I messed up today. There, I admitted it, I made a mistake.
This morning at a business meeting, I was approached by one of my new referral partners. He told me that he needed some information on finding some properties. It was the conversation I hear all the time. Seems like everyone is always looking for an investment property or something for a family member. In this case, his son was in the Navy and about to go on one last tour of duty for 8 months. He is in town today and wants to look at some properties. He hasn't talked to a lender or other realtor yet. The red flags were up that this person wasn't really looking to do anything today. I told him I would get him some MLS briefs of properties he might be interested in. I do take one day off out of the week, Friday, and this happened to be Friday. I do go to my early morning business referral meeting (BNI) and then take the rest of the day off to spend with my 3 year old. I told him this but asked him to call me if he needed anything. I bet you can guess what happened. I gave him the MLS properties, and went on with my day. Twelve hours later, and well into the night, I come into my home office and there was a message from him, wanting me to call him. I bet you can guess what happened. Yup, they bought a condo! The son had cash and it should close in a few weeks. They wanted to buy it now while it is such a great buyer's market. They want to rent it out until he gets out of the Navy.
I am a firm believer of learning lessons from every bad situation. What are some take aways from this situation?
- You never know where your next transaction will come from, therefore, pay attention. You never know when you are talking to your next paycheck.
- Don't assume. I assumed this person wasn't serious. I assumed that I had time blow him off for the weekend.
- I made the mistake of calling him from my home office number. I don't ever check that message machine because I don't give the number out. I have it listed as a fax number. I forgot that a lot of people just hit call back on their phones. The lesson learned here is, change the message to reflect that this isn't my main number and provide an alternate number.
- Make the most of the situation. When I called him and found out what happened, I was not happy, but I realized that it wasn't his fault. I made the mistake and admitted it. As it turns out, he felt bad that things worked out the way they did. He did try to reach me. He did what he should have done. I talked to him about the offer that was made, and helped him feel comfortable with everything. At this point, this sale is lost, now I need to work to nurture the next one. By not getting upset and losing my cool I helped insure that this individual will want to give me more referrals in the future.
I write this story in the hopes that I help someone else down the road. I am sure that there are more lessons to be learned here. I welcome the comments of anyone with similar stores and lessons learned.
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