How you utilize language in your presentations to your clients and prospects plays a big role in determining how successful you will be in your real estate business. With this in mind there's a simple yet major mistake that many agents are making when trying to get their clients and prospects to take action and move forward in different situations.

The words that we utilize produce different pictures, sounds, and feelings in our clients and prospects. Therefore it's very important that we choose the words that inspire our clients and prospects to move forward in wanting to work with us.

If I were to pick one phrase that represents the biggest and most common linguistic mistake that I see so many agents making when talking with their clients and prospects, it would be asking a question similar to this one:

"Do you see any problem in moving forward?" Or even worse: "What problems do you see in moving forward?"

Out of all the things you could ask your clients and prospects to focus on, why would you want to direct their minds towards looking for more problems? Because if you utilize phrases like the ones above, this is exactly what you're directing their minds to do.

And since your clients and prospects are involved in making major financial decisions while working with you, there will almost always be some problems that will come into their minds from time-to-time. These problems and uncertainties can also lead to what we've come to know as buyer's and seller's remorse.

So now let me ask you the following question about how your business is going as a real estate agent:

"What problems do you see in closing all of the real estate transactions you're currently working on?"

Notice where your mind and emotions begin to go with that one, and recognize that you definitely don't want to move your clients and prospects in a similar direction! And also notice that the direction your mind and emotions began to go in resulted directly from the specific question I asked you.

So, you'll want to make sure to ask your clients and prospects questions that put them in the ideal mental and emotional states to move forward in doing business with you.

Returning now to what you could say to your clients and prospects instead of the questions we discussed earlier, consider some questions like the following:

"Can you see now that everything is in place for us to move forward?" Or: "Do you definitely feel ready now to move forward?"

Just a slight adjustment in how you phrase your questions and language to your clients and prospects will make a huge difference in the kind of responses you receive from them.

Published: January 21, 2005

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