During the past week I met two salespeople.

The first salesperson I dealt with was Frank, who is an insurance salesman. I was talking with Frank about different options for insurance, and while he is a friendly person, he ended up completely repelling me from wanting to do business with him. His answers to my questions were very lengthy, but I never got the feeling he was listening to my needs.

I'd find myself continually waiting for him to finish talking before I could ask him my next question. In addition, sometimes he would start answering my questions before I had finished asking them, thereby beginning one of his long and embellished answers once again, but unfortunately it was sometimes an answer to a different question than the one I was going to ask him.

On top of this, he kept trying to get me interested in an insurance plan that I told him I wasn't interested in. I told him what I was looking for, and he gave me my options in that arena, but he kept bringing up this other insurance plan that I had told him was not an option.

I really felt frustrated in working with him. And while his company actually did have a plan that would have worked for me, I found myself looking for another company to work with because Frank was so completely tuned out of my needs, and I didn't want to establish an ongoing relationship with him. So I found another expert at a different company who was very knowledgeable, attentive, and listened to exactly what I wanted. And in my second phone call with him, he ended up closing the deal.

In your own business:

• Are you listening to your clients' needs?

• Are you focused on fulfilling their needs?

• Is it more important for you to listen to them than it is for you to be talking to your customers?

Now compare that experience to the one I had with Ronny, a man from India whose passion is spreading the word about natural healing therapies throughout the world. He fulfilled needs for products I didn't know I had! Here's how I ended up buying from Ronny.

My wife, our daughter, and I were walking through the local shopping mall and Ronny managed to get our attention. He was standing at his kiosk in the middle of the mall showcasing his healthcare products.

Neither my wife or I were looking for what Ronny was selling, and we didn't even know that the products he was offering existed. But Ronny began talking with us and his passion and love for his products came through.

He began giving us demonstrations of what his products could do for us. He had one product that massaged the head that really felt incredible, and another one for massaging the rest of the body. He mentioned that these products contained magnets in them which were supposed to aid in relaxing the body, too. Another product he offered was a specially contoured pack made from fabric that contained herbs inside of it. This pack was for heating in a microwave oven then placing on the part of the body that needed relaxing, and it was reusable, too. We could even smell all the herbs that were carefully sewn inside of the fabric.

Even if we had known about these products I don't think they would have been at the top of our shopping list, but Ronny's passion and love for what he did and his impressive demonstrations won us over.

And as I heard well known author and speaker Dr. Wayne Dyer say on one occasion, "When you truly love what you do for a living, people aren't buying the product or service you're selling them. They're buying the passion, love, and enthusiasm you exude to them."

And in the case of our experience with Ronny, this is definitely what happened.

So what does all of this mean to you in your real estate business?

Exude a passion and love for your real estate business, and your clients and prospects will feel compelled to work with you. Anyone can answer questions, but it takes a professional to be enthusiastic.