persuasionPeople who have the ability to persuade and influence sell a lot more:  a lot more homes, a lot more computers, a lot more cosmetics–a lot more of whatever product they believe in.

They also sell more ideas and this earns them a spot amongst the leaders in politics, entrepreneurship, corporations, non-profits, NGOs, families…just about any organization you can imagine.

Teaching persuasion techniques to real estate agents has been controversial in real estate for as long as I’ve been in the business (28 years).  In Ontario and other provinces, it has been explicitly excluded from any education that could earn you professional credits.

Persuasion techniques have been excluded from real estate education based on the belief that real estate agents could use the techniques to coerce and manipulate their clients. This thinking equates to a huge loss for most real estate agents and their clients. Imagine, if it were easier for you to persuade an emotionally attached client to stage their home and pack their personal items; wouldn’t this kind of persuasion benefit both parties in the end? It makes one think that real estate education in Canada could benefit from offering more sales training.

The ability to persuade others is what sales is.  It is our job to persuade people to hire us, to get into or out of the market right now, to prepare their property, to ask for a certain price, to accept an offer, to make an offer, to pay a fair price, to accept the terms, and on and on.  We persuade people to accept our ideas and since we are real estate experts, our ideas are valuable to them and it results in an advantage to them.

What we do is sell.

Expecting us to sell without sales skills is like refusing medical education to doctors, or giving drug enforcement officers row boats to catch drug runners in Florida.

Could realtors use persuasion skills against the public? Sure, but I have met thousands of realtors across the continent and the vast majority are amazing people who truly want to help others make great housing decisions.  There will always be a few unethical players in our profession just like any other profession, but denying professional sales education isn’t going to deter them.  In fact, it likely gives them an advantage.  If they get training in persuasion technique, and most do, they will have a significant advantage over the untrained realtor during listing and buyer appointments.  They get the client signed up, we don’t.  They represent the client poorly, but earn the commission anyway.  We don’t.  This is bad for us, bad for the consumer and bad, for the reputation of the real estate industry. Using psychology for sales doesn’t have to be just for the unethical salesperson. You can make great things happen for your clients when you understand psychology for sales.

I’ve been working hard to change all of this and finally – change is happening.  The Oakville, Milton, and District Real Estate Board has invited me to present Unscripted Sales – A full day workshop with two months of follow up coaching calls. This will change your business.  This could change the business.  And you get 5 continuing education credits to boot.  Join me – it would be great to spend the day with you.

September 11th, 2013.  It’s worth the drive to Oakville.   Click here to register and for more info.