No Broke Months For Salespeople - Mastering the Qualification Stage – How to Ask the Right Questions and Win Clients

Episode Date: September 17, 2025

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So most people think that influence is about, you know, it comes from having the right answers. And that's why they lose it. It doesn't come from the right answers. It comes from asking the right questions. A debt questions, they go below the surface. They go deeper. They help people to uncover what they really want. And sometimes they help people to uncover what they're afraid to admit.

Welcome to the No Broke Months for Salespeople podcast, the ultimate destination for salespeople. business people and entrepreneur. As you immerse yourself in this show, you'll discover the secrets to unlocking consistent and predictable income. We reveal the new way to persuade human behavior by mastering the art of the teach-to-sell method. Get ready to transform your approach and achieve unparalleled success.

In this episode of the No Broke Months for Salespeople podcast, Dan Rocheon breaks down the qualification stage, the crucial bridge between lead conversion and setting appointments. He reveals how to uncover motivation, timing, and means, while also showing you how to reset when rapport feels off. You'll learn how to ask better questions, guide conversations with confidence, and position yourself as the trusted advisor clients need. My name is Dan, Roshin.

I'm the host of the No Broke Months podcast, which is a show for real estate agents to help you have No Broke Months. Thanks for joining me. Enjoy the show. All right. So let's talk about the qualification stage. All right. So we went through the appointment.

We went through the leads. You know, how do you get leads? Find your superpower. Find all the ways that you can, you know, do something. And then three hours, one to three hours a day, five days a week, you implement that superpower. All right. Like that's the simplest plan there, right, you know, whatsoever. Then we go and we talked about the leads and we talked about the lead conversion.

So where we are right now is we're at the stage where we are converting the leads from conversion to appointment. So we're sort of like in this transition state. So what we need to do now is we need to qualify them. So we're going to qualify them for motivation and means if they're a buyer. we're going to qualify them for motivation timing if they are a seller sometimes and in some cultures they don't like you asking questions and that's just a few cultures though so I would say maybe 5% of the cultures in my local area are you know are a little bit resistant if you start asking them questions so you have to recognize who you're speaking with and being

in rapport with them as you go through this. Remember, that's a connection of energy, connection of spirits. So if you're in rapport with somebody and then you recognize that they're not, that they're not answering your questions during the qualification stage, then what you're simply going to do is you're just going to simply do a reset and intend to get rapport before you go on with the questions. And typically what that looks like is like a question stop, question stop, question stop. And now you're like, huh, there's no connection, there's no rapport.

There's like one word answers. Like there's not a conversation going on. Again, that doesn't happen very often. When that does occur, stop and just stop. If you're with somebody, look them in their eyes. If you're on the phone with somebody, stop, reset. Pay attention to your energy. Pay attention to their energy.

You'll know when you connect. You'll know when you click. And when you do, ask a very open question. Very open question in that case could be something like, well, it sounds like you may be hesitant to share with me. And that's okay. I'm just curious, what are you trying to do and how could I maybe best help? Right.

And you just sort of open it up and then you shut up, close your mouth, and you listen. You guys follow me on that? So now let's go back to the qualification thing. days. So let's talk about the buyer specifically. And I'm going to do normal buyers or buyers, and then I'm going to do in quotation marks investors. So when you make a phone call to a buyer, let's say that they came in from a lead source. Somebody throw out a lead source of where a buyer could come from. Zillow. Ring, Ring. Hey, Dan. Hey, Joe. This is Dan. Rochon. local real estate agent.

Did I catch you the bad time? Sure. I guess it's all right. What's up? What's up? Well, I see that you were searching for some homes online and I'm just calling to say, I'm just curious. Are you in the market to buy a home?

I mean, I don't really want to answer that. I just was kind of just browsing. Okay. No worries. So you don't want to answer that? You're just kind of browsing? Yeah, I'm not really looking at. I'm not really in the market to buy right now.

Not in the market to buy right now. Well, I mean, if you could buy, would you? I mean, my wife wants to be, too, because, you know, she wants to have more kids, but, you know, the interest rates right now are really bad. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I know the interest rates are really bad. You know, and I was thinking the same thing. I had an investor I was working with last week, and he told me, you know what he told me?

Just curious. What do you tell you? He said that right now he wants to buy three homes while the interest rates are high. And I was like, huh, while the interest rates are high, it's like, yeah, because I'm going to lock in the price. And when the Federal Reserve changes their chairman in May of next year, interest rates are going to go down. And when the interest rates are going to go down, my prices are going to go up. And I'll just refinance. Just something someone said to me, just curious.

Yeah, that's interesting. I haven't heard that news yet. So, yeah, I'll definitely keep it out for that. All right. So then you're going to continue the conversation, right? I would probably want to have thrown that objection handler up at that point. I would have brought him through an objection handler. You know, like he threw up an objection.

I would have carried on the conversation. It was just an easy objection to handle. So I handled it. And I would probably not have handled that in real time. But I would have said that story a few minutes later. You guys following me on that? Like after I connected with him, after I got the rapport. All right.

And so, and that's a good story to use because it's not you telling them. It's a smart investor, and you're taking sort of a subservient role where it's like, yeah, you know, this is what I heard somebody that, you know, I'm working with. I guess it makes sense. What do you think? Do you think it makes sense? And now instead of me guiding you in that case, I'm still guiding you, but I'm asking you adept questions and I'm communicating, you know, with using stories. All right. So let's go back to the qualification phase of the buyer.

What do you want to qualify with the buyer? Motivation and means. So what are the questions that you can ask? Once you develop that rapport, typically what I'm going to do, let's roll play another one. Somebody else roleplay with me and let's actually have a conversation about buying a home without the objection. Anybody who says hello is going to roll play. Ring ring. Hello. Hello.

Is Terry? Yes, it is. Yes. This is Dan. How did I get connected with you, Terry? A friend of a friend. Yeah, a friend of a friend asked for me to give you a call. I'm a local real estate agent.

said you may be in a market to buy? Yeah, I'm thinking about downsizing. Thinking about downsizing. Okay. Could you tell me more about that? Well, that's really as far as we got. We just have a big house and it's a lot to take care of. And I don't have a real reason other than that.

Not a real reason other than that. So tell me more about that if you could. Okay. We're in a three-story colonial. We'd like to be in a one-level home. one level home okay so is that uh for to get rid of the stairs or yeah yeah okay all right so you have a timing any timing no no okay so then if the how would you know when the right time to buy or to sell would be i guess when i find something oh when you find something okay

got you all right so you're talking like three years from now three months from now three days from now? So you don't know at all, okay? And so then how would you know when you find something, how would you know what that something is? I would, this is really strange to say, Dan, but I would just know it. It's not strange at all.

Not strange at all. But there's certainly some things that would not work, wouldn't you agree? Sure. I don't want to run in North Carolina. All right, not North Carolina. We're narrowing it down. What else would you not want?

Well, all of my kids are here, so I would want to move here, but just my house. Got it. So anywhere in like the Northern Virginia, Stafford, Fredericksburg? Not Friday. No. No, not Maryland. All right. So then just Northern Virginia?

Mm-hmm. Do you have a favorite spot in Northern Virginia? No, I have kids in Manassas and kids in Lake Ridge. Who do you like best? you're not going to get me to say that on a workbook one we're not recording this here i know okay so um so you know she started off very very you know very very office right my job is just like how can i like right now i'm just intending to have a conversation with her right i think i may have moved the conversation a little bit with the energy oh if you got an opportunity of laughter is

always a good way to move, you know, to change the energy as well. So there's different ways there. It's like with Terry, I'm just simply looking, how can I generate new energy? You guys follow me on that? All right. So now at some point, I'm going to say, let's say like she's saying she's actually serious about buying. Okay. And I'm going to dive into a conversation where it's going to be like, well, so do you have a budget in mind? I know. We should, well, I've kind of looked a little bit. I would say between five and 700,000. Okay. All right, five to 700,000. Yeah. How are you coming up with that out of curiosity? Selling my current house. Oh, so are you going to buy all cash when you buy or? I would say large, largely cash.

Okay. Largely cash. All right. Well, good. Good. So, so, you know, Terry, I want to mind doing this. I know that right now, you're just you know you'll know when you come across it but the can I share with you the challenge of of of that sure well when you do come across it and you haven't gotten your house ready to for sale and you know and we're going to use the proceeds from the house for the sale then you're going to be caught short that you won't necessarily have the money to you know to buy the next home and so it's a little bit more of a process what many people do is they would start the conversation with me and I'd be happy and I wouldn't mind doing this. I can share some homes with you right now today, online,

that would allow for us to see if there's something that matches your criteria that you feel good about, you'll be able to identify that. Then if you have a comfort level, at the very least that you know that something exists, then at that point, we could then talk about, you know, the process and doing this seriously. because I know that you said maybe three days and I said maybe three years but at some point you're going to have to go through the process

to be able to buy and I wouldn't mind going through and talking through that with you and who else is a decision maker in this? Sorry. You can send some things over, Dan. I have not talked to my husband about this yet and he gets kind of cranky

when I decide to move without him. Well, that's good. Have you done it before? No. Thank God. Thank God. Well, I'd be happy to send some things over and I'd also be, you know, happy to talk to you when the time is right. When do you think the time is right? Why don't you send some things over to me today? I'll look. I'll talk to Jeff and I'll get back to you in a day or two. Okay. Well, today's Friday. So I can maybe send those over to you later today and we can talk on Monday. Sure.

What's a good time on Monday? Nine o'clock. All right. I'll put you, I'll pencil you in. for 9 o'clock on Monday and I'll call you then okay all right I didn't like sending her homes but I didn't see another real easy pathway to that and so then I just sort of back track and said okay what's my next step I want to make sure I get the the next follow-up appointment and if that was you know I probably would have dove in there a little bit more you know hey you know will you talk to Jeff over the weekend that type of thing and see if I can sort

of poke around with that to drive it moving forward all right at some point I'm going to ask, you know, how's your credit? And I just, the simplest way to do that is I just say, how's your credit? 740. 740, fantastic. Any chance that you were a veteran? Yeah. All right. And have you, have you bought before? That's used in your VA? Yes. Okay. And I'm only asking, I'm only asking the next question because, you know, it can allow for us to have some, some moon programs. But is your husband or you, whoever's the veteran, are you 100% disabled by any chance? Just mentally.

Just mentally. All right. Yeah. And I'm only asking that because, you know, you qualify for some different loan products and that type of thing. You get to remove some fees. All right. So I'm careful about the disability question.

I don't think I have to be careful about that. But I think I'd rather teach it in a careful manner, you know, to let them know why you're asking a question, are you disabled? Because it is one of the seven prospective classes. has a disability and you don't you know anytime you sort of get into that world you just never know the way someone's going to um the way someone's going to receive whatever it is that you're talking i once walked into a a meeting i complimented two ladies on their hair and the the host

of the meeting got kicked out that happened to me once that was my joke for somebody here i don't know if he followed it yeah he did all right fantastic all right yeah yeah all right so that is qualifying the buyer, qualifying the seller, you're going to go through and you're going to, you know, just have a series of homes. It's all going to start with. Tell me more about that. So you want to buy a home? Yes. Dinko, you want to buy a home? I'm sorry, you want to sell your house? Excuse me. I'm going to sell a home. Yes, my home. All right. Notice how I switch it from home when I said buy to house when I said sell. And so, and it's fine because Dinkgo's playing the property owner right now. And that's fine.

He probably would say home in that case. But as the agent, You want to make certain that you're saying property or house. And that helps to remove the emotion from the conversation. So, Dico, so you want to sell your property? Yeah, I want to say my property, my home. Okay, great, great, great. Can you tell me more about that? I'm going to like no buy.

Now I live in townhouse condos and I want to buy free home property. Okay. So you live in the condos and you want to buy a bigger property? Yeah. Okay. Well, tell me a little bit more about that. So what are you intended to buy? All right.

So now time out here. When you get a buy sell, you go to the buy first before the sell. Why do you go to the buy before the sell? Yeah, I'm too like no transition, smoothly transition to my new home. All right. You go to the buy instead of the sell. Who else? Who wants to take a stab about that question?

Why do you go for the buy first? instead of the sell. If the buy doesn't make sense and there's no real motivation or willingness, then the cell part may not make sense either. Yeah, I would say it like this. What's the motivating factor? The buying side. The buy side, right? So you go with the motivation. That's the reason why you go with the buy first. Okay, because that is why they're selling. And so you're going to, you're going to appeal to the emotions first and then you're going to dive deep into, okay, well, tell me more about that. about the buy side.

After you get to the by side, then you'll do a brief. We'll tell me about the listing. And with the listing, what are the qualifying questions you're looking for? What's the condition of the property? How many bedrooms? How many bathrooms? A lot of times people will say something like, oh, well, you could just look at it online. And they sometimes even get annoyed with that.

It happens more often than what you would expect. When that happens, you just respond back, say, I get it. I'm looking at it right now. A lot of times, though, that these online portals don't have it up to date. And, you know, sometimes, you know, there's things that may be different. So, you know, I just want to verify that what I'm looking at is correct. What else can you tell me about the property? Okay, you guys follow me on that?

So then you're going to find out what's the condition of the property. Has there been improvements done to the property? What have those improvements done? Are there any improvements that you think that you need to do? And then the next two questions you always have to ask. Write this down. Memorize this, internalize this. what is your expectation of me as your real estate agent pay attention to the way i use those words

what is the expectation that you have of me as your real estate agent what did i literally just say you're their agent that's right and what do you think the property's worth those are the two vital questions what do you think the property's worth and in today's age it's when i first started in real estate sales is a little bit different than it is today today everybody almost everybody unless it was a very old person has gone on zillo and many many older people have also going on zillo okay there's a few that may be a little bit older than just completely illiterate on computers and that would be your only exception to somebody that does not already have an idea of what that property's worth every once in a while i'll get the objection at that point well you're the

professional you tell me and then at that point i'll say yeah absolutely when we meet again presumptive I'll be able to go through all the market economics and I'll review that with you. I'm just curious, do you have a ballpark idea? And normally on the second time, they'll give me a number. Why do I want to have that number? Because if they think it's worth a million

and it's only worth 700, there's already, either I need to look at my data and check myself or I have an unqualified seller. All right, last thing, for investors, I put those in quotation marks. For some reason, another, most of many real many new agents get investors i don't know why it's almost like investors sort of seek

them out or i don't know because they're they're sort of easy to find and that's somebody that went to like an investor seminar and they you know they come in and someone's going to give them private lending or hard money or whatever the case may be you find me a deal at 50 cents to the dollar i'll i'll fund it and you just go find me the deal so that's a common type thing that you get to be able to qualify or disqualify an investor It's relatively simple. So tell me, so what deals have you done in the past? The answer to that question tells you if you likely have a legitimate buyer or not.

If they have an answer to that question where they say, well, I've done this and this and this, now you know you got somebody. But if they get offended by that question or if they're not able to answer that question, then you probably are going to disqualify them at that point. And that's the way you're going to be able to qualify or disqualify an investor. next thing with investors will tell me so how are you going to fund this well if they say cash make sure you continue qualifying that is the cash in the bank or you get in the cash from somebody else private lending or hard money you want to know exactly what you're dealing with there and then

you make a choice i typically well i won't work with with people that are looking for fix and flips if i find a fix and flip i have a database of people who will buy it or i'll buy it myself and i do come across them three or four times a year but I don't actively look for them and I don't actually look for them for clients because it's near impossible to find it's really challenging but if you do you know you have enough conversation something will come across always have an eye and if they have motivation and three things for an investment by the way that I look for if I come across these three things I know I got an opportunity and number one is a high level motivation number two is they've owned that property for more than 25 years and number three distress you come across those three situations

in an investment opportunity, you may have an opportunity to be able to relieve somebody's stress and purchase a property out of a bargain or represent a seller or buyer to come in, an investor come in and get that. All right, ladies and gentlemen, what are your thoughts and feelings in our house about our conversation today? Jacob. Yes, there's one thing. People who do renovations themselves, they tend to think that replacing things that were

broken increases the value therefore they can sell at a higher price or like redoing something that is that looks terrible they think it should increase the value but it doesn't and we need a polite way of selling them that yeah let me let me get to that jacob that happens that happens here that happens here not here okay the when we're in the qualification stage we just want to get the appointment. We don't want to risk not getting the appointment because we're trying to handle an unreasonable expectation. You handle the unreasonable expectation when you go on the appointment. And the way that you do that is like I showed you guys last week, you know, you go through and you show them the homes and you say, how does yours compare to this? How does yours compare this?

How does you compare this? And you actually walk them through and you demonstrate to them on the appointment so that it's really, really hard for them at that point, say, well, the 15th. I'm going to on appointment on Sunday. They put 15,000 yard work. I'm like, that's nothing. It's a $1.5 million property, right? I'm like, you know, like it's nothing. That's maintenance for a $1.5 million property. There's a lot of money, right? Don't get me wrong, but that's maintenance. All right. What else? What a house? What thoughts? Thank you, Jacob. What thoughts, what feelings, what feedback? I like, and it's so true, you just, you nailed it on the head with the investor, the quotes everyone's an investor so i just found that's funny yeah so true tell me about your deals

in the past that that's the easiest question to get to they find out if they're legit or not what are their thoughts what are their ahas feelings feedback observations who'd like to go next how's my volume on this is my volume okay okay i'm asking because i'll be recording some stuff later and i don't like doing it on my phone but if it's good it's good all right what other thoughts feelings comments last minute what you got from today's conversation one last one i think the main thing to remember is uh you got to call people in order to talk to them and figure out their objections so prospecting time 930 to 1130 is key and you do that every day five days a week you'll be fine thank you joe that's a great way to end you though everybody have the best of your life

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