Real estate professionals pride themselves on being great sellers, and some of them are, but that doesn’t mean that there is no room for improvement, does it? Too many of us slip into the trap of allowing our real estate sales training to become boring and ineffective, or worse, not spend any time training at all. You know how there are some things in life that you lose if you don’t use? A great sales technique is one of them. Here are some suggestions we’d like to make that should kick your income property sales up a notch.

When times get hard, do more sales training
The temptation is to throw more money out the door with marketing and promotion efforts when times are hard and sales slow. Ponder this. No amount of marketing or promotion is going to change the economic reality of the day. What you should be doing is more real estate sales training. It’s more cost effective to teach your team to sell better.

Focus on Fundamentals
World-class athletes practice on the fundamentals every day. So do virtuoso musicians. Why do you think a top-of-the-line salesman is any different? Rather than spend countless hours mulling over the latest flash-in-a-pan sales techniques book at the top of the New York Times list, get back to the basics. The tried and proven methods. There’s a good chance you’re missing out on some of the fundamental sales skills like questioning and presenting.

Role Playing
Some people love role-playing and some can’t stand it. To those in the latter category, we’d like to politely suggest you’re in the wrong business. Sales skills are like basketball drills. Do you become a better dribbler by talking about it or doing it? There is perhaps no better tool than role-playing basic sales techniques with your colleagues.

Make it Fun
Do what you must to lift real estate sales training meetings out of the drudgery. Add competitions or contests with prizes. What sales pro can resist the temptation? Their personality drives them to win and they’re liable to accidentally learn something in the process.

Got it? Now stop complaining about the economy and go sell some property.

The AIPIS Team

Flickr / MikeSchinkel