So oftentimes in sales, people are told that they need to be aggressive. In fact, there was a well-known broker years ago in L.A. who used to tell his young salespeople, “Go out and canvass, and don’t come back until you’ve been thrown out of buildings at least twice!”

But what does the term “aggressive” really mean within the context of truly being outstanding in sales? Because oftentimes it is misinterpreted by salespeople as meaning that they need to be pushy and forceful with people, and that can really just repel people away from working with you.

In commercial real estate sales and leasing, you’re dealing with clients and prospects who are usually successful people, and they’re on the lookout for those pushy salespeople. It’s one thing when you’re assertive because you genuinely feel that what you are asking the person to do is definitely in their own best interests, but it’s quite another thing to be telling someone to do something, primarily because you want to get paid a commission.

And don’t think that your clients and prospects won’t notice this underlying motivation coming from you. They’ll notice it, but they just won’t tell you about it, and you’ll be scratching your head wondering why people are choosing to work with other brokers, instead of you.

You want to be confident, knowledgeable, and assertive when it’s appropriate, but always be genuinely coming from the place of serving the client’s own best interests.

Think about this for a moment…wouldn’t you like to be working with a salesperson who you believed was genuinely interested in serving your own best interests first? Wouldn’t you like to be working with someone who wanted to make sure that your most important needs were always fulfilled, far above and beyond their own desire to get paid?

When you become the ideal salesperson who you wish was really selling to you, you’ll then become the salesperson who your clients and prospects will be thrilled to work along with, and they’ll bring you repeat business, and refer you to their friends and business associates, too.