Lessons From the Red Carpet for Your Real Estate Career

Lessons From the Red Carpet for Your Real Estate Career – by Dana Sparks

So what lessons can you learn from the entertainment award shows for your real estate business? Your real estate training should be replete with the many valuable lessons about the inner game of real estate! Ninety percent of your success in real estate sales begins with your mindset, hence the “inner game.” So what does this have to do with “the red carpet?!?!” … EVERYTHING!

Have you watched any of these shows… the Golden Globes, Screen Actor’s Guild Awards, the Oscars, People’s Choice Awards, Emmys, Tonys? Have you picked up a People magazine lately or seen any of the magazine covers at the checkout line in the grocery? Watched Entertainment Tonight, TV Guide Channel, E! Entertainment? What is the buzz all about? It’s about the red carpet itself! Not about the work for which these actors and actresses are being nominated, it’s about the impression they make being seen on the red carpet itself! Perhaps you will be more familiar with the real estate lingo: it’s about their “curb appeal!”

The first impression you make is vital to your success in your real estate sales business. That first impression should be polished, professional and pleasant. You do not have to wear a designer outfit, nor borrow jewels from Bulgari, nor be chauffeured to your appointments in a limousine but you certainly better carry yourself as if that is whom you are!

You will never even have the opportunity to help a Seller or Buyer move forward with their real estate needs if you do not dazzle them from the start! People are desperately seeking leadershipand confidence and competence. Take the initiative and be that principal for your prospects and you will turn them into clients and get paid for the value you bring.

That first impression has more to do with your insides rather than your appearance! Your energy precedes you with everyone you meet regardless of the words you speak or the look on your face. It is the inner game of real estate where the deal is done! Don’t believe me? Think back to the last time you interacted with an animal, perhaps a dog or a horse, and that animal KNEW if you were friendly or scared or annoyed, right? Can’t you tell if that stranger in front of you or behind you in line is in a bad mood or not? Did you not catch that infectious laughter of a baby who does not even yet know how to speak?

You are in the productivity business so when you prepare for your next listing appointment or buyer appointment, consider the amount of time which you take on preparing your mindset, energy and attitude; is it as much as or more than the amount of time and preparation you spend on your CMA? Your real estate coach or mentor can work with you so that you convince yourself of the following in order to be of service to your prospect:

• Your value in offering service to their real estate needs
• Your confidence in getting the job done
• Your inner belief that you truly ARE the best agent for the job
• Your ability and willingness to listen to their issues and goals
• Your persuasion skills to guide them where they need to go
• Your leadership ability to show them the opportunity in this real estate market
• Your competence in meeting their real estate needs
• Your guidance in explaining their local real estate market in relation to their financial outcome regardless if that result is positive or negative
• Your positive attitude in creating clarity out of their confusion about the market

These mental performance skills are vital to your success in your career in real estate.

President’s Day and You – The Real Estate Agent

President’s Day and You – The Real Estate Agent – by Dana Sparks

The observance of Presidents’ Day goes unnoticed by many (other than a day off work, no mail delivery, closed banks & retail sales!) This day, however, is intended to honor all American Presidents, most significantly Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday on February 12th & George Washington’s Birthday on February 22nd.) What we look for in our President is leadership, authority, knowledge, skills and someone whom we can trust to do the right thing to serve our best interest!

These qualities sound a bit similar to what our clients look for in us, their real estate agent! What type of leadership do you provide for your clients and co-op agents? Do you take the time to research the best information to help them achieve their real estate goals? Find them properties when there appears to be a shortage of inventory? (Search Expired & Withdrawn listings, contact banks for when they release some of their shadow inventory, advertise for properties to sell? Search the Wedding Announcements… if they are combining two households, one will have to sell!) Do you thoroughly go over all the renovation loan products available so they can make an “ugly house” into the home of their dreams? If you don’t know the answers to their questions, do you give them any answer to try & “look good” or do you act as we hope our Presidents act by finding out the proper answer from a trusted authority?

When you first “campaign” to get a new Seller client or Buyer client, do you follow through on those “campaign promises?” What does your lead follow-up program look like? Is it systematic and do you follow it? A common complaint from the public is that they “hear from their real estate agent constantly until they agree to hire them, then they never hear from them again!” Or, “My agent did not do what he said he was going to do when I signed the listing agreement.” There is more to being a great agent than setting up a new Buyer on a Client Gateway type program where they get emails of potential properties that meet their criteria. If that Buyer wrote a contract on a home, could you really prove your case for “procuring cause of sale?”

Consider interacting with your clients & co-op agents as if they had elected you to the office of President! Work for the constituents that put you “in office!” Washington, like every President after him, swore the following oath upon taking office: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Do you live up to the “oath of office” that was inherently charged to you when you received your real estate license from the State of Georgia. Provide your clients and customers with the leadership & guidance & respect & knowledge & skills to do the right thing in their best interest that you expect from the President of the United States! Be the Commander-in-Chief of all of your real estate transactions!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Dave Kubat –  February 12th!

 

 

Many happy returns & may all your birthday wishes come true! What can we learn from Dave’s birthday celebration (and all birthday celebrations) to help enlarge our business? Let’s first think of birthday wishes. Anyone who has ever blown out candles on a birthday cake has been urged to “make a wish” first. Think of your own birthday wishes throughout the years. So how do birthday wishes relate to our business?

Well, what if you began every day making a “wish” for your business that day or you may choose to think about it as a “goal!” What do you want to accomplish in your business today? What would happen if you focused your entire morning on that one thing; what if your morning “business wish” was to get one new client today? How would your bank account look this time next year?

Along with birthdays we also have parties, presents, friends, anticipation and people that wish us well! We celebrate our birthdays & those of others with this exciting, fun & festive approach! What if you had this same attitude towards you real estate business? Would you enjoy your day more? Do you think your clients and co-op agents would interact with you differently if every time you communicated with them you did so thinking that they were going to bring you a present at the end of the day? And in actuality…. aren’t they!??!!? A commission check from a closing is a pretty nice gift to get at the end of your “birthday/business” celebration!!! This is also an exciting thought to contemplate as people wish us “many many more!”

Consider approaching every business day as your birthday! Blow out your candles & make your wish for the day! Get excited about the festive celebration! Focus on everyone you encounter that day as if they are coming to your party to wish you well & bring you a gift! Enjoy your day, take some time for those who love you, partake of some treat for yourself (which does not necessarily have to be birthday cake or food!) Relish the many happy returns you are sure to receive! Happy Birthday, Dave & Everyone!!!

Let Them Know

Let Them Know!*

One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name.
Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down.  It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers.

That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual.
On Monday she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling. ‘Really?’ she heard whispered. ‘I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!’ and, ‘I didn’t know others liked me so much,’ were most of the comments.
No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn’t matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another. That group of students moved on.

Several years later, one of the students was killed in Vietnam and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student.  She had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. He looked so handsome, so mature.

The church was packed with his friends. One by one those who loved him took a last walk by the coffin. The teacher was the last one to bless the coffin.
As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her. ‘Were you Mark’s math teacher?’ he asked. She nodded: ‘yes.’ Then he said: ‘Mark talked about you a lot.’

After the funeral, most of Mark’s former classmates went together to a luncheon.  Mark’s mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher.
‘We want to show you something,’ his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket ‘They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it.’
Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Mark’s classmates had said about him.

‘Thank you so much for doing that,’ Mark’s mother said. ‘As you can see, Mark treasured it.’

All of Mark’s former classmates started to gather around. Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, ‘I still have my list. It’s in the top drawer of my desk at home.’
Chuck’s wife said, ‘Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album.’
‘I have mine too,’ Marilyn said. ‘It’s in my diary.’  Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. ‘I carry this with me at all times,’ Vicki said and without batting an eyelash, she continued: ‘I think we all saved our lists.’

That’s when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again.

The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will end one day. And we don’t know when that one day will be.  So please, tell the people you love and care for, that they are special and important. Tell them, before it is too late.
And one way to accomplish this, is to be gracious and courteous to those with whom you intereact.  Remember that when a client or co-op agent is upset or angry, they are only doing the best they can in that given situation with the informaiton they have at the time.  Consider reaching out to friends, families, sphere of influence and past clients and sharing something of value with them, thanking them for something they have given you, or create an opportunity for some relationship in the future!

If you’re ‘too busy’ to take those few minutes right now, you may not get them back!   Could your message to someone else make a difference in your relationships or to your business?

Remember, you reap what you sow. What you put into the lives of others comes back into your own.

* Adapted from chain email origin unknown