Chadi Bazzi on why the listing presentation matters more than objection handling

Chadi Bazzi00:00

What I would say is the single most important is going to be your listing presentation. So listing presentation is more important than appointment setting skills. Listing presentation is more important than learning the art and science of how to handle objections, ’cause when you deliver a powerful enough listing presentation, you are going to become instantly courageous to pick up the phone to ask an extra question and make an extra phone call,

00:39and you’re gonna convert way more people.

Loida Velasquez00:42

Welcome back to a brand-new episode of Vulcan7 Coaches and Mentors, where we bring you some of the best tips and strategies so that you can implement in your business right now, and skyrocket that with a lot of success. Now, today we have an amazing guest, an amazing coach, Chadi Bazzi.

Chadi Bazzi01:02

Happy to be here. I love Vulcan7, love your content, love the real estate industry so much, and I’m honored to have the opportunity to make a difference today. So thank you for having me on.

Loida Velasquez01:16

Yes, thank you for being here. For anyone that’s watching that may not be familiar with you, can you give us a little bit of your background so we can get to know you?

Chadi Bazzi01:25

Good. So I’ll give you the short version very quickly, ’cause it’s a long resume. Again, my name is Chadi Bazzi, and I grew up in Dearborn, Michigan, which is a suburb of Detroit, where my real estate career began back in 1997. Did pretty well in that marketplace, and I wanted to make $100,000.

01:47And the biggest challenge I had is that my average commission check was about $700. So I was like, “How many deals do I gotta sell to make $100,000?” So then what I did is… I wanted to make $100,000, so I never finished school, so I went in 1999 to work for a gentleman by the name of Mike Ferry to get what I call my college education, ’cause I never had a college education.

02:10Did very good very quickly in that company. And in 2004, went back into real estate in Orange County, knocked it out the park very quickly. Actually did $100,000 in commissions put together in my first 30 days. Took my first listing in the first 24 hours by using the telephone and making a phone call.

02:30And then I went to work and helped Ferry build up his company at that time. And got to the point to where, at that time, I was also in charge of training the coaches that were under the umbrella at that time. Created the Expired Edge program, the Sales Edge program, and another marketing solution program.

02:52Had the most in-demand one-on-one coaching schedule. In 2011, started Top Listing Agent, my company, and been on over 35,000 one-on-one coaching calls. So there you go.

Loida Velasquez03:04

That’s amazing. So much. So what I wanna touch on today that I know that you’re an expert on is setting appointments, having better conversations with people.

03:15Because what I see happening is that agents, they are able to perhaps get someone over the phone, but then they get stuck with setting an appointment, going to the appointment, and actually getting a contract signed, and walking out of there with something. So talk us through kinda what that process looks like for you, whether it’s for yourself or any agents that you coach.

Chadi Bazzi03:39

Yeah, so we work with a lot of agents that primarily use the telephone for their lead generation. And where most people knock it out the park, Loida, is that one of the things that we say is get it going and then get it right, because most people are so stuck in their head that they wanna master this script and they wanna master this objection handler, almost to the point that they never take action.

04:06And in reality, creating the result is always easier than we make it out to be in our head. So the first thing that we do is we say take action, but as you take action, what you should be doing is you should be documenting the action that you are taking, meaning at the end of every single conversation where you did not get an appointment, you need to be asking yourself, “What could I have done differently?

04:28Why did I not get the appointment?” Because that’s a new learning opportunity that you’ve identified that you need to learn. But to make yourself very effective on the phones, you need to master what’s called the sales process. Most people don’t understand what is a sales process. People in this industry think just because they are a people person, they are going to do transactions.

04:51I wish that was the case. I’m instantly reminded of Donna that I worked with. She’s out of Texas, and when we first started to work with each other, she’s done zero transactions. Like one and a half years in the business, zero transactions. We start working with each other and I said, “Let’s get it going and then get it right as we build up the sales process.”

05:11The first three months, absolutely zero transactions. Lot of appointments, because she’s a people person and people like to be around people that they like, but they loved her but didn’t do business with her until she learned the sales process and then went on to take 22 for-sale-by-owner listings that she sold in the next nine months.

05:34So what does the sales process look like? Okay. The sales process begins right here. It begins in your mind. Okay? So can I walk everybody through the six-step sales process?

Loida Velasquez05:46

Absolutely. Yes.

Chadi Bazzi05:47

All right, so step number one is to assume the sale. Assume the sale. Like you’re getting on the phone with the intention of setting the appointment.

05:57So you have to create that result in your head before you can create it in the physical universe. And the reason being, we’re not like ha ha, fluff, fluff, woo, woo conversation. It’s not that you’re gonna think positive and positive things are gonna happen. You’re gonna think positive, and then you are going to transfer a positive energy that is going to make an impact on the receiver of that energy.

06:20So step number one is assume the sale. Assume you are going to set the appointment. Assume they are gonna pick up the phone. Assume they’re gonna be okay that you called them. Assume that they still have a desire to sell. Like assume, assume, assume. But that’s only part of step number one. Step number 1.2 is you gotta now learn to use assumptive language patterns.

06:43And what I mean by that is you can’t assume that you’re gonna set an appointment and say something along the line of like, “Mr. Seller, should we get together?” I mean, there’s already incongruency there. What you are assuming and what you are speaking have to be in perfect alignment. “Mr. Seller, when we get together, when we set an appointment, when we begin negotiations.”

07:04Or you’re at the listing appointment and you say, “Mr. Seller, as the agent that you have selected to represent you, I’m sure you wanna know what it is that I’m gonna do to get your property sold.” Like we’re speaking as if we are already a team and this is going to happen. So that’s step number one. Step number two, build rapport.

07:27Build rapport, okay? You gotta get people to like you, trust you, respect you so they could listen to you. Until you do that, they are not going to give you a shot. You might accidentally create a shot, but most likely they are not gonna give you the shot. Now, building rapport is an art. There’s a science to it, and this could be a very long conversation.

07:52So if anybody wanted to know more on how to establish rapport, they can reach out somehow, some way. We got a lot of YouTube videos on that that they could explore. So step number three is the discovery process. The discovery process. The discovery process, what we mean is qualifying, okay?

08:13And most people get that incorrectly, Loida. I mean, you’ve been in the business long enough and you know that everybody wants to qualify somebody and then, 9 out of 10 times, what are they qualifying for? Hey, I’m qualifying for do they have a need? Do they have a want? Do they have a problem that I could solve?

08:34What is their timeframe? What is their ability? What is their authority? And that’s where people stop. That’s where people stop. Now, where we are very good at converting is we take that a step further and we say we gotta qualify for what 99% of the agents don’t know how to qualify for. We qualify for how does this person think?

08:55How do they think? This other person on the other end of the line, this other person that I’m trying to get a listing from, how do they think? And when we discover how they think, we can then alter, shift, and change our presentation, our energy, the words that we use to impact their thought process. Then we take it a step further.

09:12How do they make decisions? Because if we don’t know how they make decisions, then it’s a 50/50 shot that we can get them to make the right decision. And then how do they process information, so we can give them the information in the way that fits them to make it a no-brainer to wanna do business with them.

09:28And step number four is obviously presentation. Step number five is the close, which we don’t even close, because if we build rapport, assume the sale, use assumptive language patterns, impact their thinking, impact their decision-making process, then guess what? They’re gonna make the decision on their own, and they’re not even gonna give us any objections, and that’s the sales process in five minutes or less.

Loida Velasquez09:51

That’s awesome. And for those of you that are listening to this, you might want to go ahead and rewatch this, take down notes, because everything that was just laid out is exactly what’s gonna set you up for success. So Chadi, for anybody who is maybe in the process of transitioning from being a buyer’s agent, or maybe they’re doing consistently two to three listings a month, but now they wanna double that, what are some strategies that they can start implementing to get to that level?

Chadi Bazzi10:16

Yeah. I would say the strategy’s gonna be different for every single person, ’cause everybody’s coming with a different level of experience and a different skill set. I would say the first and most important thing that they need to do is they need to keep track of the numbers, and the numbers will tell them exactly which one single strategy they need to focus on.

10:36Now, in my opinion, in generality, what I would say is the single most important is going to be your listing presentation. ‘Cause look, you’re a Vulcan7 customer or somebody else’s customer and you’re generating the data every single day, and you’re banging the phones every single day for an hour, two hours, three hours, four hours, however many more hours.

10:56The single purpose you’re doing that is to get yourself into somebody’s living room. Okay? So if you get yourself into somebody’s living room and you don’t got a strong enough listing presentation, then all that time was literally wasted and you’re just waiting to hit the jackpot.

11:11And you will hit the jackpot every once in a while. But if you’re very purposeful in delivering the absolute best listing presentation in the marketplace, then you are going to be converting 80-plus percent of the people that you meet with. Now, one of the things that we do in our Listings On Demand training is we start out by having you write out a listing presentation script.

11:36So choose any guru. It doesn’t matter who. We all have great stuff that fits different personalities. Choose a listing presentation and commit to the memorization, and then go further and go into internalization, and then take it further using the sales process for customization. Now, we have a ton of clients in our Listings On Demand community, and every single one of them delivers the same exact listing presentation using complete different language patterns that fit their personality and their selling style.

12:12Now, if you’re not a sales master, then you are going to need the assistance of a sales guru to help you do that, whoever that might be for you. So listing presentation is more important than appointment setting skills. Listing presentation is more important than learning the art and science of how to handle objections.

12:31‘Cause when you deliver a powerful enough listing presentation, you are going to become instantly courageous to pick up the phone to ask an extra question and make an extra phone call. And you’re gonna convert way more people.

Loida Velasquez12:44

Absolutely. You know, I feel that a lot of agents, they get on the phones or whatever they do for prospecting.

12:50They wanna get listings, but then here comes the appointment, and they’re not even ready for it. And I always say you have to know your listing presentation, because then that’s going to motivate you to continue making those calls when someone is mad at you, and you’re gonna know what to say, because you’re gonna be ready to show up and get that contract signed.

Chadi Bazzi13:08

Yep. And it’s a lot easier than we make it out to be in our mind. And I’m instantly recalled to when I first started selling real estate, and I got on the phones, and I made a ton of contacts. Like, I had no idea exactly what I was doing. I literally made a ton of contacts, and I set an appointment.

13:27Now I know that I set that appointment by accident, by default. It wasn’t because of skill. It was because I put in the actual work ethic. And then what happened after I set that appointment, Loida, is I was crippled with fear, ’cause I didn’t know how to do a listing presentation. I’m like, “What if they ask me this?

13:45What if they notice that?” Guess what? I never showed up to the listing presentation, because I was that afraid. And since then, I’ve made it my primary focus that that is the number one thing I needed to learn, and the rest is history.

Loida Velasquez14:02

Yeah. It brought me back to when I was learning my listing presentation and internalizing it.

14:08I was reading it, I was writing it, I rewrote it, like, five different times, and that’s how I memorized it. Because for me, once you have it memorized, then now you can start incorporating it, tonality, making it your style, so it’s going to be different from other agents, and then that’s what’s going to get you the results.

14:26And if you get that along with a coach, let’s say someone like yourself, then forget it. You’re gonna be a listing master.

Chadi Bazzi14:34

Game over. So look at this picture.

Chadi Bazzi14:39

She’s blindfolded. That’s exactly what we do in our training, is we get you to the point to where you can deliver your listing presentation with your eyes closed, because right there, that’s extreme, unshakable,

14:51high levels of confidence. So if you’re watching this video, master your listing presentation, and then deliver it with your eyes closed, and I guarantee you you’ll begin to magically set more appointments, go on more appointments, and take way more listings.

Loida Velasquez15:08

Absolutely. And I say that from experience.

15:11I did the same thing, and I did it so much that even up to this point I know exactly what letters and what words and what lines are on what page, and if you flip it over… It’s crazy. But again, you can either be an average agent, or you can be one of the ones that is going to take this very seriously and be extremely successful with it as well.

15:33So what other strategies can you provide in terms of going after listings or lead sources to focus on right now? Because a lot of agents might think the market is a certain way. Buyers are not buying, sellers are kind of holding off. So what can you leave us with in terms of that?

Chadi Bazzi15:52

Yeah. I will say, I mean, the first thing, which is, like, a constant conversation right now, everybody’s like, “Should I stop doing this? Should I start doing that? Interest rates are doing this. The economy’s doing this. The marketplace is doing this. Seller’s market, buyer’s market,” et cetera. I’m gonna say that’s a constant conversation for the rest of your real estate career, and you need to stop having that conversation, because that conversation’s impacting everything that you do every single day.

16:17Now, I’ve been in this industry for well over 25 years, and in over 25 years, the best tool for lead generation has been this. Okay? Has been this. Now, I’m not saying don’t do online marketing and all that stuff. I think there is a time in your career where you’re ready for that, but until you master the sales process, it doesn’t matter how many leads you’re bringing in if you are poor at lead conversion.

16:40Now, for the majority of my winning clients, and we’re talking about people that went, like, from three deals to over 100 deals in one year, Loida. Okay, I’m sure you know a lot of people that have

Chadi Bazzi16:49

these quantum leaps. It came from primarily three different sources. Number one, of course, tapping into the people that you already know, your database and your center of influence and all that good stuff.

17:02But some people don’t have that, so there’s only two other major sources that we need to be tapping into, and that is for sale by owners and expireds. Get over this freaking damn thought process of they wanna sell on their own. We know they wanna sell on their own, that’s why they listed it on their own.

17:16But we also know that over 80% of them are gonna use the services of a real estate agent. Why not you? Expired. Certain marketplaces, hey, tight market, nothing’s expiring, it’s okay. That woman I just showed you a picture of, she had the same exact conversation of saying, “There’s no expireds.” I said, “Okay, let’s pick up expireds from the last two years and let’s make phone calls,” and she listed 41 of them in one year.

17:3741 old expireds. Now, doesn’t matter what service you’re using to get the data. You can get the data for the last couple of years and make the phone calls. There’s plenty of leads. Primary focus, for sale by owners, expireds, and your database, and of course, then you can do other stuff.

Loida Velasquez17:51

There you go. And picking up the phone, because, just like you said, if you don’t do it, somebody else is gonna do it, and they’re gonna be the ones getting that paycheck.

17:59That’s my mentality too.

Chadi Bazzi18:01

Talking about picking up the phone, for the people that are watching this, and specifically for the people that are having a hard time picking up the phone, look, pick up the phone. I was on a training about a month ago with a woman by the name of Michelle, and she’s like, “I need to start calling for sale by owners.

18:15I’m paying for this freaking damn data, a couple of hundred bucks a month, and I’m not picking up the phones.” And I said, “Okay, what do we need to do to get you to pick up the phone?” She goes, “I need to memorize the script.” I go, “Perfect. You got 24 hours to memorize the script. Can you do that?” She’s like, “Yes.”

18:28I go, “But I like speed. I like fast action. I ain’t gonna wait 24 hours. You got 24 seconds to go and get a for sale by owner number right now. Right now.” She got the number. I made her call the person right away, and she set an appointment.

18:47Action, fast result, man. Get out of your head. Get into action.

Loida Velasquez18:50

Yeah. Too many agents are overthinking it, thinking that they have to know absolutely every single objection handler, and look, at the end of the day, you just have to get out there and make the calls. I remember when I would be making these for sale by owner calls, and these FSBOs would tell me, “Hey, you sound like you’re asking me a whole bunch of questions.”

19:07So then that just told me, “Okay, I need to get better, and I need to get smooth with the way that I deliver what I’m saying.” And over time, that’s how you’re gonna continue to get better. But if you don’t do it, someone else with less skill is gonna set appointments, get those listings, and get those paychecks.

Chadi Bazzi19:22

Happens all the time.

Loida Velasquez19:23

So if anyone is interested in any of your coaching services, how can they find you? What do you offer, and how can we get ahold of you?

Chadi Bazzi19:31

Yeah. I think that the best way to get ahold of me is anywhere on social media, whether it’s Facebook, Instagram. Primarily YouTube would be the place to go so you could watch the videos, experience me, and if I’m your cup of tea, I’d love the opportunity to work with you, and if I’m not, I’d love to support you through my content anyways.

19:48So if you just Google me, or my name anywhere on social media would be a good starting point.

Loida Velasquez19:55

Okay. Perfect. There you go. And we’re gonna make sure to put all of your links in the description box below as well so that people can find you. Awesome. Well, Chadi, this has been awesome. Thank you so much for sharing the systems and processes that you use, and hopefully after this session, a lot of agents are gonna start picking up those phone calls and getting over that fear of rejection and set more listing appointments.

20:20Can’t wait to hear it. All right, everyone. Well, thank you so much everyone for watching. Thank you, Chadi, and we’ll see you on the next one.