Educating today’s Clients and Customers
“Keep Them from Entering the Twilight Zone”
It’s of paramount importance – every top producing realtor should continue educating today’s clients and customers. Make it a high priority – don’t allow buyers and sellers to act like two trains passing in the dead of night. A good understanding of current market trends, perceptions and human behavior, shared with all participants, will likely increase your chances of success in securing negotiated purchase agreements. Don’t let out-dated information, old paradigms, or re-living the past, influence your buyers and sellers decisions – keep them from entering the Twilight Zone.
Think outside the box, what actions can you as a realtor introduce to move recalcitrant buyers from the sidelines? What techniques will stimulate these buyers to move past the “we’re still thinking about it” stage? How about your seller’s, what strategies will convince them your marketing suggestions will go along way towards increasing that all important foot traffic?
The use of a story is always a great way to begin educating today's clients and customers. A few year’s ago, I had the privilege of listening to Dr. Stephen Covey. He shared with his audience an experience which I believe is pertinent. Dr.Covey attended a summit conference to discuss world peace. Representatives from numerous countries were in attendance. As you can imagine, language barriers, societal customs/mores and differing opinions made any attempt at meaningful discussion next to impossible. Previous gatherings had ended without much progress, or a sense of direction. To overcome these hurdles, the attendee’s borrowed an ancient Indian custom. They commissioned the use of a “talking stick”. The rules for using a talking stick are simple; the holder of the talking stick articulates his position until others in the conversation acknowledge an understanding of his point. The stick is then passed to another. Dr. Covey stated once the talking stick was put into use, measurable progress was achieved – members of the summit agreed to disagree. Educating today's clients and customers should be viewed by every realtor as a work in process.
For the benefit of our clients, how often do we actually discuss in detail, what today’s buyers are thinking, their perceptions, shared misinformation, and the obstacles they must overcome? Do we provide recent market sales data for buyers, helping them understand where home prices have stabilized, or the possible circumstances today’s sellers are likely to face? If we invest appropriate time educating our clients and customers, that is, articulate current market trends, share real estate investment forecast information, and understand their personal situations, we can keep them from entering the twilight zone.
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