Oops. A few weeks ago I promised to finish up a series I was doing on KLT - The Know, Like and Trust Principle which goes something like: "The more people who know you, like you and trust you, the more real estate you'll sell."
In the first two segments of the series I talked about the KNOW and LIKE factors - you can read those here and here.
But this third factor - the TRUST factor is probably the most important. Because even if a whole bunch of people KNOW you and a whole bunch of people LIKE you, they won't hire you or refer you if they don't TRUST you. And yes, it is possible to know and like someone and not fully trust them!
By "TRUST," I'm not referring to whether or not the people who know and like you think you're an honorable sort of guy or gal. If they don't TRUST you from an ethical perspective, well, they probably don't LIKE you much either. I'll assume that's not the case!
What I mean by "trust" is that the people who know you and like you TRUST that you'll do a great job for them and their referrals. That if they refer you to their friends, you won't embarrass them. They TRUST you to make them pleased with and proud of their recommendation.
Bob Burg in his book Endless Referrals tells the story of a dry-cleaning service in his town that is owned by someone he knows... and likes... and trusts personally. But professionally? Nope. He hates it, but the guy is a lousy dry-cleaner and Bob simply can't give him his business or refer him to others, no matter how much he likes him on a personal level. He acknowledges that if the drycleaner just matched the service and quality of his competition, he'd be happy to use and refer them, but once he betrayed Bob's professional "trust" by performing poorly more than once, the potential for a professional relationship was over.
In our real estate businesses, there are two ways we earn professional trust from our spheres of influence.
First, we provide fantabulous real estate service when we are honored with the opportunity to represent someone we know, or someone who is referred to us by someone we know. (Which is by far the best way to build a referral-based business!), and
Second, we remember that, even in our personal lives, we're always on display.
If we give our friends and acquaintances (and even the new people we meet on a daily basis) a reason to think of us as reasonably intelligent, reliable, ethical and competent guys or gals in our personal lives, they'll easily make the leap to assume we're all those things in our real estate lives, as well. Which means... that they'll TRUST us to handle their own precious real estate business AND the business of anyone they know who happens to need real estate service.
So, what's the punch line?
Strive to KNOW lots of people... strive to be LIKED by those lots of people...and always strive to earn the TRUST of those lots of people.
Do these things and you can forget all that nonsense you learned about canned prospecting scripts, pushy closing techniques and uncomfortable stranger-pestering dialogues in your pursuit of business!
RELATED BLOGS:
"Too New to Have Satisfied Past Clients? That's Okay - Just be a Reasonably Competent Human Being!"
"Do You Refer to Your Flaky Friends?"
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