Break a Leg: How Acting Techniques Can Enhance Your Pitch

Your pitch to a potential new client needs to be something both practiced and natural, personal and professional, flexible but firm. Ask 100 coaches or other agents what your script should sound like and you will get 100 different answers, because in many ways a pitch is more art than science and has a lot to do with who you are.

As you develop a presentation or outline that works for you, however, there is one discipline outside of real estate that can help make your pitch more authentic, more powerful and more successful: acting.

Actors, like real estate professionals, are asked to convey a lot of information in a short time and break complex ideas and emotions down into something digestible. Unlike actors, agents aren’t manufacturing new personas—the person who you are should be the person the client sees. But there are many ways that actors are taught to move, speak, think and communicate that are broadly applicable to a real estate presentation.

Here are three acting techniques that can be used to improve your pitching:

The “super-objective”

While of course the objective of your pitch is to show the potential client you are the best person to help them sell or buy a home, you can go further than that. Think about the things that make you good at your job. Are you a driven person who seeks success almost for its own sake? Are you motivated by empathy, understanding, helping? Are you most fulfilled by seeing a job well done? Though you certainly don’t want your whole script to be about your own personality, including your deeper motivation can add a whole new level of authenticity to a pitch or presentation.

Subtext

Don’t just absorb the superficial information about your potential client. Hone your powers of observation, or ask questions that might reveal more about them. Look to your setting—whether that is their home, a coffee shop or your office—and pay attention to details—clothing, behaviors or possessions. Don’t just ask about their job or favorite sports team, try to get into the nuances—their favorite player on the team, favorite game and their opinions on their company or industry. While it is always important to keep it professional and timely, someone is much more likely to feel understood if they see you putting in the effort to know them on a deeper level.

Bring the emotion

Actors train their “emotional memory” to better recall the kinds of feelings they want to display. For a real estate pitch, being able to not just describe your strength at the negotiating table but to project it, not just promise to be an emotional support but make them feel it can be invaluable. Actors focus on the details of a memory when they want to re-create that feeling—the granular sights, smells, sounds and sensations. When you are telling someone about how you stood up for another client, dive into the memory of that moment and let the feeling—not just the facts—be a part of your pitch.

Just like becoming a character in a scene, a real estate pitch is about being the agent the client wants. What that looks like specifically will vary, because every agent has different motivations, a different history and different goals. But presenting all those pieces with authenticity is often the missing piece. Using techniques honed by stars of the stage and screen, you may just be able to bring it all together.