Right now, this very day, a few hard-working, client-centered real estate agents are alienating prospective clients and causing them to turn away.
These are potential clients who may have been following the agent’s blog posts. They may be people who responded to an offer for a special report, so they’ve been receiving emails regularly. They may be residents of the agent’s farm area who have been receiving postal mail. They may have read the agent’s bio and decided “This is the agent I need.”
Whoever they are, and whatever the reason for their decision, they picked up the telephone and called that agent.
And then something terrible happened…
They got an answering machine. But that wasn’t the problem. The problem was with one word in the message on that machine.
It politely asked the caller to leave a name and number and then stated: “I’ll call you back at my earliest convenience.”
In other words – I’ll call you if and when I darn well feel like it. It might as well say “But don’t hold your breath.”
I’m prejudiced I suppose, because every time I’ve run into that message, the person’s “earliest convenience” never happened.
I feel almost certain that most of those agents didn’t mean what they said.
They probably meant something like “As soon as I have a minute.” Or maybe “at my earliest opportunity.”
Check your words...
Just one "rotten" one can spoil all the work you did leading up to the day when that prospective client decided to call.
Wise people say to ignore what others say and pay attention to what they do - actions do speak louder than words.
However, if words are all a prospective client has to go on, they're all he has to go on. He can't judge by actions until he's met you and seen you in action. So be careful.
Choose your words carefully.
Comments(16)