The title is an analogy — for the .150 hitter, substitute a real estate agent who couldn’t sell a house for a nickel to a homeless person — and for ‘runners left on base’ a sales board filled with prospects but no sales. Though unmentioned, it’s the manager penciling the .150 hitter into the lineup on a daily basis, who gives him 4-5 at-bats game after game. Continuing the analogy, the ‘manager’ in real estate in this case is technology, which often gives .150 hitters far more opportunities to strike out with the bases loaded.
What managers learn early on, that is if they wish to remain managers, is that continually sending .150 hitters up to the plate with runners in scoring position leads to losin’ a bunch more than winnin’ — the last loss being their job.
Just as .150 hitters often think more at-bats will improve their average, real estate agents often believe that if they only had the technology to give them more at-bats, they’d be drivin’ a Ferrari in no time.
This is what passes for wisdom in the world of real estate brokerage.
The reality is that the lousy hitter needs to learn how to hit, and the starving real estate agent needs to learn how to sell. Why is that concept so elusive?
BawldGuy Axiom: The next time you master a skill by continually doing it wrong, but more often, will be the first. Duh
A Simple Example
As a hitting coach in youth baseball for several years, I learned to spot the flaws in hitters’ swings. We had a strong kid join our team in the middle of the season once, who wanted with all his heart to be a great hitter, but had never been taught. He struck out over half the time, and weakly popped up or grounded out otherwise. His mom told me he’d never been actually coached, one on one. After practice that day, Mom looking on, I had a couple of our pitchers throw him fast balls right down Main St. After about 20 swings, he was frustrated. Turns out more swings wasn’t the answer. Go figure. But I could see the problem(s).
Sonny was a smart boy. He quickly grasped the concept of hitting as a simple chronology of hips, hands, bat — not just the oft quoted, ‘see the ball, hit the ball’ nonsense you hear all the time in Little League. Ask any kid, they’ll tell ya it’s all about the bat hittin’ the ball. What they don’t understand is the mechanics that make that an almost inevitable consequence vs an accident happening every now and again. 🙂
There’s nothing like watchin’ the look on a kid’s face the first time he crushes a ball — on purpose. The satisfaction is immeasurable.
Long story short, Sonny worked his butt off two weeks straight. In that time he got exactly one hit in four games — a weak, seein’ eye grounder. But in the process he looked more and more like a real hitter. One step at a time, right? Then one day in practice, after countless swings off a tee, plus an equal time spent hitting underhand tosses into a fence, he hit a ball so far over the fence even he couldn’t believe it. Hell, I was impressed.
Hips — hands — bat.
The next game he hit his first line drive, and his first homer. He not only earned a starting job, but was voted onto the all-star team that year. In the city-wide playoffs between leagues, held before all-stars, he hit another couple homers, one of which I’m sure NASA’s still tryin’ to track. 🙂
He developed into a huge RBI guy for one simple reason: He learned HOW to hit. He learned that merely walkin’ up to the plate with a bat in his hand didn’t make him a hitter. Just like having a real estate license doesn’t make you and I a salesman/woman.
If you’re getting more at-bats from all the hi-tech leads, yet still a stranger at your bank, I have a suggestion that may help — but only if you’re sick and tired of strikin’ out most of the time.
Learn how to sell. Think about Sonny. We gave him more opportunities — but only after we taught him the skill of, you know, hitting. When it came time for his turn at bat? He was alone in the box — just like you are with prospects. Succeed or fail — there’s no middle ground. You don’t fake a line drive in the gap, and you don’t pretend to go to escrow. You do it– or you don’t.
How to sell? I prefer not to write on that topic. I will tell ya one thing about it though — in my opinion. It’s not about ‘closing’ or ‘overcoming objections’ or anything else that’s been taught the last 100 years or so. Far from it. In my opinion, almost all of what’s being taught these days about selling, is an all-out assault on intelligence.
If a buyer asks you if the window coverings go with the house, and you answer with: “Would you like me to put that into the offer?”
You’re a .150 hitter. “And that’s another three runners left stranded.”
Erion Shehaj says:
But if you won’t write on that topic, how’s a .150 hitter supposed to learn about it, if all else out there amounts to idiotasaurus coaches that teach you to close at “hello” or social media brokeasajokes that claim selling’s a sin?
October 2, 2010 — 7:23 pm
Wayne Johnson says:
Jeff-I liked your baseball analogy. As a good field no hit the curve ball guy, I know what that’s like. I want to avoid being the .150 road kill for the opposition.
October 9, 2010 — 10:37 pm