My Perfect Closing Gift

My perfect Closing Gift is an invitation to a dinner. I know that many agents like giving some gifts. I for one never remember who gave me this or that present. Every time my wife would say «Remember who gave this to us?», I do not know what to say.  I suspect I am not the only one. No matter what I bring to my customers, they may not remember it later.

But this is only half of the consideration. Dining with clients is the best time to socialize with them. They just closed on the condo, they are all excited. They are yet virgins and do not know how much they will hate the barking dog next door; those late parties in the unit rented to college students...

For now world is wonderful, and this is my best chance to spend quality time with them. You would be surprised how much you learn about your clients in these couple of hours, and how much they learn about you in this short time. They thought you are a good agent, fine. But they did not know so much interesting things about you, and it is all human stuff... It is all the stuff that creates the bond.  You may click on so many levels...

It is not business, everybody is relaxed. It is the best time and it is a crime to exchange it for a gift.  Even if they remember who gave it to them, it is just a gift from the agent. Would it bring warm feelings that you might have after spending great time together? You are not just an agent, who spent a token of the commission for this gift, you are a cool guy, a pleasure to talk to PLUS you are a great agent who they trust even more now, and whose name would come to mind when they think about real estate...

People like to share good experience. And when they talk to their friends, and mention that place with great food and atmosphere, and, by the way, our agent took us there, and we had such a great time. If you ever want to buy there, we will give you his card, he is such a good guy, a great agent, you will like him a lot. Seriously...

Make their experience stronger by spending time with them. Not necessarily a dinner, take them on a short boat trip and taste the champagne, but there is nothing better than these extra couple of hours that you spend with your clients.

If I sound as if I am doing it to get more business, I am not. It comes naturally. No, I do not ask them to fill the list with 10 of their friend's e-mails. I do not even talk about business. If you did a good job, and people are grateful, they will remember you. 

* image courtesy of burningkarma via Flickr.com under Creative Commons License