Episode 5: Chris Gilmour | On Being Authentic and Constantly Learning

Millionaire Agents Secrets Podcast

Good day! I'm Milton Player, your host of Millionaire Agents Secrets, and today, I have a superstar agent from Queensland: Chris Gilmour. He's an agent, speaker, coach, mentor. He's a racing car enthusiast; has a lap record of Mt. Panorama Circuit in Australia. It's very well known. Best-Selling Author of "Sold in 60 Seconds". Sold over 900 properties in nine years – and that's over a billion dollars’ worth of real estate – and has been the Sales Person of the Year for 7 years running at All Properties Group.

[00:00:49]

Milton: How are you, Chris?

Chris: I'm really good, Milton. How are you?

Milton: Good, good. Have I told everyone enough about you?

Chris: That's too much, mate.

Milton: [laughs] No worries. Thank you very much for joining me mate.

[00:01:00]

Milton: We'll start with something that's proved to be quite a fun question, see what you think of it.

Chris: Sure; go for it.

Milton: What social group were you in at high school? What did you learn being part of that social group? And how's that impacted the choices that you've made in your career and life?

Chris: Okay, so that was 18 years ago. I’ve got to remember what social group.

Chris: I know all I did was play basketball. So, uh—

Milton: Oh, okay!

Chris: Yeah, I hated school. I was hardly ever there because I was away a lot with motor racing as well, which was pretty cool. But I finished Year 12 but didn't really get great marks, to be honest. I failed a few subjects, as someone with my attention span probably would. So, social group: I really probably wasn't part of any one group of such. I wasn’t with the cool kids or the geeks or anything like that. I always did my own thing.

[00:02:00]

Milton: And how did you – so, I suppose it helped you for real estate because it can be a bit of a solo thing sometimes as well, can’t it? It's a team effort and a solo effort. It’s almost like you're in a racing car?

Chris: Yeah, it is, sort of.

Chris: But I probably – real estate is more a team effort, to be honest. In order to do it properly, you’ve got to have a good team on.

Milton: Yeah, you do.

[00:02:24]

Milton: So, what is your team? Do you have PA’s and things like that backing you?

Chris: Yeah, so I’ve got –

Chris: There’s four of us in the team, Milton. So there's myself, which is the Lead Agent. I basically just do all the listings. All the listing presentations, secure the business. I maintain the database, keeping in touch with clients and stuff like that. And then I run Open Homes on weekends. So that's really all I probably do now within the team.

[00:03:01]

Chris: I've got Troy Stein. Troy is full-time Buyers Manager, so all he basically does is, he just shows the homes. All day, every day, during the week. Stays in touch with the buyers and stuff like that. And then I have two admin staff behind this that do everything else, just so me and Troy can really focus on what we really need to do. That's basically how the team's run.

[00:03:24]

Milton: What do you think makes a difference for you to be such a successful agent? To be the Sales Person of the year for seven years in a row? What did you do differently?

Chris: I do it.

Chris: That's probably the biggest thing that we find with a lot of our agents. I'm the business owner as well, so we see a lot of agents come and go. There's just no commitment. There's no consistency, there's no focus there.

Chris: Look, I'm still doing the same stuff I was doing ten years ago, I’m just doing them on a bigger scale now. We go to these training seminars and all these motivational places and stuff like that, and – you know, they always say you’ve got to implement it. If you don't implement it, nothing happens.

Chris: Yeah, we just work our butts off, man. That's really all it comes back to. It's hard work. That's all it is.

[00:04:13]

Mike: What about from an influential point of view?

Milton: So you're in a listing. Is there anything you say or do? Is there a strategy that you have that you know will win the presentation, no matter what? So even if they’ve never met you before – sure they may have heard of you – what is it?

Chris: Basically, I put a piece of paper down on the table, which is called The Agenda. And it's got five tick boxes. These people are going to remember that –you know, people don't do appraisals every single day of their life. Probably once every seven years. They wouldn't even remember the last one they did.

Chris: The first thing that I always go through is, number one: understanding.

Chris: That's just really understanding what the client wants. Asking them questions. Seeing when they want to move, where, why, who? What experience did they have previously? And then I ask permission; "Have we got enough information to move on to stage two?"

[00:05:12]

Chris: Stage two is talking about method.

Chris: So they understand it's an auction. Private trading. What strategy do they like? What do they feel comfortable with? And what is the market going to respond to best?

Chris: Once we get approval and said; "Okay, yep. We’re set on an auction. Okay, tick that box. Move on to the next part; we talk about Marketing.”

[00:05:31]

Chris: And then that is when we go through all that marketing of what we're going to do on the property. How much they want to spend, where they want to spend it, and stuff like that. Again, once you finish there and they're in agreeance with your fee on your marketing, tick it. Move on to the next one.

Chris: Stage 4 is basically, we talk about the price. Where do we think that the property is going to sit in the marketplace, comparable to others on the market in that it sold previously? And, again, once we've got the permission, “Yep, we're both in agreeance with this on,” tick it.

Chris: Number 5, basically, says; “Well, we agree with all four we’re ready to start today.”

Milton: Mm-hmm.

[00:06:12]

Chris: We don't move on to stage 1, 2, 3, or 4 until we've answered all their objections and everything. By the time you get to the end of it, they basically have said yes the whole way through to sign.

Milton: So, you do pricing towards the end. That's interesting.

Chris: Yeah.

Milton: Any reason you don’t – cover that towards the start? So they get that out of there? Because aren’t they thinking the whole time; “well, what price, what price, what price?”

Chris: Well, as soon as you give them the price and you're not in agreeance, and you don't understand what they're looking for or their motivation, you've lost it straightaway. If you're on a completely different wavelength.

Chris: Probably the biggest thing is, I don't talk about the price of the home. I don't give a price; never have, never will. At the end of the day, I sit in front of them and say; “Look, I'm probably the only agent that you're going to have that's honest. Out of the thousand homes that I've sold, I’ve been wrong a thousand times. Yet I still sell more than anyone else. How can I be so right and so wrong all the time? It’s because it comes back to the method. I’m not your buyer; we need to find a buyer. That’s what you’re paying us for.”

Chris: So, I really get around that objective of; "Chris, what's my home worth?" I can tell you it's worth $500,000. Some other agent’s going to come in and tell you it’s worth $550,000. You’re listed with them. That’s not how I do my business.

Milton: Yeah, so, always leave it ‘til the end.

[00:07:32]

Milton: And they take that well, but I like the way you framed that, so I can see why they understand that and move on. It’s good.

Chris: They always do.

Milton: Yeah.

Milton: What about negotiation? Are you an expert at negotiation?

Chris: I think I'd have to be –

Milton: Yeah – [laughs]

Chris: --you know, to get all these deals down on the line.

Chris: That's what we're trained in. We're trained in marketing, in which you have to be skilled to negotiate and getting the deals together. I think, first one, you’ve got to negotiate to get the listing. To work out your deals and where you sit, but then to also close the deal with the buyer. Get the seller to the same page and the buyer to the same page.

Chris: We did a hundred and twenty-seven deals last year, which I think ranked just third in the stretch for the most amount of sells for the financial year. So, yeah. We've got to be half decent at it to get so many over the line, I think.

Milton: Well, that’s what I thought. I thought you must have amazing negotiation skills.

[00:08:31]

Milton: Do you have any tactics or tools or scripts that you use? Anything you find that really works well, or is it just off the cuff?

Chris: It's always off the cuff.

Chris: I'm not a real big believer of scripts and dialogs, to be honest. And I know everyone in real estate, that's all they talk about. But I think every person is completely different. Every client that you're dealing with, it’s going to take a different script. It's case by case.

Chris: We just secured one this morning. First-time buyers from Sydney. You could tell they were really quiet. They're not quite personality, so you can't go in all guns blazing. It's a process. You’ve got take them through it and really take the time with them. Some might get it done in 10 minutes, but these guys have been since Saturday, so it's taken four days, but we got the deal together. It’s just really understanding the client, to be honest.

Milton: Absolutely.

[00:09:28]

Milton: I really believe perception is one of the most important things, wrapped with influence and suggestion. Use of those sort of tools as well, but perception is major, isn't it?

Milton: One of the problems I see with a lot of agents that think they can just come in and become great at sales is they have no skills in perception.

Chris: Yeah, hundred percent.

Milton: Yeah.

[00:09:50]

Milton: So if you're training a new person, what do you focus on mostly with them? Is it their EQ? Is it the way they’re addressing their clients? Is it their mindset? Or is it actual tools?

Chris: I think probably the first thing that you need to really work on is their attitude and their mindset. If they believe, then the rest of the job is easy. I’m probably the most unorganized person in my life, but in my business, I’m the most organized.

Chris: It’s all about just having systems and procedures. There's a couple of key things that we work on when we have new people that enter into the business, but it's really just trying to get them to start on the right foot. They follow us for about three months so they can hear and see what we're doing, how we're doing it, when we use tonality, what sort of body language do we use at certain times.

Chris: Everyone thinks selling a house is selling a house, but you're actually selling yourself to people. That's what real estate is all about, to be honest.

Milton: Yeah, I agree one hundred percent with you.

[00:10:55]

Milton: So in reality from, I suppose your whole career, what’s the most gruelling or the hardest challenge that you've had to go through, and how did you get over the pain of that? What did you learn from it?

Chris: I don't think I've been really through any pain. The only thing that really s*** me in this industry is the low-fee competitors – you know; our competitors that are really just basing their service and their skill and winning the business on just absolutely dropping the pants on their feet just to win a business. That's the biggest thing I hate about this industry.

Chris: I just wish we were all the same across the board the whole way. But it's like this: you can buy a Kia or you can buy a BMW. They still do the same thing, but some are luxury and probably are going to break down three or four times. That's probably the only thing I hate within this industry, it’s just how desperate people are.

Milton: Yeah.

Chris: Agents, is what I mean, [not] people.

Milton: Yeah, you pay peanuts – what was it? You’re paying monkeys, you get peanuts or something like that. What's the saying? (Referring to the idiom "If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.")

Chris: Yeah, pretty much, mate.

Chris: It's in this industry as well, but you've just got to make sure you're better than them. And you don't win them all.

[00:12:20]

Chris: You know, they're dealing with half a million or two million dollar properties, they're basing it on saving $3000 dollars – it does my head in. I don't understand. I'd love to understand the psychology behind it, what with the people trying to save that sort of money when they're dealing with such a big amount of money that the agent can produce a price ten, twenty, fifty, a hundred thousand dollars more than anyone else.

Milton: Yeah, exactly. I think they get desperate, don’t they?

Milton: I suppose, because you kill your area, because your service is so profoundly good and you do get along higher prices than everyone else, the competitors – they just get desperate. It’s their own way of doing it! Just drop the fee and hope that the cheap people will go with them and they’ll at least be able to eat their bacon and eggs in the morning. Strange way of thinking. Instead of improving their skills.

[00:13:02]

Mike: Chris, what is the funniest thing that's ever happened to you in real estate? Is there anything strange that's happened or odd or hilarious?

Chris: To be honest? Looking back, no, I don't think there is. I've had death threats.

Milton: Ohh, that’s pretty bad!

Chris: Yeah, yeah. Because, you know, you’ve got to remember we're dealing with a lot of separation, divorce –

Milton: Mm-hmm.

Chris: -- stuff like that in this industry. And you're playing with a lot of money. I’ve had – look, I’ve sold drug homes. You don’t realize until afterwards, when you get told. I’ve had, I think, two death threats from vendors, just psychotic people that we deal with over trivial little stuff. But that's half of this job. You’ve got to manage the expectations, the anxiety levels of what owners go through when selling properties. But, funny? I don’t –

Chris: We have lots of fun in the office, but out the field it's pretty serious. We take it very serious. So, yeah man. I don’t think anything really funny has happened, to be honest!

Chris: Probably the funniest thing that I can think of was, I was running an open home and it was absolutely pouring down rain. So I took my shirt off, and I did my next open home like Magic Mike.

Milton: [laughs]

Chris: That’s probably the only thing that I can remember that would be anywhere close to funny.

Milton: So, that’s good. That’s good. And because it worked so well, you’ve been doing the same thing ever since, hey?

Chris: No, mate! No one turned up to the open home –

Milton: [laughs]

Chris: Now I always carry a spare jacket and shirt with me, just in case that happens.

[00:15:04]

Milton: Who are your motivators or influences? Who's had the most profound effect on you?

Chris: First one would be John McGrath, of course. I think he’s a lot of people’s [influence]. Yeah, definitely John. And Glenn Twiddle. [He’s] had a big part in my career as a trainer and coach of myself personally. Definitely John and Glenn.

Milton: Yeah, two great people, hey?

Chris: Yeah! Fantastic.

[00:15:39]

Milton: So, how do you market yourself now? Do you use social media a lot with your business?

Chris: Yeah, definitely! Huge on social media. It's so cheap at the moment, so we're really just capitalizing on it's costing you 1 to 3 cents per hour on your add. I’d be spending anywhere between four to six thousand dollars a month just on Facebook advertising. What I love about it is you can pinpoint it in the areas that you want it to be.

Chris: Oh, it’s quite funny! I got a message from someone last night. Never met him. And he said, “Mate, get off my Facebook, you fool.”

Milton: [laughs]

Chris: He’s obviously just sick of seeing the ads, and I’m like; “You know you can hide those ads?”

[00:16:44]

Milton: Yeah, it’s good. I like it.

Milton: Let's say you could go back 20 years and tell yourself one thing. What would that be?

Chris: Probably not, “get into real estate.”

Milton: Ah-ha! [laughs] Just “become a racing car driver” instead?

Chris: Yeah, pretty much, man.

Chris: No, look; I've been very happy with it. In the ten years I’ve been in the industry, I've kept very level head and kept it very consistent and made a great lifestyle out of the industry. I still love it every day. Still passionate about it. Still would do it for the next twenty years if it's around.

Chris: But anyone that’s saying – that I meet – you know; “Chris, what’s the first bit of advice?” You should say that – if they’re getting into real estate – I’d say; “Get out.”

Chris: You sacrifice a lot of things you know you very rarely see friends very rarely go out. Again guys that's your choice and it is my choice. I work a lot. But you know and it's going to rewards and it can set you up very young and very early in life which in long terms it’s probably going to be worth it. But look it's a cool industry I love it I couldn't think of anything else apart from those jobs that I would be doing.

[00:18:55] Milton: You were talking about fitness so what do you do? What exercises do you do? How do you keep fit?

[00:19:02] Chris: Look man I've always kept fit mainly because my motor racing but I think to run it the sort of levels that we do with the team here we've got to be fit so it's just you know one and a half hours in the gym three times a week sort of thing. So a lot of swimming lot of riding rowing a bit of light work. I'm not a big built person it's more cardio and just so you're always fresh and high levels of energy, we're running 30 open homes on a Saturday.

[00:19:57] Milton: And you eat well as well, a lot of veggies a lot of fruits?

[00:20:02] Chris: Not really, that's why I go to gym and so I can afford to eat stuff. I had lot of eggs and a lot of fruit. But yeah veggies every night, we had yam char and San Churro for dessert.

[00:20:27] Milton: If you were starting out from scratch, what would you do now, if you were just starting your brand new in real estate?

[00:20:40] Chris: I would spend a lot of money on Facebook to get it out there very quickly to get your brand out there. People have got to remember it's not the company that you work for people do people not brands so we really encourage that in effort. You know it's more about the agent as a brand. I would grow a team and I'd grow a team quickly. Just get someone behind you really quickly because you make more money when you got more people that you can also you're sort of buying some time off this --- too and employ the right people.

[00:21:20] Milton: Yes so it is leveraging your time. I suppose if you do trade as a sales person like it is your business within a business it's not such a big scary thing to hire people is it then. Your parents did they support you a lot motivate you and push you that way to succeed?

[00:21:46] Chris: I think it's just I look my dad's a perfectionist you know and I think that's come through to the motor racing with the competition. You know we've got to make sure that the car is right the body is right, everything is right to win on the racetrack because it's a difference between one --- you know between first and second. So I've taken a lot of that from my motor racing into real estate just knowing that our brand just going to be right off that would be fit, our listing presentations got to be perfect. But yeah everything does have to be perfect so that's probably the biggest thing that I've taken away from the old boys for sure.

[00:22:28] Milton: And when we talk about John or Glen what would you say the best piece of advice you've ever received from them that's really guided or helped you? Is there anything that really stands out?

[00:22:39] Chris: Yeah look I think from John just the humility that you know he's just so nice. You know there’s no arrogance there, there's no ego. So it's that's probably the biggest thing. So I'm still learning that so I still got a chip on my shoulder. And with Glenn, Glenn is probably just good to have on your side. So he's just one of those one of the sort of the right hand men guys that you just a mate that you can talk to, that understands what you have done and what you're trying to do

[00:23:26] Milton: Okay. And when you carry out your opens do anything unique or different there that really stands out to show the professionalism in your open for inspections?

[00:23:36] Chris: Like you can have all the fancy flags and some boards and all these music and all that sort of stuff. But I think the real key the value is in the follow up. And that's where a lot of agents go wrong they just don't follow up.

[00:23:50] Milton: What about listing presentation? Say before you have anything that you do, any anchors you use, do you listen to music before you go in or do you just you're so used to it now you just naturally power on through?

[00:24:04] Chris: Just rock up and wing it every time.

[00:24:07] Milton: Yeah which sometimes is the best way if you go in with thinking too much you can blow it can't you, you want to be natural.

[00:24:14] Chris: Like again every person you meet is going to have a different story. We always talk about in this job we got to be like a chameleon. You know you've got to be an adaptable. So you've got to be able to adapt to certain ethnic groups, people, and certain religions.

[00:24:36] Milton: Yeah. So what about after with follow up. Do you have a process that you go with I know Matt Steinwede has a whole system that he does. Is there anything that you do?

[00:24:52] Chris: No. So if we haven't if we don't list it then and there on the spot then obviously we send something out straight afterwards then we'll contact them the very next day and see if they had any questions If not from there , look there's a pretty good chance that you're not going to get listing then and there. So I really more try and focus on listing in then and there.

[00:25:37] Milton: So what about closing then in that case, have you got a set thing that you say to close? is there strategy you have?

[00:25:45] Chris: Yeah. All the way through it to be honest. You know just sitting little try close questions just to see where they're at. But look the form that they have to fill up before we get there basically tells me when they're listening. But I think that the listing actually starts on the phone call from when they actually first ring you so most people just book the appointment and go and see them you know within that that day or the next day where I'd spend 20 minutes with them on the phone.

[00:26:24] Milton: And what about the strategy then, do you do anything different to sell a house than the other agents or is it more relying on the marketing just your marketing is better?

[00:26:34] Chris: Yeah Look our marketing is completely better. We offer a lot more we do a lot more. We present it in a much better light. We're very strategic in the way that we show the home, how we present the home online, how many photos to use, how we write our ads so it's definitely an art. So it works well so we won't change it at this stage.

[00:26:57] Milton: Yeah here I wish you were in Caboolture mate, because I'm trying to sell a house there at the moment and it's not much fun I need someone like you. So what's a personal habit that you believe contributes to your success other than your OCD?

[00:27:14]Chris: I'm always learning. I'm still going to conferences all the time, never thinking that I completely know it all. [I’m] always changing and evolving. You know just not really set like so many of these old companies that have been around for a long time which is great but I think they're starting to lose support a little bit because It's still doing things that they were doing back in the 90s what you were doing in the 90s isn't working today even in the early 2000s it's not going to work today, the game has changed, the clients have changed expectations have changed.

[00:28:02]

Milton: And I know from aspiring agents, you have some marketing that you give out. We bought some of your stuff, and it's very good. So, how do people find you Chris? Just Google you?

Chris: Yeah, Google me. They can download the app from iTunes or Android store: Chris Gilmour App. Website is www.soldin60seconds.com.au -- that's where they can catch me, or www.chrisgilmour.com.au

[00:28:57]

Milton: Is there anything else you'd like to add before we go, mate? I know I used up a lot of your time.

Chris: No, it's all good, mate.

[00:29:08]

Milton: I really appreciate it, Chris, and thank you very much. Hopefully we'll see you in Formula 1 soon.

Chris: No, I'm too old for that man. I'll keep doing my formula three.

Milton: Thanks, Chris. All the best, buddy.