Ok, ok, so maybe I didn’t really have time to do any type of “official study” but I got a feeling here, and you will too, if you just hear me out.  Plus, nothing wrong with using an outrageous headline to get a reader’s (you) attention.

I live in a dog friendly high rise building.  Every day I see people taking their canine companions down the elevator and to the park to for a potty break.  Every day, the same dogs, at the same time, doing the same thing.  It occurred to me that dogs are pretty consistent animals and there’s a lot we in sales, can learn from them. 

Often times in sales, the key to making it, lies in your ability to remain consistent. I’d say most salesmen I’ve seen fail, give up on following up, right before the sale was made.  The old saying “buy or follow up until they die” holds true today, more than ever before. 

So what’s that have to do with Agents and dogs?

Agents are ultimately salesmen, even though some refuse to act like it, others refuse to admit it. In order for a salesperson to be successful, they have to convince other humans to  pay them for their services.  

Many Agents believe you have to be some sort of NLP master, mind reader or psychology major in order to succeed at sales.  That couldn’t be further from the truth.  Matter of fact, the less formal education a salesman has, the better he will perform, in most cases. 

That being said, I watch these high rise dogs, close more sales than I see some Agents.  

Each day, after the people take their dog out the front door, around the park, in the cold, rain, snow or heat, they come back in the front door, and give the dog one of the treats.  The teat buckets are ALWAYS FULL, even more than the filtered water jug in the gym.  

Not only have these dogs convinced their owners to give them a milkbone every day, after they just forced them to pick up their dog shit with a thin plastic glove, they’ve got their owners to convince the building managers to supply the goods.  

If that ain’t a master sales move, I don’t know what is. 

But dogs aren’t intelligent.  I mean dogs are smart and all, they are not human smart.  Matter of fact they aren’t even dolphin smart, whatever that means.  So if dogs aren’t super human jedi mind masters, how are they able to get what they want, at will, for doing normal stuff?

The answer lies in consistency.  Nothing more nothing less.  

Every single day, these dogs wake up, wake their owner up, get them out of bed, and get them to let them out.  If not, they know what happens…  Meanwhile, getting snacks, occasional pets from my three and two year old, and love from their owner the whole way there and back.  

Some of them, the smaller ones, have their owners carry them.  They don’t even walk to the park, they get carried.  All without saying a word.  All by offering noting but unconditional love and consistency of asking.

Every day as they come in the front door, and approach the desk, they stop right by the milkbone section and wait.  They do it every day, every time, without fail.  After a while the owner is condition to “buy in” to giving them a treat.  

Think about how this applies to sales and specifically selling real estate.  If you’re asking for the business from every, every day, you’re gonna get a lot of what you want.  Sure some people will get annoyed with you or not like you, but hey, there’s people who don’t like dogs too, crazy as it sounds, we ALL got haters. 

Meanwhile, if you’ll simply continue to ask the builders, investors, business owners and your sphere of influence, for their business, eventually they will start to give you what you want. The most successful Agents I know, got where they are today by doing the same thing over and over, asking for business.

Ever meet a successful Agent who’s not really that good looking, bright or articulate and wonder how they got where they are?  Chances are they just stayed consistent at asking for business from the right people, until it was the right time.

So take a sales lesson from our canine companions and never, ever, ever forget to ALWAYS ask for the business every time.  At the end of a listing presentation it’s “sign here to get started sir/ma’am” When working with buyers it’s “do you want to make an offer on this house, right now?” Whatever it is, you ALWAYS ask it.  That’s how most sales are closed.