World's Best Service Standards
If We Build it, Will They Come?
You know what most great real estate agents have in common? They’re really good at their jobs. They’re good at developing rapport and trust with sellers at that initial consultation. They’re good at marketing homes. They’re good at identifying what a buyer needs, even if he doesn’t know yet. And they’re good at putting together…
Read MoreHow CORE Can Help Real Estate Brokers Reduce Risks and Ensure Regulatory Compliance
My friend and colleague JP Endres-Fein, who happens to be the incoming President of the New York State Association of REALTORS, is giving a presentation today at the NAR Conference on how Client-Oriented Real Estate can help reduce risks and ensure regulatory compliance. I am delighted that she’s bringing the CORE concept to a larger…
Read MoreRules for CORE Agents #21: No News is Still News
You know what the weather is like right now in San Diego? It’s 85 degrees and sunny. You know what it’s going to be like tomorrow? 85 degrees and sunny. Next week? 85 degrees and sunny. The funny thing is, they still do the weather report every day. Turn on the news, and at some…
Read MoreRules for CORE Agents #20: If a Client Calls You With a Question, You've Probably Already Failed
Your phone rings. It’s a seller whose home you’ve listed, and they want to know if that buyer over the weekend had any feedback. Or it’s a buyer you’re working with, wondering if anything new came on the market this week. Guess what? You just failed. Why? Because they felt that they had to call…
Read MoreRules for CORE Agents #17: Never Tell Anyone You're ALWAYS Available For Them, Because You're Not
So you’re sitting down with a client for the first time, and you’re trying to impress upon them your dedication to a great service experience. You take them through your value presentation, answer all their questions, and you can tell that you’re thisclose to locking them in. It’s all going so well, so you decide…
Read MoreRules for CORE Agents #15: Great Service is in the Eye of the Beholder
Let’s say you’re shopping for a new jacket, and you pop into a clothing store. Immediately, a salesperson comes up to assist you, asking if you need any help and what you’re looking for. Usually, that’s a great thing, so much better than those times you go into a store and you can’t find anyone…
Read MoreRules for CORE Agents #14: Happy Clients Are Better Than Any Marketing Program Ever Invented
Real estate agents are always coming up with creative places to put their faces. It used to be that you’d see real estate agent faces just in the pages of newspapers and magazines, but now you see them on park benches, billboards, shopping carts – really, anywhere there’s a flat surface and someone willing to…
Read MoreRules for CORE Agents #13: Be Good at Your Job
Take a look at a list of the most successful agents in your market and try to figure out what they have in common. How did they all become top agents? It’s not easy, because successful agents don’t conform to the superficial stereotypes that we all have of the dynamic “superstars” out of central casting. …
Read MoreBook Review: Stephen C. Lundin, FISH!: A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results (2000).
Stephen Lundin’s Fish!: A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results quickly became a revered text in modern management styles after its publication a decade ago, particularly well-known for its promotion of “fun” in the workplace to motivate employees. There’s actually a lot more in the book, though, than just its “fun”-orientation, particularly in…
Read MoreWho are your clients? Ummm, your clients, dummy!
Whenever I am at an industry conference, I’ll hear a real estate broker make the observation that a broker’s real “client” is the “agent.” That is, although individual real estate agents have buyers or sellers who are clients, a broker’s clients are actually the agents: the broker provides services to the agents, who then treat…
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