LITTLE THINGS COUNT A LOT!

As I was looking over the fourth letter we were sending to an expired listing hoping to sign them up, I realized that I had misspelled the owner's name in two of the previous letters.  The sinking feeling that resulted from this discovery got me thinking about how important the little things are in our business.  What sort of chance did we now have of convincing this seller who just completed a six month listing with no sale that we were the answer to his prayers when we couldn't even spell his name right?  We had a great listing booklet, offered a terrific program, but overlooked the simple spell check of the seller's name.  Little things can make or break us.

Thinking back over past successes and failures, I was amazed how big a role the little things played.  We signed up a big dollar listing early in our career and I remember the seller telling us that one of the reasons they signed with us was that I sent them a short handwritten note after our first visit thanking them for the opportunity of meeting with them.  The note took but a few minutes to write and send, but it made a big difference in the seller's mind that set us apart from our competition.

Along the same lines as short personal notes are speedy responses to client questions.  Getting back to a customer with an answer on the same day instead of waiting a while can make a huge difference in what they think of us.  It seems to me, in fact, that clients have come to expect lengthy time periods to get questions answered.  They are both amazed and impressed when you get back to them right away.

Just think about our clients' reactions when we do the little things like giving them immediate feedback on a showing, a phone call on market conditions or what's next on our marketing program for their home.  How about asking a client for their input on how things are going or could be improved?   Little things go a long way for us and I know that I need to pay a lot more attention to them to keep our clients long lasting ones.