The Best Sales Success Strategies for Your Personality Type

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About This Episode

You’re constantly working to win that next appointment, listing, or new client — but without a specific strategy, it’s tough to beat the competition. What works for one person, won’t work for everyone. This week on The Walkthrough™, veteran real estate coach, mega agent, and author Sean Moudry shares the best sales strategies that work for your personality type.

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Links and Show Notes

• Sean’s Book: 16 Strategies for Sales
• 16 Strategies For Real Estate Agents Personality Assessment Test
• The Myers-Briggs Assessment Test
• The DiSC Profile Assessment
• Sean’s 16 Strategies Blog
• Sean’s Podcast: The Close Weekly
• TheClose.com
• Trio (Sean’s App for Real Estate Agents)
• Join our Facebook mastermind for The Walkthrough™ listeners
• HomeLight’s Agent Resource Center
• Follow and listen to The Walkthrough™: Apple Podcasts/iTunes | Spotify | YouTube

Full Transcript

(SPEAKER: Lisa Johnson Smith, Host)

Most people who wanna win have a strategy.

[sound effect: crowd cheering]

Whether you are an athlete, a politician, a poker player, or just playing a friendly game of Monopoly, you are serious about beating your competition. And as a real estate agent, you are no different. In fact, when it comes to business, you’re even more focused on winning that new client, that listing, that offer with multiple bids. But all of this takes strategy.

Well, my guest this week is a proven real estate strategist and industry expert. He has identified 16 different lead generation strategies based on your unique personality type and this has helped him to increase his sales and grow his business exponentially. Well, you’re lucky. Today, he is sharing some of those strategies with you, and how to apply them to your business.

This is The Walkthrough™.

(INTRO MUSIC)

Hi there, I’m Lisa Johnson Smith, producer of The Walkthrough™ here at HomeLight. Welcome to The Walkthrough™. This is a weekly show, new episodes come out every Monday. This is the show where you’ll learn what’s working right now from the best real estate agents and industry experts in the country. At HomeLight, we believe in real estate agents. We’re here to explore how great agents grow their business, stand out from the crowd, and become irreplaceable.

It’s football season, so let’s talk sports for a moment. All right, ask any championship NFL team how they got the win and they will tell you what their strategy was. What they won’t tell you is that they just ran onto the field and figured it out play-by-play. No. Each player played a specific role based on his own unique talents guided by the coach’s strategy that eventually led their team to get more touchdowns than their opponent and win the game.

Strategy is the key to becoming a champion in any area of life.

If you’ve ever been coached as a real estate agent, you’ve probably heard of the DISC profile. It’s an assessment that helps you understand yourself and the people you interact with better, namely your clients.

Well, my guest today is Sean Moudry. Sean has gained quite a bit of accolades over the past 28 years, too many to mention today, but here are a few nonetheless. So, get this: He sold 72 homes in his rookie year as a real estate agent. He maintained mega-agent status for over 15 years and he’s been named one of the top 20 coaches at Inman. And he’s also an award-winning Hall of Famer at RE/MAX. Well, he’s now a full-time writer for theclose.com. And he’s taken all of this experience and expertise and write a book called “16 Strategies for Sales.”

You might have heard of the Myers-Briggs personality assessment. Sean has done the hard part for us. Using this assessment, he’s done years of research to come up with the sales strategies that best align with each of the personality types outlined in the Myers-Briggs assessment. On today’s show, you’ll learn how to identify your personality type, and why it’s so important to know what it is, and also what some of the best strategies are that you can use to increase your sales value.

Here’s my conversation with Sean Moudry.

(BEGIN CONVERSATION)

Lisa: Early in Sean’s leadership career, he used the DISC profile. And he found that hiring high D or dominant personality types was actually preferred. And yet high D team members didn’t necessarily guarantee top performance. He understood the what but he set out to find out the why. He himself being a high D didn’t even desire to make sales calls.

Sean: Well, you know, starting off the first like personality profile I was ever exposed to was the DISC profile, right? And people say, “Oh, you know, the high D, the high I, S, and the C, right?” So, the challenge with the DISC profile, when I started my coaching business is it’s really good for observing kind of outward behaviors, right? But it wasn’t really good at identifying why somebody does something, right? So, for example, in the DISC profile, a D and an S, so the D is the dominant person, they want to win, right? That’s their kind of main drivers, I wanna win, and the S personality style, which is the supporter, both of them can be very aggressive at times but for different reasons. So, I want to get kind of a better understanding of what is the reasons that a D gets upset, or what is the reasons that an S gets upset?

Lisa: That’s where the Myers-Briggs comes in.

Sean: And the Myers-Briggs, you know, it’s been around, you know, for many years, almost 70 years now, you know, developed in the late 1930s, been perfected really over 50 years and a lot of research has been done on it, I found that it was the best thing that I could find to give me a better explanation of why somebody does the things that they do, or, you know, because it’s kind of the way they see the world versus their behaviors or their observable behaviors like the DISC is.

Lisa: But in order to fully understand how Sean’s 16 strategies for sales work, you have to have a pretty good understanding of how the DISC and Myers-Briggs assessments differ. So here’s a quick explanation from Sean.

Sean: So, I think most people are familiar with the DISC. So, you have the dominant, you have, you know, the inspirational, the I, the high I, the S is the supporter and the C is the conscientious there, you know, and those are the common personality traits. What the Myers-Briggs does is there’s really kind of four different polarities that we’re looking for. And it’s not something that you can necessarily meet with somebody and, you know, figure it out in five minutes. But if you have a good dinner conversation with somebody, you could probably figure it out relatively through that dinner process through a series of questions you ask them, or if you’re in a client situation, when you’re working with a client, over time, you will be able to kind of identify where their Myers-Briggs preferences are.

Lisa: Do you think you’ll be able to tell what I am by the end of our interview?

This is where Sean asked me a series of personal questions to determine my personality type using the Myers-Briggs assessment, and I’ll share the results later on in the show. But right now, let’s get to those 16 strategies for sales.

I like something that you said in your book, and you said anyone can be successful at sales if they follow a strategy that aligns with their innate preferences. That is really big. Because a lot of people feel like they are just not a salesperson. I used to kind of, you know, put that on myself, that title on myself, I’m not a salesperson. I’m more this or more that.

Sean: Well, and I think the misconception, especially in real estate, is that we have to be salespeople all the time. We don’t. Sales is part of the process but servicing the customer is a part of the process, right? Doing marketing is part of the process. Managing a file is part of the process. So, if you’re not good at something, let’s say you’re not good at making cold calls, well, be really good at the other stuff. And then find a way around, a workaround, for the lead generation aspect for you. So, now that we kind of talked about that, you said, “What are the three or four kinds of preferences?”

Lisa: Yes.

Sean: Well, the most common in real estate is feelers, right? 60% of people who get into real estate got in because they just like people, right? So, that’s a big demographic of people who are…you know, they wanna nurture clients, they wanna work with people day-to-day, they wanna serve and help people or their community. That’s a big metric of our industry. So, that’s what I would say is one group. And then the other group that tends to get mislabeled oftentimes is the introverts because they feel like all of the training that we have is built for the extroverts, right? And so they’re like, where do I fit in here? How do I fit in here? And I think that’s kind of the two demographics that struggle the most because with the feelers, you can really, really care for your clients, and you’ll be broke if you don’t generate business.

Lisa: The most successful trait for real estate agent, Sean says, is the introvert. Now, two of those happened to be Gary Keller, founder of Keller Williams, and Glenn Sanford, founder of eXp Realty. Let’s get back to the conversation where Sean begins describing the best strategy for the diplomat personality type.

I will still want to get to the personality types that you have talked about in your book, diplomat, visionary, advisor, guide, strategist, debater, general, entrepreneur, authority, and the list goes on and on. I wanna understand though how you decide which of those personality types corresponds best with the sales strategies. Talk about the diplomat, for instance.

Sean: So, the diplomat on the Myers-Briggs is E-N, so extroverted, intuitive, big picture, feeler, and J, judgmental, right? Their number one thing when they wake up in the morning is thinking about people. That’s what they do. They wake up and they think about their clients, they think about their family, they’re thinking about people first, right? So, for me as a coach, the key is tying that activity, that thought process to how they can go and meet and engage people. Now, the other thing that we also have to think about is, what are their areas that are gonna be their weaknesses? Okay? And what are the areas that are gonna be their blind spots? So, their weaknesses are the things that, you know, they’re just not going to be good at. Well, my weaknesses are probably managing the file, my weaknesses are probably getting my marketing out consistently because that’s in straight of an S, right? Somebody who is traditional and methodical, right? So, what I’m gonna need to do is I’m gonna either need to find technology or support to help me with those areas, right? Where I’m set off. Now, their main focus, right, as far as their sales strategy needs to be, you know, something where they’re in front of people, right? They’re extroverted people people.

Lisa: So, what’s an example of that?

Sean: Well, literally, with this person, and this is what I would say to this person, every morning you get up, you need to think of, how do I get in front of people today? Because I know that person is gonna be successful if they’re in front of people. So, probably the best way to help this person is to help them create a solid and predictable marketing calendar, and then have them doing small group events, either every three to four weeks, either in their community or in their demographic, right? So, they’re always planning their next event.

Lisa: I feel like another one that we should talk about is the entrepreneur since, obviously, a real estate agent is their own boss. So, talk about that one a little bit, Sean.

Sean: Well, that was easy for me because that is my personality trait. That is one of the most challenging personality traits to coach because, again, the entrepreneur is extroverted, they’re intuitive, they’re big picture, they’re logical, they solve their problems with logic first, but then they’re perceivers or the creatives, all right? So, the problem with that personality trait is they’re gonna have to make it their own. They’re gonna have to…even if you give them the best sales plan that exists, they’re gonna take it, they might do it for a while, but they’re gonna tinker with it, they’re gonna formulate it, they’re gonna repurpose it to make it their own, right? They’ll say, what’s the most efficient way to generate business? And I’ll say, you know, hands down, calling expireds, right? It’s the lowest cost, highest return, fastest turnaround way to generate business. Here’s what an entrepreneur will do — they’ll do it for a week and then they’re gonna try to add technology to it, ramp it up, get creative, add a spin to it, add some chocolate sauce, and some whipped cream. And then on your next coaching call three weeks later, you’ve got a total mess, right? It’s like totally different than what you started with but that’s their process. So, what I’m trying to do is just give them permission to do that. It’s okay for you to modify. Don’t fight your strength because they tend to be very creative and very intuitive.

Lisa: How about the influencer?

Sean: This personality type, this influencer personality is gonna wake up and think about, what should I do? What should I do? What is the tradition of what I should do? What is the practice of what I should do? What is it that I’m doing that I’ve already experienced that I know works, versus, you know, going out and inventing something new? And then their internal preference, when they’re by themselves, they’re thinking about people. And that’s just a great personality trait when it comes to blogging, podcasting, TikTok, Instagram, all those things because you have to be consistent. And then that secondary focus on people, right? They’re not focused on, what am I gonna do to make myself look good? What am I gonna do to position myself here? They think, “What am I gonna do that’s gonna impact people that are following me?” Right? And that’s why I call that the influencer category.

Lisa: So, how does that translate into your strategies then?

Sean: So, for that personality trait, I would probably look at having two strategies, okay? And this is the challenge when you have 16 strategies, every strategy in this book is gonna be effective for sales. The key is some strategies are long-term strategies and some strategies have to be short-term. Now, what determines that? Well, honestly, your situation and your goals. So, if you get into real estate, and let’s say you’ve been licensed for a year, you know, and last year, you did five transactions, which is great for your first year, right? Great job. But you wanna make more money, you wanna double your business or maybe triple your business, you want to get to 15-20 transactions a year. Well, in order to do that, you’re gonna have to go to strategies that generate business quicker, okay? If you focus on some of these longer-term strategies which are great over time like farming — so farming has a great long-tail strategy to it. Blogging is a wonderful long-tail strategy. YouTube can be a great long-tail strategy. Podcasting is a great long-tail strategy, right?

Those are all great strategies. What they’re not gonna do is generate you a deal in 30 days. So, for this person, the influencer, I would say, okay, we wanna play to your strengths. Okay, we wanna play to your strengths and get you on this path of a long-tail strategy, something that’s gonna build you residuals for a long period of time, and then we’re gonna have to supplement with a short-term strategy, something that you’re willing to do. So, a great short-term strategy is small events, right? Like one of the best agents I know, she’s amazing. She’s got in real estate, she was broke, right? Like a lot of us were and some still are. But she didn’t have any money to do marketing. So, what she did is she started to have… But she knew how to cook. She was a good cook. So every Monday, she started inviting people to her house, just six to eight people to her house for dinner. And then each week, she would keep about three people that her… what I call your “know, like, and trust” people, they love you. They love you, know, like, and trust you. Three of those and then the rest of the people other than her and her husband were new people that she met, and she just invited them over. Come to dinner at my house on Monday. She still does this. She’s been in business for about 20 years, she does over a million dollars in GCI, okay? Almost, I would say 80% luxury because she’s living in luxury now.

So, it doesn’t have to be expensive. It doesn’t have to be big, but it needs to be consistent and it needs to play to your strength, right? Like, embrace who you are, and let go of who you’re not, but be aware of who you’re not, right? And what you’re just not going to do, right? I mean, how many times do we lie to ourselves saying we’re gonna do something and then we put off the important things because we’re not doing the thing we don’t want to do because we know we’re never really going to do it, so then we’re not effective in anything versus just saying, who else can do this?

Lisa: So, what if you are the influencer and the strategies that you suggest, you just hate? You just hate all, you know, the options?

Sean: Oh, sure. Yeah, for me calling my past clients, remember, I’m an extroverted, big-picture, thinker, perceiver, creative, right? So, I love to research, I love to write, right? I don’t want to call my past clients, I would rather get down on my hands and knees next to my dog and eat dog food with her.

Lisa: Oh my gosh.

Sean: I hate it.

Lisa: That’s pretty bad.

Sean: So, what do I say to myself? Okay, well, what am I good at? Right? I can write. So, for me, newsletters, I can express my knowledge of the market, my compassion for their situation, for customer stories, those kind of things in a newsletter. So, I can write a newsletter that can bind that relationship and creatively ask for referrals without me having to pick up the phone and call them and ask them for referrals.

(Speaker: Lisa Johnson Smith, Host)

Earlier in the show, I told you I asked Sean if he’d be able to figure out my personality preferences, and then I’d share those results with you. Well, he was spot on. I’m an ISFP. That stands for introversion, sensing, feeling, perception. And I feel like I have a sound understanding of what my new strategy will be now.

One important thing to keep in mind that Sean noted is that just because somebody shows up differently doesn’t mean the outcome is not going to be positive. Everyone has a unique way to reach the end result. And knowing what type of personality preferences you have will help to pinpoint the best strategy for your own success. While Sean and I were only able to get to a few strategies, you can read about all of them in his book, which I’ll include a link to in today’s show notes.

Well, it’s time for some takeaways.

Takeaway number one, understanding your personality preferences is the first step to learning the sales strategy that best suits you. Sean recommends using the DISC and the Myers-Briggs to determine those.

Takeaway number two, the most popular personality type for real estate agents is feelers or the people person. But the most successful types have been introverts, and not the kind you’d normally think of. These are intuitive, big-picture, logical, not people-focused, and creative. And he mentioned that Gary Keller and Glenn Sanford are both examples of those.

Takeaway number three, anyone can be successful at sales if they follow a strategy that aligns with their innate preferences. But you have to identify your strengths and weaknesses before applying those specific sales strategies, and then tailor those strategies to your strengths.

And those are your takeaways for this week.

If you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to leave a voicemail or text us at 415-322-3328. You can also send an email to walkthrough[at]homelight.com or find us in our Facebook Mastermind Group. Just search HomeLight Walkthrough™.

That’s all for this week. Thanks to Sean Moudry for joining me and thank you for listening. Can you do us a favor? Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. Hit that Follow button so you can get all of our future shows automatically.

My name is Lisa Johnson Smith and you’ve been listening to The Walkthrough™. At HomeLight, we believe in real estate agents. We’re here to explore how great agents grow their business, stand out from the crowd, and become irreplaceable.

Like Matt always says, get out there. Go sell some homes. I’ll talk to you soon. Bye.

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