Complaints – Crisis or Opportunity?

Even winners upset people from time to time. Winners speak to scores of people in a working week. The Law of Averages works for and against them. When you speak with many potential clients, you are going to meet some who are a delight. With others you won’t get along. Perhaps you just caught these people on a bad day, or perhaps they aren’t very nice people, but when you speak with lots of people the chances of offending are higher.
Whether it is with potential sellers, and winners constantly look out for new business, buyers, or existing sellers, winners know that somebody is going to be unhappy occasionally. When handled correctly, however, complaints are an opportunity, not a crisis.

How to Handle Complaints

Here are the steps a winner used to handle a complaint from a seller whose property had not sold.
Hear them out. Don’t interrupt. Ever. Show the client that you are listening by saying such things as, “You’ve got a point there,” but let the clients say all that they want to say. This could take a while, so be prepared to stay silent for as long as it takes for the clients to say what they want to say.

Personal Accountability

“Men at some time are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.”

William Shakespeare’s words in Julius Caesarspeak of personal accountability. We are where we are in life because of decisions we have made in the past. And we can make a better life tomorrow by making better choices today. Personal accountability – I love it.
When I think of people like Helen Keller, I have to try hard to think of any reason why a person cannot overcome adversity and become whatever he or she wants to become.
Blind, deaf and dumb, Helen Keller had no way of communicating with the outside world. Inside her head worked a fine brain, with no way of articulating its thoughts. All that changed on 3 March 1887 when Helen met a teacher, Anne Sullivan Macy. With patience, love and, always, strict discipline, Anne Macy worked with Helen Keller, teaching her to communicate, thus enabling Helen to unlock the huge potential stored within. Helen Keller later called March 3 her “Soul’s birthday.”

What is a Real Result?

Our When you examine the activities that salespeople routinely work on, you have to wonder whether they understand
exactly what a real result is. best leaders NEVER allow their offices to close unless the agency has at least one real result for the day. These leaders understand that they incur expenses every day, therefore they must achieve one real result a day.

As leaders, we must help our people recognise what constitutes a result, what actions are necessary to achieve those results, and then follow up to make sure they are doing those actions. All activities in a salesperson’s day should lead directly a real result.
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Who’s Running Your Agency?


One reason real estate agencies don’t do as well as they should is that they are run by salespeople. It’s what is called the dilemma of salespeople at the top.

When an office’s leader is a person who loves making sales, you often find such people too busy doing what they love to spend time tracking where the income goes. This is a recipe for disaster. There is no point, no point at all, in making lots of sales unless you keep a good proportion of the sales income. It’s like setting sail in a leaky ship – sooner or later you’re going to sink.

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Willpower Exercises

Willpower and stubbornness are close relations. One attribute you want. The other you don’t.

Stubborn people steadfastly hold onto ideas and, right or wrong, will not be persuaded to see any other point of view. You could argue that this is misdirected willpower.

When it comes to forming new habits, willpower is what you need. With willpower you can say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to yourself and mean it.

If you feel that you lack willpower, take heart. Willpower can be exercised. Start small. Make a short-term commitment and stick to it. Then increase the time and difficulty of the commitments. Your willpower will strengthen.

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Return for Effort

So often you hear people complain, “I make the calls, but I’m not getting any results!” If you find yourself in this position, perhaps you should do something about it. Prospecting, like all tasks a salesperson performs, must show a healthy return.

There is no delicate way to say this: if you cannot find sellers, and lots of them, then you probably won’t master the skill required to list them. You might as well face the fact that real estate is not for you and save yourself months of misery. Failing that, you have no choice but to get good at finding new sellers for your agency. Becoming good at this takes dedication, determination and courage.

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Eleven Attributes of Leadership

In his book, Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill names Eleven Major Attributes of Leadership. Whether you run an agency and have a team to lead, or you are a salesperson with clients to lead, you are a leader. And let’s not forget that we always have to lead ourselves.

As with all ideals, you might find yourself lacking in some of these leadership attributes but, as we often say, Leadership can be learned – daily, not in a day.
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Borrowing Is Not An Option

“I can get no remedy against this consumption of the purse: borrowing only lingers and lingers it out, but the disease is incurable.” Shakespeare.

Borrowing money is for fools – incompetent suckers. In business, and at home, there is rarely a need to borrow. People borrow because they don’t have sufficient funds. They don’t have sufficient funds because they don’t save. If they can’t save, how can they repay a loan?

Loan payments sink businesses. They destroy families.

To borrow money is to incur debt. But it’s worse than that – to borrow is to incur an obligation far greater than the debt. It’s an obligation many people regret. It’s an obligation we can live without.

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Prospecting – It’s Just Not That Difficult


Have you ever put off doing a chore that you thought would be difficult? You dreaded doing it but eventually you got stuck into it, and what happened? It was much easier than you thought. You couldn’t imagine why you thought it would be so hard.

Prospecting is like that. It’s just not that difficult. All you have to do is start, keep going, and it will become a habit. A winning habit.

There are only 3 reasons why salespeople don’t prospect:

  1. They are scared;
  2. They are stupid;
  3. They are rich.

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How to Prevent ‘Sign Jumping’


Do you have a problem with unethical competitors ‘jumping’ your signs? People who approach the owner of a property whom they know, or suspect, is exclusively listed with another agent, are  acting unethically. If attempting to induce another person to break an agreement – a promise – with a third party isn’t unethical, what is?  This seller gave his or her word to allow the agent, whose sign the ‘sign jumper’ walked past, to sell the property, and the seller gave the agent an agreed time in which to do it. How sniveling and cowardly it is to try and convince that person to break their agreement with their agent.So if you are the agent whose sign(s) is being jumped, let’s begin by looking at the positive side. You are fortunate to have competitors who are so weak and desperate that they have to resort to pilfering other agents’ sellers in order to survive. Close the door on this source of sellers and you will send them broke. Fast.Closing this door is easy, too. There are some things you MUST remember to say during the listing, and some things you MUST do after you have the property listed.DURING THE LISTING PRESENTATION

  • When Setting Up To Sell, advise the sellers that strangers may call.

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The Leader As Coach


I’m not trying to do myself out of business with this statement, but salespeople need far more coaching than typical salespeople receive. While there are many good seminars and presenters in the marketplace, there are simply not enough regular seminars in your town or city for that method of training to be sufficient to develop a winning team.

In addition to external seminars, the leader has to step up and coach.

If you do not have this already, your office must have a comprehensive training library of books, recordings, manuals, and DVDs. Ideally there should not be any problem your sales team faces that cannot be solved by a program that is in your training library. This is what the Pittard Training Group strives to provide its members and it is essential.

How does the leader coach?

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The Power of Programming

During a speech he made back in the late thirties, Dr Murray Banks, a New York psychologist, said that some people turn to insanity as an adjustment to a perceived tough life. Some people get knocked down and they get back up again. Others in the same situation whinge; a few turn to insanity as an escape, according to Banks.He believes that humans turn their fears into physical complaints. Fear of death, fear of old age, fear of losing money, fear of being found out, fear of failure, is turned by our mind into a nervous stomach, a weak heart, headaches, constant tiredness. A person complains, “I don’t know why it is but I’m always tired. No matter how much I sleep I’m tired.“

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Aim High

Last year I recorded an interview with Adam McMahon, from Dignam Real Estate in Thirroul, NSW.

Adam is a keen goal setter, which explains why he is so focused. In the twelve months prior to that recording, Adam produced around $730,000 in fees for his office, without the aid of a personal assistant.

Inevitably the conversation turned to ways of avoiding erratic performance. This is what Adam had to say about goals and how to reach them:

“You have ups and downs, like everyone has. To start with, you sometimes set easy goals that you think you’re going to reach quite comfortably. Then over a period of time you push yourself and take your goals higher”.

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What’s Cooking?

Your weekly sales meeting should be the most important part of your business week. If you’re interested in making more sales, pay attention when your leader asks you, “What have you got cooking?”

The definition of a cooking sale is a sale you believe you have a reasonable chance of closing.

Some sales are obviously cooking, for example, the buyers are coming back for a second inspection. These sales are usually the only ones that are given in answer to the “What have you got cooking?” question.

To get the obvious cookings is not why your leader asks the ‘cooking’ question. The purpose of examining the cookings is to help you to uncover the hidden sales.

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It’s Time To Hire

I read this a long time ago but cannot remember where I read it or exactly who was involved.

My recollection is that John D Rockefeller (I don’t know if it was senior or junior) was having his shoes polished, when the busboy gave him a ‘hot’ stock tip. The magnate sold all of his shares the next day, saying something like, “When the busboy buys, sell!”. Shortly afterwards the share market crashed, followed by the Great Depression.

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Focus

In the Leader Bulletin Every Business Needs Clarity we discussed the importance of Clarity to your business.

If clarity is the mental strength for success, Focus is the physical strength. Focus is the force that enables the leader to sweep aside all the obstacles, problems, excuses and distractions. Focus demands the great leadership characteristics of discipline and courage. Focus requires the application of pressure. When pressure comes two different results can happen. People either focus or fold.

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CONTACT CREATES CONTRACTS

 

Following the November 2011 sales bulletin, ‘So You Think You’ve Got Plenty of Listings’, Phil McGrath from Impact Property requested ideas on how to develop relationships with sellers. It’s a good question, one whose answer would fill a chapter of a book.

Building relationships requires contact. Lots of it.

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Every Business Needs Clarity

Businesses get into trouble when they reach the stage when even the simplest of procedures become complicated. Your systems, instructions, training, and procedures should be simple and clear. Every business needs Clarity.The more simple you make a task the easier it is to understand and the less chance there is of somebody giving you an excuse.  One of the essential elements of a winning team is that it be totally excuse-free. Communicate a task in a complicated fashion and you provide the person to whom you allocated the task with a gold-plated excuse not to carry out the task.

Get Close Part 3

Great questions give great answers. All salespeople need to fully understand their seller’s needs before making recommendations that those sellers put their properties up for sale. Even though the sellers might be ready to LIST, this does not necessarily mean that they are emotionally ready to SELL. Questions help you to uncover their readiness to sell.

Get Close Part 2

In Part 1 of this three-part feature we talked about the importance of understanding your sellers’ needs, and how important this understanding was to making sales. In Part 1, I gave you seven questions to ask your sellers during the listing presentation. Here are fifteen more.
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