What would you pay?

This is not an idle question; it is one we must answer every single day in so many ways.  The costs to buy something, to accomplish a goal, to obtain a promotion, to achieve some record it all comes down to the question, what will you pay?  To start this process out you should determine what “it” is worth, then what is “it” worth to you.  There is action here.  You are thinking and determining a value of something that is offered.  What criteria are you using; what criteria is your competition using to value the same thing?  This is an area many people get lost on, not only individually for themselves, but also in our industry assessing what our clients are doing with this same question.  How adept are you knowing how to gain access to your clients thinking process.  In my mind, all this begins at home.  How willing am I to ask myself these questions about what I am doing.  If I can get a handle on my own motivations I will have gone a long way in the process of understanding how my clients might approach these questions in their life.

Wanting something is universal, but doing something about that is not.  In real estate I think we are in the business partly to help people make these monumental decisions.  This is a responsibility.  Finding out the right fit for your client’s demands that you open yourself up to their world and decision-making processes.  This is no easy task.  We are not built to completely open up to strangers and tell them all we are thinking, and yet that is part of our task as an agent.  Walter Sanford and other gurus on our industry correctly state that the one asking the questions is the one who is controlling the conversation, but I think this is only partially true.  You can ask all the questions you want and if you are not getting any answers, and really dialogue that allows you to see behind the curtain than your control of the conversation means nothing, nothing is gained because you were told nothing.  Maybe that is something in itself, and it is.  If you are asking questions and not getting answers, or getting answers that just don’t make sense then you are really not having a conversation.  Pay attention to the responses you get when you ask questions.

Since everything always comes around to Self, when you ask yourself questions pay attention to your own answers.  Yes, I want to be the top producer you say when you ask yourself the question, but you haven’t answered the underlying question of what are you willing to pay for that result.  For instance I decided to start my career in this industry by buying into systems I knew nothing about.  I am willing to put in the time and the study, but will that make me successful.  I have to say no, not unless I am willing to put the time into making all this information my own and begin to dispense it to my clients and prospects in a way that they can then feel comfortable with you helping them meet their goals.  What I am saying is that we need to be aware that these things are going on inside all of us all the time.  Find a way to make this process work for you today.  What are you willing to do for yourself and for your clients to help them achieve their goals?  Do this correctly today and you will have a client who will pass your name on again and again.  You helped someone achieve a goal, how are you doing with your own goals?  Day 66 of 90