What could you learn, as a real estate agent, from the con artist who sold the Eiffel Tower twice?
In the good old days (the 1920s) there was a man named Victor Lustig who was a soft-tongued criminal who went from one scam to another, always looking for a way to separate people from their money.
He was involved in many scams throughout his career. But the scam that would make him famous throughout history involved the Eiffel Tower.
In 1925, Lustig, who was always looking for a new scam, was in Paris and noticed a newspaper article describing how the French government was having a hard time maintaining the Eiffel Tower. Being the consummate con man that he was, he came up with an idea. Why not sell the Eiffel Tower?
The first thing he did was have a forger create official government stationery and personally “appoint” himself to the prestigious post of Deputy Director General of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs. Then letters were sent on official looking letterhead to five different scrap dealers; they were deliberately vague and simply invited them to discuss a possible government contract.
When everyone arrived at the meeting, and after entertaining the men a bit, Lustig made the surprise announcement that the government was in fact scrapping the Eiffel Tower.
He noted that the tower had been built in 1889 and was never intended to be a permanent structure, which everyone knew to be true. He mentioned that the government could no longer pay maintenance, something the men had already read about in the newspaper. The newspaper had mentioned that the Eiffel Tower was in need of major repair, the cost was very prohibitive, and there was a short comment that the government was exploring the idea that it might be cheaper to destroy it than to repair it. He was careful to emphasize that this was a highly controversial decision by the government, so the men had to keep silent regarding the tower’s disappearance or risk public outcry.
Lustig then set out to take each man on a tour of the tower to establish a relationship, determine their emotions, and select their “brand.” After interviewing each scrap dealer, he selected a man named André Poisson and worked his sales magic.
After the sale was completed, Lustig immediately went to Austria. He made no attempt to hide and lived a life of luxury at Poisson’s expense. Every day, Lustig checked the Paris newspapers for news about his scam, but he never appeared in any of the newspapers. He concluded that Poisson was too ashamed to fall in love with the scam and had decided to eat his loss. Knowing he was safe, Lustig returned to Paris a year later and ran the same scam again.
Yes, you read that correctly, Lustig sold the Eiffel Tower for the second time! But he wasn’t so lucky that time. His mark went to the police and the story broke out in the press. Lustig was forced to leave Europe and head for the United States. There would be no third sale of the tower.
What does this scammer have to do with you as a real estate agent? Well, a lot actually. While selling the Eiffel Tower, Lustig used specific techniques that the people at Natural Born Sales use; sales techniques that you should also use.
Scammers and natural sellers have exactly the same skills. However, there is a significant difference between the two and that is intention. Scammers use these psychology techniques to harm people in a win / lose proposition. The scammer wins and the person he works with loses … sometimes everything.
On the other hand, Born Sellers use the same techniques to help people in a win / win proposition, helping their clients achieve their dream and buy a home, while becoming the top 10% of real estate agents who they do.
They are both experts in the use of psychology.
They are both adept at using customer emotions to sell.
They are both adept at using and getting reports.
Both are experts in figuring out what the client’s unconscious mind wants.
They are both adept at figuring out what emotions are driving that person and using those emotions to make a sale.
The difficulty arises when you try to get a born seller to teach you to sell like them, and they can’t. They can’t because most born marketers have no idea how they do what they do. It comes naturally to them and they don’t even have to think about what to do to make a sale. This is why many of the best salespeople are the worst coaches. They cannot teach what they do.
Now the good news. These psychological sales techniques can be learned and mastered, and once mastered, they can propel you to the top.
For example, one psychology of the principle of sales is that people buy based on emotion and justify logically. I’m pretty sure you’re even familiar with this principle, but do you know how to use it to make sales?
Imagine if you knew exactly how the principle works, you could use it to help your clients while becoming a better agent yourself.
One of the many natural skills sales professionals and scammers use is listening and asking questions until they understand exactly what the person wants, not just consciously, but more importantly, unconsciously. This is one of the biggest mistakes that many, if not most, real estate sellers make, listen but don’t really understand.
In a sales situation, and even in everyday conversation, people use “Code Words.” For example, a client might tell you that they are looking for a house with a view. The word “view” is a code word. You may think you know what it means, but you don’t really know. You understand what “view” means to you, but not what it means to your client. The natural salesperson instinctively knows that he does not know what “view” means and is able to extract the real meaning of the customer.
Not long ago, this happened to a new agent I was working with. I was teaching him about code words. She seemed a bit confused at first and then suddenly, you could see the light coming on in her head. He told me that for the past few months he had been working with a couple looking for a house. She had asked them what they wanted and they had told her a house with a view. With that in mind, he kept leading them and showing them houses with a view. The agent lived in the Great Northwest, where there are incredible views of mountains, valleys, and rivers, so there was a lot to choose from. But no matter what he showed them, the wife was never happy.
One day, as they were being shown a house, they passed through a neighborhood and noticed a sign that led to a house that had just been put on the market that day. They decided to call the listing agent and were able to go see him that day. While touring the house, the wife commented on the great view the house had and the agent was surprised because the house was completely surrounded by trees and there was no view. The agent, while looking out the window at all the trees, asked what he meant and the wife said, “I don’t see any cars.”
For months, the agent had tried to find a house that had, what the agent considered, a view, but it was never what the wife considered a view, and the agent had no idea. By “sight” the wife meant she wanted to be able to look out the windows and not see any of her husband’s cars, equipment or tools … that’s what good sight meant to her.
Maybe if you understood the code words and the other techniques used by the born seller, you could also sell the Eiffel Tower. And if you could sell the Eiffel Tower a few times when it wasn’t even for sale, think about how many houses you could sell.
Oh, and as for our con artist Lustig, he ended up dying in Alcatraz prison (where he was sent after being convicted of a forgery scheme) and his death certificate listed his occupation as a salesman.