Six Ways Millionaire Wholesalers Maintain Their Long-Term Success

You can’t reach the pinnacle of this craft without some hard-won experience.

Millionaire Wholesalers have a lot of great war stories to share but, more importantly, they have wisdom and some great advice to pass on.

Based on our interviews, here’s what has helped these Millionaire Wholesalers maintain success over the long haul.

Learn to Read People

One Millionaire Wholesaler™ says that his brief but past career as a police officer helped him learn to read body language and non-verbal cues. Over the years he’s continued to develop that skill and use it to his advantage with clients.

“I’m able to read people to tell if someone is being deceptive or has an intent to be deceptive, whether they are blocking, whether they’re being defensive. The FBI has done some great things on non-verbal cues by reading body language. So, I use some of that in my career, and I think that helped me out immensely. It took me five or six years as a wholesaler to understand that, wait, this applies not just on the street with the bad guy, or the guy you’re interviewing on the street, but it also applies in this arena as well.”

[also see: Understanding Nonverbal Communication with Bill Acheson]

Listen Up!

Another thing that veterans know, that seems obvious (but often isn’t) is to hone your listening skills.

It’s difficult to understand the concerns of your clients if you are only focused on what you will say next or following a script in your own head.

“I was traveling with one of my guys recently. This guy is spit polished, looked the part, walked the part, dresses the part, but never really has gotten there, from a production standpoint. I could never figure out why this guy was not doing better than he was,” this Millionaire Wholesaler™ recalls.

During a subsequent ride-along, the problem was identified within 90-seconds of a client meeting – the new guy won’t shut up!

As the two sat in an advisor’s office, the younger wholesaler failed to see that the advisor had a notepad with many questions. Instead, the wholesaler just plowed through what he wanted to discuss.

When they got back to the car, the veteran wanted to go over the meeting. “All right, let’s talk about that first five minutes. What did he say to you?”, he asked his younger colleague.

“I don’t know”, he replied.

“Did you notice what he had on his notepad?”

“No, I didn’t. He had a notepad?”

“He had questions already written down for you. At that point, when he has a question and it’s an area where we really shine, you just be quiet. You stop all other trains of thought and you focus on that one thing that he wanted to focus on.”

The Millionaire Wholesaler™ has spent additional time coaching and now “the guy has the highest pending in our company at the moment. That’s how powerful listening is. You think, oh listening, okay, yeah, I’ll listen more. No, listening is such a huge part of what we do, and that’s what most people don’t do.”

[also see: How Wholesalers Develop More Effective Listening Skills]

Separate Business Friendships From Personal Friendships

Another Millionaire Wholesaler™ says that in spending so much time networking, schmoozing and socializing with clients that there is a tendency to regard clients as friends. However, she adds it’s important to separate business from personal friendship.

It’s ok to be friendly and even like/enjoy the company of clients, but if you depend on them as friends, you may find yourself in an awkward or hurtful position down the road.

“It’s important for you, as a wholesaler, to protect yourself. They’re my business friends but they’re not my personal friends. Yes, I know people’s families. I’ve done events that have included them. I’ve gotten to know their wives and children, but if I hear that they do a big trade with another carrier, I don’t want my heart broken. So I keep it on a professional level and its fun. The fun is real and the friendship is a business friendship.”

She added that this strategy was learned from more than 20 years of experience and has helped her maintain longevity the business.

“You have to have people who love you; you have to have family and friends on the outside. If you put all your eggs in your business basket, you’re going to burn out and you won’t last. So that’s how you last a long time.”

It’s a Marathon

Because wholesaling can be a long and lucrative career, most experienced Millionaire Wholesalers understand it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

“You’ve got to look at your career as a long-term proposition and always do things that you can revisit.

Never beg for business.

Never put yourself in the position where you never want to see that guy/gal again. Whether that’s doing something stupid at a late-night event, or if you gossip about them and it gets back to them.

In other words, this is your life so you have to treat everything very carefully and run it as a long-term business and then you get to have long-term success.

But if you think it’s a sprint and you’re going to spend every dime on these good folks who want you to party with them and say they’ll drop $5 million with you, and then they don’t and you can’t face them anymore because they don’t want to take your calls. Nothing good comes from that.”

Prepare for Uncertainty

Other Millionaire Wholesalers also know that there are innumerable ups and downs in the business and uncertainty is all but certain.

And that really understanding this fact will help you through the hard times.

“It’s all a question of investor behavior and that they will always do the exact wrong thing at exactly the right time. Markets change, in terms of sector rotations or the popularity of a certain type of investment, but those things always change.

We should be more aware of outcomes and be students of providing solutions rather than focusing on product and performance,” according to a Millionaire Wholesaler™ with 16 years of experience.

He adds that performance is a black hole. “It will serve you in good times but it’ll kill you in others. Look at outcome. What is it you’re trying to achieve and is this product type/solution that is going to help you get there?”

Stay the Course (and Remain Confident)

Many wholesalers tend to beat themselves up during a slump in business and one Millionaire Wholesaler™ advises that it’s important to recognize that the markets haven’t changed.

Your skill set hasn’t changed.

Your knowledge and your experience have not changed.

It’s just part of the cycle that everyone has to go through.

“There will be good times and bad – and it’s a awful habit to get into the mental morass of beating yourself up and blame yourself for the outcomes. If you take care of the details, the production numbers will take care of themselves over time,” he says.

In summary, these accomplished and long tenured wholesalers offered the following ways to maintain success over the long haul: