What is your first impression when someone starts telling you how successful, smart and accomplished they are. That’s right. It turns you off at the beginning.

In our line of work, I would love to tell you we have known and practiced this for years, but that would be untrue. Brokers and sales people love to tell clients their performance history, but man, what a mistake that is. It is always better to be asked about performance history than to offer it up. When you offer it up first, it makes you less likable than you probably are. When you are asked by the client to discuss your performance history, always take a more humble approach and answer. Over the last several years when I am asked how many hotels I have sold, I always answer that I have been able to get several hotels closed over the last 29 years. Humility always works better than arrogance.

I learned a great statistic today taken from exit interviews from brokers that didn’t get hired. It said that when you start a meeting talking about yourself, you lose 9 out of 10 assignments. When you start the meeting talking about the client and his business, you win the assignment 9 out of 10 times. While I understand these percentages vary wildly depending on who is involved, but even if these statistics are 50% true, wow what an insight.

When you start the conversation talking about the client, you have in effect, done something that is very powerful. You have assumed status, expertise and credibility. Without talking about yourself, you have taken the position that the client already knows who you are, or you wouldn’t be in the meeting. That may seem subtle, but it is a very very powerful assumption and attitude. When you are asked to make a presentation, always start with the client.  Where you see their company, their assets, their business and their future. If you are asked to make a speech, always start with the audience and their needs. This one simple adjustment could very well be the difference maker to you being liked and trusted and those two things are the main reasons people get hired and who people want to be around. KT

29 years ago, I learned one of the most important things about commercial real estate I could have ever learned. What I learned was, if a buyer won’t show you the money, they don’t have the money. Ha. Such a simple yet fundamental truth. Let me explain.

In the world of selling hotels we run across a lot of big talkers. Many of these people talk a good game but don’t have the cabbage to back it up. When a real buyer makes an offer on a hotel and the seller asked for the buyer to show his proof of funds, there is no hesitation. Serious investors with money have no issue with showing the money to a seller to be approved to buy their hotel. This can be done via a letter from the buyer’s banker that states the cash/equity on hand or any number of similar ways to prove the available funds.

Over the years I have had many buyers balk at this and it tells me very clearly that they do not have the money. It could be as simple as they need to go raise the money but more often than not, they just simply don’t have the money. Why a buyer would go through this process if they didn’t have the money is beyond me.

I have this one buyer named Bob who always calls me and makes multiple offers on hotels, and the best I can tell, doing so just makes him feel big and he tells all his friends that he has multiple offers out on hotels. Just several weeks ago we had this group make an offer and when pressed where the money is coming from, they got all squishy about some eastern rim Asian investor that doesn’t want to disclose their resources, yada yada yada. Basically, it was all a hoax.

In our business we always ask upfront for the proof of funds before we present the offer to our client and it has been proved true 100% of the time, that if the buyer won’t show you the money, they don’t have the money. KT