More than ever, due to dramatic changes in the economy over the past two years, the principles of credibility and trust are essential in building, or in many instances rebuilding, relationships. No matter what profession you are in, there are many people you reach in the business world who are struggling during these times.
Realizing that the pendulum is constantly swinging, the time has come to re-evaluate our professional model. Honestly, no one knows which direction the pendulum is moving. It is time to adjust from traditional relationship building processes and move toward building long-term relationships that are not pressure-based on one hand and taken for granted on another.
The economy of today needs to be understood fully by all in society through continuous study. With this, you will be ready to transfer hope to those you service, build relationships through educating and enlightening individuals to give them the direction and confidence they need to make home buying and selling decisions. From this, you build trust, loyalty and credibility, and become the source of direction and confidence in this interesting time.
Build confidence in those around you and be in front of people, in all forms of media, so they can grow from your knowledge and offerings. People want direction from people they can trust – make that person you.
As I witnessed things unfold early on the day of the annual Realty World NCA event, it was impressive to watch brokers and agents all meeting and greeting each other. The thing that hit me the hardest is that this group of people that considers themselves real estate professionals, also considers each other close friends, to the point of being ‘family’ members. The conversations started off not with business talk, but instead with catching up on subjects such as family members, trips taken, mutual friends, etc., before moving to conversations of the market.
Over the last eighteen months there have been so many shifts in the real estate market, the usual negative media coverage, plus the mortgage meltdown. But, now is the beginning of a new era to become a professional “messenger” and move away from the sales characteristics we’ve built over the years.
The term ‘differentiate yourself from the rest’ is bandied around so much today in the real estate industry as if it’s the magical solution to being successful.
If an individual takes a 2 x 4 that is ten feet long and lays it on the floor with the 4 inch side facing up, it takes nothing to per se ‘walk the plank.’ I would venture to say that the reason it is so easy to walk the 2 x 4 is more the fact that it is on the floor which many interpret as ‘being safe.’ Confidence in our abilities, knowledge, and attitude allows us to see beyond the challenge.
Too often, the opportunity of meeting, greeting and building rapport with a customer is short lived due to the fact that there may be apprehension caused by fear of handling objections. Courses have been designed, scripts developed, and umpteen coaching programs offered to ease this kind of fear. The most effective way to ease around the ‘objection’ quandary is have a better understanding of exactly what you want to say. In other words, rather than asking a customer “Are there any objections?” or stating, “If there are no further objections…”, one could merely ask, “Are there any concerns you have?” This is obviously a small change in what we could say, but by using the word ‘concerns,’ the conversation moves from a negative “salesy” perception in peoples’ minds to a feeling of comfort and sincerity about the things that are important to them which can be positively addressed by the real estate professional.