The Savvy Real Estate Agent Produces Results

By Tiffany Y. Hsia

Les Newlands strode into the conference room. Dressed in an impeccably tailored suit with matching cufflinks and a stylish coif of swingy salt and pepper, he immediately sat down and looked around the room. His gaze was intense and his presence was supremely confident; this man meant business. Welcome to Real Estate Sales Skills 101.

Les Newlands believes that you can sell anyone anything if you use the right techniques. He believes this because he has done it for years. And now because of his years of expertise, he passes his skills off to various companies and individuals in seminars such as this one with the byline, ‘Those who have the most skills make the most $$$$.’

“Your attitude needs to be energetic, positive and motivational,” Les said while speaking to the intimate coterie of 20 in Brooklyn, N.Y. in March 2009. “Never over promise and under deliver; under promise and over deliver and your clients will think you go above and beyond. You must always have and maintain a sense of urgency. Use silence often and use it as a tool to force people to answer,” spouted Les.

Les has worked in the real estate world for over 20 years, so he’s well versed in his knowledge. Formerly the Senior Vice-President of Sales & Training at the now defunct Foxtons, Les also owns his own consulting firm, Newlands Sales Consulting and has been the Vice-President of Sales & Marketing for Group Ten Builders since 1995.

While demonstrating some of his various sales techniques, Les went from a saccharine sweet smile and honeyed tone of voice to a deadly serious and coercive no crap mode in two seconds flat. It was mind-boggling how a person could switch gears so quickly. His was a method of sales without the obvious hokey sales pitch; it was surprisingly effective.

Before the demise of Foxtons North America, Foxtons had won several awards, including the Stevie Awards from the American Business Award foundation and had some of the highest producing individual sales agents in the industry, according to the National Association of Realtors Magazine. Each and every salesperson that worked at Foxtons had passed through Les’ Buyer Agent Training Program.

During the seminar, Les provided the group with speeches to memorize when confronted in specific real estate situations. Methods such as the ‘Savvy Buyer Story’ were meant to empathize with an upset seller while also assuring them of their real estate agent’s competence. ‘Fish or Cut-Bait’ was a planned confrontation with a picky buyer who had seen multiple homes and was hesitant to buy. The tactic was meant to either firmly coerce them into making a decision sooner rather than later or to cut them off to focus on buyers that were ready to make a purchase quickly.

With a mix of savvy knowledge and psychology, Les’ techniques are incredibly productive. Invaluable information was presented during his seminar and his speech concluded with rousing applause. A particularly poignant tidbit from his speech that was simple yet resoundingly true was, “Give people your time and they will give you their money.”

Newlands will be conducting several other seminars throughout the month of March in Brooklyn for the company, Agent Dashboard.