And welcome and Good Monday morning, it is the week of July 19th, last week was a big week for a lot of people, starting with myself and our entire staff. The Superstar Retreat has been completed. We’re excited for the opportunity to talk to so many of you virtual stream and a huge crowd at the retreat at the Venetian itself in Las Vegas. As I mentioned a week ago, we started the retreat and I was starting the next day when I talked to you last by talking about how to improve the quality of the presentation you make to a seller, or to a buyer when negotiating a contract. Because the truth is, our industry is not known for high level professionalism from any standpoint. And there’s probably a hundred valid reasons why that is the case. But our job, yours and mine, is to improve the level of professional skills, approach and presentation we make so we can improve the quality of the service we offer to the clients and the prospects we talk to. So, I gave you three points a week ago, and I give three more points from the retreat today. And hopefully someday you’ll be able to enjoy attending one of our live events. We’re going to be and I’m not one hundred percent sure of these mid-September in Boca Raton, mid-October in the greater DC area, mid-November in the greater Dallas Fort Worth area, and mid-December, first week in December in Southern California.

So, I’m going to be doing four large two day live with Mike Ferry events. If you couldn’t attend the retreat, maybe one of those will fit into your schedule. So, the next thought that I wrote down regarding presenting, always remember that everybody has the little hiccup in their presentation style. You know, something that just you have you have a regular little twitch, or you know, you blink your eyes too much or you get a little nervous. These are all normal. Now, I wrote down, don’t worry about them. Just be aware and control those hiccups to the best of your ability, because everybody has them. I mean, it’s called human nature. So don’t be over-concerned, don’t be overcritical of yourself. One way to determine if you have a little hiccup of some type in your style is to take your cell phone, your iPhone, have somebody record you live making a Listing Presentation. Then study, watch, rehearse, look at it. And if you see something a little unusual, you have an opportunity to change it before you make your next presentation. Next thing I wrote down a great presenter, which you’re going to become even better than you are, speaks with conviction and authority. Conviction and authority come from your knowledge of what you’re saying and your knowledge of your sales skills.

Or you’ve heard me say this time and again, do you want to unknowledgeable pilot flying your plane? Do you want a knowledgeable attorney representing you in court? Do you want an unknowledgeable surgeon performing some type of surgery on you? Of course not. Does the public want an unknowledgeable agent? Absolutely not. The stronger the knowledge, the more the client will see that you are the authority. Also, remember that your tonality can be a sign of authority. So, practice with the downswing versus upswing because we know the upswing leaves a question in the mind of the client. Downswing… if you’ve ever been to our old Productivity School or scripts for superstars is what we call it today. A big part of that whole process is teaching all of us how to end in a commanding voice. Instead of how are you? How are you? Gets her attention, brings him in, draws him in and demands her response. And the last thought for today is a simple one, but tough to do since a good presenter will always be asking a lot of questions. To the party they are talking to, make sure your questions lead to a logical conclusion. You’re there with a purpose. You’re there with the purpose of getting a contract signed. You’re there with the purpose of walking away and that buyer/seller, seeing the smart decision they made to work with you. At the same time, we have to know when to agree and disagree and feel comfortable redirecting the prospect back to the script with a strong set of questions.

The most common thing I hear from our clients when they’re presenting and this happens a lot and it’s called normal, you know, you follow the script, you ask three or four questions you’re guiding them through, and then they go way off on a tangent of some type, which is called normal again. And all of a sudden, you’re caught up out in left field when you should be on second base. So how do you get back to second base so you can go to third into home and complete the process? You go back to your script. Why do we say to people, keep the script in your hand while you’re presenting? What do I say to great agents like yourself? Don’t be uncomfortable to smile and say, Mr. and Mrs. Seller, I’ve written down a list of very important questions, may I ask them now? They’re going to nod, smile and say, of course, start asking the questions. So, I’m hoping that last week, if you weren’t part of our retreat, you had a very productive week. We’re hoping, more importantly, this week is very productive. Watch the messages that I present on Mike Ferry TV on a regular basis, and we’ll see you next week. Have a great week.