Selling Power: Energy and Vitality in Your Sales

This is the Selling More Homes Podcast, program number 189. This week, our guest is Robert August on Selling Power, bringing energy and vitality to your sales. And you’re listening to Builder Radio on the Selling More Homes Media Network.

Welcome to the Selling More Homes Podcast, where every week we bring you interviews, ideas, and information to help you sell more, earn more, and achieve more in this challenging housing market. This program is a production of Selling More Homes Media and the Selling More Homes Academy, now serving skills-building information and personal coaching to housing professionals around the globe. Now, grab a pen and paper so you can take good notes. This week’s program begins now.

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another Monday Morning Sales Meeting. I’m Scott Stroud. Last week, our guest on this program was Michelle Glover, who shared with us how to identify buyers’ hot buttons. I loved how she presented that topic, but was absolutely blown away last Wednesday when she and Shirlene von Hoffman presented the webinar, Sizzling Hot Sales Tactics for 2011, What’s Working to Close More Sales?

One simple strategy they shared that I particularly appreciated was to think of sales goals in shorter terms, a week or a month. That way, if you experience a slump one week, well, that’s okay. You start over the next week with a clean slate and can mentally put the slump behind you.

One of the most valuable points they made had to do with financing.

They brought out the fact that if you’re turning your prospects over to a loan officer too early, hoping that they’ll do the work for you, you’re losing sales.

Feedback on the program was overwhelmingly positive. In fact, 10 minutes into the presentation, one attendee wrote, This is already golden.

And they were just getting started. You can still purchase access to the video recording of the webinar for $37. Or, we’re making this program available starting today to everyone who joins Builder Radio’s Selling More Homes Academy as a charter member. Charter membership is only $37 a month and includes all the monthly webinars that we produce, just like this one, plus access to the entire Builder Radio library. Click the Charter Membership button on the blog or the website for details.

This week’s guest is a familiar name. S. Robert August has been a regular on our program since we started. In fact, the very first webinar we ever produced featured Robert on why now is the best time ever to buy a new home. That’s still a popular title among our webinars and our videos.

Today, Robert joins us to discuss how to put energy and vitality into your sales approach. Robert, welcome back. Well, it’s an absolute pleasure to be afforded the opportunity to be back on Builder Radio today. And, you know, I think for those that keep track on Saturday Night Live, of those that are recurring guest hosts on that show, I think we’ve got you as probably a return guest more than anybody else in the industry. And you’ve always got something new and pertinent to share with us. So, once again, welcome back. For those that haven’t maybe had a chance to hear you yet, give us a little bit of background on what you do and what you’ve done in the industry. Well, thank you very much. Throughout the years, our companies have been somewhat different in that, number one, we have a consulting practice.

We’ve newly opened a company called North Star Synergies, which is very similar to S. Robert August and Company. And what we do is we help corporations market, manage, sell, and or lease their properties through our consulting practices. And over the years, we’ve also had a real estate corporation, which I have now bequeathed to my son, and he’s doing great. And Jason August has a corporation, a national company called Gourmet Real Estate. But throughout the years, what we’ve been able to do is provide services to companies in two different ways. One from a consulting perspective and one from an on-site sales perspective as well. And over the years, we’ve sold a tremendous amount of land and homes. We’ve leased a lot of commercial, retail, apartment buildings. And so we just don’t come to you today from a consulting perspective.

We come to you from a practical and pragmatic achievement where we have and are on-site. We understand what it takes to close a transaction and keep the ball moving in a most pointed way. And I think one of the reasons that we continue to gravitate toward you and we get such good response from your guest posts with us here is because you grew up in the trenches of new home sales and marketing, even in some pretty tough markets of the past. So you honed your skills in prior recessions and tough markets. Today, you’ve come with a topic, motivating your personal action plan for success. And I think most of us realize the need right now for a plan of action. And those that are successful in sales understand that if they’re not doing it themselves and taking the initiative, then it’s not happening and it’s not going to happen for them.

But in motivating an action plan, what are the steps and what have you got in mind? What can you share with us that will help? Well, over the years, I’ve read a lot of different books and continue reading articles. And it’s been fascinating to grow with the Internet as well. And I’ve tried to maintain outstanding energy, cutting edge information. And yet today, what I’d like to try to do is go back to some of the basics that I learned coming into the business world. And, you know, yes, I have grown up in the trenches. I also grew up in a family business where we had the good fortune of being in the wine and spirits industry. And the family business was started in 1891. And I had tremendous coaches and mentors from a familial basis, if you will, that set me straight from an early age.

And I’d like to share some information through the lines of a Napoleon Hill, who has written a series of books over the years, one of which is Think and Grow Rich. Another one is How to Sell Your Way Through Life. And in pulling together these basic tenets that Napoleon Hill was able to find from the corporate icons of his day, whether it was the Carnegie’s or the Schwab’s or the Gould’s or the Vanderbilt’s, he was able to get to the core of what we need to do to motivate ourselves in order to be better salespeople, develop a better personality, develop the initiative and the direction and the drive to be the most genuine people that we possibly can be. I think it’s important, number one, to maintain an outstanding physical disposition.

Before we can really jump in and be the best we can be, we’ve got to be physically fit. And we have to take the time to exercise not only our minds and not only our spirit, but our bodies. And I know that when I’m in shape and I’ve taken care of myself, I can take the energy that I have and move it forward in a very, very positive way. And when I’m affected with something that’s negative, I also know how to take that negative scenario and spin it into a positive one. Fortunately or unfortunately, the first two years of my life in this business were spent in a customer service department for a corporation called Ridge Homes. And at that time, it was the largest building company in the United States and from what we were told in the world.

And we shipped out packaged homes to our builder-dealers, and no one ever called me in two years, Scott, because they were happy. I only received calls from builders and customers with problems, with issues. And to them, they were life-threatening, and yet at the same time, I became sort of a doctor of customer service, if you will. And I learned how to sell negativity and put the appropriate spin, always dealing with truth and fact. But I did it in a spirited way where I took myself on a regular basis so that I wouldn’t let the business get me down with all the negativity that I was dealing with. I would exercise. And I would exercise throughout the day and sometimes in the evening. And I would do different things in order to pace myself.

I would take walks for a break. I would do exercises. I started learning about how to be more physically fit and pace myself through a series of regimens, and that made a huge difference. And whenever I would feel yucky or down, I was able to retreat, exercise, and put myself into a much better position. And frankly, it gave me the ability to handle negativity and spin it into a very, very, very positive direction. Customer service is a difficult, as I think anybody will attest, that’s a difficult job because of the negativity. Like you said, nobody calls you to congratulate you. And yet it takes a high degree of energy to deal with that in a positive way. But it also takes a higher degree of energy to maintain our attitude, to maintain the exuberance and excitement and enthusiasm that we bring into the sales situation.

So how does exercise or physical fitness contribute to that energy level there? In a number of different ways, it helps you develop a balance. And that balance is very, very important. For example, last evening, I was faced with a negative situation.

A customer, actually, I was going to become the customer of one particular company, and I wasn’t ready to make that commitment on behalf of the customer, the client that we are representing. And if I were not in the, have the mental balance state that I developed, I would have been, I would have been very confrontational. The party was raising its voice and, and, and, and very confrontational. And I was able just to let it, let that party’s concerns sort of roll, roll down the stream, if you will. I was a gentleman, I was helpful, I was courteous. But if I, if I were not, if I were overly tired and not positioned to receive the call correctly, I could have raised my blood pressure. I could have said something that, that, you know, was not meaningful and could have conceivably destroyed a relationship.

So I think balance is extremely important because, although something may be extremely critically important to someone else, and not to say that it wouldn’t necessarily be for you or me, you know, we need to have patience, you know, in, in our abilities. And being physically fit, as you pointed out, both, both from a physical perspective and an emotional perspective as well, gives you the ability to understand situations and provide a degree, a degree of, of self-composure, calmness to a situation and instill that, that same confidence to the people that you’re addressing. I think instilling that confidence is important. And I think if we’re honest with ourselves, everybody, any one of us would rather deal with somebody with a high degree of positive emotional energy in any interaction.

I think those that have and develop that energy level attract more buyers and probably close more sales just because of their enthusiasm.

Well, you know, in a tough economic environment, you have to have that, that positive attitude even more so. People need encouragement. They need love. They need consideration. And all at the same time, it’s, it’s extremely important for us to, to be there for them. And, and so by having that, that physical balance and putting everything into perspective, we can handle, all of us can handle ourselves much better. And at the same time, people want to work with winners. People want to know that they’re working with individuals who are accomplished, who have gone down the road, you know, and, and for example, have made things happen. A lot of times I’ll often visit with folks who maybe have sold years ago, but have not been on site in, in many, many years or have not sold products and goods and services and are running around the block and solving.

But when you have a chance to get in that game and participate with the hunt and the challenge of the transaction, that seeds, you know, into a very, very, very positive matrix of excitement. And that’s, you know, that’s what we try to achieve every day to give our very, very best and to make a difference. And so that’s where, where I’m coming from, from the point of being physically fit. And if you don’t mind, share with us some of the things that you would do if, if you’re in a sales model, you can’t take off in the middle of the day and go to the gym, but there’s activities that you mentioned that you would, you would engage yourself in to keep your energy level up.

And what are some of those that, that you could share that maybe some of our listeners might do too? Well, number one, when I’m speaking on the phone, as I am right now, I’m bringing 10 to 15% more oxygen to all of my organs by standing up rather than sitting in a chair.

And by having that, that sense of alertness, I’m able to be more proactive with you and our listeners today.

Another thing I found is that I park, and I know that this might sound a little off base, but I try to park as far away as I can from a building within a parking lot. And the more that I can walk, I will do that. Oftentimes, when I have an opportunity to take an elevator or walk the stairs, I will choose to walk the stairs. And so that the more that I can physically move throughout a given day, the better I will feel. I’ve also found that meditation, as important as exercise is, another part of physical fitness is meditation. There are times when we can get very, very frustrated. And I learned an exercise a long time ago, and this is one that I learned from Dr. Weil.

And it’s an East Indian breathing technique where you, number one, get calm, sit down, and you’re calm. You’re sitting up. You can also be standing up. And the purpose of this exercise is to inhale through your stomach, through your diaphragm for a series of take a breath and inhale for four seconds. Hold for seven seconds. And exhale for eight. Now, the trick, though, is to place your tongue on your palate, at the base of your palate, and hold it there throughout the exercise. So, again, you put the tip of your tongue on your palate, you inhale for four seconds through your diaphragm, hold it for seven, and exhale for eight. And you go through four repetitions of this exercise. And this is an amazing, amazing opportunity where it really calms you down.

It puts you into a much better place and peace of mind. And at times, I’ve been in stressful environments handling opportunities with attorneys for the customers and the clients that we have or visiting with accountants and putting together strategic programs for the customers. And sometimes I will face an adversarial professional, and yet I’m able to excuse myself, come back, put myself into the game, and maintain my self-composure so that I’m able to handle any situation that’s presented. Wow, that’s a great exercise. I was doing it. I don’t know if you could hear me in my heavy breathing in the microphone while you’re doing it, but I was doing that. And you can feel an immediate effect of that. And that’s what I like about these things is you see an immediate difference in your physical being there.

So with our theme, motivating a personal plan of action, so we’ve got keeping our energy levels high and our fitness and our alertness keen, what else do we need to do to put into action a personal plan? Thank you. I would be remiss, again, if I didn’t go over another point. Sleeping is extremely important in order to maintain physical balance. Without the appropriate sleep, you’re not going to be as effective. Another point to address is the fact that you need to eat a number of fruits and vegetables throughout the day. The more you can stay away from processed food, the better your system, your body is going to be. Another really key point, and I won’t delve into this, but sugar is the absolute devil. And if you can stay away from any refined white sugar, you are going to be a much healthier individual.

You’ll be less sluggish. Frankly, you’ll be much more energetic and ready to meet the day. Stay away from, also, high fructose corn syrup and any corn syrup products. And I think that if you can do that and use an alternative form of sweetener like agave syrup or honey, that’s going to go a long way. And many people are also switching to stevia, which is a plant that’s been produced into a sugary substance. It’s much sweeter than sugar.

Robert, I want to go back. We’ve talked about the importance of maintaining our energy throughout the day. But please, if you don’t mind, stress why this is so important. I mean, we look around. We see people that aren’t doing this. But those that are taking their health seriously and maintaining a high level of energy throughout their day, what differences do they see when it comes to their sales, their closing rates, their income, as opposed to those that don’t? You know, this is a very, very interesting question that’s often posed to me. And at the same time, when I had the question, it’s almost I’ve asked those who are in an audience or with whom I’m working with on a daily basis, what was the best day you ever had in your life?

Or another question I would often ask, when you were producing at the highest level that you felt comfortable with and succeeding at your capable levels, how were you feeling physically and mentally? And invariably, people will come back to me and say, you know, I was about 20 pounds thinner. I was able to move faster. I slept much better. And as a result, you know, and they sharing with me, they were creating their own catharsis at that particular time. It wasn’t as if, you know, today I’m delivering anything that our listeners don’t really know. They have to get on track. We all have to be on track to take care of ourselves. Bonnie Allfriend has written a wonderful book called Secrets of the Superstars. And she relates to a lot of these folks who are on-site salespeople.

And invariably, the people who take better care of themselves are the ones who are able to perform. Now, that’s not saying that somebody that may not have all the attributes that we’re talking about today can’t be successful.

We just know from research that the better we’re prepared, both mentally and physically, and, of course, with a knowledge base, that that’s going to give us an edge. But that makes a lot of sense. It’s pretty much intuitive. We know that that’s the case. It’s just a matter of putting it into action. One of the things I would share and integrate into this is a position. Every time that our audience writes a sale, I would like them to sit down and, after they’ve put the sale together and actually closed the sale, I’d like to have them write two or three paragraphs about the experience. What did they do to help achieve the sale with the buyer? What were some of the sales points that they used?

What was the redeeming feature or closing feature that they were able to succeed with the buyer? And almost write a mini case study about each sale. And that same buyer, of course, not only has a sale but has a closing. And right at the end, once the transaction is closed, reflect on what you, as a salesperson, did through that sales process and then what you’re doing to review the success that you had in getting to the closing table and getting that all-important check that cleared through the bank. Great idea. That gives us a process that we can duplicate. That way we can go back and look at our own successes and do it again. Exactly. It feels good. The archival process is extremely important because what it does is it not only gives us the ability, if we fall into a slump, and I’d like to tell you that every day I go out, and as a baseball player, I had four hits at four times at bat.

I usually hit the ball well, but I didn’t get a hit every time. And so what we’re trying to do today is to help you get back on track and in a position and in a way to make a difference to achieve and get as close to that 1,000 batting average as we possibly can. Take the time to understand your assets, understand what your strengths are, understand what your weaknesses are. The most important thing you can do is to get out there and sell and integrate your talents with the people with whom you’re working. They need you. They need love. They need consideration. They need cooperation. And all this they need through a genuine, caring, considerate professional such as yourself. Robert, these have been great points, and I get the thought that we have just begun to scratch the surface, that you’ve got a lot more to share.

Can we get you to come back and continue this thought process with this? I would be delighted. I mean, this is item number one on the list of in excess. I think I have 16, 17 points that I wanted to share. And I think within the time today, we were able to address, you know, at least this one particular opportunity. Hopefully, this is giving a degree of importance to those opportunities. We’ve been speaking with Robert August of S. Robert August Company and North Star Synergies. Robert, thanks for being our guest. It’s been a pleasure. Thank you very much, and have a great day, and keep selling.

That was S. Robert August, president of North Star Synergies. Again, Robert, thanks for joining us.

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Well, that’s it for this week. For Don Grandy in Canada and Jerry Rouleau, I’m Scott Stroud, and thanks for listening to Builder Radio on the Selling More Homes Media Network. We’ll see you next time.