If you have young children, you are probably familiar with "The Berenstein Bears" . . . They are Brother and Sister Bear Cubs who exhibit all of the "qualities" of young children and have many lessons to learn. Papa Bear and Mama Bear have a relationship that is strikingly similar to most families I know - Papa tends to let the Cubs get away with doing things that are "Taboo" by Mom and/or gives them "Treats" at times that Mama feels are inappropriate . . . The end result is that the cubs tend to get a tad spoiled (ROTTEN) and Mama has to clean up the mess.
Sound familiar?
I know that if my wife is reading this message, her head is nodding YES!
If you want some great little life lessons that ALL apply to your business, go out and get the whole set of Berenstein Bears book . . . There's some great learning on those pages.
Anyhow . . .
Did you realize that if you treat your CLIENTS as Papa Bear treats his cubs, your clients will get just as spoiled and difficult to please? I thought of this this morning as I was driving my 2 daughters to school and hearing them arguing over a toy . . . and how the first words out of their mouths when I am the designated car-pooler in the afternoon are: "Dad, I'm HUNGRY! Can we go get a treat?"
Also yesterday I led the monthly class I do @ Goal Setting and Time Blocking and got the usual look of disbelief from @ 1/2 the room when I mentioned the fact that you really do NOT have to be a 24/7 REALTOR. The incredulous folks said that if you don't respond IMMEDIATELY to the client's needs, they will go do business with someone who WILL.
My response?
GET THAT OUT OF YOUR HEAD!
If you jump every time anyone opens their mouth and speaks, you may never find a peaceful balance.
Pull out the Mama Bear within you and train your clients not to have the gimmies. They've gotta know that you have a life outside of this business and that you care deeply about attending to their real estate needs but not at the cost of abandoning your personal life Balance . . . That's fair - Isn't it?
This also spawns a whole new possible internal script for those people who want you to cut your commission (And this includes other REALTORS who want to cut commissions "to make the deal work") - Papa Bear would do it . . . and the clients would then have learned a weakness and would get the gimmies . . . It will be a lot easier in the future to look to the REALTOR (YOUR WALLET) to pay for this that and other . . . Mama Bear would offer a bit of tough love: "We need to work through this issue without taking money from my family."
I've gotta sign off to head to our Friday MASTERMINDS . . .
Hope you have a great week-end,
b
Barry Owen
Principal Broker & Productivity Coach
Keller Williams Realty - Nashville, TN - Green Hills
www.creatingspaces.blogspot.com
Simply & BOLDLY Living the FourFold Way in Open Space!
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