In this episode of The Referral Secrets Podcast, Curtis interviews renowned motivational speaker, and best selling author Darryl Davis. Darryl shares tips and strategies for real estate agents to build important relationships, increase productivity, and make the deal, by serving people. It’s getting back to basics, caring for people, and genuinely working with others best interests in mind.
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Welcome everybody to another episode of Referral Secrets. Today, we have Darryl Davis. He specializes in delivering tools, strategies, and skills that real estate agents need to thrive in any market. We’re going to get into a lot of really great stuff for realtors. But before we do, before we talk about what he does, I’d love for you to share who you are, who is Darryl Davis, and please share your story if you don’t mind.
Well, thanks Curtis. And thanks for having me. This is awesome that you’re doing this for the industry, so thank you. I started real estate when I was 19 years old. I actually wanted to be an actor. I was a theatre major in college. I was doing auditions in New York City. But the joke in acting is when you tell somebody you’re an actor they ask, “Oh, really, what restaurant are you playing?” I didn’t want to be serving tables, waiting tables, although I did do that as well. But anyway, I got into real estate because I heard it was a great profession where you can have flexible hours and make a lot of money.
That was important to me, Curtis, because I had been living on my own since I was 16; I was an emancipated minor. I had my own apartment, and still put myself through high school and then college. So I’ve always been a survivor, a self-starter. I had to take care of myself.
When I was in college studying to be an actor, I also wanted to support myself. So I got into real estate for that. I was really successful very soon in real estate so I got out of acting. I was doing six transactions a month, and then I met this guy, and he thought I was awesome. He said, “I want you to be my manager”. So we opened up an office together in New York, which became number one in our first six months. I started doing seminars a few years later and started traveling. And now, 30 years later, still speaking and training, I’m sitting here talking to you.
You know, I do have to share what I appreciate about you. One of the reasons why we really wanted you on this podcast is because you and Julie run, what is it again? Online?
It’s our ‘Membership is the Power Program’. I’ve shortened the whole backstory, but in 1993, I created this year-long process, called The Power Program. The concept is that it takes 30 days to create a habit, Curtis. I thought, well, if it takes 30 days to create a habit, then it makes sense that agents focus on just getting good habits in one aspect at a time of the business. So I sat down and wrote out, well, what are all the aspects? There’s the listing appointment. There’s prospecting. There’s working with buyers, negotiating, farming. By the time I was done, I had 12 sessions. So I said, wow, let’s create one session a month for 30 days with homework assignments and team-building, and teach agents a bunch of things focused just on that one aspect of real estate. Study it for 30 days, create good habits, come back, and learn the next one. That was the birth of The Power Program in 1993. Because of the success, McGraw-Hill Publishing reached out to me and asked, would you write a book based on your winning formula of doubling agent’s production? So I wrote How to Become a Power Agent in Real Estate, which hit number one several times on Amazon.
Darryl doesn’t beat around the bush; if he wants something, he goes for it. So I got on the phone with you and it was a really great conversation. It was very straight forward. The expectations were there. I said to myself, this is a guy that I want to work with and partner with and make something happen. I really appreciate that about you and I’m sure that same attitude goes into your coaching.
Well, there are two major criteria that we have. When we bring on a vendor, number one is that they have integrity and they’re a good company. If I’m going to vouch for a vendor, then I put my name behind it. So criterion one, it must be a good company with integrity. They don’t have to be the best company. They don’t have to be the perfect company, but they’ve got to have that integrity because if they screw up, they’ll clean up, and that’s the real cornerstone.
The second thing is that they give a deal or package to our members, our power agents, that nobody else gets. So you hit the two points, and this is why we are happy with our relationship with you. Our students have been using AMcards, and they’re just loving it. So I’m real happy with our relationship.
Well, thank you very much. I appreciate that. So I want to dive back into this program. There are a lot of real estate coaches out there, and after doing some research and talking to some people in the industry, you’re by far at the very top, because you get results.
One of the great things about real estate is that pretty much anybody can go out there, study hard, get their license and get into real estate. One of the worst things about real estate is pretty much anybody can study hard, get their license and get into real estate. So there are all different levels of professionalism in there. Just because you’re a realtor, doesn’t make you a professional. So what is it that you do within your program that you feel has the biggest traction to get people moving towards results?
I think what speaks to the type of agent that we attract is they don’t want to be scripted. They don’t want to be rehearsed. We have a motto that our Power Agents live by. Power Agents, don’t close people. We coach people, empower people; we don’t sell people, we serve people. So those are the two big distinctions of the training and the foundation. We’re not a fan of scripts because the problem with scripts is what happens if the other person doesn’t know their part?
There’s a certain amount of inauthenticity that’s associated with scripts, and people pick up on that. So we empower and coach and train agents on how to speak from the heart, not their head; how to articulate from the heart and not from some memorized script. It comes off more authentic, more effective. So that’s the big thing that distinguishes us from some of the other training out there. Now we may get the same results as some of the other real estate agents, but it’s more enjoyable, you know? So I tell people everything revolves around real estate. Right now, you’re sitting in a piece of real estate, as am I. The White House is a piece of real estate. There are wars over real estate. Earth is a piece of real estate in the universe.. So real estate agents are in my opinion, the best profession that anybody can be in because the world revolves around it.
You know, you got results. Would you talk more about speaking through your heart instead of your head and being authentic and conversational rather than scripted?
There needs to be consistency. They need to have good work habits. They have to push past fear, especially for the new agent. The new agents often get held back by their fear of knowing there’s so much that they don’t know. That gives them insecurity. They have to get past that and find their own uniqueness in what they bring to the table. It’s that whole concept of integrity and passion for serving, not selling. I tell agents, if a homeowner has a choice to work with a top-producing agent who is not particularly empathetic or understanding, versus a newer agent who is really empathetic, really understanding, committed, and is eager to work their butt off, I believe most people will choose the latter.
That’s awesome. So this program that you put together, you travel around and do these as live events.
Right. A company hires me or we pick a city and do a free event. Agents come, they meet me. We do an amazing three-hour seminar. During the three hours, we tell them about the Power Program, and they sign up. They pay the registration fee, get a manual and a set of training tapes.
I flew to this same class every 30 days for a year, and train all day on one topic. The first session is always the attitude session, because what we do is based on who we are. If somebody teaches you how to make a hundred grand, but who you are is 30 grand a year, that’s all you’re ever going to make.
So the first session was a nine to five day, and it was a mental enema that cleared people’s heads. They had to learn to live from what was possible and get excited about the possibility of what their career could be. That was the first session. Then they had 30 days to complete homework assignments, until I returned for the next session the next month.
I was managing this office of agents for a year. The agents doubled their production over their previous year. They said that it was a life-altering experience. And I’ll tell you something crazy, when you talked to these agents, they were different.
It was that experience that made me a better trainer and coach. You know, there are a lot of great speakers and coaches in our industry, but for me, I became much better at understanding real estate through that process. Because let me tell you, when you are trained in this group who have paid for it for a year, you can’t BS your way through. You can’t tell somebody do something that is BS because they’ll come back at the next class and say, what did you just teach me? So there was a dual accountability. I was holding the students accountable to do their homework assignments. Every month they filled out an Integrity Sheet, and we’d give them the next assignment. What was my point? My point was it made me a better trainer because I learned from things that I would teach and thought of ways to tweak and improve that. So the basis of everything we teach today is through not just my years as a salesperson, but my years of training and learning from agents.
Well, it’s going to be even more powerful after this whole pandemic goes away, and things do open up. You’ll be able to get these Power Agents all together in big rooms and that’s going to be fun.
I plan to do a Power Agent reunion, for sure. I want to bring agents in from all over the country,
You’ve got to come down here to Florida. We welcome people down here. Would you share your link?
Yeah. It’s Darrylspeaks.com. Our current format, which has been the format for years, is online. There are weekly webinars, weekly coaching calls.
One of my staff is Julie. Julie’s been in the industry for a really long time. When we first started working together, she was blown away by our Monday coaching calls. She said, “there’s no other speaker who does what you do”. Every Monday, the Power Agents call in on a group call and bring their problems. So for a couple hours, I’m basically accessible. I’m a coach, I’m a therapist. I get a lot of questions. And whatever they bring, my job is to coach them, to strive for a breakthrough every Monday. Those calls are really fun, because they keep me fresh. I’m creating new techniques when a Power Agent asks, I just had this homeowner say this, what should I have said to them? And I’ll invent new dialogue. It’s fun for me. I love it.
Well, that’s a perfect transition. First of all, if you’re listening to this, go ahead and take a look at Darrylspeaks.com.
Let’s talk about some challenges in the current market right now. What are things that you’re coaching some of your Power Agents through? What are the biggest challenges these agents are facing?
The biggest challenge is that agents are not paying attention. Everybody’s paying attention to virtual during the pandemic. Listings are low. There’s a lot of that conversation, but man, oh man, there is a sleeping giant that’s starting to step up, and people are just not paying attention. That’s Zillow. Zillow. Now I’m not endorsing; I’m just pro-agent.
This is a company that has changed their business model. For years they have been saying they’re not a brokerage, they’re not going to compete with agents. They’re going to do advertising, they’re a media company.
But they are direct competitors right now with the traditional agent. It should be a concern for people. One of the things agents should be focused on is getting more actively involved in their MLS. It’s how data’s put out, and listing agents should be getting credit for their listings because they’re losing their business to corporations like Zillow. I’m really hot on that right now. Getting listings is important for agents.
The market has really dried up for agents when it comes to listings, so anything they can do in that regard is going to help improve their business. They are building relationships with people, boots on the ground, face-to-face with people and a lot of agents are spending money on social media and internet ads. Getting leads that way is good, depending on the company you’re giving your money to. But I think that expression “what’s old is new again” is so true. One of the things that is really valuable is direct mail marketing. I think every agency should be going back to that.
So the Direct Marketing Association did a study which found that the response rate on email is about 1%. With direct mail, it’s actually 9%. So it’s much better. Part of the reason is when you open up your email, your first commitment is to deleting, not opening. You want to clean out the junk. So you delete, delete, delete. With that done, you look at your mail. So that’s one of the things agents should be focused on, building a listing inventory in their market area.
I just saw a post on a real estate group. This agent’s in South Florida, which means he did some safe door knocking to promote his open house in the neighborhood. He hustled for three days and knocked on all the doors, inviting everyone. On the day of the open house, there was already a line down the sidewalk and down the road. He had over 200 people in two days go through and it was priced right. Beautiful home, and boom! he knocked it out of the park. I love that. I’m a big advocate of direct mail in all different industries.
Personally, we don’t do the mass mailings; we don’t have that dialed in yet, but I am a big fan because I worked for Dan Kennedy, who sent over a half a million mailers a month, and built a nine figure business with direct mailing type stuff.
Since I’ve been a speaker, I’ve been a fan of Dan Kennedy, may he rest in peace.
He is very straight forward. What’s another challenge happening? I wondered about the sleeping giant, Zillow. How does an agent not get too distracted with it and not let it bog them down? Attitude obviously is so important; how you show up and who you are. But if you let that replay in your head, might that almost force you to say, maybe this is not the industry for me, because Zillow will take it all?
Zillow is a really hot topic right now. Here’s what I said to my office. Say you’re a news reporter hired to do an article on the cost of cigarettes. While researching it, you found that chemicals were added to make people addicted, and they tried to cover it up. That’s how I feel about the Zillow webinar that I’ve been preparing. I started to learn and see so many things; it’s really not good. It’s like the travel agent industry, they would never go out of business when they were travel agents. Now I don’t know people who use travel agents. That industry was decimated by the internet, just as malls have been replaced by Amazon.
It’s always gradual, Curtis. You never really see it. Right? So the industry needs to pay attention to Zillow. But to answer your question, there are a couple things that need to happen. Number one is real estate agents should not just get upset, but should take action. They should do something about it. If they care about their industry, they should get more involved in their board or their MLS. That’s a simple thing that everybody can do. So that’s number one.
Number two is carve out your own path that’s not dependent on a company. I don’t want to spend all our time talking about Zillow, but you know, Zillow is not a vendor. They are a real estate broker. So any agent who gives money to Zillow, is giving to a brokerage, because they are a brokerage. So you need to carve out your own path that isn’t dependent on that outside company to generate your business. A lot of that has to do with building relationships with people. You know, people will list with people, because there is that relationship and trust.
So the better an agent is at connecting with people and building those relationships and following up, the more solid their network. We don’t have to get all the business, but if we have some of it, my best agents can make 300-400 grand a year Curtis, from maybe a hundred clients. Because those hundred clients are advocates of that agent, they recommend that agent, and they become the silent salesperson for that agent. So to avoid the distraction, you get into action.
That’s amazing. Thank you. What are your top little trick strategies to help one of your agents win the deal, like to get their offer accepted?
Great question. One of the things is removing all contingencies; whatever you can remove, remove it. Number two is have the buyer agree to make two mortgage applications. One application would be for the selling agent, to get pre-qualified, but the second application would be with the listing agent. So what we do is tell the listing agent, “listen to my buyer. They’re really committed. They really want this property. To help relieve any concern that you might possibly have, they’ve made two mortgage applications. Whichever one goes through and is the best one, is going to be their mortgage lender. But the other one is whoever you choose Mr.& Mrs. Listing”, and that’s really powerful.
If a selling agent brings me an offer, I’m the listing agency. They’re pre-qualified and that’s good. But now that agent says, I’ll put my buyers with your lender. Well, now I feel more secure that this deal’s going to go through, because I know my lender and I know that if they tell me they will get this loan, they’ll get the loan. So now I have a stronger commitment to putting that deal together, knowing that I can have some say in the matter.
So those are a couple of suggestions I have. Another big one that I am a fan of is having the offer written with a contingency on the selling agent. Typically, all offers are given to the listing agent who presents them all at one time. But my contingency is that I present ours personally. I want to present the offer to the homeowner, because I can present it better than anybody can. Why? Because I know my buyers. I’ve been working with my buyers.
I know things about my buyers that may not be reflected on paper. For some agents, that takes a little bit of guts to do, but you’ve got a better shot to get your offer accepted that way. The last tip, Curtis, is the love letter. I’ve been teaching the love letter since I’ve been a speaker. I don’t know if I created it, but I’ve been teaching it for 30 years. Time and time again, I’ve had agents say it was because of the love letter that their deal got accepted. Now, the fair housing people may say you really can’t do the love letter because it could discriminate. I’m not going to get into that now, but it’s just not accurate. It’s not true whatsoever. It’s much ado about nothing.
In fact, I hired my lawyers to go in there and find a lawsuit based on discrimination because of the love letter, and they found zero.
So, share a little bit more about the love letter. It’s really just a story about why these buyers who want the house, deserve the house?
The concept of the love letter. The buyer writes a letter to the seller, telling the seller why the potential buyers are very excited about possibly being the next family to live in this home and raise their family. They had looked at many houses, but none had the same feelings as yours did. When we walked into your home, we felt the love of the 27 years that you’ve lived here. and we felt like we were being hugged. It’s a gushy letter, but it’s a real letter from a real buyer. The reason why this is so powerful is that the sellers most likely have a very personal attachment to the home, and the letter affirms that.
You have probably heard the expression “If these walls could talk”, you know, for a home owner selling their home. They almost look at that deed like a family tree. They know who owned the house before them, and who owned it before them. So there’s a certain amount of responsibility that the home owner feels passing the deed to the next family who will love and appreciate it as much as they have. So what the love letter does is it bridges the humans together.
It brings a humanistic part of the transaction that sometimes gets lost, especially in negotiations or with real estate agents. We focus on money, money, money, money, which of course, is part of our job. But there’s that human aspect that unfortunately gets lost.
One deal I remember Curtis, was this widow who was moving with her child. She was moving to Long Island, and away from a place that was not good for the child. There were guns there, shootings. It was a bad neighborhood with no backyard. She expressed how awesome it would be for her child to live in a home with a big backyard. She wrote a letter, saying, “Now I can’t offer you a whole lot of money, but I want you to know that if given the chance, I will appreciate this home, and I’m going to raise my son,blah, blah, blah. When I read the letter in class, now — this goes back many years–the whole class was crying; I’m crying. Do you know, Curtis, the homeowner didn’t even counter. He just accepted the offer. Wow. The reason why it was so awesome was because we all got it. We were making a huge difference in a family’s life. That’s important in my opinion.
Wow. That’s awesome. That’s an absolutely great story. So if you’re paying attention, there are three things you can do to help get your offer accepted. Number one. Get every contingency that you possibly can. Number two. Get two mortgage pre-qualifications, one from your mortgage guy and then another from the seller’s choice. Then number three, the love letter. That’s amazing.
I know you have a lot more tricks, but we’ll keep it to three. So in wrapping up, you’ve seen just about everything in 30 years of real estate. You were there way before the internet and when there was no electronic anything,
Yeah, I tell people I got a real estate license BC, before computers.
But at the core it stays the same. It’s people working with people and with technology around it. What’s some advice you have for some agents as we wrap up?
What we teach our Power Agents. We don’t sell people, we serve people and we should focus on not closing people, but coaching people. Those two distinctions are really powerful because people don’t want to be closed. They want to be coached. They want a realtor to help them get through the maze and confusion that is real estate. We help them see the choices that they have, and that’s what a coach does, right?
People can be overwhelmed or confused or worried. What an agent does is help lift the fog by showing people their choices. You can do this, or you can do that. Here are the results and possible consequences based on your choice; but it’s your choice.
The other thing is to remember: we are serving, not selling. I’ll ask agents, especially in a live seminar, “When a homeowner hires you as their listing agent, what is the end result they’re committed to?” Every audience always agrees on the same thing: sell the house. I tell him, no, that’s not it. When you think about it, people are closing a chapter in their life, moving somewhere, physically moving somewhere. But it’s also emotional. They are writing a whole new chapter in their life and they’re doing that for a reason. Maybe it is a job relocation. It could be for a bigger home because they have a child on the way. They may be going through divorce and they need to separate.
The point is, selling the house is not what people are committed to. They’re committed to their next level in life, and selling the house is just a means to that end. So what we do as real estate professionals, is help people get to their next level. If you really get that, now you’re serving and not selling; now you’re coaching and not closing. That’s the last thing I would leave people with, that distinction.
Amazing. Well, thank you so much for hopping on and sharing your wisdom. Can’t wait to share it with our community, we have a lot of real estate agents here. So thank you once again for taking the time. I know you’re a busy man.
Thank you, Curtis. Thanks for doing this for the industry. I appreciate it, man.
Have a great day. Take care. Bye bye.
Important Links:
Website: https://darrylspeaks.com/trial/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DarrylDavisSpeaks
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darrylspeaks/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrylspeaks/
About Darryl Davis:
Darryl Davis is a renowned motivational speaker, life coach and creator of the nationally recognized term Next Level.® He is also the founder of the year-long coaching process, The POWER Program®, which has proven results of doubling people’s income over their previous year. As a speaker, Darryl’s contagious enthusiasm, hilarious sense of humor, depth of expertise, and flawless delivery are all jam-packed into a dynamic presentation of real-world skills and techniques.
- Best-Selling Author with McGraw-Hill Publishing for his book, “How To Become a Power Agent in Real Estate.”, In addition, he has written 2 other books for McGraw-Hill Publishing: “How to Make 100,000 Your First Year in Real Estate” and “How to Design a Life Worth Smiling About”.
- Darryl has appeared in movies, commercials, and was a featured Comedian at Caroline’s Comedy Club in New York City, America’s premier comedy nightclub.
- The only real estate speaker to be given the opportunity to audition for the NBC television series, “Last Comic Standing.” and was considered to be one of the 3 judges for NBC’s American Home Builders with Nate Berkus.
- Darryl is a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), which is conferred by the National Speakers Association and the International Federation for Professional Speakers. It is the speaking profession’s international measure of professional platform skill, which is held by less than 2% of all speakers worldwide.
In the real estate industry, Darryl speaks on the listing and selling skills real estate agents need to be successful. In industries outside the real estate industry, his main topic is “How to Design a Life Worth Smiling About”. This topic is customized to the industry, the audience, and the goal of the client. Whether the goal is to improve customer service, increase sales or help the company act more like a cohesive team, this is an incredible Keynote Seminar.
www.DarrylSpeaks.com
1-800-395-3905
Social media contact for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube is /DarrylSpeaks