Welcome back to Mike Ferry TV. Tony Smith here, speaker and coach for the Mike Ferry organization. Happy to be back on Mike Ferry TV with you this week. Okay, I’m going to bring up a topic today that I know you’ve heard before, and I know you’ve probably heard it a hundred times if you’ve hung around Mike Ferry at all. I wrote it down like this. Asking more questions will make you more money. Are you interested in making more money? How much more money would you like to make? Have you made the connection between your ability to ask questions and the money you receive? Most people don’t. So, I put down some thoughts because if we truly do understand that if we learn to ask more questions, we will make more money in our real estate career, then we should start the journey of doing that. So, I put this thought down. I just simply wrote the 180-degree rule. You’ve heard this before with Mike Ferry, but he has built his business on a principle called the 180-degree rule. Let’s look at what our competition does. Look what the mass of people do and go 180 degrees in the opposite direction. And you’ll probably succeed, because the mass of people in real estate typically don’t make a lot of money. And when it comes to questions, the real estate community typically doesn’t spend a ton of time around asking questions or improving their ability to ask questions.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but our industry is chock full of people that all they love to do is make big, huge statements about themselves and their company. And “why me” and all they want to do is talk, talk, talk, talk, talk to try to convince people to buy and sell with them. So, Mike Ferry built a sales system, if you look at it, is pretty much standing on questions. Recognize it for yourself. I wrote this little thought down. If you want to become better at this, if you really do want to improve at this, you have to start thinking questions, not answers. Sounds simple enough, but you have to recognize thinking questions, not answers. The sales process, if we really understand it, look at the thing that’s been said a thousand times… selling is not telling. Selling is asking questions. If you look at the sales process, people are interested in themselves and they’re interested in themselves to a degree that if they get to do most of the talking, then they oftentimes sell themselves forward. But if they don’t get to do most of the talking and all they do is get to do most of the listening, there’s no sales process taking place. But you have to start training yourself to think in terms of questions, not answers.

The beauty is in asking the question, not giving someone your advice. I have a little note: WIIFM. There’s a radio station that plays in every human’s head. It’s called what’s in it for me? WIIFM. And that includes us too, doesn’t it? So, we often are in the same trap. What’s in it for me? If I think what’s in it for me, all I’m going to do is talk, aren’t I? But if I start thinking what’s in it for them, then I start thinking in terms of questions.

You know, I’ll never forget I was playing golf with Mike Ferry at a really great golf course here in Las Vegas, and we were, as typically happens, we were paired up with another two other guys that were playing golf for a foursome. We went and played golf, and in Mike Ferry typical fashion, he asked question after question after question, in between the shots and the holes and we were waiting to play. We got back to the clubhouse after the round of golf. We’re sitting there at lunch. Mike Ferry goes into the restroom and these two gentlemen say, “Who is that? He’s probably the smartest, the funniest, I think he’s the most intelligent man I’ve ever met.” And I was cracking up because they go, “What does he do for a living anyway?” Here we played 18 holes of golf, and they didn’t even know what he did for a living, but thought he was the smartest, funniest guy they’ve ever met. And it was simply because all he did was ask questions about them the whole time. It’s true magic.

Okay, so if you really want to take on this journey of asking questions, the first thing you have to address is why you don’t. Why don’t you improve at asking questions? I made a big note. Ego. Boy, does our ego get in the way of this if we’re not careful. “I know what to do. I’m a great real estate agent. I know how to sell real estate. I know how it works. I know how to price property. I know the right techniques to get their home sold.” Well, all that is, is ego. If we don’t learn to switch it and sell, then we don’t make any more money. How big is your ego in the way on this whole deal? I wrote down… we’re not interested or not curious. Do you know that it takes work to be interested all the time in other people? And it takes work to be truly curious in other people? How curious are you? How interested are you in the people that you’re running into? Are you interested in what they’re trying to achieve? Are you interested in their concerns about listing their house? Are you curious about why they’re thinking a certain way? If you can get in the mindset of being interested and curious, you’ll move. However, most of the world is not interested. And they’re not curious. Try it.

I wrote down our presentation to the world is a habit. We all have a habit. We get up and we put our tie on the same way. We get up and we drive to work the same way. We perform pretty much in the same way we talk to our friends and family the same way we have a big presentation to the world. The reason most people don’t learn to ask questions is they’re not willing to shift their presentation to the world. You basically have to change the way you operate, which is a big deal, and it takes time and work. I wrote down maybe we don’t believe it’s right. Maybe we won’t get involved in asking questions because we just haven’t heard that it’s the right thing to do. I’m here to tell you it’s the right thing to do. And then I wrote down… Have not connected the dots between your income and your ability to ask questions. How much more money would you like to make? Are you satisfied with your production so far this year? Are you happy with your sales and listing goals? If you can, start recognizing that your improvement in your ability to ask questions is one fast way to increase your income. If you can connect those dots, you’ll start getting interested and start doing the work that’s required.

Okay, so let’s spend a couple minutes on how to do it. How do I go about becoming better at asking questions? The first thing I wrote down, you have to recognize that it will not happen by accident. Okay? I can’t tell you how many times myself personally for Mike has been millions that an agent will say, “Tony, how do I do this? I get it, I want to ask more questions. How?” Okay, And then we give you the answers. But if you don’t put in the work, if you’re waiting for a lightning bolt to strike you today sometime. Okay, I can ask questions. I’m a master of it. It’s not going to happen. You have to put in the work. If you dedicated a few minutes every day, 15 minutes every day, 20 minutes, every day, doing some of the techniques that we’re asking you to. You’ll start to improve in your ability to ask questions. I wrote down… use our scripts. Okay, one way to get better is simply use all of The Mike Ferry Sales System scripts. If you don’t have them, go to Mike Ferry.com go to our resources page and download all of our scripts. You’re going to notice that they’re completely full of almost nothing but questions.

If you learn to present using our scripts, you’re going to be asking questions most of the time. I wrote down… refine your listing presentation and make sure it’s question based. Just use our Mike Ferry Listing Presentation. It’s question based. But if you practice and role play a presentation, if you practice a prospecting dialog, if you practice our prequalification, our objection handlers, you’re taking a good step towards asking more questions. I wrote down… write tons of questions every day. Okay, there’s nothing more powerful than writing. And if you’ll train yourself to write questions all the time, write questions. Write down a series of questions every single day. I want you to think about these words. Who, what, where, when? Which. Why? How? Explain and describe. If you use those words to start and then you just start writing questions and you train yourself, what if you had to write 20 questions a day? What if you had to write five questions every week for your coach? What if you had to write one question about your business every day in a journal? What if you had to write one question about yourself every day? Gosh, why am a little bit overweight when I used to be in great shape? It’s a fair question, isn’t it? You have to ask the right questions regularly,

I wrote down… There’s many situations that you control in your life, especially in business. You have a transaction. The lender is a little bit late. They’re not closing on time. You have to call the lender. Write down 2 or 3 questions before you pick up the phone and call them. Write the questions in advance. You have a seller and you need to reduce the price and you need to give them an update. Write the questions down before you just grab the phone and call them. I remember writing questions for my wife and kids. At times. I had to confront one of my kids when they were growing up and younger. I would write down 1 or 2 questions before I’d call them. It’s okay. Write questions in situations that are controllable, you’ll notice that you rarely will you ever see Mike Ferry in a presentation without notes in his hands. And many times there’s that jogs his process of asking the questions that need to be asked. Interesting isn’t it? I wrote this down… read and study books on the subject. If you want to become a master of asking questions, maybe you should be at least willing to study it. Here’s some that I’ve read. Power Questions. Incredible book. I read Change Your Questions, Change Your Life. Powerful book. I wrote, the Art of People. Incredible book of questions. I read a book called Leading with Questions… an awesome book.

How many books have you read on asking questions so far this year? How much time have you spent reading and studying the art of asking questions? You got to read some books on it. I wrote this is one you’ve heard from Mike. If you’ve been around at all, play the question game once a day. Get with another Mike Ferry agent. Get with another agent in your office. Get with your broker. Get with your spouse. Get with your kids somebody and play the question game. Ask them a question. Their job is to answer the question and then ask you a question back to keep the dialog moving. See how long you can go asking each other questions back and forth. If you play that game at least once a day, imagine after six months you’re going to know and have been practicing the art of asking questions.

And then the last one. Practice, practice, practice, practice, practice. Put a rubber band on your wrist. If you feel like you need to ask questions and you haven’t been, snap the rubber band. Okay, it requires a conscious effort. It requires work. It requires attention and recommitment. But I’m here to tell you if you will improve and advance as a salesperson in your ability to ask questions, it’s directly connected to make more money.

How much more money do you want?

Thanks for your time.