Sales Strategies for Real Estate Investors

Mike Hambright (00:00.974)
Hey everybody, welcome back to the show. Today’s gonna be a good one. We’re talking about sales strategies for real estate investors with the one and only Leif Meyerson. So we’re gonna be talking about kind of what’s working. We’re gonna talk a little bit about what’s working now as well, right? We’re at a different place in the economy or the cycle than we have been in the past. That’s how the economy works. There’s ups and downs. So we’re gonna talk about some strategies as well as kind of what might be different during kind of a down market, if you will, right? So Leif, welcome to the show, buddy.

Leif Meyerson (00:27.157)
Hey man, it’s a pleasure to be here. I listen to the show. I’m not an active REI guy. I have some passive stuff, but I’ve worked with a lot of REI companies in the past when it comes to sales psychology and you got a great name in the biz. So happy to be here.

Mike Hambright (00:36.066)
Yep. Yep.

Mike Hambright (00:41.91)
And a good face like they say have a face for podcast is so I actually I don’t know. I’m just making some shit up right now. But yeah, I know. I was like, I don’t know what to say here, but I’ll try to make a joke. So usually I’m the one that laughs the most at my own jokes like like some folks. But yes, so guys, Leif is Leif is a sales trainer, build sales teams specifically for coaches and info marketers and folks, stuff like that. But a lot of the sales techniques are very similar. We’re to be talking about

Leif Meyerson (00:48.203)
I got a face for radio, as I said.

Leif Meyerson (00:58.211)
You know, that’s the dad way.

Mike Hambright (01:12.218)
for real estate investors today and dealing with sellers specifically. So, Leif, tell us a little bit about your background before we jump in.

Leif Meyerson (01:19.159)
Yeah, so I mean, I’ve been in high ticket sales for two and a half decades. Worked with, I mean, I started obviously on the phones, closed millions and millions of dollars myself, and then transitioned into team lead positions, director of sales, sales floor managers. Biggest floor that I ran, was about 160 sales reps who were doing just over a million in revenue a week. I’ve grown sales floors from

Just a few reps to dozens and dozens of reps taking them from, you know, seven figures to eight, nine figures. And past five years, I’ve been doing some high ticket consulting, working with a lot of the biggest names that.

you’ll hear in the info world, know, the Cody Sperbers, the Cam Dunlaps, the Pace Morbys, things like that. And yeah, I just, love sales. It’s my passion. I love working with sales reps. I love working in developing systems and strategies. And yeah, it’s just kind of my thing.

Mike Hambright (02:20.728)
Yeah, that’s awesome.

Well, no matter what you’re selling, one of the biggest things that is important in building is building relationships, right? Like that rapport piece. talk, give us some kind of pro tips on building rapport. Cause I think a lot of folks, just, they’re going right for the kill, right? They’re trying to quote, sell, but you can’t sell until somebody trusts you until they feel that connection, right? Especially on whether it’s high ticket coaching or, one of the highest tickets is actually selling a house, right? So share your thoughts on just that rapport building process and how investors can improve.

Leif Meyerson (02:48.323)
Very true.

Mike Hambright (02:51.952)
prove.

Leif Meyerson (02:53.027)
Well, I think it is the number one thing that you need to be able to do if you’re gonna be successful in any sales interaction. So I don’t care if it’s the beginning of an REI sale and like the acquisitions part, or if it’s Dispo, or if it’s recruiting private money, you have to be able to build rapport and there’s a lot of old antiquated…

strategies out there like mirroring and you know, you have a cat I have a cat. you the how’s the weather? It’s all a bunch of garbage. One of the best ways that you can create what I call true rapport is by doing something I refer to as active listening. All right. So in the beginning of the interaction a lot of people will ask like close ended questions or guiding questions like you know,

sure you’re looking in at the market and you’re trying to sell right you know I’m just coming up with that at the top of my head but they’ll ask these close-ended questions and that’s the exact opposite of what you should do in the beginning of an interaction you should ask open-ended questions then zip your lips open your ears and truly understand what they’re trying to say and then guide the conversation from the backseat by utilizing curiosity questions so when we’re

listening to what a potential client or customer or motivated seller is sharing, we are taking mental note of things they’re sharing and then we ask them to expand on those things. So we repeat back the exact verbiage they say, whatever it might be, and then we sandwich that with a curiosity questions. Can you be more specific about that? Okay, dive more into that. Why is that important to you?

and then zip your lips and active listen and allow them as Simon Sinek, one of my favorite guys out there right now when it comes to this kind of thing, he says allow them to empty their bucket. And if you do that, you’re gonna start developing true rapport and trust because you will never.

Leif Meyerson (05:01.499)
ever be able to gain influence in a sales interaction if you first don’t establish that true rapport and trust. So one of the best ways you can do that is by active listening and not rushing the beginning part. So many people, and this is one of my favorite quotes, so many people listen with the intent to reply, not the intent to understand. And in this current climate,

Consumers and people out there, they’re far more intelligent than they were 20, 30 years ago when it comes to just consumer awareness and those kind of things. So by making value statements when you’re trying to build rapport, it breaks rapport and puts up those walls. So you’ve got to make sure you have patience when it comes to those kind of things and spend that time really getting to know your prospect.

Mike Hambright (05:57.868)
And what are some tips for asking the right open-ended questions? Because you’re also trying to gather information, right? So maybe you could share some tips on like, are some that clearly ask, especially when somebody’s guarded, that would get them to maybe open up a little bit more as well.

Leif Meyerson (06:18.295)
Yeah, so obviously it depends on the situation we’re in, right? So, I mean, if we’re cold calling, that’s gonna be completely different than if it’s a warm or a hot lead. But, and then of course you have to intro the call the right way. So you have to engage, you have to establish authority, and you have to frame the call the right way. But let’s say you did all that the right way. So you engage them the right way with a good question, or regardless.

You engage them, you establish authority, you frame the call. How I always like to open up.

diving in is asking a wide open question. One of the things I found a lot of success with is going, know, hey Mike, I just want to kind of like I said, get to know you and your situation a little bit better. Give me like a 60 second infomercial on you. Like who’s Mike? What makes Mike tick? Just asking something blanket like that will allow them, people love to talk about themselves. So if you’re not asking like a guided question, like tell me about why you want to sell your house.

Mike Hambright (07:15.864)
Right.

Leif Meyerson (07:21.061)
You know, what’s the most important thing you’re looking to get out of, you know, this kind of a transaction? Well, now that’s going to put up walls, right? Because you’re asking them to get into the sales process right away. And if you lower those walls by just asking them to share about themselves, they’re going to start just word vomiting because people love to talk about themselves. And then you can active listen and guide with those curiosity questions.

Mike Hambright (07:33.048)
Right.

Mike Hambright (07:38.338)
Yeah.

Mike Hambright (07:44.108)
Right.

Mike Hambright (07:47.83)
Yeah, there’s this phrase that’s been thrown around a lot that I’ve heard a lot over the past, you know, couple of years, I’d say that’s the we’re in a trust recession. Right. And it’s like, you know, it could be the divide that happened from COVID, like political stuff. Like it could be just the, you know, how polarizing the media is, how polarizing social media is. But people just like people just generally don’t trust anybody these days until they’ve earned it. Right.

Leif Meyerson (07:56.919)
Yes!

Leif Meyerson (08:16.131)
100%. And so many people in the sales arena right now. So I’m talking about people that are actually out in sales interactions. They try to rush the process too much, right? They try to get right to the point. It’s like they’re in a hurry. Well, you got somebody on the phone or you got somebody in person or you’re in somebody’s house. Take the time. It doesn’t take that long to develop some true rapport and that.

you know, ask curiosity questions to be genuinely curious about another person and really care about what they’re sharing with you. And if you do that, you’re going to find that the ability to gain influence later in the interaction is far easier because you’re right. So many people come into every interaction with these massive walls. They’re just waiting for the other shoe to drop. And then a lot of these sales pros, you know, they’ve been trained in a way where

like, okay, here are the eight questions I need to ask and get answers to. And it’s like, man, you’re missing the bigger picture. And I think there’s a real lack of understanding of just basic human psychology when it comes to gaining influence that we’re seeing out there right now.

Mike Hambright (09:30.402)
Yeah. And you mentioned something a few minutes ago, if you said, I think you made a reference, if it’s a cold calling lead. So let’s talk about, mean, I think that’s one of the problems that a lot of entrepreneurs have and real estate investors as well, that they treat all leads the same, no matter what the lead source is, right? There’s colder channels than others. So can you share your thoughts and tell us a bit about, you know, how to maybe treat different channels differently?

Leif Meyerson (09:57.139)
Absolutely. So, you know, there’s three different lead types.

Okay, now obviously there’s subsets of each lead type and I mean we’d be here all day talking about that. But there’s three basic categories that every lead is going to fall into. It’s cold, warm, and hot. So cold leads are people that didn’t, they don’t know you from Adam, they’re not expecting your call, they didn’t request to be contacted, so you just maybe doing a skip trace and finding their number because they met certain criteria.

lead. Then you have warm leads. So this is somebody that maybe opted into your email list or something like that. They kind of raised their hand. And then we have hot leads. Hot leads are like people that booked an appointment on your calendar or are a hot follow-up or something like that. So what I train my sales pros to do with cold leads you have about three seconds to engage.

Okay, so the biggest mistakes that I see people doing with cold leads is number one, they have horrible tech. Okay, so I’m sure you get calls all the time. mean, homeowners, get, you know, home service calls, hey, roofing, solar, all that kind of stuff. What drives me crazy is there’s always a gap. I answer the phone, hello. And then it’s like, yes, hello, Mr. Meyerson. It kills engagement. make…

Mike Hambright (11:21.486)
All right. Yeah. As they say, you’re a bullshit meter, like starts going crazy, right?

Leif Meyerson (11:28.419)
100%. So if you’re using some kind of a power dialer, make sure that you don’t have that gap because you have about three seconds or you’re going to lose that cold interaction. The next thing with cold leads is you have to have an engaging question, right? It’s got to be a little bit. Your tone needs to be obviously a little bit more enthusiastic, but not salesy. Your pace shouldn’t be as quick as you think.

So many people speed talk to cold leads. You don’t need to. All right. But then you need to have a high engagement style question. And, you know, depending on the industry, it just needs to be current market relevant, a high engagement question that people are going to want to answer. That’s how you engage a cold lead. Right. And then we go into establishing authority and framing and getting into the rest of the call. Warm leads. You have a little bit longer. You have about 10 to 15 seconds to engage a warm lead.

Okay, you don’t need to engage with a high level question. All right, you can be a little bit more laid back in your tonality and your pace because these people who requested some kind of information or on your email list or something, you’re not the only one they requested the information from, right? They probably went on 30 different sites and requested that information. So make sure that you’re standing out. So many people in the sales industry, they come in hot, right?

hey Mike how you doing? There’s Leif over at… Don’t do that with a warm or a hot lead. Come back, hey Mike, it’s Leif over at blah blah blah. So my tone’s a little bit different, my pace is a little bit different, and it’s gonna be disarming.

Mike Hambright (12:57.474)
Yeah.

Mike Hambright (13:06.307)
Yeah.

Leif Meyerson (13:06.359)
Hot leads, you have like 30 seconds to engage with a hot lead. So you have a little bit more lead way, but you got to get it done. And then you really, with hot leads, I like to envision myself as like the old wise man behind the desk. Kind of like what you look like right now, right? Like I want to pick your brain about X, Y, and Z. And so like if you were going to ask stock advice from Warren Buffett, how would he talk to you? That’s how you can talk to a hot lead.

Mike Hambright (13:23.853)
Bye.

Leif Meyerson (13:34.903)
Right? And it’s going to be different than everybody else they’ve talked to out there. And it’s going to really set you up well to get into active listening and building that trust.

Mike Hambright (13:46.294)
And if you have like an inbound lead, let’s say, how do you, I mean, when you first take that call, how do you, what if you don’t know if it’s warm, hot, or cold yet? Like how do you kind of profile it? Yeah.

Leif Meyerson (13:55.543)
Well, if it’s an inbound lead, are you talking about like they’re calling you?

Mike Hambright (14:00.342)
Yeah, I guess so, yeah. Okay, yeah.

Leif Meyerson (14:01.965)
Well then that’s a warm lead, right? So yeah, I mean you wanna be a little bit more enthusiastic. You need to engage them on that inbound lead. You need to establish authority and be of service to that person instead of going right for the jugular. Like what’s this call gonna be about and here’s what I’m gonna do for you. Don’t get too over eager. Have the patience, build the relationship.

Mike Hambright (14:23.64)
Yeah.

Mike Hambright (14:28.802)
Yeah.

On that note, let’s talk about the sales conversion cycle. A lot of people, historically, there’s people that want to do one call closes when they’re talking to folks. There’s a balance. You don’t want it to go on so long. It can’t be like a 10 call process where your competitors are just coming behind your back and closing it either. But just talk about that cycle time, that conversion cycle time, because for high ticket stuff, it’s consultative. I get why people want to take a little time

to think about it. mean, I do too, right? So how do you kind of balance like allowing the cycle time to work, but not like lingering so long that people change their mind or or go another route with a competitor or something like that?

Leif Meyerson (15:15.143)
Very good question. So first of all, I’m always asking for their business at the end of the interaction, right? So regardless, I’m going to go through that interaction with the idea of asking for their business. And, you know, I try to do it two to three times on an interaction, but you know how we do that is not pushy, right? You can’t be like super aggressive in your clothes because it’s consultative, right? So you can’t be that yin and yang.

But you definitely want to ask for their business because a closed mouth doesn’t get food. Right? Now, somebody says I need to think about it, those kind of things, which can be understandable. Make sure you’re never getting off the phone unless you have another booked appointment. OK? That is huge. So many people. So once you realize that the sale isn’t going to happen during that interaction, you don’t take off your clothes or hat.

your next close needs to be closing your next appointment, right? And getting that booked and getting it on their calendar. And try never to set an appointment out with a potential sale more than 72 hours. Okay, you start going out more than 72 hours. We all forget 50 % of what we just talked about within a 24-hour time period, right? So, you know, that’s main is you gotta go for the booked appointment next.

Mike Hambright (16:29.25)
Yeah.

Mike Hambright (16:36.524)
Right? Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Leif Meyerson (16:44.873)
Another thing I will say about the follow-up sequence, you have to engage them in between interactions. And so many people engage with, just checking in or, hey, wanted to do blah, blah, blah. No, what you need to do in that engagement is have like an aha moment and share it with them. Like, hey, I was watching this YouTube video of Jim Rohn.

and it made me think of our conversations, thought you would get a chuckle out of it. Right? Hey, was seeing this in the market and made me think of our conversation, thought you might find it interesting. You know? So now you’re at the top of their mind, you’re giving value in between your interactions, and you’re not asking for anything. Right? So that way you have a much higher likelihood of having them show for that follow-up.

Mike Hambright (17:18.978)
Yeah.

Mike Hambright (17:35.531)
Yeah.

Mike Hambright (17:41.25)
Yeah, yeah, that’s great. That’s great. So what are we, I’m sure we’ve covered some of this already. What are some, some pitfalls that you see of a lot of sales folks just kind of falling into some of the same traps that just don’t work? I know you probably just mentioned a couple of them, but anything else that we didn’t cover yet?

Leif Meyerson (17:58.861)
Yeah, so I think the biggest pitfall that I hear from salespeople out there, whether that be owner operators, real estate people, high ticket, is they talk too much. Okay? Like, my biggest pet peeve is when you ask somebody for their business. So let’s say we’re trying to lock up a wholesale deal, right? And you say, I think this is perfect for you, this is exactly what you need.

Like, let’s go ahead, let’s get this thing under contract and get going. Then zip your lips, like don’t keep talking. And I hear this all the time when I’m doing call reviews is they’ll ask for the sale, they won’t get an immediate response from the prospect, and then they’ll start talking again. Well, what does that do? Remember, in order to gain influence, you need to have true rapport and then you have to be the most certain.

Mike Hambright (18:48.62)
They get nervous.

Leif Meyerson (18:57.089)
Right? The person with the most certainty once there’s rapport will win the influence game. So by you jumping in and talking, guess what? You don’t come off certain anymore. You come off less confident, which then raises the spidey sense on the potential client or customer. So stop talking and guess what? They’re going to talk again. I’ve literally on a sales call myself asked for the business.

just over 14 minutes of silence. Now I made some noises. did the, but I didn’t say a word. And guess what? They came back and said, you know what? You’re right. Let’s do this. Why? Because they were processing all of the information that I just gave them. We don’t give clients and or potential clients and prospects enough time to digest.

Mike Hambright (19:29.088)
wow.

Leif Meyerson (19:54.595)
All the stuff we just did. And then once they digest, they’re only going to come back with four different responses. They’re going to say, yes, let’s go. Then great, sign them up. They’re going to ask a buying question, right? They’re going to say, well, you said this about this. Tell me more. Answer their question, build more value, ask for their business again. Or they’re going to come up with two different styles of objections. A stall, which is like, need to think about it. I need to talk to X, Y, Z. Or a true objection.

You know, I would love to do this. I just, I don’t have the money. Right? And then you go through what I call the helix. And I mean, that’s a whole different training that I go through, but that’s the only four responses that you’re going to get when you ask for their business and you zip your lip.

So yeah, that’s my biggest pet peeve. The biggest pitfall I see is over talking during the close.

Mike Hambright (20:45.954)
What person, I mean, I know this kind of differs, but I usually tell people they need to listen 75 % and talk 25%. mean, but there, in fact, I’ve seen some, I think like Fathom, like that connects a lot of people use for sale. If you do stuff online, I think it actually tells you the percentage of which each person talked to you for that reason, right?

Leif Meyerson (20:52.263)
Yeah!

Leif Meyerson (21:03.971)
Yep. Yeah, I mean, and a lot of the modern VoIP systems out there, so like a JustCall, things like that, they have AI built into them now that will give you call summaries and call reports and amount of talk time and how many questions were answered. So they’ll do a lot of that for you. But yeah, at 75, 25, 80, 20, you know, these are guidelines just to get it in your head. The client should talk.

Mike Hambright (21:12.803)
Yeah.

Mike Hambright (21:28.312)
Yeah. Yep.

Let’s talk about the status of the economy. So I know a lot of people, it’s easy as a business owner to say, well, the economy’s tough and people don’t have a lot of money right now. And I know it depends on what the offer is. If you’re a business opportunity, like there’s people that are maybe lost the job or they’re looking for another thing because they don’t feel like their job is very stable. Or if they’re selling a house, you know, they’re like, like because of interest rates are high, can’t afford the next one or whatever. Just talk about the role of the economy in sales.

and then talk about the psychology of how the salesperson gets screwed up by thinking about the economy.

Leif Meyerson (22:06.317)
Yeah, I think that is just another BS excuse, in my opinion, in the sales world, right? I mean, I just look back at like the 2008 crash. Everybody was losing their mind. I was in a REI coaching environment, and every with John Beck and Sean Higgins and those kind of guys. And that was when I was running that massive sales floor, right?

Mike Hambright (22:11.916)
Yeah.

Leif Meyerson (22:33.955)
everybody was freaking out like, my God, we’re never going to be able to sell anybody Koji. 2009 was one of our biggest revenue years. Why? Because we changed the conversation. Right? I’m dealing with a person that has a crypto offer right now, is one of my clients. And we all know what’s going on with crypto. So it’s just about changing the conversation. Three months ago, everything was booming in crypto. So the conversation was

This is amazing. Ride the, you know, ride the market. Now that it’s turned, it’s like, this is amazing. It’s the best time to buy. So it’s just, you know, stop using things like that as a crutch. Our sale is going to be a little bit more tricky. Sure. It just means you need to spend more time building that rapport, that trust and those, and doing things the right way. Right. So.

Mike Hambright (23:26.892)
Right? Especially warm and hot leads. Like they contacted you for a reason, right? Yeah.

Leif Meyerson (23:32.137)
Exactly, exactly. And you know, when we’re looking at the real estate market, I mean, you know this, I think we’re going to see another, you know, shift in the market where a ton of foreclosures are going to hit and things like that that have been hidden from us for a while. And that’s just going to be a boom market for anybody once get in, you know, and a boom market for people that are already in. You just have to play it right.

Mike Hambright (23:57.678)
Yeah, yeah, awesome, awesome. And what are your recommendations, Lee, for people that, know, sometimes people go through a sales training program one time and they did it four years ago, and then I don’t need additional training, and then you could say, hey, even the best athletes in the world like practice and train like every single day. So, kind of talk about like how to stay sharp, how to get sharp and how to stay sharp.

Leif Meyerson (24:20.737)
Listen to yourself. It is the only thing that works. so obviously you need to have a strategy and you can pregame and you can pre-call and I get into all of those kind of things, but here in this short timeframe that we have together, Mike, if I’m gonna give somebody one piece of advice, constantly listen to your calls.

Constantly be breaking down your own calls. It’s one of the hardest things to do. Nobody wants to listen to themselves. But I promise you, it is the biggest return on time that you can do in the sales world is listening to yourself.

Mike Hambright (25:01.304)
Yeah, and learning from it, right? What to say differently, what to not do. Yeah, yeah, awesome. Well, Leigh, thanks for spending some time with us today.

Leif Meyerson (25:12.195)
Hey, it was my pleasure, a lot of fun.

Mike Hambright (25:13.922)
Yeah, good stuff. We could probably talk for hours. So if folks want to learn more about you or connect in any way, where should they go?

Leif Meyerson (25:16.682)
yeah.

Leif Meyerson (25:22.541)
Well, they can go to, if they want to book like a free power session with me, they can go to the sales floor guy.

Mike Hambright (25:31.31)
That’s a good one. Easy to remember.

Leif Meyerson (25:33.899)
Easy to remember. And then also, if people are looking for a really complete sales training, I did put one together, you could check it out, and that’s joinusatoday.com, and then I’m gonna do a deal for your people, Mike, forward slash podcast.

Mike Hambright (25:35.905)
Awesome.

Leif Meyerson (25:54.925)
So those are the two best ways.

Mike Hambright (25:57.578)
Awesome, well thanks again for joining us today. Everybody, think if you’re doing the sales, you gotta stay sharp. Sometimes as an owner, you feel like you’re the best salesperson, and you don’t need training, you don’t need this, I’ve been doing it for 20 years, whatever the things are. Again, even the best athletes in the world have tons of coaches and practice every single day. And if you’re not…

keeping your sales team sharp and using trainings and stuff like that, listening to their calls, which again is a pain in the butt, but has to happen. You gotta make sure you’re doing that. if you need any help, definitely reach out to Leif and learn more about what he’s got too. So Leif, thanks again, my friend. Yeah, you too. Everybody, I hope you got some great insights from today’s show. Looking forward to seeing you on the next one. Have a great day, take care.

Leif Meyerson (26:34.389)
Hey, it’s my pleasure, Mike. You take care, okay?