If you were with me at Summit, you might remember a very special segment where I announced my new artificial intelligence technology aimed at improving your sales and long-term relationships – Tom Ferry’s WhatToSay.ai.

This one-of-a-kind AI gets to know all the people in your database through the language they use and then helps you say the exact right thing to them for your intended purpose. You could think of it as a hyper-specific script machine for real estate conversion, but it’s actually a whole lot more. I’m going to give you a full introduction to it, from the concept and history to the science and practical application.

Oh… and did I mention it’s already available, RIGHT NOW?

Let’s start with the idea that brought this tech to life…

We Needed a Better Solution

As a real estate agent, you’re in the “trust” business. Your sales are in direct correlation to the level of trust you can build and the connection you can form with your clients. But as you get busier, it can be difficult to form meaningful relationships with every person you meet. We needed a way to do this faster and more efficiently.

That’s why we created WhatToSay.ai with these objectives in mind.

  • Create more impactful first impressions 
  • Increase sales by removing friction between differing communication styles
  • Improve negotiations
  • Remove insecurity and second-guessing
  • Build trust and foster relationships faster

 

A Remarkable History in Just a Few Years

The core technology behind WhatToSay.ai had nothing to do with real estate or sales in general. It was actually developed to help identify suicidal behavior in at-risk teenagers. With suicide being the second-leading cause of death for people under 24 in America, professional hypnotherapist Scott Sandland recognized that the warning signs should be obvious to trained mental health professionals. Yet in too many cases, these at-risk kids were slipping through the cracks.

That’s why Scott invented Cyrano.ai. With Cyrano, transcripts of therapy sessions could be analyzed, and it would not only provide a readout of the patient’s risk assessment, but also show doctors the type of treatment most effective for their personality.

I was introduced to Scott through my client and good buddy Tim Smith, and when I saw what this technology was capable of, I immediately recognized the potential for analyzing human behavior – and potential benefits for salespeople to use that information to better understand their clients. I met with Scott and he agreed to let me continue its development by adapting it for real estate and bringing its proven effects to a wider audience. By working closely with some of the most brilliant minds in communication and AI, we’ve been able to make a resource like none-other and further validate the incredible work that Scott is doing.

 

What It Does

To put it simply, WhatToSay.ai identifies people’s underlying priorities and motivations so that you can form a strong connection in minutes or hours instead of days or weeks.  

The foundation is built on 39 different dimensions of language which have been proven to predict behaviors, preferences, and priorities. Basically, the way a person talks can predict their future with a fair degree of accuracy – someone who talks like this, thinks like that… This is one aspect of what is called psychographic profiling.

But unlike something like the Myers-Briggs or a DiSC profile, WhatToSay gives you actionable steps for communicating with each personality type and adjusting those steps for your desired outcome. You can set it to help you relay information, convert a lead, or establish trust.

 

How to Use It

The real beauty of WhatToSay.ai is that it works automatically in the background and then provides the information you need when you need it. By pulling writing samples from emails, transcriptions of Zoom conversations, text messages, and social media posts, it creates profiles for every person you know. The more information collected into the profile, the more accurate of a picture it will paint. You can also integrate WhatToSay.ai into your email, CRM, and web browser, so that it will automatically sort data into the appropriate profiles.

From there, our AI will show you the person’s priorities, communication style, and a game plan for effective communication.

And if you need immediate information regarding someone you recently met, you can manually input data into the “First Impressions” feature for WhatToSay.ai to provide feedback based on as few as 100 words.

 

Priorities

Every person has one of four dominant priorities based on their personality. These priorities are: 

Data

Data-driven people are your classic analytic folks. They want to see all your charts, all your presentation materials, and they’ll talk to you all day about facts and numbers.

Order

Think: Rules, Systems, Structure, and Plans. With Order-driven people you need to go in with a step-by-step game plan for managing the transaction. 

Instinct

When dealing with Instinct-driven people, don’t waste your time going over every single statistic in your market research. Get down to the bottom line and show them the big picture. These are the people who trust their gut. 

Community

You’ll want to be prepared to talk, but also to show how the value of your services go beyond simply the financial. Relationships, feelings, and opinions go furthest with this group.

 

Style 

All of our five senses have a lot to do with the way that we process information, but there are three that determine how we communicate with other people. And everyone relies predominantly on one of them.

Visual

“I can see where you’re coming from.” “Do you see what I’m saying?” Visually inclined people will do best with physical resources and reading information for themselves. They respond well to pictures and aesthetic descriptions.

Auditory

“Does that sound good to you?” “I haven’t heard of a better offer.” Auditory people are probably the most sensitive to language because sentence construction is lyrical in nature.

Kinesthetic

“I have a good feeling about this.” “Does that feel right to you?” Feeling is in the gut just as much as the fingers. These people make decisions quickly and often based of factors that they can’t explain. It’s important to identify kinesthetically inclined people up front.

 

Game Plans

This is where WhatToSay.ai provides an overview of how to adjust your conversations for each desired outcome. There are ten categories:

  • Bottom Line
  • Collaborate
  • Upsell
  • Lead Conversion
  • Listing Presentation
  • Buyer Consultation
  • Showings
  • Negotiation
  • Closings
  • Resolve Conflict

From selecting one of the ten, you can specify your need in more detail and WhatToSay.ai will help you find the phrasing and tactics to achieve your goal more effectively. 

 

Putting WhatToSay into Practice 

Every morning, Tim Smith holds a meeting with his sales team. His agents give him a list of all the appointments they’re scheduled to go on that day along with the WhatToSay.ai reports for each person they’ll be meeting with. From there, Tim helps them adjust their scripts based on the personality types for each meeting. Not only has this shot their average conversation rate through the roof, but it has already started generating referral business!

Tim and his team even use WhatToSay.ai to suggest the location of where the agents schedule their appointments. For example, if you’re meeting with a Data/Visually inclined person, it might be best to prepare extra presentation materials and meet them at their home, while you’d have better success with meeting a Community/Kinesthetic client at a coffee shop.

 

Keeping the Mission Alive

This product is very dear to me, not only because of the powerful effect I’ve seen it have in the lives of agents, but because of the message it represents. 

Tom Ferry’s WhatToSay.ai isn’t repurposing this technology as much as it is expanding it, developing it on a larger scale while keeping its original mission alive. With that said, it’s important to call attention to the fact that September is Suicide Prevention Month.

If you or anyone you know has ever had thoughts of or considered suicide, please consider reaching out to a trusted professional or calling the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988. 

For more information on WhatToSay.ai, be sure to check out tomferry.com/whattosay or reach out to your coach with further questions. Tom Ferry’s WhatToSay.ai is already available to coaching members, and we plan to release it to the public as a subscription-based service beginning in the early part of next year.

Sign up for first access, NOW!