Everyone is a salesman, some are just better than others. I write about real estate investment, but salesmanship is a lesson in life! The only reason most people make, for not investing in real estate, is they don’t think they can make the sales necessary to buy and then sell an investment property, they don’t think they’re salesmen.



Everyone is a salesman, new born babies cry and Mom sticks a warm nipple in their mouth, they ask for what they want and they get it, that’s sales! Pre-schoolers ask for ice cream and then say please, please, please until Dad gives in, that’s sales. Some time before high school polite kids learn to ask once and then wait quietly staring until Dad gives in, that’s sales. During high school some revert to the demanding style of the new born, some to the begging of the pre-schooler, that’s sales. Yes, some become timid, afraid to even ask for the white milk they want instead of chocolate. We’re all salesmen. We envy those among us who further develop their skills to ask a question and then shut-up, and wait for what they want! Life is a sale. Unless you regularly let someone else pick your milk, you’re a salesman.

As a kid growing up in the fifties I learned to ask once and stare. I perfected this with a pouty look that usually worked on Dad, occasionally on Mom, and almost always on my Grandparents. My great grandparents unfortunately were immune. Somewhere between birth and puberty the pouty look no longer helped, but ask and stare got better. I wasn’t taught salesmanship I was taught to be polite, but to ask for what I wanted and then quietly wait for an answer.

I didn’t grow up rich, but I was extremely privileged. I was taught to be polite and to ask for what I wanted. I could not have explained this simple technique in high school but I used it and I had a wonderful experience, it helped in collage. In Marine boot camp it let a lowly recruit get a little of his own back from the DI’s. Out of the service and into banking, I used this simple method a hundred times a day, everyday. It wasn’t until after I left the bank to sell real estate that anyone explained this simple sales method to me.

In my first sales class the instructor ask “what do you do after you ask for the order?" Some poor girl started to answer and the instructor shouted: “Shut-Up!" The girl was reduced to tears. The instructor then explained, ask for the order, then shut-up... the next one who speaks loses.

You’re not going to get a yes every time, but if you don’t give the person time to answer you’ll never know what it takes to make the sale. Even people who don’t like your offer want to say yes just to be polite. If you can keep your mouth shut they will either accept your offer or tell you why they won’t. It works every time, in real estate or life.

How long should you shut-up? In my book “One House At A Time / Finding And Buying Single Family Rentals" I tell the true story of an offer one of my students and I presented one night, at 10 PM I asked the closing question no one spoke until 5 AM when the wife shouted at her husband to sign the offer!

Once you’ve made the sale, stop selling and get it on paper.

Now that we covered the most important sales technique I want to add just two more things.

If the sellers don’t accept your offer pick the least explainable thing he says and repeat it as a question. IE: “No we can’t take $100,00.00!" You respond “You can’t use $100,000.00?" Try it tonight. Don’t have a house to buy, well ask your spouse, “let’s go to bed early?" “Not tonight I’ve got a headache!" Now repeat “headache?" and shut-up (this is a good time to revive the pouty stare), enjoy.

Now there is only one reason not to make your next sale, purchase, or kid, fear. I’ve been in lending and real estate sales for 35 years I’ve been teaching, real estate, real estate investment, sales, and lending since 1973, and I still get scared with ever presentation. Why should you be different from the rest of us? I write about fear in “One House At A Time" but I can’t cure fear. To control fear remember that you’ll probably never see the sellers again if they don’t accept your offer, so who cares what they think. If you know you wrote an offer in which both you and the sellers win it’s there loss not your’s, they should be afraid of losing you.

If I could show you how to invest in real estate with or with out credit or money, with a more people friendly approach than the TV Gurus, not for several thousand dollars or even several hundred, like the TV Gurus. But, for less than $45.00 would you buy my book...