By Kelly Quigley, REALTOR® Magazine
Your Successful Sales Career By Brian Azar with Len Foley (AMACOM, 2004)
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Forget pressure selling and fancy closing techniques. Yesterday’s strategies aren’t just ineffective in today’s ultra-competitive marketplace; they also give salespeople a bad name. A winning sales career requires top-notch communication skills and the ability to identify your customers’ motives for buying, says author Brian Azar. He shares methods for generating leads, building rapport, closing the deal, and following up with clients to ensure repeat business. Azar also looks at how to avoid burnout—a chronic problem that prevents salespeople from reaching their potential. Much of the book is devoted to short exercises that will help you track your progress and tap into creative selling skills. These lessons are probably most valuable to rookies but also may give sales veterans a fresh perspective on selling.
Tips From the Book:
- Make the first 30 seconds count. Create a short, concise “commercial” about yourself, your company, and your services. This can draw the prospect in by highlighting problems that you can help solve or major benefits you offer. It also creates a need for your service—something that must be done before a sale is made.
- Benefit from wisdom of others. Just as most large companies welcome guidance from a qualified board of directors, many successful salespeople opt for their own personal board, or an inner circle of people who share in very important information of their personal and professional life. Your board can give you powerful guidance when you need it most, although the final decision must be yours alone.
- Speak their language. When you’re selling a home to a computer enthusiast, you’ll use a completely different vocabulary than if you’re selling to an avid sports fan. Listen to and repeat the words your prospects use. Use open-ended questions and active listening skills to pick up on the words they use often, and write down key phrases that you can use in future conversations with them.
By Kelly Quigley, REALTOR® Magazine
Real Estate Flipping: Grow Rich Buying and Selling Property By Mark B. Weiss, CCIM (Adams Media Corp., 2004)
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Flipping real estate—buying a property at a low price and selling it at a higher price in a short timeframe—can be a risky endeavor. But if you’re willing to take on the risks and do your homework, flipping also can be a fun way to make a lot of money, says author Mark B. Weiss, CCIM. Weiss, a Chicago real estate broker and a director of the Chicago Association of REALTORS®, shares the wisdom he’s gained flipping properties over the span of his career, with tips on how to find diamonds in the rough, line up financing, and locate the best buyers. If you’ve been thinking about flipping, this is a good primer on how to handle each step of the deal—even the ethical challenges you might encounter.
Tips From the Book:
- Look beyond the property to determine value. When you’re considering properties to flip, look at how surrounding areas might change in coming years. Are there any big developments planned that could affect the property’s value? Are nearby roads sufficient for their traffic load? Is there ample street parking? These elements aren’t part of the property but certainly will impact the selling price down the road.
- Know when to walk away. The biggest reason to abandon a purchase is that the price is too high. But there are other grounds for walking away—for example, if the property needs too much work or if the salesperson is too pushy (there may be problems they hope you don’t uncover in time). Trust your instincts—hold off on a purchase if something doesn’t feel right about the property or the seller.
- Hire a tax expert who really knows real estate. As a real estate flipper, it’s essential to have a good accountant to advise you on constantly changing tax laws on local, state, and federal levels. Make sure the person you hire has experience in real estate—which you should verify by checking references and viewing client lists. A good general accountant may not cut it in the narrow field of property flipping.
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