“You are amazing,” he said. "I have been trying to book this auction for several months and could not get to first base, and yet in forty-five minutes we put the deal together. You really know what to say, and when to say it."  These were the words of a 15-year auctioneer veteran who asked me to help get the auction on paper with him.  After "Hello”, virtually every word I spoke was learned. I rehearsed the script over and over again before our meeting. I did not use an original thought in negotiating the deal. He did not believe me.

Signing an auction contract is no different than any other learned skill. Do you think that a sports figure is just a natural? The best in sports have one thing in common, they practice, practice and practice.

The difference between the professional and amateur is education. Being a good bid caller itself will not take you to the top of sales performance. You must learn and relearn. After you graduate from auction school, you must continue your auctioneer education if you expect to survive in this business. You must take specialized auction courses and actually study the material. I can recite 15 to 20 closings off the top of my head, because I learned to do so. For every objection thrown at me I have a learned response. I do not fake it. When I was more active, I was not lucky. I was more than hard working.  I was trained and I strictly stuck to good work habits and I continue to study and learn.

When teaching our specialized Real Estate Auctioneer Course, what a pleasure it is to find $50,000 plus earners in my classes who admit they can learn more. These people know they are capable of earning a lot more by acquiring better sales training. The key today is to know everything about the auction profession and never stop learning. There is no such thing as a train wreck or bad deal, if you use it to learn.

Plato stated that learning is recollection. Sales skills are learned skills, and just as there are no natural born doctors or pilots, there are no natural born salespeople. There are only people who continue to learn about their field and who are dedicated to being the best they can. Read, stay away from negative people, go to seminars and invest in auctioneer training courses. Despite market conditions, there are always those who are successful. You must learn from them and remember, the top auction producers are not lucky, they are smart enough to invest in what it takes to learn as auctioneers.