Prisoner
“We are prisoners of our own experience.”
This is what gets us in trouble. We think we know something and proceed based on that knowledge. That line was a quote from the series on Netflix about Vietnam, filmed by Ken Burns. We learned something in Vietnam but it was a tough lesson. I’d recommend this film series to you but it’s graphic and difficult. You may disagree with some of the presentation but I think it shows a lot of truth about that time. Truth we did not know (or could not see) when we were in the middle of it.
Working in real estate is infinitely easier than fighting a war but the same lessons applies. If you believe something to be true that isn’t and act on it you’re going to get hurt.
Another way to say it is “Don’t believe everything you think.”
I get a lot of push back on my position about working by referral in this business but I believe in it so much I bet my career on it. In the beginning of my career, my fellow agents, my team leader, really everyone I talked to told me the same thing. “if you don’t do those cold calls, expired listing calls and chase fsbo’s, you’ll fail”.
It was hard to hear but I was convinced there had to be a better way than to go down the path that led to an 85% failure rate. 85% of all agents are out of business in 3 years. I just couldn’t see it.
I saw agent teams who built their business on Expired calling and they were in the top of the office in production. For a while. Then the market shifted and they were gone.
I saw another agent work hard at the same thing, gain some success but then got distracted by technology and starting their own company and in a few months, they were gone.
Distractions abound in this business. One big one I see is agents changing companies or offices and expecting a different result. The truth is ‘no matter where you go, there you are’. If you do the same things at the new place as you did at the old place, you’re bringing the same result with you.
When I sit in a mastermind with top agents I always ask the same question. “Where do you get most of your business?” and the answer is almost always the same. “From my database” or “From my sphere of influence”. Then we end up talking about buying leads or ads on Facebook or cold calling. I really don’t understand but it happens a lot.
Maybe that recovering engineer in me is my filter. I always looked for the best way to solve a problem and the problem we have to solve in this business is leads. I’d much rather call a warm, referred lead who is anxious to talk to me than chase some fsbo who hates agents.
What I’m teaching here is how to build a relationship business by building relationships in your database. Get closer and be of use to others. Help even if you don’t get paid directly but keep your eye on the goal. Deeper relationships will result in more referrals because people trust you. You earned the trust and it is the reward for the effort.
How do you earn the trust?
You have to be willing to give 100% all the time. I heard a conversation that went like this:
Do you know the difference between 90% and 99%?
It’s 9%, right?
Yeah, that’s right. Do you know the difference between 99% and 100%?
Is it 1%?
No. It’s everything!
It’s a simple idea but if you give 100% to your clients all the time, you’ll be a great agent. Focus on the details and learn all you can. It will help you serve better and be that agent people want to refer. There is more to a referral based business because just doing a great job and waiting for word of mouth to bring you business won’t work either. You have to learn to work by referral. It’s systems, scripts and tools just like any other but it does not involve cold calling.
If you get this idea and put it into practice I believe it will free you from the cage of expired, fsbo and cold calling. It is much more fulfilling to help people when they need us instead of hammering them for a listing.
Stay tuned if this sounds interesting to you.