A Floyd Wickman Blog by Mike Pallin “Repetition is the mother of skill.”

The most common feedback we get from our students as they progress through our training programs is that they gain new-found confidence from knowing what to say and how to say it. When a salesperson masters the art of dialogue selling, something magical happens. Close ratios improve dramatically. Hesitations, stalls, conditions and objections are set aside and easily handled. Decisions become easier for clients to make, and an inner sense of confidence skyrockets.

Floyd created dialogue selling from years of trial and error, and hours upon hours of classroom experience. What he discovered was that most people are uncomfortable with “scripts,” because scripts require you to memorize someone else’s words. It’s harder to sound natural when you are not being yourself. But when you can use your vocabulary, your conversational style and your voice inflection, and get the same things accomplished – that’s when you sound competent, confident and natural.

Dialogue selling is different from memorizing scripts. Dialogue selling is about using a series of steps, that form a track, to communicate. We teach our students the tracks for generating leads, for converting leads into appointments, for breaking the ice at the kitchen table, for qualifying, for presenting, for pricing, for closing, for handling hesitations, for converting inquiries . . . well, for doing everything and anything you need to do to build a successful real estate business.

“The words you use are not that important. The words will be determined by you, them, the situation and what’s already been said. What’s important is what you accomplish one step at a time.”

It is infinitely easier to remember to do five steps than it is to memorize page after page of someone else’s words. Memory is not always dependable. Actors call it “going up,” when they forget their lines and have to be prompted from offstage. People who speak in public have all experienced that moment when you stand up to speak and your mind sits back down, and you just go blank. Your mouth goes cotton-ball dry. Your temperature trampolines up and down. A few seconds seem like an hour.

There’s just no point in putting yourself through that kind of misery when there’s a much simpler and easier way to learn how to sell. Dialogue selling with tracks. The psychology behind each step of a dialogue track is well thought out, and the principle technique for learning the track is repetition. Here’s how we teach dialogue selling.

First, our trainers explain the track one step at a time. Then we demonstrate it. Then the students practice it with each other in the safety of the classroom. Then we give our students audio review recordings. Repetitive listening between classes trains the subconscious mind. And finally, the students use the dialogue with real prospects and clients.

Teach + Demonstrate + Practice + Listen + Apply = Confidence.

Floyd coaches those who want to accelerate their learning, and also those who need to build their confidence more quickly, to use an additional form of repetitive learning that is close to infallible. (It’s especially effective if you’re a bit shy about practicing in front of others.) It is like self-coaching, and here’s how it works.

Open your workbook or journal to the explanation notes from class of the track you want to master. Let’s say, for example, you want to master the 5 Step Specific Person Approach to prospecting for listings on behalf of a specific buyer. Here is the track. Step 1 – Identify. Step 2 – Introduce. Step 3 – Ask. Step 4 – Reason. Step 5 – Ask again. Identify the person you are calling or talking with. Introduce yourself. Ask a qualifying question. Explain the reason you are asking, that you have a specific buyer for their area. Ask your qualifying question again. Now, say the words that will accomplish each step in that order.

Take out your smartphone and open up the audio recorder. Hit record and practice the dialogue. Save the recording. Now listen to the recording of your dialogue practice and take notes on what worked and what didn’t work. Repeat.

When you listen back to the second dialogue practice, listen to both the first and second practices back-to-back, and take notes. Repeat. Repeat. And repeat. Each time you listen and take notes, listen to all of the recordings in order and take notes.

When you have recorded and reviewed yourself five times, take a break. In almost every case, you will be better, more comfortable, with a clearer understanding, and eager to go out onto the real world and apply your developed skill.

Instead of relying on your memory and someone else’s words, develop your own vocabulary and style with Floyd’s method of dialogue selling, and make liberal use of repetition to build skill.