Epic Real Estate Investing - ADVANCED TIP: How to Stay in Control of the Seller Conversation | 741

Episode Date: August 11, 2019

This Sunday, Matt reveals an advanced negotiating strategy that will help you control the conversation with the seller. More specifically, Mr. Theriault explains the technique called reversing, the rule of 3, and an exception from this rule. Tune in and learn these strategies through practical examples, get your leads, and close more deals! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All righty. So today we're going to talk about an advanced negotiation strategy that's going to help you stay in control of your seller conversations. You're going to get more contract signed. You're going to close more deals. And the main thing we're going to focus on is a technique called reversing. This is Terrio Media. Now, before we start at any point, you catch yourself thinking, wow, I'd really like to go deeper into this. I really want to get good at this. then you might like what we're doing over at REI-ACE and the Ground and Pound School. That sounds good to you.

You can just head on over to rei-a-a-ac.com and take a look, all right? So when it comes to those initial conversations with sellers, whether over the phone or whether it's in person, we all know that we need to ask a lot of questions, right? You got to get the seller to do most of the talking so we can uncover the seller's reason for needing to sell. But a huge thing that holds people back is they accept a sales. seller's wishy-washy answers or they avoid the answers. And they just don't get the information that they need, right? And I get it all the time because people are really worried about upsetting the seller or coming off pushy or coming off as salesy. Everyone's biggest fear that they don't want to be

salesy. Well, salesy pays the bills. That's what we do for a living. So I get it though. You don't to be slimy and whatever, and it makes sense. But here's the thing. You can't help the seller unless you know their true motivation for selling. And you can't make a profit unless you uncover that motivation. Remember that the foundation of every deal lies within the seller's motivation to sell. If there's no motivation, there's not going to be any discount. All righty. Remember, sellers are exchanging equity. They're giving you equity for you giving them peace of mind and return. That's the fair exchange. All right. So you have to get to that. real motivation as to why they need to sell.

Okay, so what brings this all up? And I started with the, you know, reading off some follow-through Fridays. And I met with a client today, and it wasn't such a good Friday. You know, they just had three deals that they'd had under contract for a while, and they just couldn't pull it through, and the sellers canceled,

and they fell through, and they just didn't get to close them. And that's a total bummer, because you go through all that work to get a contract signed and not be able to, you know, take it across the goal line and get paid for your effort, And as we went through each deal, we stopped and we just broke down each deal. We went through play by play, step by step, kind of like in football.

You know, after the game, you're going over the tape to see what happened and where we can improve next time. And it was just becoming really clear that he was losing control of that relationship with the seller, particularly those conversations with the seller. He's doing a lot of telling and not enough asking. And this is really important because the person who asks the questions, determines the direction of the conversation. The person that asks the questions is the one that's in control. And there's a certain type of question to ask when the seller gets all wishy-washy with their answers.

And it's called reversing. And the benefits of this type of question are, one, the seller will provide you with additional information that you probably wouldn't have gotten otherwise. Two, the seller will often resolve their own objections. It's always fun when that happens. And three, it flatters the seller because it shows that you're actually listening, that you're paying attention and that you're empathetic. And mostly it allows the seller to become emotionally involved, thereby flushing out the true emotion, the source of the motivated seller's motivation. And ultimately, this just allows you to do your best for the seller. If you don't know what their true problem is, then you can't truly solve it for them.

So through reversing, it digs deeper into what's going on with the seller. You flesh that out. And now you can get straight with each other and address the problem and help them out that way. All right? So when reversing, there's something called, though, before you use this, you have to understand there's something called the rule of three. And this rule states that it often takes three or more reverses to kind of clear away the smoke and to get to the truth, to get down to the root of the problem, to get the real answer from a seller.

And so the first two answers are there are, Typically, it will be intellectual in nature. And the third answer is usually an emotional response that reflects the seller's true intent. So that's where the rule of three comes from. So the first two answers are going to be intellectual, the third one, maybe even the fourth one. It'll take you to get to the fourth maybe. That's where the real emotion comes from, and that's how you get to the real motivation. So there's one exception to this rule.

The one exception is when the seller asks the identical question twice, that means they really want the answer. So answer it, right? Don't be a jerk. Don't try and antagonize the situation or don't antagonize the situation at all. So just answer it. Okay, that's the one exception of the rule. But I'll give you some examples of reversing. Oh, and if you want to go deeper into stuff like this and you want to get really good at this

because this is really where the money is made, you know, you've heard the expression that you make your money when you buy real estate. Well, it's at this point when you're talking to the seller before you're in contract, this is where you're making your money. This is where you're buying real estate. This is where you get the deeper discounts. So if you really want to get good at this, you might really like what we're doing over at REI-ACE in the ground of Pound School.

So just head on over to RIAEASE.com. You get all the details there, right? So some examples of reversing. Some examples of reversing. When the seller asks you a question, and this could be any question. It doesn't matter what it is. But it works really well when that question is either one that you don't really know the answer to

and or one that you don't really know. want to answer, at least right away. So you can reverse with questions like, you must be telling me that for a reason, Mr. Seller. What is it? That's one. Mr. Seller, that sounds like it's a big concern for you. Is that right? Or, you know, Mr. Seller, if you were me, what would you do? Or Mr. Seller, why did you ask me that right now? Or maybe Mr. Seller? And so you're pointing that out to me because, so those are examples of reversing. And to get deeper with the answer, you can follow up with questions like, so that means or and or like or can you tell me more about that? So you say, you know, why did you ask me that just now, Mr. Seller? And they'll answer.

And so can you tell me more about that, right? And that has them go deeper. The one I like and I use all the time. And it's really terrible English, but it works really well. So they'll say something. They'll give me the answer. I'll say, well, so how do you mean it's terrible English, right? how do you mean?

But it sounds very natural. It brings their guard down and they tend to answer that question for some reason. I don't know why that's the magic one, but it works really well for me. All righty. So those are some examples of reversing. But if you do these wrong and you might have started to detect it a little bit as you're listening, they can come off a little confrontational or it may sound like you are avoiding their question. So you don't want to do it that way.

To do it right and to avoid any uncomfortable or awkward. you know, moments with the seller, you want to begin every reverse with what's called a softening statement. So those questions, they can be a little bracer, a little hard. So you want to soften them up a little bit. Those are things like, good question, or yeah, I understand, or a lot of people ask that, or good point, or, hey, I'm glad you asked. So those are softening statements. So when you put the two together, they're much easier to say, they're not as abrasive, they're not salesy, they're not weird, they're showing genuine concern and empathy for the seller that you're just interested and you're trying to help them out.

So when you put them together, it might sound like this. Okay, Mr. Seller, I totally understand. But if you were me, what would you do? See, I understand as the softener. If you were me, what would you do? That's the reverse. Or, hey, Mr. Seller, a lot of people ask me that. Can you tell me why you ask me that now?

Right? So a lot of people ask that is the softener. And can you tell me why you ask that now? That's the reverse. Or that's an interesting question. Mr. Seller, and the reason you asked me that is, got it? So that's an interesting question is the softener, and the reason you asked is the reverse. So that sounds important to you. If I could close in two weeks, what would be the next step? Okay, so that sounds important to you. That's

the softening statement. If I could close in two weeks, what would be the next step? That's the reverse. Ready? Last one. Hey, that makes sense. So in a perfect world, how would you see this playing out? So that makes sense. That's the softening statement. So in a perfect world, how would you like to see that play out? I say that kind of threw an extra one in there for you. In a perfect world type questions work really well. The other version of that is, if I could wave a magic wand, what would you like to have happen?

The magic wand question or in a perfect world question, those are great ways to begin your question as well. It softens it up a little bit. All right, so to wrap it all up. To stay in control of your conversations with the seller, keep asking questions. Keep the seller talking. The person in control of the conversation. is the one that's asking the questions and you want to keep the seller talking because by doing so,

the seller is going to address and resolve most of their own objections while pulling up, you know, to the surface, their real motivation for selling, which is what you want, but you want them to discover it on their own. You don't want to tell them what their problem is, right? Even if it's glaringly clear what their problem is, no, you want them to discover that on their own because if you tell them, they're going to doubt you, they're going to fight you, they're not going to believe you. But if they come up with it, they're going to believe themselves, right? Then they'll believe it. Then it's true. Then it's real. And through reversing, that's how you help them do that. You stay in control. All righty. So thanks again. Don't forget, if you're serious about getting good at this, then you might want to go

and check us out over at R-EI-A's.com. And that's exactly what we do. We get really good at this. We help people do the same thing. Okay. So that's it for today. Take care. Bye-bye. This podcast is a part of the C-suite radio network. For more top business podcast, visit c-sweetradio.com