And welcome to Mike Ferry TV, it is the week of July 12th, that is Monday, which, of course, is the week of our first live in two years, annual Superstar Retreat here in Las Vegas. We have a great crowd, I think someplace between twenty-seven hundred and twenty-eight hundred people attending live with another probably seven to eight hundred, live virtual streaming. So, we have a good attendance and we’re excited about this event this week. I want to share with you a technique that I think is very important. Whether you’re part of Mike Ferry, whether you go into our training or coaching, or whether you’re independent and go to somebody else, which of course, happens all the time. When I started doing this work back in 1975, I would often have a whiteboard up on the stage with me and I would have printed in advance three letters of the alphabet, the letter P, then a letter P and then a letter C and I would look at the audience and I would say this constitutes the P, P and C, the sales process for listing or selling real estate. In fact, it really constitutes the sales process for any type of sales process at all, whatever the service or product may be. And I would say the first P stands for prospecting, which is a vitally important part of the business. The second P stands for the presentation. You know what you say and how you say it to a buyer or a seller.

And then the C stands for the word close, getting a contract signed. And then I would stop, and I had a lot of fun with this for years. I would say to the audience, OK, I want each of you to mark or circle which of the three steps is the most important in the sales process. And then we’re going to do a vote. So, they would all contemplate, and I could see them all making notes for themselves. And I did this thousands of times, so I had some experience watching the looks on their faces. I would then ask for a vote and generally speaking, over about a five-to-seven-year period of time. Eighty five percent of the audience by a show of hands picked prospecting. Under the prospecting or first P I would write eighty five percent. Then I would jump over and say, by the way, how many pick the close? And usually it was about 10 percent, maybe more so I would write 10 percent under of course, the C for close. And then I would say how many picked the presentation and normally it was just a handful of people. And I would say, OK, five percent. And then I would say, why would you pick prospecting? And the answer was always the same, Mike, if you don’t have a person to talk to, you have nobody to present to and therefore you can’t get a contract signed.

Very logical thinking. We have to always have a prospect, if we’re going to take a listing, make a sale. Then I would say who pick the Close? And of course, they would come up and say, well, Mike, if you can’t figure out how to get a signature on the contract, if you can’t get the deal done, you never get paid. Buyer doesn’t get the house; seller doesn’t get to sell. I’d say, OK, correct. And then I would ask a question. Has anybody in this room ever driven by a For Sale by Owner and not stopped, raise your hand. Well, the audience would always chuckle and laugh, and the hands would slowly go up and in most cases, it was one hundred percent of the hands. And I said, well, listen to For Sale by Owner a prospect. And they would all say, yes. And I’d say, well, why don’t you stop? Well, because I’m busy. I had other places to go. I wrote the number down. I’m going to call them later. I’ll swing back by. Well, what I would say to them then is it’s very difficult to close for a signature unless you’re talking to that For Sale by Owner, and they would nod their heads in agreement. But the real reason we don’t stop, the real reason we don’t take odd listings, don’t make a lot of sales is because of the Center P for Presentation, which then I advanced that forward over the years.

And then you’ve heard me saying the best. If I don’t know what to say, I can’t do what I’m supposed to do. And the stronger my ability to know my strength in presenting, the better off I’m going to be. I’m going to start the retreat tomorrow, Tuesday, by talking about how to become a great presenter. In 19, excuse me 2015 I spent most of one day at the Superstar Retreat on the concept, the beliefs, the ideas on how to help each person like yourself and myself to strengthen our presentation style. And only to do this to benefit the buyer or seller. So, as I always do, I went to the dictionary and I looked up the word presenting because that’s the job of a real estate sales professional, presenting to a buyer, presenting to a seller. Interesting that the definition came out so short, the act of performing. Presenting a Listing Presentation, presenting a home, presenting a contract to a seller for negotiation purposes, the act of performing or a second definition, they had to formally talk about something in a very professional manner to an individual or a group presenting. So, my question then is how good are you at presenting, making a professional sales presentation to a seller? So, what I want to do today, on Mike Ferry TV is cover the first five points that I’m going to start tomorrow’s presentation to a rather large group.

See, it’s going to watch the act of performing, which I’ll be doing. To formally talk about something in a professional manner to an individual or group, which I’ll be doing that to a hopefully very professional manner and to a very professional group. So I wrote down I guess I think I have 15 thoughts. I’m going to cover a few today and a few next week for you after the retreat is done. But I want to share a couple of thoughts with you, because if you’re not able to attend the retreat and you’re not able to be with us on a virtual live stream, I want you to have information to improve the quality of your presentation. So here’s the first thought work to maintain an even keel while presenting. Keep your emotions between the lines. Don’t get too high excited. Don’t get too low because the highs and the lows always affect the outcome. Yes, every seller, every buyer wants an enthusiastic, determined presentation from you and I. But if we’re jumping up and down and are we’re really depressed or they said, I want you to cut the commission, I can’t believe you said that. Well, that doesn’t work in a presentation. Remember, our job is to keep the emotions between the lines and keep the lines quite narrow, watch, maintain an even keel while presenting. Yes, it’s a performance and you’re going to do an act and we’ll talk about that more, but if you can maintain an even keel, you’ll get a better response.

And then I wrote for the second point, since we’re dealing in an industry that often presents itself, unfortunately, in a very unprofessional manner, meaning everything from the words we use to the casual attire that so many think is appropriate today and understand that 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. You have to decide to what degree this is going to be used by you. But I think most of us understand this message. The only social media platform I’m on is LinkedIn, and I’m just fascinated because I look at it early in the morning and then late in the afternoon just to see what is being posted and what is something I can use to help you with. I see all these male presenter, real estate agents, t shirts, jeans, hats on backwards, baseball caps. I mean, I can’t even imagine that they’re going out and making supposed professional presentations dressed like that. And I don’t I don’t understand it. I mean, yes, that’s the style today. But how would you feel if your doctor walked in to do a consultation with you in jeans, a t shirt and a baseball hat on backwards? Or you got on American Airlines, the captain standing at the door in a jeans and t shirt, I mean, it wouldn’t work.

And if you’re an attorney and you show up in court dressed like that, you’re going to be asked to leave, period, and come back in a professional manner. The third thought I wrote down for you always present in such a manner. The client is open and honest with you, wants to do business with you, and looks forward to signing a contract. This includes your energy, your enthusiasm, the smile on your face, nodding of your head as a way of agreeing and understanding what they’re saying. Real high energy and enthusiasm, not a great script, brings a good result. A real good script with lousy energy and enthusiasm brings a mediocre result. High energy, enthusiasm, a great script, you’re going to win seventy-five to 80 percent of the time. So, one of the things we know we can do, we can measure our results to see how strong our presentation is. So, give these three thoughts a little bit of consideration this week. Watch this a couple of times. I’m going to cover a lot of this in the retreat if you’re going to be part of that retreat and if we’re going to see you there. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow morning with a big smile. If not, I’ll see a lot of you virtually. And if not, I don’t see virtually or live, Then I’ll, of course, see you next Monday on Mike Ferry TV. Have a great week.