Orlando Realtor Kemp Howland, in his fifties, has been selling real estate for about eight months. He no longer takes floor time. He's too busy. Kemp is averaging two sales and two listings a month and growing stronger every day..

Before coming into real estate, he was a computer consultant for major corporations. He, like many others, had to face a career change after 9/11. He chose residential real estate.

In his younger days, he sold new cars and had the benefit of the best sales training in the world at General Motors' headquarters in Detroit.

Kemp was on time and attended every training session, learned all the scripts, and after training, asked for sales coaching.

When asked why he was so committed to training, he said he understood the importance of scripts and the need to constantly practice the fundamentals.

Some thought his success was due to his technology skills, which are plentiful. When asked how much technology played a role in his success, he said "Other than MLS, you really don't need to know much technology."

When asked to what he attributed his sales success, he simply said, "I know how to sell."

What he means is he knows how to lower sales resistance to both him and his service and he knows how to build sales acceptance in sequence.

Kemp learned how to prospect, and he will be the first to tell you that technology is playing a big part in that now.

When Kemp first came into the business he was willing, ready but not able to prospect effectively. When he knocked on doors he would tell the lucky homeowner that he was his local representative. He never got inside. Not one time in at least ten tries. Can you think of anyone in your office who might have given up after ten straight failures?

To me, Kemp is doing it the easy way. He made the early effort to learn the scripts, something most agents find too difficult. I'm not a sales doctor, but I would highly recommend that you insist on scripting. Your early career could depend on it.

Published: June 23, 2003

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David Fletcher has been a Florida real estate condominium and new homes broker for 30 years with more than $3 billion in new construction sales. In 2008, Keller Williams Realty International named him a "Lifetime Achiever." Along the way he has chaired the Florida Homebuilders Associaiton Sales and Marketing Council, trained thousands of general agents and on-site agents to work together, and was a featured speaker at the National Association of Realtors. Recently he founded New Homes Niche, a builder-certified co-broker training system "to meet the growing trend we see in short sale buyers moving to new homes for a lot of reasons." Call David at 407 234 2349, , and visit his website.