Greg Nino's post about his biggest regrets of 2008, promoted me to post about Toxic Clients. You know who they are.
* You cringe when you see their name on your caller ID.
* You let their call go to voicemail... and you're not busy
* You know their call will be confrontational
* You never have a five minute conversation with them... all calls exceed 50 minutes
* You dread each meeting with them
* They want to meet to talk about why their house isn't sold yet... "It's already been 3 weeks... what's up with that?"
* They never follow your advice... their "uncle Sal used to date a Realtor"... so they know all the secrets
These clients are a succubus. They drain your energy, they drain your will.... on some days, they even drain your will to live! They cause you to pay less attention to your other clients, and cause you to be late for appointments. You know they'll never be happy. Even if you do manage to get them to price at a more appropriate price, and they do manage to sell, they'll think you sabotaged their price.
They won't give you good references, in fact they'll tell their friends (both of them) that you were terrible. They'll damage your reputation... they'll bruise your ego... they'll drain your energy (and back account)... remind me again.... WHY are we keeping them as clients?
Behave like Donald Trump and tell the "ya fired!". All of that negative energy, can be turned into postiive energy... and you'll spend that time happier and more efficiently working on behalf of the balance of your clients. in fact, you may find that since you have some additional time, you'll sit that extra open house, and meet that nice couple who's looking for a manse on the lakefront, or wants to sell their duplex penthouse downtown and has been searching just the right Realtor.... YOU!
Detoxify... Dump those clients... Don't take on any new toxic clients. Make that your new year's resolution.
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