Poker Face

I don't have a poker face. This has caused me some difficulty in my growing years. As a child I just didn't know that you could see my thoughts on my face. I thought my parents were somehow telepathic that they knew what I was thinking. It didn't occur to me until Junior High School that it was me and my facial expressions that were giving my thoughts away. I had this Principle who said "you know I can see what you are thinking, it is written all over your face".

Because of this flaw in my general personality, I decided that I would just be truthful. I really had no other choice. This has gotten me into trouble over the years. It has also been one of the core strengths in my business! My clients tell me all the time that they appreciate that I am honest. Well I don't really have a choice do I!

I have always studied top producers in my profession. I have been able to achieve the status of top 3% in sales in Ohio and have held on to that level for more than 20 years. For whatever reason I have not been able to get to that top 1% level.

Some of the people in the top 1% level have teams so they may not really be doing all that much more than I am. But there are a few agents that come to my mind that have created this powerful icon of themselves that people just call them to come list their homes!

I have studied these people and many of them are my friends in this business. They all have one thing that I do not have and that is a poker face! They can sit across a table from you and keep their personal thoughts masked behind their poker face. I am not saying they don't have some finesse that maybe I could use a little more of, but come on I do have people skills or I wouldn't be where I am today.

What kind of person do you really want to do business with? One that can't lie and manipulate you or one that can? Maybe having a poker face is what it takes to be a great salesman. I read the book The Worlds Greatest Salesman, it is a little book written by Og Mandino published in 1968. It is about working really hard with honesty. I loved the book so much I gave it out to all the agents I worked with that year. If being the top 1% means working with a poker face well, I'll just be happy at the top 3% for now!