If you remove these eight things from your day-to-day client communication, you’re going to sell more houses. I guarantee it.
A lot of content out there focuses on what to do and what to implement. Today I’m flipping it.
I’m spotlighting eight things to stop doing right now in your conversations with consumers. Because sometimes the fastest way to improve your results is to stop doing the stuff that’s hurting you.
Before we get into it, one thing I want to address upfront: if you’re not talking to 15 people a day (or better yet, 20), you’re not giving yourself a real shot at selling a whole bunch of real estate.
Volume of conversations is the foundation. If you don’t have that, start there. Everything else builds on it.
Now, when you’re having those conversations, here are the habits you need to cut.
The Four Conversational Habits to Drop
1. Stop Asking “How Are You?”
When you pick up the phone and say,
“Hey, Brian, how are you? It’s Tom with REMAX.”
…you’ve already lost control of the call.
This person could be having a horrible day. Their dog could have died. They could have gotten bad news about a family member.
“How are you” opens the conversation up to go a million different directions instead of keeping the focus on real estate and the reason you’re calling.
Instead of “how are you,” use an OFQ (opening, fact, question). If you’re talking to a seller, you’re leading with price growth. If you’re talking to a buyer, you’re leading with inventory.
Here’s what that sounds like on a seller call:
“Hey, it’s Tom with REMAX. Not sure if you saw home prices are up 6%. How might that impact your real estate plans over the next six or 12 months?”
And on a buyer call:
“Not sure if you saw inventory is up close to 10% year-over-year. How might that impact your plans?”
You’re bringing a fact. You’re asking a relevant question. You’re in control of the conversation from the first sentence. Stop asking “how are you?” and start there instead.
2. Stop Asking “Is This…?”
I hear agents in the CRM making calls and opening with,
“Hey, is this Kevin?”
You have Kevin’s name right there. You have the number attached to Kevin. You’re calling Kevin because he inbounded and gave you his name, his phone number, and his email, or you verified the data some other way.
There’s no reason to confirm what you already know. It’s an uncertain, hesitant way to open a call and it signals to the person on the other end that you’re not prepared.
Same advice here: skip the confirmation and go straight into the OFQ.
It sets the tone as a business call immediately, and top-producing agents are using OFQs consistently for exactly that reason.
3. Stop With the Emojis, LOL, and JK
This one might sting a little, but I see it constantly when we inspect our databases.
Agents are texting clients and loading up their messages with “LOL,” popcorn memes, “JK,” and a wall of emojis.
You’re not texting a friend. You’re communicating with someone who’s about to make one of the biggest financial decisions of their life.
That kind of casual language brings juvenile energy to a high-dollar volume, professional transaction. Cut it out completely. Same goes for writing in all caps. You look like you’re yelling at someone, and that’s not the impression you want to leave.
Professional communication means clear sentences, respectful tone, and writing that reflects how seriously you take this business.
4. Stop “Checking In”
“Hey, I’m checking in” is the laziest follow-up you can send.
Think about what you’re actually communicating when you write that. You’re telling your client you have nothing of value to say, but you wanted to pop into their inbox anyway.
Use the OFQ instead. You’re bringing a fact, asking a relevant question, and giving the person a reason to respond.
Drop “how are you,” “is this,” and “checking in” from your communication entirely. I know I sound like an old man about this stuff. My track record would tell you it works.
Those are the four conversational habits that are costing you. The next four are more strategic.
The Four Strategic Mistakes to Stop Making
5. Stop Generalizing Your Stats
I hear agents say things like “they’re up almost” or “they’re up quite a bit” and it immediately undermines their credibility.
Use the decimal point. Use the exact percentage. Take 15 minutes to study what’s actually happening in your market, verify the data, and pull from your MLS.
When you do that, you become a knowledge broker. You’re speaking from a position of authority because you’re giving people real facts.
Think about it this way: when a doctor reads your blood pressure, they don’t say “it’s about this.” They give you the exact number. When you need to bring funds to closing, it’s not “bring around $150,000.” It’s an exact number to the penny.
Hold yourself to that same standard with your market data and don’t wing your stats.
6. Stop Sitting When You’re on the Phone
This one is simple and it works. If you’re sitting down, hunched over your desk, you sound like it.
People can hear low energy through the phone and it affects how they respond to you. Standing up when you make calls improves your tonality and gives you more command over the conversation.
It’s one of the easiest adjustments you can make and most agents never do it.
7. Stop Winging the Script
Stop acting like you’re too good for your scripts. Keep them up and visible until you’ve fully internalized them, and don’t deviate.
I work with our team and our real estate talent scout constantly, and one thing people notice is how closely I stick to the script. I do it because it works. We’re always refining it, always tweaking it, but the foundation is proven.
Scripts produce predictable results. Winging it doesn’t.
8. Stop Bringing Negative Energy to Your Calls
This is probably the hardest one to hear. If you’re getting on the phone with a mindset of “nobody’s going to want to talk to me” or “it’s a tough market,” people can hear it.
Negative energy comes through in your tone, your word choice, and the way you carry yourself, and it attracts more of the same.
Think about the last really negative person you were around. You could see it before they even opened their mouth: shoulders up, closed off, already defeated. That energy translates into your conversations and repels the clients you want.
I want to work with people who are excited about making a real estate decision, and positive energy is what attracts them.
Follow the Proven Practice
Take these eight things seriously. Your conversations will improve, your strategy will sharpen, and your mindset will follow.
The proven practice works. Follow it and you’re going to sell more.
