Rules for CORE Agents #11: People Never Complain About Getting a Call From Their Doctor
You know you’re supposed to make phone calls to help build your business. They’re essential. A personal phone call is truly the best, sometimes the only, way to develop a contact into an active lead or cultivate a relationship with someone in your sphere. We all know that. And yet many agents are afraid to…
Read MoreRules for CORE Agents #10: People Love Giving Referrals, So Make Them Happy
People just love giving referrals. We love recommending restaurants to our friends. We love posting our favorite movies on Facebook. We love telling people that we “have a guy” if they need a plumber or an electrician or whatever. Indeed, hugely successful websites like Yelp and Angie’s List have been built around our natural impulse…
Read MoreRules for CORE Agents #9: Buying a Home is Easier Than Buying a Car
Too many real estate agents don’t believe in their value. They have become brainwashed by all the attacks on our industry from people who complain that we charge too much and don’t provide a valuable service. So they cut their commission every time a seller complains, hang their heads when they see a FSBO sign…
Read MoreRules for CORE Agents #8: Be Yourself, But Be Your Best Self
Real estate educators always want us to be like them. It makes sense. Most of them were wildly successful in real estate by running their business in a certain way, so it’s natural that they’d try to coach you to run your business that same way. They made money by committing to some extraordinary campaign…
Read MoreRules for CORE Agents #7: Talk Less, Listen More
Real estate agents talk too much. It’s sort of an occupational hazard. The whole industry has bought into the idea, for example, of a listing “presentation” as the cornerstone of the industry. That’s why agents get sucked into doing these hourlong “presentations” where they yammer on and on about their 27 point marketing programs and…
Read MoreRules for CORE Agents #6: Stop Annoying People!
The real estate industry has become very good at annoying people. Anytime there’s a new technology for communicating with people, agents seize on the new medium to inundate their clients, friends, and random people they don’t even know with information that those people don’t care about. Take, for example, those emails that go out to…
Read MoreRules for CORE Agents #5: Always Show Up With More Than a Knife and a Fork
Imagine that you were invited to someone’s home for a dinner party. You ring the bell, the door opens, the host looks out, and sees you standing there with a smile in your face, holding nothing but a knife and a fork in your hands. “Let’s eat!,” you say, waving your knife and fork. That’s…
Read MoreRules for CORE Agents #4: Be a Giver, Not a Taker
What do you think is the greatest force for driving sales in any business? If I were to ask you that question, you’d probably say something like marketing, or making cold calls, or developing a sphere, or whatever you just heard about at your last sales conference. They’re all fine answers, but they’re all wrong. …
Read MoreRules for CORE Agents #3: Everyone Moves Eventually
So you’re at an open house. You schlep over to the corner, put up your signs, tie up some ballons. You tidy up, set out your show sheets, and stand expectantly at the entrance waiting, hoping, PRAYING that someone will visit, staring at the door like a sad puppy waiting for his master to come…
Read MoreRules for CORE Agents #2: Everyone Needs a Real Estate Agent
Most people mistakenly think they only need real estate agents when they are buying or selling a home. They’re wrong, obviously. People need real estate agents ALL THE TIME. They need agents when they’re thinking of putting an addition on their home, and want to know whether it’s a good investment. They need agents when…
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