The current real estate market has taken us all on a collective roller coaster ride. Those that couldn't stomach the ride have already started to leave the profession. Those of us that have chosen to remain in the profession will be faced with some challenges. Many of us have not been through this type of market, so we have the additional challenge of facing the unknown.
What will it take to be successful in this market? Is there a "magic bullet" solution that can get us to where we want to be more quickly? What will it take to avoid becoming a casualty of the current market? The simple answer is to get back to basics.
As much as new technology has changed the real estate profession, the bottom line is that we all still need to do the things that have always been done in the profession. Quite simply, we must continuously work on generating leads and closing deals. Technology has made this process more efficient, but the human element is still the most important part of the equation.
You may be wondering where this epiphany came from. The surprising answer is Starbucks. So what does coffee have to do with real estate? Not much, although REALTORS® do drink a lot of it. This is more about how Starbucks is handling their business. Most people think of Starbucks as being in the coffee business, but they are actually in the service business.
From 1987 - 2000, Howard Schultz was the CEO of the company that has become synonymous with the word coffee. Under his guidance, Starbucks flourished and became the household name that it is today. As is the case with most publicly traded companies, keeping shareholders happy is a vital part of the business. When the stock started to drop due to an overall underperformance of the company, a change had to be made. The change that was made was to fire the CEO and put Howard Schultz back in charge of day-to-day operations. (Click here to read the entire story).
Schultz said that he "would return the company to its roots, in which baristas would focus on customer relationships and not just transactions." Schultz also said "we will focus on what is most important. We are committed to customer experience." Part of the customer experience revolves around having well-trained baristas that are knowledgeable about the coffee products that Starbucks serves. After all, this is what made the company flourish in the first place.
Starbucks staffers are called baristas, not workers. Starbucks offers benefits to their part-time baristas because they are all expected to be experts, and not just order takers. Often times, people in business say the right things, but don't actually follow-through on their promises. This is not the case with Howard Schultz and Starbucks.
Yesterday, Starbucks closed every store in the country for three hours so that all of their baristas could receive a re-education in "the art of espresso." You may think that the biggest coffee retailer in the world already had things down to a science, but apparently, Howard Schultz thought that getting back to the basics was important enough to warrant a shutdown of all of its stores for three hours.
My wife happens to be a part-time barista at Starbucks. She specifically chose Starbucks because they offer benefits to part-time employees. We had been purchasing benefits on our own for some time, but the rates had doubled over the course of four years, and were continuing to rise. I can tell you from my experience with my wife that the training that baristas are put through is very thorough, and the learning process is time-consuming. And yet, Howard Schultz felt that each barista needed even more training. His focus on the basics will undoubtedly pay off in the long run for Starbucks.
If a dominant company like Starbucks sees the need to get back to basics, doesn't it make sense for us as REALTORS® to take the same approach for our respective businesses? How many of us have drifted away from the basics in this changing real estate market?
No matter what market conditions exist, our business really comes down to the following:
- Prospecting to generate leads
- Following-up with leads in a timely manner
- Finding the motivation, wants and needs of the client
- Helping buyers to find a home
- Helping homeowners sell their home
- Completing the transaction
- Staying in touch with past clients and asking for referrals
Technology should make us all more efficient and other innovations such as blogging should help us to reach more people, but we should never take the basics for granted if we want to be successful.
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Adam...Even though some of us have been through this before there is still a big unknown for us. When will the market turn around again???
You are right, it's back to basics. In fact, we should never stray from the basics.
Good luck,
Kathleen