By Sandra Rogers, Sales Leader - New Home Star
Undoubtedly, we’re in a ‘people’ business. Our interaction with others is constant, so being savvy and effective in such an environment is paramount.
As agents and leaders of New Home Star, we have amazing resources for training; interacting with people is at the crux of almost every one of our training topics. Interaction is directly tied to behavior. Your behavior is an expression of your beliefs and your reaction to external situations. It stems from your feelings, your thinking, and your knowledge base. Your behavior gives others an impression of who you are.
More to the point, the quality of our interaction with others is usually defined by their perception of us, which allows them to sum up who we are, or, our overall character. Are we trustworthy? Reliable? Honest? Caring? It is important for us to pay close attention to the signals we send to our customers, realtor partners, builder team, and peers through our behavior.
Verbal and written communication is the most common expression of our behavior. What are you putting out there? Do you write the same way you speak? Do you choose words that represent your confidence, resourcefulness, compassion, and leadership? Or is your choice of words simply a stream of ideas and directives that are more subconscious than conscious?
What you say and write impacts your level of success, both professionally and personally. Communicate in ways that represent your character. Keep in mind, the words you use reflect what you believe about yourself, so, you must take an honest personal inventory. Get real with yourself. Spend the time you need reflecting so that you’re crystal clear. If you’re not using language that supports a positive viewpoint of yourself and others, you’re holding yourself back from success. Remember, success applies to careers and finances as well as to self-acceptance, gratitude, and joy.
Here’s how to start working on your Language of Success:
- Notice the common words and statements you use in everyday communication.
- Identify weak words and phrases and replace them with strong ones. Weak wordage breeds doubt, strong wordage reinforces confidence just as being specific fosters trust, being compassionate fosters affinity.
Some examples:
- Replace “Mrs. Smith, I’ll try to find you the answer by Wednesday” with “Mrs. Smith, I know where to find the answer. I will follow up with you by end of the day Wednesday.”
- Replace “I think your home might be complete by the end of June” with “According to my reports, I know that your home will be complete between June 15 and June 30.“
- Replace “I’m sorry, that’s just the way it is, Mr. Jones. It’s out of my control” with “I appreciate that this is important to you, Mr. Jones. Let me explain why we’re not able to make this change and revisit your priorities we can accommodate for certain.”
- Lastly, eliminate the word “just” from your vocabulary. It serves no purpose but to undermine the rest of your sentence!
When you put these communication practices into your life daily, you’re making a conscious choice to walk down the path of success. You’ll notice the difference, and others will, too.
