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Home » Resources » Articles And Reports » The Gold Club Weekly Report » “Who Is the Closer?” by Lee Arnold

“Who Is the Closer?” by Lee Arnold

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, this is Lee Arnold. We’re going to talk about “Closing the Closer.” Who are they and why should we go after them? Once we have their ear, what are the magic questions to ask them and what are their emotional triggers that motivate them to act? Also, we’ll discuss how you can become the master closer too. And finally we’ll talk about the missing key to your success (hint: it’s often right in front of you).

I just had a conversation with my executives, managers, and team leaders, as I do every other Monday morning. My question for them today was, “What is different about company this January than last January?” As I was looking at my reporting from January 2012 to January 2013, I asked the question, “What’s different?”

Interestingly, many of the same challenges that you face, we face as a company. We took on so many new initiatives in 2013 that we kind of lost sight of our core competency, which is doing what we do best and simply focusing on that. Today, I’m going to talk a lot about your core competency as it relates to business. From the lead generation on the marketing side to the follow-up and the closing the leads on the sales side, it’s a process from start to finish. From acquisition to close or renovation and repair to the accounting of all of the revenue and repair, there is a lot to accomplish in a business. So, in one word, I want to know, what do you believe to be your core competency? Are you the accountant? Are you the marketer? Are you the salesman? Are you the closer? What are you? In your current business, whatever it is that you do now to make money is typically your core competency. Whatever you are currently doing right now to generate income for your business is probably what you do best and you continue to do it because it makes you money. When I am consulting clients about transitioning from their current job income, hourly income, or salaried income to a self-employed, entrepreneurial income, I want to make their current core competency the driving force of their new entrepreneurial business. So when I ask the question and you say accounting, chances are you have either in the past or are currently engaged or involved in the process of the function of accounting and that is where you have been making your money. Others of you would say it’s on the sales side. We have to figure out where are you best? For me, it’s going to be marketing and communication. Those are my two cores and if it’s not one of those two things, I am going to hire somebody else to do it. People would say, “Yes Lee, but you are you and we can’t afford to hire staff.” I can tell you that there was a time that I couldn’t afford to hire staff either and I had to be the jack of all trades, certainly. But I was also actively engaged in the process of running a company. I was not sitting around waiting for somebody else to come along and say I am an accountant, let’s start a company. You have to move forward with the skill sets that you have.

So, who is the closer? Often they are self-made, affluent men and women. They are people like Carlos Slim Helu, who founded Telmex and is worth $73 billion dollars, Bill Gates who founded Microsoft and is worth $67 billion, Amancio Ortega who founded the clothing store Zara and is now worth $57 billion, Warren Buffet, who is just very good at investing in the right companies and is worth $53.5 billion, and finally Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracile who is worth $43 billion. Other closers started from the most humble of situations. John Paul DeJoria, who is worth $4 billion, began by living out of his car while selling his Paul Mitchell products door-to-door. Oprah Winfrey was raised in rural poverty and ran away from home as a teen due to abuse and is now worth $2.9 billion, and Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks, was raised in the projects in Brooklyn and is now worth $2 billion. What is the secret in the sauce that makes these people rise from absolutely nothing?

As you may know, I have my staff read a book every month and then we have a potluck where I have them turn in a six paragraph report. For those who do it, I not only pay for the cost of the book, I also give them $100 cash. The book this month is Malcolm Gladwell’s David and Goliath. It’s really a fascinating read and talks about what we believe to be strengths are often times the greatest weaknesses. He cites biblically from scripture the story of David and Goliath. It is believed that Goliath had a growth issue which affected his mobility. Because he moved slowly, he was a very easy target and easy prey.

You, regardless of how big your empire is or is not, are a sling and a rock in the sales world is a lead with a telephone number. I am always fascinated that only a few of you are actually picking up the phone and calling your leads. Only a small and select few of you are picking up the sling and the rock and slaying the giant. I see the internet and social media being used as crutches to avoid doing the things that people don’t want to do, which is pick up the phone and dial. That is something that has to be done. You need a routine and you need to change your habits to be more like the closer.

The closer has a routine. Of the wealthy, 81 percent of them maintain a to-do list. Do you have a to-do list? Forty-four percent of them wake up three hours before work. They listen to audio books during commute. Recently I was traveling to Chicago and I noticed that as I walked through first class, everyone was either on their computer working on spreadsheets, looking at reports or reading books. As I walked back into coach everybody was watching videos or playing games on their iPads. I found it fascinating that those sitting in the front of the plane were all working and those who were riding in coach were all playing. It’s a pretty good analogy of everyday life don’t you think. People are in first class because of their work ethic while others are still sitting in coach because of their lack of it. If you look at the break-down, only 10 percent of the plane is devoted to first class and 90 percent of the plane is devoted to everybody else. Ninety percent of the population works for the ten percent. I thought that was really interesting. They are reading books, constantly educating themselves and they are working. If you think you are going to get rich in four hours a week, I have got some bad news for you—that is not going to happen. That title only sells book, it does not make people successful.

Seventy-nine percent of wealthy people network five or more hours each and every month. How much time are you spending networking? Eighty-eight percent read 30 plus minutes or more each day and 86 percent of them love to read. I am not a big fan of being away from my family when I travel, but I enjoy getting the time to read and finish book while in the air. I love to read. I love the information that’s there.

What about other habits like how much T.V. the closer watches each day. Closers watch one hour or less of television per day and they watch very little reality T.V. On the flip side of the coin, over 77 percent of poor people watch at least one hour or more of television each and every day. Seventy-seven percent of poor people watch reality television. Why is this important for you as it relates to closing the closer? I see you schlepping around one event to the other and networking with all the wrong people for all the wrong reasons. Why keep coming? At some point, you have to start being successful! You cannot continue to spend money on tickets and travel if you’re not using the information you glean from these events. Don’t get me wrong, I love to see you and it is nice to say hello, but at some point you have to make more money and I believe that that is why you are here because you want to make more money. I am here to tell you, I would like us to make more money together but you need to make the effort to put the information into play. I am here with a very specific agenda and that agenda is right now.  I am sitting on millions of dollars in cash and I can’t deploy it fast enough because I don’t have enough borrowers with deals. You’re going to my events and I’m giving you the knowledge and even the capital, so what is holding you up? I am sitting on millions of dollars that I would like to get to you. So you can’t use the excuse that you can’t find the money. You need get deals under contract and submit loans. You need to mail and follow up.

I just got out of an executive meeting where I told my executives, “Look, the only way we are going to be able to deploy the amount of money that we are raising is if we go fish in a new pond.” And I was referring to you. You are the old pond. You aren’t borrowing enough money, doing enough deals that we can deploy all of the cash we have raised and have available to you. Do we need to go find a new pond or can you actually absorb and deploy the capital that we have? Can you?

Closers set goals. They write down the goal. They focus on accomplishing specific goals. They believe in life long educational self-improvement. They believe good habits create opportunity. They believe bad habits have a negative impact.

Lee Arnold is an international speaker, trainer, author and licensed broker who has spent many years perfecting the real estate and private money mortgage lending process through thousands of transactions. Lee is a leading expert on private money mortgages and has been featured as an investment strategy expert by Forbes, the Boston Globe, Market Watch, Reuters and Business Week. He has also consulted and taught for Donald Trump Companies.

As a master of networking, Lee connects private investors to borrowers from across the United States and Canada. To leverage the power of these relationships Lee and the Secured Investment Corp’s executive leadership team have created Cogo Capital – The Private Money Company, Lake City Services and The Lee Arnold System of Real Estate Investing. This family of companies has become the fast growing private money mortgage firm in the United States. Key to the company’s values is integrity and trust.

Reprinted with approval from The Lee Arnold System of Real Estate Investing.

© Copyright 2014 by The Lee Arnold System of Real Estate Investing

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6 Responses to “Who Is the Closer?” by Lee Arnold

  1. Phillip Warrick says:

    Very inspiring. Show me the money!!!!

  2. Kristine Pitts says:

    I have to give up “The Amazing Race”? 🙁 Great article. Thanks for the kick in the pants!

  3. Tom Holyfield says:

    yowsa!

  4. Robert Pfluge says:

    True enough. Our success is up to us. I have a contract now and can’t find reliable and reasonable private money at a 65% LTV. Lee help.

  5. Ronald Guyor Sr. says:

    wow what an eye opener thank you . I agree with Robert” our success is up to us.”

  6. Donald Cromley says:

    Not sure how Lee Arnold is on the Gold Club. I purchased the lender program and went to borrow money and guess what? The way the process is structured is exactly like a traditional lender. The first thing they wanted was my credit score. They were shocked when I asked what does my credit have to do with it? You are loaning with the property as collateral. The next issue is they would only lend on a portion of the wholesale fee with no rehab money in the deal like Jay Conner teaches. Do yourself a favor and forget that name in lending.

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