This post is about the skill Matt Milia believes separates coached agents from stuck ones: listening to your own calls. For 12 years he has listened to thousands of dials, his callers' and the agents he coaches, and the fastest upgrade available to any agent is the same one. Here is what he listens for, the ten minute review that builds a trained voice, and how to start this week.
Why recording changes everything
Inside a call you are performing. You are thinking about the next question, the tone, the objection coming at you, and the ask you are about to make. You cannot also hear yourself. A recording takes you out of the performance and puts you in the audience, and the audience hears what the performer never can: the hesitation, the rush, the question asked like a statement, and the moment the conversation died twenty seconds before the lead said goodbye.
Most agents have never once heard their own voice on a sales call, and it shows in ways they cannot see from the inside. Matt's coaching starts here on purpose. Ten minutes of call review tells him more than a month of dashboard numbers, because the numbers are the result and the call is the cause. Fix the cause and the numbers follow, which is why coaching real estate agents always has a call review built into the week.
The four things Matt listens for
You do not need a coach's ear to start. Listen for four things, one at a time:
- 01: The first fifteen seconds. Did the opening state the reason for the call and ask for permission to continue? The first five minutes decide the call, and the opening moves are the most drilled part of any trained voice. Listen for whether yours sounds like a plan or a guess.
- 02: The questions. Did you talk more than the lead? A call where the agent does all the talking has no information in it, and no information means no reason to book an appointment. Count the questions. Then count who answered most of them.
- 03: The objection. The moment the seller pushed back is the moment most calls are won or lost. Did you turn it or did you fold? The four move objection turn gives you the test: acknowledge, ask the question underneath, reframe around the reason, and move to a next step. Listen for all four.
- 04: The ask. Did the call end with a specific next step on the calendar, or a vague "I will follow up with you"? A trained call always lands on a date and a reason. If the last thirty seconds were soft, that is the first thing to fix.
The ten minute review
A full call does not need a full hour. Matt's review method fits in ten minutes:
- Minutes 1 to 2: Play only the first sixty seconds. Write down the opening and judge it against the checklist above.
- Minutes 3 to 7: Skip to the middle of the call. Listen for talk time and question quality, and write down the exact questions you asked.
- Minutes 8 to 9: Skip to the objection, if there was one, and replay it twice. Once to hear the lead, once to hear your answer.
- Minute 10: Write one note per section and pick the single weakest move to fix this week. One fix, not five.
The method works whether you review your own calls or bring them to a strategy call with Matt. The point is that the review happens at all. Most agents never review a single call, which means they repeat the same first fifteen seconds every day for years.
What twelve years of listening taught him
Matt is direct about why he trusts the ear over the dashboard: he has watched the review habit compound for a decade. The call center he built runs on it. Every caller is an ex-pat who used to live in the United States, drilled on the same openings and objection turns until the standard holds, and then reviewed until it holds again. That review loop is what produced a center that has closed over $1 billion in real estate value in the past decade and over $44 million in closed gross commission income for clients. Listen to the calls, fix the weakest move, run the reps, and repeat. It is the oldest system in sales, and it is still the fastest.
Make it a habit this week
- Record one call today. Your phone, a meeting recorder, or your CRM. The tool does not matter.
- Review it within 24 hours. While it is still fresh, with the four-part checklist open.
- Pick one fix, and say it out loud. The fix has to be a sentence you can actually say on the next call.
- Run the fix this week. Same fix, every call, no rewriting until Friday.
The agents who sound trained on the phone are not naturally gifted. They are reviewed. Recording your own calls is the cheapest coaching you will ever get, and it is the one upgrade you can start this afternoon. The fastest way to sound like a professional is to start listening to yourself like one.
Want a second set of ears on one of your calls? Book a strategy call with Matt and bring a recording. He will tell you the exact first fifteen seconds problem and the fix to run this week. Or send a message on the contact page to start the conversation. Let's win the day.