Please understand, I am not the world's greatest salesman or sales trainer. You cannot follow me and become successful.

I am just a person with a strong faith, who has sold $3 billion in real estate, and has been a commission sales person since he was a junior in high school. That's more than 30 years ago.

One thing I have learned about life. Life's lessons are based on principles, on truth. The principle of gravity is the same today as it was yesterday and will be tomorrow. So are sales principles. We come to understand them through experience.

I quit looking for 'keys,' 'steps,' 'pitfalls,' and 'secrets' a long time ago. I started looking for "lessons," because as I look back on a 30-year career in commission sales, I remember the lessons that matter are based on principles.

To apply them I must believe them to be true, and therefore I, not anyone else, would have to act on my belief, not someone else's. The sales lessons came at unexpected times in a variety circumstances, many of them outside of real estate sales.

As you read these three lessons, look back on your own experience, and think of lessons you learned and the situation you were in. What have you found to be true in your sales career?

The first lesson I learned was my first day on the job as a junior in high school when I started selling shoes at Cannon Shoe store. The manager was Mr. McKee. I was to be paid six percent commissions.

I reported for work and he led me directly to the stock room. With his bald head reflecting the glare from a bare light bulb hanging from the ceiling, his steely eyes peering over his glasses and his boney index finger pointed at me taught me a lesson I never forgot.

"Son, I want to teach you something about selling, and I don't want you to ever forget it."

"Yes, sir."

"Are you listening to me?"

"Yes, sir."

Mr. McKee then gave me the shortest, clearest sales lesson I ever heard.

"Get their money." Three little words. This might be a little crude for a sales book cover, but it is in fact the truth.

Then he told me how to do it.

"If you cannot find a pair of shoes the customer is looking for, turn them over to me. You do not get paid to show shoes. You get paid to sell shoes. Do you understand?"

Even as a 16-year-old I understood. I was not guaranteed a nickel. I was not expected to know the inventory on my first day. And I better turn my prospects over to Mr. McKee or face a one-man firing squad.

Fortunately, it was a retail operation, so I did not have to worry about prospecting. I just focused on meeting the needs of the prospects who wanted to buy shoes, then hopefully help them purchase socks, shoe polish and women's hose, at the counter.

There is nothing quite like the thrill of a crowded shoe store for a young commissioned shoe sales clerk on an Easter Saturday, when you basically just take orders.

Some may argue, me included, that 'taking orders' is what many commission sales people in real estate services did for the last 15 years or so, until around 2007.

We are no longer in the find your dream home business. We are in the reassurance business.

By the time they talk to us via email or phone, prospects have already eliminated more 'dream' homes than we could ever show them. They need help and reassurance that they are making the right decision, and it is based on a whole lot more than 'location' these days.

One thing has not changed. Our job as commission sales people is to sell them what we have to sell. We are not in the business to show homes.

The second lesson learned was the importance of dealing with a person who is ready, willing, and able to buy what I am selling. If one of the three is missing, I have a suspect, not a prospect.

Fortunately, for me, Mr. Byrd, the president of the baby furniture manufacturing company, was the best I ever knew at delivering qualified prospects. I managed a six-county direct sales staff for Mr. Byrd.

Again, I did not have to 'prospect' for a living. The company did it for me. I focused on lead follow up, setting appointments, and making home demonstrations. It was like getting listings, you might say.

Mr. Byrd taught me that if the prospect was not ready, willing, and able to make a purchase today, she was a suspect. I acted as if I knew what he was talking about, but until I actually sold a package to a buyer who did not qualify for the loan, I had no idea what he meant. I learned at that instant what "not able' meant.

My prospects were expectant mothers. My product was baby furniture. My benefits were safety, peace of mind, and value.

Showing this to a woman who was not pregnant made no sense, because there was no urgency or need. It is like showing a home to a person not financially qualified to purchase it. Mr. Byrd knew how to deliver prospects, not suspects.

Lesson number three came from the greatest real estate sales agent that I ever knew. Her name is Doria. She always has a good prospect, just got a listing, or is going to a closing.

The lesson: Not Asking For The Business Gets Expensive

I asked her one day, what her prospecting secret was. She said, "No matter where I am, I always ask someone if they know someone who may be thinking about buying or selling a home."

Then she proceeded to tell me about when she was out for dinner, how she asked the couple at the next table if they happened to be looking for a second home and how she sold them a luxury condominium the next day.

"Do have any idea what "not asking' would have cost me? $9,000," she continued, referring to her commission.

"We have not, because we ask not," she reminded me. "It's one of the principles I know is true."

Think back over lessons learned in your own life. My guess is that you are not only applying these lessons, but are sharing them

Lots of things seem to be out of commission these days. By remaining true to and applying principle-based lessons, you should not be one of them.

Published: July 22, 2010

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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.