Coaching: A brokerage prospecting lesson from Hillary Clinton - by Rod Santomassimo

Today, I want to talk about your personal messaging, not politics. Although I will use a political example to assist in my message. Think about the campaign slogans from the 2016 election. Most would remember “Make America Great Again.” That was President Trump’s sole focus. Secretary Clinton had a significantly different message, “I’m with her.” 

While it can certainly be argued that Trump has an intensely high ego, his campaign platform wasn’t about him. It was about “Making America Great,” it was about you. Now, contrast that with Hillary Clinton. “I’m with her.” Clinton’s campaign slogan was all about her. In fact, many political hacks strongly believe if she simply changed her campaign platform to “She’s with Us,” she would have won by a landslide. Unfortunately, like Trump, Clinton, positioned herself as having an enormous ego as well.

Enough about politics. The lesson here is you need to make things all about your prospect. When you call, speak in terms of them, speak in terms of their problems. When you call and all you do is talk about you, your services and your experience in the market, you tune your prospects out. Prospects want to hear how you can solve their problems, so talk about that. Keep the focus off you and on your prospects and one day you may shock the world and become the President of the United States too.

Rod Santomassimo, CCIM, is the founder and president at Massimo Group, LLC, New York, N.Y.