Are you suffering from commission breath? Have there been times in your real estate career, or maybe even right now, where you’re repelling the exact people you’re actually trying to attract as future buyers and sellers of real estate?

This is a common condition in our industry. We so often want to skip the most important first step of working with a new client, which is earning their trust.

In our last blog post we talked about how to earn trust by demonstrating you care. If you missed it, you should definitely go check it out. I want to share another way with you today that you can earn your client’s trust. When a consumer walks into an environment with a service professional, the consumer is evaluating that service professional based on two criteria: warmth and competency. Think about it, when you walk into a car dealership you evaluate your sales rep and whether you want to buy from that individual based on how warm they are, what kind of rapport you feel, what kind of natural connection you have. You ask yourself “Does this person know what they’re doing and do I trust them to handle my transaction?”

“Do I trust that they’re competent enough to help me buy or sell real estate?”

That’s the question that every single consumer is evaluating you through when they first meet with you. It is crucial to be aware that we need to be warm, but we also need to demonstrate competency. Most of us, when we’re working on our presentation skills with new buyers and sellers, focus on demonstrating competency. However, what’s interesting is that the majority of consumers prefer the warmth. They make more of their decision on who they’re going to work with depending on the warmth that they feel from that potential service provider. Being warm and approachable is actually the more important of the two criteria that most consumers will choose from.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you had a hack? If you knew how to instantly convey more warmth to prospective buyers and sellers?

It’s going to blow your mind: smile. That’s all it takes! It’s interesting, when you smile all of this meta messaging goes on – serotonin levels increase, you become happier, blood pressure and stress goes down. When you smile it’s a signal to the person with you that this is someone that they think they may be able to trust, that they feel comfortable around and can take a risk with. Pro tip: don’t be cheesy. Don’t give a cheesy smile when you’re working with someone and you’re approaching them be genuine. Channel that natural warmth and that genuine interest in helping somebody else. Then you can get into rapport and share how you can help them. It all starts with how you approach them.