As a real estate agent, the number one most important aspect of your business is your personal brand; how you present yourself to potential clients and buyers will often make or break a sale, and ultimately your personality may determine your salary. 

So how does one manage that? What are those key personality traits that sellers and buyers value so much, and how can you as an agent communicate that you value them too? To communicate an intangible, often immeasurable, personality trait is not an easy task, but we've got a few ideas:

1 Have Integrity.

For an agent to posses integrity means he or she is consistent, dependable, and trustworthy, which are all instrumental in landing sales and solidifying relationships. To prove your integrity, it's important to keep your word: make sure you always show up on time, and never offer a promise you can't deliver. Real estate agents are often inundated with hundreds of daily tasks and to-do's, and often their checklists vary every day. Often, this leads to broken promises, missed calls, late appointments, and, eventually, unhappy clients. To prevent that, it's critical to have some sort of task management system in place to keep your daily activities in check. Many agents use paper checklists or some other non-integrated form of task management, but those are easy to loose track of or misplace. The best way to more efficiently communicate the value of integrity would certainly be a task management tool, and there are many out there! Just remember-the best task management is integrated across both team members and individual listings.

 Brivity offers an integrated task management solution, with tasks sorted by listing and due date. Realtors can see tasks due in the present, past, or future, and can assign tasks to each team member to hold everyone accountable. Which brings us to number 2...

2 Be Accountable.

Let's face it; as humans, we're imperfect beings and are subject to making mistakes. Maybe it was a simple miss-communication, or perhaps it was as serious as a missed appointment. Clients want to feel like they're working with an agent who will take responsibility  and own up to the oversights they make. Put the humanity back into the real estate business by saying sorry every once in a while! But don't forget to make it sincere, and personal; never underestimate the value of a handwritten note.

But don't make apologies your go-to! Half of accountability is following through in the first place. Be realistic about the goals and promises you set, and do everything you can to achieve them. Always aim to overdeliever, but as for overpromising...

3 Stay Honest.

This is a big one-honesty is directly related to trust, and relationships are built on trust. If clients don't trust you, how can you expect them to do business with you? Unfortunately, honesty isn't only extremely important, it's also extremely difficult to earn. Because you are in a business setting, clients will often peg you as the typical "selfish salesman", someone who's working in his/her best interests and doesn't care about any client satisfaction that goes beyond the paycheck. The best way to earn a sense of honesty with client is to tell the truth...even if it's not exactly what they want to hear. Don't tell them you can sell their house in a week if it will take a few months, don't tell them you have dozens of interested buyers when you have one sort-of interested prospect, and never lie about your qualifications. They will find out, and the truth will sting you more than if you had just told them in the first place! Beyond that, constant communication between yourself and your seller will certainly help solidify an honest atmosphere. Try and email or call them at least a few times a week with updates on their house and possible sellers. Encourage an "open-door" policy, where they can call (or at least email!) to talk about any questions they have regarding their listing. The smaller your business, the easier this "constant client communication" can be. Eventually, though, this can get tedious, and it may seem like the costs outweigh the rewards. If you find yourself constantly bombarded with all your concerned clients, or if your clients are constantly complaining about the lack of attention you give them, it may be time to look into a client communication solution. There are many different real estate seller communication systems available to real estate agents, although the best tool may be one that is integrated into your business. 

4 Have Compassion.

Every buyer and every seller has a unique situation, and it's in everyone's best interest to try to understand and sympathize with them. By treating each person you work with as an actual person instead of a percentage commission, your clients will respect your business ethics and be much more likely to recommend you or work with you again. Show your compassion by getting to know your seller-memorize their name, birthday, family members, and any other get-to-know-you type information. By turning your business relationship into a friendship you'll have more satisfied clients...and make some valuable friendships in the process!

If you convey an attitude of integrity, accountability, honesty and compassion it will be hard for anyone to dislike you, let alone a client! The key here is to truly believe it; what you believe you will end up projecting, and will ultimately build trust. All of these qualities require first a tweak in attitude, but also a tweak in action. For some effective client communication and task management tool, check out my software program, Brivity. We sweat a lot of the tedious client communication and task management, so you can focus on strengthening the real relationship.