LEARN YOUR LINES, EARN BIG COMMISSIONS

    When I was a  brand new agent, one of the big trainers in real estate was a guy named Jerry Bresser. Jerry taught agents specific scripts and dialogues that we were to memorize word for word and never vary those dialogues. I believed in what he was teaching and learned those scripts (I still can recite many of them today). I credit them for much of my success as an agent and a broker.

I know I’ve already lost a lot of you. You don’t believe in memorizing what you are going to say. You don’t like canned sales scripts. But consider this.

You can repeat a memorized script without sounding canned. When you go to the movies, do the words the actors speak sound canned or mechanical? Do musical groups sound scripted when they sing their songs? Of course not. But those words and that music is memorized. In fact, they are so thoroughly memorized that they sound as if the actor or singer is saying them for the first instead of the hundredth, which is most likely.

Can you imagine plays or movies where the actors just make up what they’re going to say as they go along? Or a choir or band where the singers and musicians “wing it” when they step out on stage. Sure, there is such a thing as improvisational acting and some jazz is improvised, but even those have a structure and framework that guides what is to be said or played. 

The  best actors, those who deliver their memorized lines in the most meaningful and moving way, win the Academy Award. In music, it’s the Grammy. In RE/MAX, it’s the 100% Club, the Platinum Club or some other award level that acknowledges your excellence. It will be much easier to win those awards if you can deliver your message in a meaningful and enlightening way. And that is easier with a script.

Do you have memorized answers to clients questions? Are your listing presentations and buyer consultations memorized so that you know what you’ll say every time and won’t miss any key points?

They should be.

By having memorized scripts and dialogues you will be prepared for the questions that always come up. You’ll be sure and cover everything you client needs to know. And you’ll close more sales.

So how do you use scripts and dialogues without sounding canned? Here are a few tips:

1.    Memorize and rehearse. Over and over and over. Rehearse so many times that you can say it in your sleep. That is how you make it sound natural: you make it second nature. It rolls off your tongue and, because you know exactly what you’re going to say, you sound more natural and more confident.
2.    It will sound canned if it’s not memorized. Canned is when a telemarketer says, “Mr. Kenneth Crowley? This is Joe Blow. Can you hear me ok? Mr. Kenneth Crowley, you’ve been selected to receive blah blah blah”. That sales pitch never works because they clearly don’t know me (they use my formal name and usually mispronounce it), they use gimmicks (can you hear me?), and they are reading it so they don’t miss anything. (You won’t miss anything because you know what you’re going to say and you say the same thing every time because you have it memorized to the point of it sounding natural and unrehearsed!)
3.    Give it your own style and make the words your own. The Beatles’ song “Yesterday” has been performed and recorded by more artists than any song in history. It has been performed over seven million times and recorded more than  4,000 times. But even though all the performances and recordings use the same words and the same music, do they all sound the same? Do they sound canned? No way!. Yesterday has been recorded by Paul McCartney, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, punk bands, hip hop artists, a capella groups, jazz groups – just about every musical flavor there is. You know the music and the words when you hear each recording, but none sound alike. Your  real estate scripts and dialogues can be like that, too.

Part of the reason we don’t want to memorize scripts is that we like to think it sounds more natural if we say things “off the cuff”. We don’t know exactly what to say. And – let’s be honest- it’s a lot of work. But I promise you real results if you start to learn, then memorize, then rehearse scripts and dialogues. And the more you practice, the more natural it will sound and the more confident you will be. Start with ones I’ve provided here or create your own. But never walk into any sales situation again without knowing exactly what you’re going to say.

Keep running! The end is in sight!