Ryan Serhant - Sell It Like Serhant: How to Sell More, Earn More, and Become the Ultimate Sales Machine

I started my sales career on Monday, September 15, 2008. Do you remember that day? That was also the day Lehman Brothers filed for the largest bankruptcy in history, collapsing the subprime mortgage industry and setting the stage for what we now call the Great Recession. Imagine how hard it was for a new salesperson like meone who lacked confidence, didnt own a suit, and had no idea how to go about making a saleto sell real estate at that time. As you can imagine, I didnt get off to a great start. In 2009, I made just over $9,000. In 2017, nine years later, I turned 33, and had done 472 deals, equaling nearly one billion dollars in sales. During a global financial crisis, in one of the toughest markets in the country, a salesman was born.

On Million Dollar Listing New York, I am the very confident guy who wears nice suits, traverses the island of Manhattan with a driver, and closes $2$3 million in sales every day. On my reality show Sell It Like Serhant, I use my sales expertise to transform salespeople who are struggling to sell everything from golf balls to hot tubs into selling machines. But growing up I was the opposite of the guy you see on TV. My family moved a lot. I was overweight, painfully shy, and socially awkward. I tried every sport ever invented and sucked at every one. Put a ball directly in my hand and Id drop it. Toss me one thousand balls and Id miss every single one. I had zero confidence and was scared of everything. I was so emotional that I earned the nickname Cryin Ryan. I felt most comfortable with the theatre kids, where it was okay to wear ridiculous costumes and pretend to be someone you werent. I was the kid home alone on Friday nights eating Jell-O pudding and watching Nickelodeon in a ruffled blouse.

I went through an awkward Shakespeare phase as a kid that led to studying theatre in college. After graduation, I moved to New York City to be an actor. Me and about a billion other people!

It was only a few years ago that I was an unemployed thespian struggling to make rent in New York City. My dream of being a famous actor was getting crushed along with my self-worth. I made some money here and there from work as a hand model, but it was never enough to cover even the most basic expenses. My credit card was declined at the grocery store, and Id hand out flyers on the street to get people to sign up for a local gym in exchange for free workouts. Being broke is an awful position to be in, especially in New York City, and I had to find a way to make money unless I wanted to move back home with my parents. It was my first time living on my own and I wanted to make it work. I could have been the clichd actor-waiter. But who wants to miss an audition because of a shift at TGI Fridays? Instead, I got my real estate license so I could work whenever I wanted and my schedule would be my own. I would learn how to rent apartments to people, and do a deal or two each month so I could cover my bills.

When I first started, I was a mess. I couldnt sell a thing. Other brokers I worked with were constantly closing deals, and I used to kill myself wondering, How are they doing this? And how can I do it? I was tireless, I tried different tactics, and, eventually, after years of hard work, I discovered a secret that gave me a huge advantage: I had the most balls in the air. I was never hyper-focused on one ball. I didnt put all my energy into one sale or one client. Id go from a closing with one client straight to a showing with another client, and took calls for offers while in the taxi. I didnt live or die by one deal. I never closed a sale and wondered, What now? because the next deal was already happening. My more balls up approach gave me a big edge, and I quickly became a top seller.

Think back to when you were a little kid and the bulk of your day mainly involved playing with toys. Youd be happily building a Lego tower, then think, Im over this. I want to play with my racecar set now. But Mom says you should put one toy away before getting out another. If you dont do it, shell freak out about the big mess youve created. You have no discipline! Theres no order! We all know kids dont want to put away their toys. Why would they do that when they can be completely surrounded by cool, fun things, moving effortlessly from one toy to the next? I will admit to being fairly OCD. I enjoy a clean, neat environment. But the message we are given as children, that one thing must be put perfectly back in order before we even think about touching something else, is bad advice. Whats wrong with playing with all of the toys while keeping them easily accessible? As we get older, this message of only one thing at a time has been ingrained in our brainsand we go into the business world thinking the same way. We handle one client before moving on to the next. We close one deal before we focus on another. We treat our clients and deals like objects that need to be carefully tucked away on a shelf before we take on more. My sales theory is not about putting your clients awayits about how to keep them out in front of you, accessible, so that you can manage everything appropriately and yield the same great results. That kid who has learned to organize her toys just right, so she can move from one thing to the next with ease? That kid is a great salesperson in the making. Shes got the right mind-set, and I call that mind-set Balls Up.