Once you’ve identified who’s worth training in your team, you have to invest your time and effort in turning them from diamonds in the rough to absolute sales masters! In this article, we’ll learn the right way to communicate with prospects and the underrated value of roleplaying during training sessions. If you think we don’t know what we’re talking about here, tell that to John Martinez, the owner of the REI Sales Academy!

The points below are from the eighth episode of the Real Estate JAM. There, John Martinez talks about training people in sales, tips in talking to homeowners, getting around your prospects’ excuses. If that sounds interesting, and developing your pitch. you can listen to it on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.

Stop Being a Robot!
You’ve got to think of your prospects or home sellers like family members or friends. Imagine this: if you have a friend who comes up to you and says, “Hey, I’m getting ready to sell my house because I’m going through a divorce,” you shouldn’t be saying, “Okay. Divorce, check! This is a closed deal for sure, baby!” In the same way, you have to learn to be a human being to the people you’re talking to. If you have to dive a little deeper, do it. Ask them how they are emotionally or even physically! Some of them may be selling a house to deal with a disease, and you don’t want to gloss over what they’re going through like a maniac. You could at least address what they said with a “Sorry to hear about that,” or “That’s gotta be tough.” The secret is thinking that all these conversations are daily conversations with either family or friends.

Remember, sales and deals are essential to the business, but you and your team are not phone bots asking people to press seven for customer support!

Roleplaying Into Action
In the podcast, John Martinez shares his thoughts on roleplaying. Now that we’ve established an understanding of the “human” way of talking to prospects, it may be good to discuss how to instill this thinking (and other sales strategies) into your team through training.

Of course, roleplaying is never as good as the real thing. But what it’s good for is that it forces us to formulate responses and make them come out of our mouths. It’s pretty much like learning how to fight or defend yourself. First, you’d only be watching your instructors. Even if you’ve seen how they move, it’ll still be a little awkward to replicate what they did based on what you’ve observed earlier. That’s how roleplaying is like. In sales, when we’re saying things for the first time, things still get all mixed up even if we know what we should say! It’s the reason why roleplaying makes us feel uncomfortable, but it’s also the exact reason why we should do it when training.

Back at the dojo, while learning various movements, no one’s attacking with you with the intent to do significant damage. But when you do get into a bad situation where you’ll need to protect yourself, you can flow into action without having to scramble around and get unnecessarily hurt. In the same way, no one’s really trying to buy off a house from your trainees during the roleplay session. Instead of having to waste potential leads on an awkward conversation, you can get a head start on practicing how to say a couple of phrases in different ways before you get into the real thing.

Want to learn more? Listen to the full episode on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.

Outline of the Episode:
[01:27] Why is JD, a man who isn’t so easily excited, elated about John Martinez being on the show?
[02:36] John’s 20 years compressed into a quick minute.
[03:29] Is a salesperson made or born?
[04:34] Developing a program that ensures consistent growth among your people.
[08:41] How do you know if someone’s trainable and if someone’s a lost cause?
[12:38] The secrets to getting down to the root of your prospect’s problems. Get your notebooks ready!
[15:00] While it’s not as good as the real thing, how can roleplaying prepare your team for the real deal?
[19:18] The universal fact that people want to be heard and understood.
[20:35] Deal killers and how you can go past these doubts during conversations.
[25:36] Picking apart “excuses” from a homeowner the same way you would have if you were in their situation.
[31:28] Developing your pitch the way you want it to be. Don’t say what others want you to say, but attract the right people.
[36:14] Selling doesn’t have to be a dirty word.
[38:18] Working with a spouse or getting a spouse on board in the real estate journey.

Resources Mentioned in the Episode:
John Martinez Website
John Martinez LinkedIn
John Martinez Instagram
John Martinez Facebook
The REI Sales Academy
The REI Sales Academy YouTube
Don Costa

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Email: jd@shorefront-investments.com or info@shorefront-investments.com