My first call this morning was from a broker who was unhappy with a product he had received.  It seemed that the wording used on the site of the reseller who he had purchased the product through was not the same as the wording on my site and he got an impression that the product would be something different than it was.  (This is where I remind you how important it is to set people's expectations properly, lest you have the experience I did this morning.)  The actual product was not one he would have ordered had he realized what it was.  It was a basic level product and he was already at a more advanced level.

After apologizing for the miscommunication, offering a refund, and promising to fix the language on the partner site, I had solved his problem, but I had not managed to salvage the relationship.  This was his first experience of my company and it was a negative one.  Simply refunding his money was not going to be enough to ever win his business, so I went one step further.  I gave him a free copy of a product that would actually fit his needs.  I took the opportunity of his phone call to give me the chance to "Wow" him with my response, and now I have the chance that I will be able to do business in the future with him.

The fact is that none of us want a client to be unhappy.  Those of you who, like me, define yourselves by your level of integrity, know that having that integrity questioned is never a pleasant experience.  But when confronted with an angry client, it is easy to get defensive.  You will never be able to effectively "Wow" a client when you are feeling defensive because to truly "Wow" them, you have to think in broad, expansive terms from a place of truly wanting to deal with them again.  When we're defensive, we go into survival mode which is a short-term thinking process designed over millenia to simply get us out of a dangerous situation and away to safety.  The last thing we want in the moment of being defensive is to ever speak to that person again. 

So how do you avoid getting defensive?  The first thing is to de-personalize.  I had a client telling me that my product was terrible.  I wrote that product.  I could have taken that comment very personally.  And yet, I realized that it wasn't the quality of the product that he had an issue with per se, but the fact that it was not the advanced level product he had expected.  From the perspective of looking for an advanced level product and getting one that was a starter product, anyone would be extremely disappointed no matter how good the starter product was.  There was absolutely no way that my intention for that product would have ever met his expectations because I didn't design it to.

Understanding this fact, I could take it out of the context of being about me putting out a bad product (which I know it isn't based on many other happy clients who had the proper expectations set), and put it into the context of someone being upset that his expectations had not been met.  That no longer made it about me and now I could get into the idea of what I could do to help him feel better about his interaction with my company.

The first thing I needed to do was to apologize and take responsibility for the issue.  If you place blame, you can't ever hope to maintain your integrity - or to bring people's anger levels down.  And a simple "I'm sorry, it's entirely my fault" goes a long way.  I had not checked the copy, therefore it was my fault it was wrong.  Period.

Second, I needed to make it right.  The copy had been misleading, so I refunded him his money. 

Third, I needed to help him see my perspective so that he could see that I wasn't trying to pull one over on him but was actually putting out a useful product for the right consumer.  I pointed out that most people who purchase that product are start-ups who don't already have something in place.  He agreed that the product would be useful for that purpose. 

Fourth, I needed to "Wow" him.  I provided him with a product that would be useful to him as my apology for him having had such a bad experience. 

Fifth, I needed to check in with him to see if he was OK now.  I told him that I really wanted to make things right and that I hoped we could do business together in the future.  He agreed to review the product I had sent him and let me know what he thought of it.  Given his level of discontent at the beginning of the call, this was a huge positive step forward.  I hope that after reviewing what I know to be an excellent product for his needs, that I may get the opportunity to work with him again. 

Remember, simply solving the problem is usually not enough.  There has to be some compensation to the consumer for the trouble of having had to make the phone call or having been upset.  The more upset the person has become, the more above and beyond you need to go in order to make them happy. 

For someone with a small problem that you can resolve instantly, a quick fix is usually sufficient, especially when combined with a sincere apology for the inconvenience.  For larger issues, a larger apology is required.  And really, it's all about the apology.  You must say "I'm sorry" and you have to really mean it.

For those of you who have met me in person, you will know that I am not a hard body.  I was once in my life, but recent years have put my body more into the category of "a little extra" than "mmm, mmm, good".  When I lived in the suburbs, it was an event for me to go out walking and a chore for me to get to the gym.  But a funny thing has happened since I've moved to the city.  I'm walking everywhere.  Me, the person who is so time conscious that I'm constantly mentally streamlining my day, I'm going out of my way to take the subway (called the "T" here in Boston).  It takes an hour to get anywhere by T from my house.  I could drive there in 15-20 minutes.  But I'm loving the mile walk from my house.  And I'm loving the chance to get out and see people (even if only half of them return my friendly smiles).  I'm even loving handing out spare change to the homeless people I meet. 

I'm finding that I am no longer defining myself as a couch potato.  I'm defining myself differently.  Now I'm a city person.  This means that I walk places.  This means that I go to coffee houses in the evening just to hang out and see who's there.  This means that I stay out late and go to clubs and sing karaoke a couple times a month.  I am literally changing my definition of who I am as a function of having moved to the city. 

I even hired a personal trainer the other day.  Who knows?  Perhaps you'll be seeing a lot less of me soon.  I know I'll be seeing a lot more of the world.

I have been searching for a new place to call home recently and it has given me a whole new appreciation for the stress that buyers go through.  The on-again, off-again nature of this process has really caused me to shut down quite effectively, so I apologize if I haven't been too vocal of late on the blog.  I've been overwhelmed. 

When I started this search, I wasn't sure what I wanted, and that has caused much of the challenges along the way.  I knew that I didn't want to live alone.  I am a social person and I will tend to hibernate and be miserable or never be home and be miserable if I live alone.  I have lived in a home with many roommates in the past and really enjoyed the sense of community that came with that environment.  But I may be getting a bit too old to deal with the inevitable drama that comes from living on top of others.  So I have finally weeded it down to the idea that I want no less than one and no more than 3 roommates.  It took me several weeks of looking at places and feeling through the options to come to this decision and that has taken a lot out of me energetically.  Now that I know what I want, I can focus more clearly on accomplishing the goal.

This is going to be true for your buyers as well.  Often times buyers want to look at too many towns (more than three) or too many options (single family, condo, multifamily, etc.).  When you're not comparing apples to apples you end up driving yourself crazy trying to make a decision.  Encourage your buyers instead to choose one set of criteria and look at all the options in that set before moving on to another set.  Have them pic their top choice first and then work down the list.  It will become apparent in the process if this set of criteria will be a good match or not.  That way, if you're going to eliminate something, you're eliminating an entire set, rather than a single property. 

Remember, buyers can't make a decision when there are too many options.  You have to narrow the options before the brain can wrap itself around any one solution.

Now I'm off to go and look at other places that would fit my 1-3 roommate scenario.  Toodles!

 

Our Steps to Success New Agent Coaching Program is beginning on August 9th - so time is running out to join.  It's a six month program that takes you through a weekly process of building your business.  For more information, click here.

This just in.  I just got another article published at Realty Times.  Thought you'd be interested in seeing it.  Here's the beginning.  Click the link to get the rest of it.

Podcasting for Fun and Profit
by Kelle Sparta

Are you looking for a low-cost way to increase your sales over the long run? Consider podcasting.

Here's the latest article I had published with Principle Broker Online.

 Developing Great Client Relationships

This past year I took a class from The Nurture Institute on how to cultivate clients more effectively. This is system works well with any client, but particularly well with the affluent. Today, I want to talk to you about this form of marketing in regards to working with your past clients.

The concept is simple really. Don't ask for anything until you've made multiple deposits into your client's emotional bank account. What is a deposit? It could be many things. It is something that adds value to your client's life by providing them with something of value.

Deposit Ideas:

• Information about the tax law changes

   

• A copy of their HUD1 Settlement Statement for last year's purchase

   

• An article on how to increase their home's resale value

   

• Tips on house maintenance

   

• Coupons for discounts from local businesses

   

• Personal notes or cards from you

   

• Client Love Letters telling them why you love them as a client

   

• A copy of the picture you took of them at closing

   

• A gift certificate to a restaurant

   

• And anything else you can think of that your clients might find of value

   

The important thing to remember with these little deposits...

Read the rest at

http://www.principalbrokeronline.com/articles_new.asp?art_id=324&section_id=3

I received my first call today from a buyer who had read The Consultative Real Estate Agent.  He wanted to speak with an agent who had taken my training program.  I gave him the contact info for several of our clients in his area.  It's great to be able to give back to our clients who support us. 

The public is beginning to take notice...  If you're using our system or subscribe to the values I've described in my book, it may serve you to advertise this fact in your marketing materials.

Here's a response I just posted on a blog that was talking about FSBOs.  Feel free to use it to explain your perspective to clients.  PLease give me proper attribution and a link to my website if you quote it.  Thanks!

 

Regarding FSBOs

I think the challenge is not in the offering of options or in who owns what company.  The challenge is in the comments above where people referenced the "useless"ness of real estate agents.  Everyone seems to think that selling property is easy.  The consumers believe it, and even many of the new agents who get into the business believe it.  That's why there's such a high turnover in our new agents.  No one, but those of us who have done this for years, knows how hard it is. 

Every year there are more laws put in place, more complications created, and more challenges to work through.  Especially now, as prices start to drop, people come after the agent's commission.  The problem is, that the agent has already taken a pay cut when prices went down.  They get paid as a percentage of the purchase price.  Plus, they're selling fewer houses, so they're getting it both ways.  And yet sellers still think that asking the agent to cut the commission further is the answer.  Agents work harder in difficult marketplaces.  They should be paid more, not less.  That's how it would work in other industries that are based on per-hour basis.

But the problem is that the consumer doesn't see the value.  They have no idea how much work goes in behind the scenes.  And that's the agent's fault for trying to make it a seemless process.  The better they are at their job, the less the clients appreciate how much work there was to do.  Agents need to let the client in on how much they are doing for them. 

There are many details that have to be handled in the standard transaction. 

1)  Pricing the home properly (a place where many FSBOs fail miserably)
2)  Writing good ad copy (which is an art)
3)  Posting information on the MLS that makes the house look attractive to the right buyers (another art)
4)  Creating and maintaining good relationships with other agents so that they are inclined to show your houses first
5)  Having great communications and problem-solving skills for dealing with issues that may arise in negotiations, inspections, loan approval, appraisal, etc.
6)  Being able to soothe bruised egos and smooth over ruffled feathers when emotions run high and risk destroying the sale for no good reason
7)  Having relationships with good contractors so that needed repairs can be done in a timely fashion so that they don't delay closing
8)  Having good relationships with town officials so that issues there can be resolved quickly

There are many other skills that come into play on only a few transactions each year, but on those transactions, these skills are critical.  Much of the work agents do is ongoing non-transaction-specific (like the relationship development and management), but they are still time-consuming. 

When you hire an agent, you're hiring them for their expertise in the industry, not just to put your house in the paper or on the web.  You are investing in the knowledge, experience, and problem-solving skills of that person.  A good agent can mean the difference between your house closing or the deal falling apart at the closing table when all of your possessions are sitting on a truck waiting to go to your new home which won't close because your house didn't sell.

Some FSBOs are experienced enough to do the majority of the work themselves.  Most aren't.  This is why 85% of them end up listing with an agent eventually.  The problem isn't the FSBOs.  It's the lack of appreciation for how much work it takes to sell a home and to keep the deal together through closing.

Kelle Sparta
Author of The Consultative Real Estate Agent - Building Relationships that Create Loyal Clients, Get More Referrals, and Increase Your Sales, and founder of Sparta Success Systems, a real estate training and tools company that focuses on helping agents and brokers create lives and businesses they can love.  www.spartasuccess.com

I was thinking more on the multiple pillars of income concept.  Here's another thought I had for leveraging our potential for income.

Start a Junk Company:
Many of us have houses filled with lot of great sellers' castoffs including plants, furniture, lawn equipment, etc.  There is much more too that sellers leave behind that we just can't fit in our houses. 

Consider starting a junk company.  You could have a mover you work with locally who will pick up the items, deliver them to a warehouse or storage area.  You could partner with someone who sells on eBay and let them do the selling of the items while you go on with your business and split the profits with them.

That's about as close to free money as I can think of.

Have a great day!

One of the great secrets of the wealthy people of the world is that they all aspire to have multiple sources of income - preferably sources that don't require them to do anything in order to create money.  This is the way that the rich get richer - they leverage their knowledge or their money to make more money. 

Being in a service business, it is often difficult for agents to think about how to create another source of income.  You are probably overwhelmed with the work you're doing now.  But consider this - come the winter time, your business will slow down again, and you'll be wishing you had something to pick up the slack. 

Many agents do the obvious and invest in real estate.  This is certainly a good option - especially given the tax incentives.  But once you've invested in real estate - now what?  How can you leverage your knowledge to create even more income? 

There are a couple of options that I can imagine.  You could write programs and reports that you could market and sell to buyers and sellers across the country on the web.  You could take those leads and refer them to agents across the country to get referral fees.  In this way you would get a double bang for your buck.

Or, perhaps you'd like to help your fellow real estate agent.  Consider writing a program or sharing a tool you've found useful.  Could you compile a package of all the ads you've had success with over the years and sell them to other agents?  Sure you could!  In fact, if you don't want to go through the trouble of marketing the material yourself, let us know.  We're always looking for good material that is in alignment with our values structure.  If we like your stuff, we'll rep it for you to the real estate world.  Then, you can sit back and collect the commissions.  What could be easier?

Can you think of another way to leverage your knowledge of the business?  Share it with us!  I've been doing some creative thinking on how to make life easier for agents.  I'll be doing some brainstorming on the subject with others as well.  I'll let you know what I come up with.  But in the meantime, share your ideas - we'd love to hear them.

Have a great week!

Exit Golden Triangle Realty is hosting an event on June 8th in Worcester, MA that I'll be teaching called

There's No Excuse for Having No Leads!

This is going to be a great event for getting you to think outside of the box in terms of your prospecting.  Click here for more details.

I just another article published with Principal Broker Online, here it is...

Advertise Your Buyers
      by Kelle Sparta

You Don’t Have To List to Last
It's long been said in our industry that "you have to list to last". And in the days of sub agency, where the only side of the deal that was guaranteed was the listing side, this was true. But today, with the advent of buyer agency, there is more to real estate than listings. 

Which Brain Are You Thinking With?
One of the challenges our industry faces is that, even in the markets where buyer agency is established, we're still thinking with listing agents' brains. We want listings because they give us something to advertise to bring in the buyers and more listings. But here's a new thought....

To read the rest of the article, click here...

http://www.principalbrokeronline.com/articles_new.asp?art_id=262&section_id=9

On May 1st, we're bringing out a new product on the market.  It's called Negotiate Like the Pros and it's a 2 CD series with detailed tips, tools and techniques for negotiating effectively in the real estate marketplace.  Using real-life scenarios, you learn how to make the best of a bad situation and how to make a good one even better!  Always with an eye to the win-win scenario, this program gets you on track to getting better deals for your clients!

Plus, as a bonus, we're having a pre-release sale.  Order by April 30th and save 20%!

Click Here for More Details!

Check out this article I published with RISMedia.

http://www.rismedia.com/index.php/article/articleview/14129/1/1/

I have recently discovered an online resource that you should take a look at.  It's a podcast on mortgage and financing issues.  It's free from www.beyondtherate.com.  It's a great resource for agents to learn from.  (You can never be too knowledgeable about financing.)  It's also a great tool for you to list on your website for your buyers and sellers to link to.  Check it out!

One of the hardest things to do in business is to create a relationship with someone whom you've only met via the web.  This is especially true when people have never actually interacted with you and have only read your website.

You really need to put content on your website that gives the reader a sense of your personality.  I am in the process of doing that myself.  Many of you will have found the little surprise that happens when you  mouse over my picture on the website (if not, then go to the site and do it - I don't want to ruin the fun).  Today I added an introduction recorded in my own voice.  I've also been careful to word my site in such a way that it is appealing.  And the blog and podcast are another way I can connect with you, my target market.  All of these are ways in which I can let you know who I am, what I do, why you should care, and what I'd like you to do about it. 

Does your website accomplish those goals?  If not, think about ways in which you can more effectively convey your personality, your message, and your call to action. 

Do you have an idea that's been effective at creating a realtionship on the web?  We'd love to hear about it!

Tomorrow, a friend of mine and I are having our second gratitude day.  A gratitude day is a day when you give thanks for all that you have; and you share that thanks out into the world in some tangible way.  The purpose of this is to engage the positive energy in the world rather than the negative.  What we focus on is what we create.  I don't know about you, but I want to create things that I will be grateful for - so I practice gratitude every day.

Last time, we made art to put up in our home to remind us to be grateful.  Now, every day as I walk out my bedroom door in the morning, I see the artwork I placed there and I take a moment to ennumerate the things for which I am grateful.

This time, I'm going to suggest a slightly different take.  I want to write letters of gratitude to our parents, friends, or anyone who has influenced us in a positive fashion.  This way, rather than keeping the gratitude, we can share it with our loved ones.

Take a moment to think about what you are grateful for.  Perhaps you could start a gratitude journal.  There will be some days in your life when you are mired in negativity and a gratitude journal would be useful at those times.  When you can't focus on what you are grateful for in the moment, you can read your journal to see all the wonderful gifts you have received up until then.  This can shift your attitude enough to allow you to open up to receive whatever may be coming your way.

In this vein, I have spent that last couple of days recording all of the affirmations out of The Wealthy Spirit - Daily Affirmations for Financial Stress Reduction, by Chellie Campbell.  I have to tell you, that I've been wrestling with a little negativity myself for the last couple of weeks.  Not sure what prompted it, but it was stubborn - no matter what I tried, I couldn't pull myself out of it.  In recording these affirmations, I broke the cycle of that negativity and I have a whole new outlook on life again. I've never been a big fan of affirmations before - positive visualization, yes, but not affirmations - but I'm a believer now. 

With Chellie's permission (Thank You, Chellie!), I am putting these recordings onto my podcast so that you can all share them.  I should have them edited in time for either next week or the week after so keep an eye out because they will be a bonus podcast.  If you haven't already read Chellie's book, I recommend you pick it up today.  It does wonders for a positive mindset around money. 

Yep, I'm back already.  It occurred to me that if I wanted you guys to post comments, I should probably give you something to comment on.  So here's the deal.  I'm going to post a question every so often for you to answer.  Your answers will let you share your ideas with me and each other.  So here's the first question...

What is the most effective cheap marketing activity that you've ever done?

I bet you never thought you'd hear a trainer say that! We're the ones who are always saying to practice your skills by role playing, right? Well, it's true, I think that kind of role playing is still good. It's the other ways in which you play your roles that are not serving you.

Handling Prospect Calls A classic example of where playing your role doesn't work is in handling buyer ad calls. Let's look at this from a generalized view for a moment.

The Buyer's Assumed Role: The buyer is calling in. His goal is to get the address, price, and features of the property he is calling on. He also has the goal of not engaging you in more conversation than absolutely necessary and he certainly doesn't want to give you his name and/or contact information. He wants to get the information and get off the phone so that he can make the next call or go and drive by the property.

The Agent's Assumed Role: You've been told that your primary goal is to get name, contact information, and preferably an appointment to meet with the buyer on the other end of the phone. Depending on your office policy, you may even have the limitation of not being allowed to give out the address. Even if you can tell him the address, you know that the minute you give out this information, the buyer is off the phone in moment and you have lost your opportunity to convert the call.

The Impasse So here we sit at an impasse. No one wants to give out information and therefore we begin our tug-of-war game with no possibility for a win-win scenario.

Now if you're really good and you're one of his first calls ever, you may be able to engage the buyer in conversation; and that conversation might result in him coming in for an appointment. But wouldn't you like something that is a little more guaranteed to work than that?

Get Out Of Your Role There is no way for both sides to win as long as you remain in your role. The buyer is not going to jump out of his role because he doesn't know that he needs you. He thinks he needs the address. It is up to you to change your role so that, rather than staring at each other across a brick wall of stubborn refusal to share information, you can instead stand on the same side of that wall and push through it together to reach a mutual goal.

This all sounds great, I'm sure, but you're probably wondering how you are supposed to accomplish this task. It's simple really. Find a way to jump out of your role. Usually the buyer will give you something you can work with. My favorite example is the buyer who is obviously on his 8th or 10th call of the day and is irritated that it is taking him so long to get the information he wants. You can hear the edge in his voice, the brusqueness in his tone, and feel his impatience as he waits for yet another fight for the information he wants. This is the point of golden opportunity. This is the time when you should jump out of your role. Instead, jump into a role I affectionately call "Captain Obvious".

Being Captain Obvious When playing this role, your job is to state the obvious. It's simple really, and yet profound in the way it works. The buyer is irritated. He's frustrated. He's upset. You're in his way. You know this. He knows this. It is not news to anyone. So speak it out loud. I respond something like this: "Wow, you've talked to a lot of annoying agents today, haven't you?" Now, instead of being another of the "annoying agents" in his head, you're a friend commiserating with him about what he's been through. Even if he was irritated for a totally different reason, you've jarred him out of his goal-oriented mindset and put him in a position of explaining to you why he's frustrated. In explaining this, he lets you in a little and you have the opportunity to sympathize with his situation.

Bonding Now you're in a position to bond with the buyer. Talk with him about what kind of a day he's been having. Find out who he's talked to. Ask him what his goals for the day are and how he's been approaching his search. Talk to him about his timeline, whether he's qualified for a mortgage, why he's moving and anything else that may come to mind. As long as he's feeling chatty, you chat with him. Just before you feel him shifting back into information acquisition mode, you do it first by saying something like "Ah, but you wanted some information from me. What can I help you with?"

He will give you the property that he wants the address on. Give it to him. He's already invested in the conversation, he's not going to hang up - now it would be rude to do so. He knows you. Then tell him that you've got access to the MLS and you can find out the address for the other properties that he has listed. That way he won't have to talk to anymore agents.

He'll be thrilled with this concept. While you're pulling the information about the houses (both your own and the others), try to find at least one house that doesn't meet his stated needs for a home. Point that out to him and tell him why it won't work. He now knows you were listening.

Solve His Problem Permanently Tell him that you could solve his problem permanently by setting him up in your system. He would automatically get all the houses in his towns, in his price range that met his criteria emailed to him each day. No more waiting for the paper to come out. No more searching the internet and culling through dozens of houses that just won't work. Now he can get only what he wants - along with the address - delivered straight to him!

Check In Does that sound like something he would like? Who wouldn't like that? Especially if he's serious about buying. He's probably buried up to his eyeballs in properties he's hoping with work for him. He'd love for someone else to weed those out for him and save him time. These days, time is one of our most precious commodities.

Set The Appointment Tell him you'll need him to come into the office to set the system up. You'll need to have a more in-depth conversation about what he needs in a home so that you can set the parameters for the search. You'll also want to talk to him about buyer agency because he needs to have his decision made about whether he wants a buyer's agent before he finds the house - since if he waits until afterwards his options may be severely limited based on how he found the home. (If he sees it with the listing agent, the best he can do is dual agency since the listing agent is now procuring cause for the house.) And besides, you're sure he has a lot of questions about the buying process, and this would be the perfect time for you to answer those questions for him.

Now, the buyer is not only interested in coming in to see you - he's excited about it! And NOW is when you ask for his name and contact information. NOT BEFORE. If you ask for this information before you've gotten the appointment, then you're setting yourself back into the salesperson role. After all, why would you need it unless you were planning to call and bother him as a salesperson? Now that you've got the appointment, you need the information. In case you need to cancel the appointment, or in case an amazing deal hits the market before you meet. Whatever - you have a relationship and therefore are entitled to the contact info.

Building The Relationship Remember, the goal of this conversation is initially to break out of your role. Then to develop rapport. Then to begin a relationship with the buyer. Then and only then should it be your goal to get the appointment. Each step builds upon the last. Don't try to skip one or the whole house of cards could come raining down on your head.

----------

I recently got this article published in Principal Broker Online. To see it and other good articles, visit them at:

http://www.principalbrokeronline.com/articles_new.asp?art_id=236§ion_id=3