote. I’ll take five seconds for you to decide which of those letters and let’s vote. Well, I would say probably ninety nine percent of the time.

Ninety percent of the audience would pick. Prospecting is the most important step. And I would, of course, ask why. And they would always say, well, Mike, how can you possibly list or sell a home without a human being, a prospect being with you? And I say that I agree. Probably seven to eight, maybe nine percent would pick the close. And I would say why? That’s a well, you have to hammer them down. You’ve got to get a signature. You have to have the courage to close for the sale. And I would agree. Then maybe two or three people out of three hundred would pick presentation. And I would often ask why? And they would say, well, because I couldn’t decide on which of the three. And that was the last choice. And then I would always circle the middle P for presentation and say, I want you to think about it this way. If you drive by, a For Sale By Owner, if you have a lead card on your desk and you don’t know what to say to them, wouldn’t you say that your presentation skills are keeping you from doing your job? If you drive by a For Sale By Owner, you say to yourself, I’ll call them later. I’ll write their phone number down. I’ll call them after a while. I’ll stop by on the way home from work. But the truth is, if you stop right on the spot or walked up and knocked on the door and they answered, and you don’t know what to say, aren’t you at a huge disadvantage? Because when you hem and haw and stutter and IEI, they’re not going to list with you.

They’re not going to give you an appointment. They’re not going to invite you in the house. So I’ve always felt that the strength of a great salesperson, the strength of a great Real Estate person, is her ability to present in a manner or a style that excites the prospect to either give you an appointment or sign a contract. The great entertainers, whether it be on stage or music or in a movie, get paid because of their ability to present the script that they’re using. So, as I so often do, I went to Webster’s Dictionary and looked up the word presenting, and I was fascinated because I found a couple of definitions that are not very long, but I wonder if they apply to us. So, here’s the word presenting according to Webster’s Dictionary, the act of performing. The act of performing. Isn’t a Listing Presentation showing a home to a buyer an essence of performance? And of course, it is. But if you can’t perform, nobody wants to talk to you, which is your prospects, and if you can’t perform, it’s very difficult or close because you’re not giving them a reason to want to list with you. But the second definition, I thought, was also very good to formally talk to somebody in a professional manner about something in particular.

The real truth is the stronger we become at our ability to present, the more we’ll have the courage to prospect. And the close becomes quite easy, because as you know, and you’ve heard me say for years, the close is a natural ending to a good presentation. It’s just a natural ending to a good presentation. So, at the retreat I covered, I don’t know, twenty-five, thirty points. Let me check my notes very quickly, I covered, Well I take that back. I only covered seventeen points at the retreat on being a great presenter. I’m going to give you four or five of them today. I want you to think about them. I want you to watch this for the next couple of days over and over again and learn the art of presenting to build your confidence, to do a better job for the buyers and sellers, which in essence then, of course, increases productivity and profit. There’s no order of importance to these thoughts, I wrote them out a few weeks before the retreat and I presented them and the people seemed to enjoy them a lot. And I think based on the emails and response I got, this was an important topic, how to become a better presenter. So, I wrote down number one: Work to maintain an even keel while presenting. Or in essence, our job is to keep our emotions between the lines.

Now, what do I say it that way? Well, sellers don’t have a script, agents have a script. And that script is designed to ask a lot of questions, to get a lot of responses, to guide us to the point of getting a contract signed. But since sellers don’t have a script, they often will say something that is coming out of nowhere. And often what they say could be a little upsetting or a little disturbing, or in many times they’re almost arguing with an agent about price, commission, etc.. Well, our job is not to be jumping up and down, not to get overexcited, not to get emotional. I wrote down, don’t get too excited whether it be a high or too upset, whether it be a low, because these always affect the outcome of what you’re trying to accomplish. So, if you look at this first point, always try to maintain an even keel. And it’s hard because you’ve done a great job, you’ve made a great presentation, you get your points across and all of a sudden, the wife looks at the husband and says, well, I think we should get more for the house than what he’s saying. And, you know, with this crazy mark we’ve been involved in, we’re already at the probably the highest price possible. Or they’ll say, well, you know, the agent last night said they would do it at four percent. And you’re taken totally off guard because commission has not been a question, a problem or objection to this point.

And it’s easy to overreact. Staying on a script keeps us from overreacting. The second point, and I think this will be easy for all of us to understand, since we’re dealing in an industry and we have to understand, Real Estate is probably the largest industry in the country along with technology. So, we’re talking about two industries that are married today since we’re dealing in an industry that often presents itself, unfortunately, in a very unprofessional manner, meaning everything from the words we use. Think about that for a minute, to the casual attire that so many think is appropriate today. Which fascinates me, the way people dress. Understand your personal appearance will often separate you quickly from your competitors and at the same time your appearance should match the strength of your presentation. Because, you know, like if I go on LinkedIn twice a day and check the postings, I’m always looking for information to present and use. And you see a handsome young guy, thirty-three years old, with the typical three day beard and the baseball hat on backwards in a t-shirt and jeans. But then he’s saying things that really make sense, and I’m thinking to myself, you know what, a seller opens the door for the seven o’clock presentation that you’re there to present. They can many times make their decision, yes or no, within two to three seconds subconsciously, and they make the decision based upon our appearance.

So, we have to decide to what degree this is going to be used by you. But I think most of you understand the message. Yes, it’s important to be cool and it’s important to be you know, I want to be part of that group. But what I want you to think about is if you get on an American Airlines flight and the captain is standing by the door greeting passengers, they’re not in jeans and a T-shirt, OK? They’re not sitting there in a pair of shorts in a bathing suit top. They’re dressed professionally. An attorney shows up for court, inappropriately dressed, the judge sends the attorney home. And says get dressed properly, put on a suit and tie. It’s a tough one because we all want to be cool, but we also have to think about how we’re being seen. The third point I brought for you today always present in such a manner that the client can be easily open and honest with you, will want to do business with you, and will actually look forward to signing a contract with you. Present in such a manner to make it easy. That makes it very easy for the client to say, you know what, you’re the person to take care of this transaction. I wrote this includes the energy, the enthusiasm, the smile on your face, nodding your head in a way of agreement with them and working to understand what they’re saying. Because remember the old axiom, are we asking questions to understand? Are we asking questions to give us time to think of the next question that we want to ask. The forethought that I wrote down for today, always remember that everybody, everybody, everybody, everybody, you and I, everybody has a little hiccup in their presentation style.

And that’s normal. Everybody has, Mike Vance use to say, “Everybody has a wart and there are many times trying to hide it.” It’s OK, don’t worry about any hiccups you have in your presentation style, just be aware of them and understand that everybody has it. You know, maybe you’re comfortable talking a little slower. Maybe you’re talking a little faster, whatever that may be. Maybe you get exaggerated with your arm movements. I don’t know what your hiccup might be, but everybody has one. So don’t let it control or don’t let it stop you from doing your job. And then point number five for today, a great presenter speaks with conviction and authority. Conviction and authority come from your knowledge of what you’re saying and your knowledge of the sales process and the strength of your sales skills. Obviously, the stronger the knowledge about the client will see you as an authority. Also, remember that your tonality can be a sign of authority. So, practice with a downswing versus an upswing because we know that upswing leaves a question in the mind of the person you’re talking to. Think about those five points. Now, I made an announcement at the retreat.

You may have been there and heard it. You may have already heard about it. But in September, October, November and December, I’m going to do in Fort Lauderdale in September, D.C. in October, Dallas in November and L.A. Orange County in December. We’re going to title it two days live with Mike Ferry. I’m going to be doing four big events at those four cities. On our website you can find the hotel and the dates, easy to find, registration, etc. because the registration differs. The price is $195 per person. If you work for an elite broker, you get a big discount. If you’re in one-on-one coaching, you get a big discount. If you’re in premier coaching, of course you come as our guest. So hopefully we’ll be able to see you at one of those four events. The topic is very simple. I’m going to take the best points out of the several hundred I presented at the retreat and give them in two days. So, if you weren’t at the retreat to give you a chance to get a real good look and give you a lot of confidence for the fourth quarter and first quarter of next year, and if you were at the retreat, I’m going to bet I’ll bring up a couple of things that you may not have implemented yet. So, in either case, thanks for watching today. Look forward to talking to you next week. Have a great week.