The way you use the telephone when interacting with your real estate investing prospects plays a huge role in the level of success that you’ll have as an investor. This is the first in a two-part series that is designed to help throw your investing career into overdrive. If you’re a new investor, these techniques will prevent you from developing bad habits. Seasoned investors especially need to pay particular attention to the next two articles because you’ve already developed some bad habits that are hindering your progress. Let’s get started.
A successful sales call – regardless of who did the dialing – is predicated on consistently repeating a process of correct actions that will help to ensure your success. There are five key components necessary to success on the telephone.
Professionalism – Your first inclination when you get a prospect on the telephone may be to address them by their first name. This is a mistake that can cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of your real estate investing career. We live in an increasingly relaxed society, but by maintaining a commitment to a certain degree of formality – especially with a prospect with whom you have never previously spoken – will be appreciated and rewarded. If your prospect wishes to be referred to by their first name, honor their wishes. Until or unless you hear otherwise, use the appropriate salutation and surname (for example, Mr. Jones). Your prospect will see that you are different than some of your investing counterparts.
Tone of voice – The tone of voice you take on calls will determine how far you get with your prospect. While you want to remain professional, it’s also important that the tone and pitch of your voice properly convey an appropriate level of confidence. With that said, be careful not to appear cocky or conceited, because this will be seen as a negative to your prospects. In addition, some men have extremely deep voices, so if you’re one of these individuals, soften your voice a little bit so that you will seem less intimidating to the person on the other end of the line. Women with an extremely soft voice may need to deepen their voice, especially if it is rather mousy. The overall goal here is to have a confident tone and pitch to your voice that is reassuring and non-confrontational.
Pace – The speed with which you speak on the telephone needs to accurately reflect the message you’re trying to convey. If you speak too rapidly, your prospect may tune you out because they may erroneously think that you’re a fast talking huckster. By the same token, if you happen to have a southern drawl – and a deep voice – soften your tone and speak a little more quickly. The reason I suggest this is because a speaker with an extremely deep voice sounds like they’re speaking extremely slowly. By picking up your pace, you’ll be able to keep your prospect interested in what you’re saying. Otherwise, you run the risk of boring your prospect or giving them the opportunity to let their mind to wander.
Energy and enthusiasm – As a real estate investor, it is absolutely imperative that you exhibit plenty of energy and enthusiasm to your prospect and your proposal. If you sound bored when speaking with a prospect on the telephone, they’re not likely to be at all interested in what you have to say. In addition, they may suspect that you are bored with them or the process. If your prospect doesn’t see a certain degree of excitement from you, they are not likely to become interested in what you have to say. Conversely, you don’t want to go overboard with energy and enthusiasm by sounding like one of those over-the-top used-car advertisements you see on cable television at three o’clock in the morning. It’s going to take a certain amount of practice to strike the appropriate balance of energy and enthusiasm. You’ll know when you have it, because your prospects will be more likely to engage with what you have to say.
Control pausing – This is a completely new way of speaking that is designed to prevent your prospect from interrupting you before you have had a fair shake at explaining what it is that you do. As you know, we typically use the standard structure of a sentence to tell us when to breathe. With control pausing, you essentially turn the standard rules of English on their ear. By breathing at unusual stopping points, instead of the built-in “natural” breathing points, you increase the likelihood of finishing your initial sales pitch without interruption. This is a golden technique utilized by telemarketers. Have you ever tried to interrupt a telemarketer to tell them “no”, but it seemed as if you couldn’t get a word in edgewise? It didn’t matter how hard you tried, it seemed impossible to guess when they would stop talking. The reason is because they have mastered the art of control pausing.
Not to say you want to sound like a telemarketer, but if you feel like you’re being cut off before you get out what you want to say, you can try this technique.
It’s going to take you some time to master these telephone techniques, but take the time to practice and pay close attention to how you sound on the telephone. You might want to consider tape-recording the sound of your voice and playing the tape back as a means of correcting some of these issues. It won’t happen overnight, but by simple repetition and plenty of practice, it won’t be long and you will be a bona fide telephone expert.
Go ahead and get started on mastering these techniques, because in my next article I’m going to show you how to overcome objections that some of your investing prospects may have. These are golden, secret tips that will help you to explode your investing business.
Secret Telephone Techniques
The way you use the telephone when interacting with your real estate investing prospects plays a huge role in the level of success that you’ll have as an investor. This is the first in a two-part series that is designed to help throw your investing career into overdrive. If you’re a new investor, these techniques will prevent you from developing bad habits. Seasoned investors especially need to pay particular attention to the next two articles because you’ve already developed some bad habits that are hindering your progress. Let’s get started.
A successful sales call – regardless of who did the dialing – is predicated on consistently repeating a process of correct actions that will help to ensure your success. There are five key components necessary to success on the telephone.
Professionalism – Your first inclination when you get a prospect on the telephone may be to address them by their first name. This is a mistake that can cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of your real estate investing career. We live in an increasingly relaxed society, but by maintaining a commitment to a certain degree of formality – especially with a prospect with whom you have never previously spoken – will be appreciated and rewarded. If your prospect wishes to be referred to by their first name, honor their wishes. Until or unless you hear otherwise, use the appropriate salutation and surname (for example, Mr. Jones). Your prospect will see that you are different than some of your investing counterparts.
Tone of voice – The tone of voice you take on calls will determine how far you get with your prospect. While you want to remain professional, it’s also important that the tone and pitch of your voice properly convey an appropriate level of confidence. With that said, be careful not to appear cocky or conceited, because this will be seen as a negative to your prospects. In addition, some men have extremely deep voices, so if you’re one of these individuals, soften your voice a little bit so that you will seem less intimidating to the person on the other end of the line. Women with an extremely soft voice may need to deepen their voice, especially if it is rather mousy. The overall goal here is to have a confident tone and pitch to your voice that is reassuring and non-confrontational.
Pace – The speed with which you speak on the telephone needs to accurately reflect the message you’re trying to convey. If you speak too rapidly, your prospect may tune you out because they may erroneously think that you’re a fast talking huckster. By the same token, if you happen to have a southern drawl – and a deep voice – soften your tone and speak a little more quickly. The reason I suggest this is because a speaker with an extremely deep voice sounds like they’re speaking extremely slowly. By picking up your pace, you’ll be able to keep your prospect interested in what you’re saying. Otherwise, you run the risk of boring your prospect or giving them the opportunity to let their mind to wander.
Energy and enthusiasm – As a real estate investor, it is absolutely imperative that you exhibit plenty of energy and enthusiasm to your prospect and your proposal. If you sound bored when speaking with a prospect on the telephone, they’re not likely to be at all interested in what you have to say. In addition, they may suspect that you are bored with them or the process. If your prospect doesn’t see a certain degree of excitement from you, they are not likely to become interested in what you have to say. Conversely, you don’t want to go overboard with energy and enthusiasm by sounding like one of those over-the-top used-car advertisements you see on cable television at three o’clock in the morning. It’s going to take a certain amount of practice to strike the appropriate balance of energy and enthusiasm. You’ll know when you have it, because your prospects will be more likely to engage with what you have to say.
Control pausing – This is a completely new way of speaking that is designed to prevent your prospect from interrupting you before you have had a fair shake at explaining what it is that you do. As you know, we typically use the standard structure of a sentence to tell us when to breathe. With control pausing, you essentially turn the standard rules of English on their ear. By breathing at unusual stopping points, instead of the built-in “natural” breathing points, you increase the likelihood of finishing your initial sales pitch without interruption. This is a golden technique utilized by telemarketers. Have you ever tried to interrupt a telemarketer to tell them “no”, but it seemed as if you couldn’t get a word in edgewise? It didn’t matter how hard you tried, it seemed impossible to guess when they would stop talking. The reason is because they have mastered the art of control pausing.
Not to say you want to sound like a telemarketer, but if you feel like you’re being cut off before you get out what you want to say, you can try this technique.
It’s going to take you some time to master these telephone techniques, but take the time to practice and pay close attention to how you sound on the telephone. You might want to consider tape-recording the sound of your voice and playing the tape back as a means of correcting some of these issues. It won’t happen overnight, but by simple repetition and plenty of practice, it won’t be long and you will be a bona fide telephone expert.
Go ahead and get started on mastering these techniques, because in my next article I’m going to show you how to overcome objections that some of your investing prospects may have. These are golden, secret tips that will help you to explode your investing business.
Happy investing
Todd Heitner
"THE ARCHITECT OF YOUR DESTINY IS YOURSELF"
"SUCCESS WALKS HAND IN HAND WITH FAILURE"