I try to watch at least one training webinar a week. The majority of these webinars deal with ways to grow our business. Tonight as I watched one of these webinars, the agent who was being featured made the statement, "Agents spend too much time servicing their clients rather than going after new business."
I'll admit I am one of those agents. I don't have an assistant. I am the listing agent, buyer's agent, chief marketing officer and everything in between for this brokerage. Right now, I'm involved with several transactions; three of which will close in the next two weeks. Hallelujah! I referred out business earlier this week because I was servicing clients. Does that make me a bad agent?
Should our business be about getting the next listing? Or providing good service to our existing clients? Can we do both? Or do we have to choose one or the other?
I opened an independent brokerage earlier this year. I got off to a rocky start between delays due to lost paperwork at the real estate commission and Tom's bi-lateral knee replacement. Even so, I'm on track to have my best year ever. All while providing excellent service to my clients.
I spoke to a listing agent of a home my client is purchasing. His team will complete 300 transactions this year. However, whenever I contact this agent with a question or send an amendment for signatures, I know it's going to be five or six days before I get a response. Even then, I have to ask him for the document several times before receiving. That makes me look bad with my clients. They think I've forgotten to respond to their questions or neglected necessary documents. When in actuality, the listing agent hasn't responded.
Is that the kind of agent I want to be? Absolutely not. If my clients call with a question, I want to get an answer to them quickly, not five days later. Five days is an eternity for buyers and sellers.
Will I miss out on business because I'm servicing clients? Absolutely. Should I care? I don't think so.
One of the great things about real estate is we have the freedom to create whatever type of business we want. If I can't have a life beyond real estate because I'm always pursuing the next transaction, that's not a life I want to live.
Do I want my business to grow? Of course, but not at the expense of everything else; including the servicing of my clients.
That means I'm not going to do $40 million in sales next year. Shoot, I'm not going to do $20 million in sales. Do I care? No. I'm happy doing half that business.
What do you think? Do agents spend too much time servicing their clients? Do we have to choose one or the other? Or can we do both?
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