I need to let my clients know when we are moving from decision making to acting on deliverables. One of the things I love about being a real estate agent is that I am always learning how to do my job better. Clients give me feedback and feedback makes me better at what I do even if it hurts my feelings for a minute.
I just had an "Ah Hah" moment with a first time buyer the other day and realized that I needed to do a better job of communicating the phases of the home buying process with my buyers. I realized that there is the first phase that includes a great many decisions to be made by the buyer but that once the contract has been signed you move into the delivery phase. In the delivery phase it is all about action and meeting timelines. Once the contract has been signed my project management mode kicks in. It is instinctual to me that the change has happened but it can be a rude awakening for a buyer if I don’t prepare them for the change.
So I have a note to myself to better explain the process and how it varies and more importantly how my behavior changes. I am a very data driven person and I tend to attract buyers like me and so in the decision making phase I give them a great deal of information and options. So imagine their surprise if they have not been warned that I become a task manager. After the contract is signed I send out a list of things that need to be done and by when. No real options, no real explanation because I have moved onto project manager and I am managing all the various moving parts that need to come together to close escrow on time and I am focused on deliverables. The world of decision making has been left far behind and we are moving forward on deliverables.
I had not stopped to think about how this shift to deliverable phase could leave my buyers wondering what happened and why am I not giving them options and I am just telling them what to do when I have never done that before. So I now I have a mental note to myself to better explain the shift in my actions and my expectations of what my client needs to do after the contract is signed and why I am behaving completely different than I was when we were in the decision making phase.
None of us like to think we are not doing our best but sometimes you have to really thank someone for pointing out ways you could be better even if your ego gets a little bruised. I am grateful my client pointed out their confusion in my change in behavior and I will do a much better job of communicating what is expected once the contract has been signed.
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