6 Characteristics of an Exceptional Presenter
If you are going to be effective at making your presentations to sellers or buyers, you’ve got to be (or become) an excellent presenter. You need to be a professional who knows how to communicate and does it well. How do you become that person? In this coaching session, Pat tells you 6 essential things that you have to master in order to become excellent at communication in a way that persuades others to follow your course of action. Does that sound like something you need to know? Then be sure you listen. to understand.
Your inability to present well will incapacitate you when it comes to building rapport. Click To Tweet
If you don’t understand how important it is to build rapport with your buyers and sellers by now, you need to get your head around the concept immediately. Rapport is what makes the people you are dealing with feel like they can trust you – so it’s vital that you learn how to do it. One of the skills that goes into building rapport is the ability to present things well. If you don’t learn how to present things confidently and without hedging, you will never be successful at building the rapport necessary to become crazy successful. Pat’s got the goods for you on this coaching call, so don’t miss it.
Communication is 15% what you say and 85% HOW you say it. Click To Tweet
We all THINK we communicate well but very few of us are seeing ourselves accurately. Communication is hard. It’s not about only about facts – facts only amount to 15% of what goes into effective communication. The other 85% flows out of the WAY you communicate about those facts. In this call Pat drives home the importance of learning how to communicate in motivating, positive, empowering ways and gives you some powerful tips for learning that skill. This piece of the training alone will help you increase the closing rate of your presentations.
Leave no doubt about exactly where you stand when you present. Click To Tweet
None of us can afford to be wishy-washy when we present our solution to the problems we are trying to solve. When we communicate that way we leave people uncertain about whether we can be of help or not. So leave no doubt about exactly where you stand on each aspect of the deal you are working on. Your sellers need to know what you can do for them and what you can’t do for them. They may not like it, but they won’t have any confusion about what’s possible. Learn how to communicate with confidence and clarity on this coaching call.
If you don’t do the work to understand your audience, you won’t be able to speak to their needs. Click To Tweet
Before you make a presentation you need to optimize your chances for success in that interaction. What does that mean practically? It means you have to prepare – and a vital part of preparation is making sure you understand the audience you’ll be speaking to. You want to know ahead of time exactly what needs you’re trying to meet and the problems you’re trying to solve. If you don’t you’ll be shooting in the dark and will come away from the presentation without the success you need and want. On this coaching call, Pat makes it clear what kind of preparation you need to do so that you can know your seller inside and out, so don’t miss it.
Outline of this great episode
- Why do you need to be an exceptional presenter?
- It’s vital for you to be organized and prepared.
- Passion needs to be present as the fuel your presentation.
- Engagement is up to you in every speech or presentation you give.
- Don’t try to be someone you are not – be you.
- Make sure you understand your audience: do your homework.
- If you’re going to be an exceptional presenter, you need to practice.
Resources & Links mentioned in this episode
The Monday Mindset & Wednesday Wisdom calls are group coaching calls included in the REWW Academy. These live calls are hosted bi-weekly by Justin Colby and Pat Precourt and cover a specific topic each session – ending with live Q&A at the end of each call.
These calls are designed to empower students to be effective entrepreneurs, creating business that thrive and make money through real estate investing. Students are encouraged to attend the calls and bring any struggles or questions they have about business or real estate.
The REWW Academy program combines our complete suite of software applications with our personalized coaching and a community of like-minded entrepreneurs to provide you with the most comprehensive real estate investing program available.
If you would like to learn more about the REWW Academy, attending these calls live, or learning fast effective ways to get involved in real estate investing, go to https://academy.reww.com/ and follow the link at the bottom to apply today.
Below is the full transcription of the 6 Characteristics of an Exceptional Presenter Monday Mindset call with Pat Precourt.
Pat Precourt:
We’ll get this party started. So again, for those who are just joining us, today’s presentation. Six characteristics of an exceptional presenter. And the reason why this would be of interest to you, because your inability to communicate, to present even a single idea, thought message will incapacitate your effectiveness. It will also put an end to any real message that you have because nobody will hear it.
So presenting is like getting a message out there, across to an audience. But something you gotta be aware of is the fact that your audience needs to be receptive to your message or what you’ll say will never be heard. So these six characteristics speak more to your ability to open up whoever is listening to you; whether it be one or many. Building rapport so that they’ll actually hear your message. Keep in mind, this works equally well one on one as it does one on a thousand. Whether you’re dealing with a homeowner that you’re trying to negotiate a deal with. Which, I know it’s a struggle for many of us where we cannot get a good negotiation fall our way. We’re like maybe you’re not taking the time to build a little rapport, a little connectivity and your message is falling on … it’s falling flat on its face, it’s not getting heard.
So a great communicator and a great leader and educator, John T. Maxwell, once said “An educator takes something complicated … educators take something simple and make it complicated. Where communicators take something complicated and make it simple.” You see when the receiver of your message gets confused, they get scared and then they go into shutdown mode. And that’s the process. So I encourage you to sit and enjoy and feel free to participate as we go along here. Your thoughts and feedback are always encouraged, I’ll open my checkbox over here.
What’s up Mr. Daniel, checking in from California. David from Utah, excellent gentlemen. Mr. Miller coming in from Indiana. Ms. Vickie great to have you here. And Lynn as well. And Dan from Wisconsin I believe. Lynn from South Carolina. I envy you because it’s nice and warm down there right now we’re still … our weather up here in the Northeast has been so crappy. Mr. Dan from Utah. Another gentleman here is from Utah, awesome!
All righty, we’re underway. Six characteristics of an exceptional presenter. Keep in mind, think this in the back of your head. “Educators take a simple concept and make it complicated, true communicators take something that’s very complicated and make it simple.” They deliver a message, they communicate.
Number one, write this down, be organized. This is your show, if you’re going to communicate this is your space, your stage. I don’t care if it’s one on one, one on a thousand. Take charge, be prepared, sound prepared. Don’t overwhelm people, instead inform people, persuade, entertain, influence. Enlighten them, but don’t confuse them. Have a really well structured message that you thought out, you planned. Very well defined but not confusing. Give your listener the sense that you’re not there wasting your time. You’re there on intention.
If you come across prepared, your audience will always immediately appreciate your effort. Even if they don’t like what you’re saying. This little thing comes down to the art of communication. Communication is 15% of what you’re saying and 85% of the way you’re saying it. The entertainment part and the engagement part. Those are the three parts of communication. Education, entertainment and engagement. They always gotta be a part of it.
And the actual education part is a smaller part of it because that’s not what engages people. The message that you’re giving them is not what engages them. So how you deliver it, the context about which you do it. Look at it like a coffee cup, kind of a fine coffee cup. I don’t have multiple personalities, I have two. Awesome and always awesome. Look at a coffee cup and you have coffee inside. The coffee cup is the context, that’s your delivery system. The coffee is the content. If the context is broken, the content will leak out and never get where it’s supposed to go.
You’ve gotta get the context correct. That’s the engagement, entertainment side of it. The content is the education side of it. Education is not that big a part of it. Your delivery, the context, is what’s important here. So number one, be prepared for any engagement whether it be one on one or one on a thousand.
Number two, be prepared, be passionate. Passion is contagious. When you reach out in passion you’ll be met with equal or greater passion. It’s how it goes. It’s like a small fire will return small heat but a great fire will return great heat. If you wonder why people around you are so … maybe it’s exactly what you’re putting out. So often we get back a mirror image of what we’re sending out. It’s how the universe works.
Be passionate. Bring it. Speak from the heart. Leave no doubt as to exactly where you stand. No gray, no gray. “But Pat, what if somebody disagrees?” Then screw them! Who cares! If they’re disagreeing with you and it’s who you are and what you’re there to say, perfect! Perfect! Screw them! You don’t want them, you want the people that are behind you 100%, that exude enthusiasm. And if you’re not passionate, why would your audience be? Why would your listeners be? Your passion will set the tempo for the ones listening to you, whether it be a home seller or an entire audience brighten the entire room.
Your goal is never want everybody to love you. You may think it is but it’s not. Number one reason for that is because it’s impossible. They only way you can even begin to get near that is to be very bland and stale. Because you’re bland, because you’re not on point, because you’re not defined, nobody’s going to love you. So it’s impossible to get everybody to love you. Accept that some people are going to think you’re a schmuck. It’s okay.
Your goal is to leave the audience, that homeowner or whoever it may be, in a decisive position. Black and white. They know where you stand and now you let them know where they have to stand. They like you for what you have to say or they don’t. But there’s no in between. Nobody’s left in the middle just to tolerate you. Starting to get this? If you don’t have haters, you’re standing in between. I’m telling you that right now. You’re more concerned about whether or not people like you than you are about your success. Let me say that again. If you don’t have haters, you are more concerned about what other people think about you than you are about your own success. Take a stand. Black or white. No gray.
You don’t want the people that just sit there and tolerate and waste your time. They won’t serve you in any way. Next is be engaging. Attempt to gauge, when you’re speaking to multiple people in a bigger room or even if it’s a couple, a husband and wife, make sure you engage every audience member. Do it often and do it early. Get them in the conversation. Don’t just sit there and preach to them. I could, I’d get you guys to respond back here more often. But, unfortunately through this use of technology it’s very limited on how I can engage you outside of trying to get some energy to transfer through the video camera.
Engage or engage often, get them in the conversation, build rapport early. What rapport means, it opens your ears to hear your message. If you skip the rapport building process, the trust building process, their ears will be closed when you go to deliver your message it will fall on deaf ears. If you want their respect, I’m not saying that they’re going to agree with you, but if you want their respect you’ve got to connect.
Whether you’re live in person or on the phone speaking to five or five thousand, speak to each individual as if they’re the only one. Just you and I sitting in this room together. And many of you, I’m sure, have felt that way as we talk. There’s you and me, together, one on one. That’s how I see it. And if I see it that way it will come across that way.
Number three, be engaging. Number two, be in passion. Number one, be organized. Number four, be natural. Be you. Don’t try to be someone you’re not. It comes across that way really quick, then you come across fake, disingenuous. Present in whatever your natural style is. When I first spoke the first few times on stage, everybody kept trying to tell me what to do and what not to do and I kept screwing it up. I was trying to do something and be someone I wasn’t. Finally I’m like “F it man. This is either going to work my way or it’s not going to work.”
But at least I can leave the stage knowing that I was me. Present in your natural style. Your delivery should be easy, conversational. Make it look easy, make it be comfortable so that the audience themselves can be comfortable. You be comfortable with the audience. If you appear natural, you’ll appear confident. Confidence exudes confidence. Confidence exudes credibility. The second you try to be disingenuous to the way you’re naturally supposed to be presenting, throws this thing down in the gutter.
Your body language will speak volumes. You won’t have to say any other words. Your audience, they’re there to hear you. They’re there for you. They’re not there for anyone else. They’re there to listen to what you have to say. Never try to be someone that you’re not because it just doesn’t work. It’s a lot easier to build rapport and gain trust when you come across authentic and true. There’s no easier way to break that trust and to shut the door than to come across fake, disingenuous. Just be you. “what if they don’t like me?” Then they don’t like you. Too freaking bad!
At least you’re authentic and they respect you. They’re not always going to listen to you and they’re not always going to hear your message but at least they know you’re not trying to be someone you’re not. At least you can leave the engagement knowing that you weren’t trying to sell out to be someone you weren’t meant to be.
Next here, and this is a big one … If you see me looking away it’s because there’s a chat box there and there’s a question box there. And they just happen to be over there with you guys right down the middle. And your comments are encouraged. I encourage you to comment. Like, “Hey Pat, this is the challenge I had. I was speaking to a homeowner and …” or “Hey Pat, I wanted to do this but I was a little nervous, so what do I do?” Like those kind of comments would be cool. Yes, I’m encouraging you to share.
That’s kind of funny because you’re like, “well, he won’t know if don’t because I’ll just sit here quietly.” I do know because I see everyone that’s online and then I see who shares. So I do know that you’re not sharing. Maybe at the end of the call I’ll list everyone not sharing.
Number five, after number four, understand your audience. Don’t go in blind. Do a little homework. We started out at the very beginning of this call saying be prepared. Number five, understand your audience. Do your homework. Learn as much about your audience as you possibly can before you present to them. Not after. The more you know about your audience, the more you can connect, the easier it’s going to be. You can speak to them. You know, when you’re speaking to somebody, like when one on one, of course you’re listening and then your connecting the dots.
The way you can learn about them beforehand … like if I was going to go interview somebody that wanted to come in and represent our gym, for example. I would research that dude, guy or gal big time. I would know who … you may say “well, Pat you’re in the interview, you’re not presenting.” Yes I am! Absolutely! Every engagement is a presentation. Every engagement is a point of influence unless you decide it’s not. Think about that one. Hold on …
Pat, sorry for not sharing but I’ve heard most of if not all of this before. Maybe I will get something out of next weeks call. You’re cool. Dan, Don, Lynn? I just had someone email me about a wholesale I had and now I have a meeting with him this week to find him homes. Awesome! Congratulations, that is a score.
Understand your audience. Don’t wait until you’re there, on scene with them, to learn from them. Do your homework in advance. And then finally, this is a shocker, practice. Practice! Practice! You don’t have to wait for the big show to do it for the first time. Those who practice improve and those who don’t, don’t.
So my daughter skipped Jujitsu practice the other night. She was at home. I was at the gym, she wasn’t there. I go home, I’m like “honey, why weren’t you at the practice tonight? What’s going on?” Then gave me just some weak excuse and I said “well, guess what! That girl you’re competing against next competition, she didn’t skip tonight.” Now, do I know who she’s competing against? No. We didn’t even have her next competition scheduled but she got the point. There’s always someone gunning for you and they’re training. They’re practicing. To the degree that you practice will dictate who wins. Those who practice improve, those who don’t, don’t.
This must become second nature. You gotta be comfortable talking with people, communicating, presenting, getting a message across. Can’t be rehearsed. Can be practiced but not rehearsed. It’s gotta be authentic, genuine, it’s gotta flow, it’s gotta be natural. Most people don’t practice until the live presentation. Yeah, you’ll learn [inaudible 00:16:52] during that presentation, but you’ve also probably missed an opportunity.
Let me share one thought on this, every time you open your mouth in public, you’re a public speaker. You’re influencing the public. Now, whether or not you put any gravity to that and take advantage of that and see that there’s an opportunity is up to you. Or you can see it as most mediocre individuals do and don’t take advantage of it. They just see it as nothing. But that’s cool too, no judgment here.
[inaudible 00:17:33] we’re not born with these skills. They’re taught, learned, practiced, developed, mastered. And those who master them are the highest paid individuals in the world. Great communicators. What more can be said? All leadership is built on communication first. The moment you persuade a group, more than one, towards a common goal, towards a common outcome, you are a leader.
How many times [inaudible 00:18:04] do you have to get more than one person working towards a common goal, common outcome? Practice communication, practice the art of presenting. Don’t wait for the big show to do it. Mix in passion and then the world just becomes your oyster. The most powerful weapon on earth is your human soul on fire.
There you have it ladies and gentlemen. I told you it was very simple. Number one, be organized. Do your homework, take charge. This is your show, be prepared. Number two, be passionate. When you bring the passion you will be met with passion. It’s gotta be authentic, can’t be disingenuous. Number three, be engaging. I don’t care if it’s one person or a thousand people. Engage the audience, engage them early, get them being in the communication, part of the conversation. So there’s a delivery and receiving, delivery and receiving. Don’t just sit there and broadcast to them.
Next be you, be genuine, be authentic, be natural. Present in your style. Don’t try to be like someone else. It’ll come across disingenuous and your body language will show that. Five, understand your audience. Do your homework, know who you’re going to communicate to, know how they want to be communicated to. Don’t go in blind. And finally, practice. Practice, practice, practice, practice. Practice! Practice doesn’t make perfect, practice creates improvement. But those who don’t practice don’t improve. The one who practices the most will be the most improved and most likely they’ll be better prepared the next time you see each other on the mats.
Cool? Well, that’s all I got for you guys today. Appreciate you, of course. I’m trying to fix my lessons before I send out the letters. I want to be dangerous … I want to be dangerous, am I wrong? Can you please rephrase that, Vickie? I’m not sure I quite get that. No, the answer is I would send out your letters.
Mr. Dave, better practice and be ready for opportunity than get the opportunity and not ready. Here’s the funny thing about opportunities. Opportunities usually are right on the heel of a big burst of fear. Something jumps up, scares the crap out of us and that’s the introduction to the opportunity. The more prepared we are, the more prepared we are to address the fear, unwind it and step into the opportunity. However, the less prepared we are, we see the fear as a challenge or something scary and we get overwhelmed by it and we step back from the opportunity. And the opportunity has a shelf life about this long. Opportunities don’t present themselves that often and they don’t hang around that long. So whether or not you’re prepared for it is up to you. Something to think about.
Mr. Dan, it says “Thank you Pat for this topic, should be formally taught in school it’s so important in a more successful life.” This should be taught at a two day event, Daniel. With ongoing training and live examples and engagement throughout. That’s what this should be. You’re absolutely 100% correct.
Vickie, did you want to follow up on your question there, so I can address it? I’m trying to finish my lesson before I send out the letters. I want to be dangerous, am I wrong? I don’t know if you meant to say something else there? I would send out your letters and make sure you’re ready for it. You want to be knowledgeable. Don’t wait too long. You want to be prepared Vickie, but it’s impossible to be 100% prepared, remember that. If you’re on a committed, dedicated path to finishing your lessons, cool. Get it done, get at it. But if you’re dragging it out and you’re using the lessons as a procrastinating excuse not to get your letters out, then I’d say no. Drop the letters in the mail and step up to the challenge.
Mr. Curtis, says “I gave a talk at a Lions Club last week and prepared and had written out my points. When I started to talk I got passionate that I had to forget the outline and felt much more comfortable.” There you go. That’s perfect, Curtis. When I go up on stage, unless I’m specifically teaching something, often times I’ll write four, five or six bullet words on my hand. I kid you not. That’s all I’ll need to make sure I hit on a few topics while I’m up there. Just let it come naturally. See, Curtis, because you prepared, you didn’t need your outline. The act of going through the preparation got you to the point that you’re really trying to make, right? Therefore, you didn’t have to follow the outline to make the point. So well done. Congratulations.
Asia. Are there any companies that put up [inaudible 00:23:24] signs for people? You gotta find them locally. I market for them. Now the college kids are out of school, they’re as good as anyone. There are apps out there that allow your college kids, where you track what they do, well the apps itself will record by GPS where they’re going and when they put up a sign they take a picture of it and it all records it so you can see an actual record of their work. I know there’s apps out there that do that, it’s kind of cool.
Vickie says I’m on lesson 15 I’ll finish them tomorrow. Cool, then yeah, if you’re that close get your mail out now because you’ll be done before the mail hits. How do I prepare for those calls? Well, there’s training in the course, Asia, that help prepare for the calls, the inbound calls from your [inaudible 00:24:17] sign. But the truth is, the preparation could be this. Person’s calling in and you’re offering to buy their house, we know that the only people we’re really able to help are those who have a problem. So if they don’t have a problem we can’t help them. If all they want to do is sell their house and they don’t have a problem we can’t help them.
So, really Asia, the speed of which you get to their problem and creating a solution to their problem will be paramount in the conversations you have. But, before somebody will tell you that they have a problem and then about the problem you’ve gotta connect and build rapport. You gotta get them to trust you. So this whole conversation is perfect. Somebody calls in … “Hi, I’m calling 99-advance” fantastic! You saw the one that said we were looking to buy houses? Awesome! Are you looking to sell? Oh great! That’s good. How soon are you looking to sell? Fantastic! Where are you located? Good.
Tell me a little bit about the house. And you start to get into it but you get very conversational. Awesome, three bed two baths Do you have kids? Yeah. Cool, how old? Oh, cool. What do they do? Oh yeah, mine plays that too. Awesome. So now, they’re parents you’re parents. They have kids, you have kids. You can talk to … you have something in common you can talk about. The second you find something in common it builds rapport. Spend a little time there. What else? What else? What else? Eventually you get back around to the house. Eventually, you’ll be able to ask … you know, if you’re 15 minutes into the conversation talking about little league umpires, aren’t they good or something. Kids seem very involved in local sports, why are you selling?
You get me? Just being human, that’s all it is. Genuinely caring about the people on the other end of the phone. Genuinely looking for a way to benefit them, to serve them. Which means we have to find out what their problem is, which means we have to find out that they do have a problem, which means that we gotta build trust and rapport with them. So, it’s not being disingenuous, you’re being extremely authentic in the whole process.
If you go right for the kill. So why do you want to sell? You might even get something as cold as “none of your business.” What’s the least amount you’ll take for your house? Well, I’m asking 230 that’s what I’m looking to get. So they don’t even want to be on the phone with you anymore. You clearly had no interest in them or their situation. See how that all works together?
Would it be benefit for you guys if I could somehow upload you guys this little report on six steps to being an exceptional presenter with my notes on it. Would that help you guys? Would you want something like that? If it would, I don’t know how I would do it but I might be able to do it. If not. If you don’t, it’s not a big deal. But I was just thinking about that because I’ve got this neat little, it’s called a white paper, it’s a good reference point.
Maybe we could have it emailed out or something. All right, on that note. I’m going to let you guys rock and roll. You guys have been awesome as always. I’ll see you back here live next week. Justin will be here Wednesday for you. Let me see if there’s a way I can give you that. It might come from me, it might come from our general email account, it might come from.
