Sunday Sermon
Again, not really a sermon but a continuation of thoughts on working by referral. The basis for it is deeply connected to human nature and I believe that connects on a spiritual level.
That said the next part of the lesson is about how we are to serve clients.
Philippians 2:3-4
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
This is the basis of the thought “Give more than you take”. It’s not about us but about our clients when we are in a transaction.
This is a quote directly from the REALTORS® Code of Ethics Article 1 “When representing a buyer, seller, landlord, tenant, or other client as an agent, REALTORS® pledge themselves to protect and promote the interests of their client. This obligation to the client is primary, but it does not relieve REALTORS® of their obligation to treat all parties honestly. When serving a buyer, seller, landlord, tenant or other party in a non-agency capacity, REALTORS® remain obligated to treat all parties honestly.“
You can see it even addresses those who are not our clients. There is a lot more to this but the basic is to put others interests above your own. People can tell when you’ve made it about you. I understand life gets in the way. Family takes priority over business so if you can’t care for your clients in the midst of trouble, perhaps a referral is the right answer.
This is not an easy standard to live up to but it is what sets us apart from many in this business. It leads me to the idea of a Win – Win for all parties involved. I’m with Keller Williams and one of our culture statements is “Win – Win or no deal”. Again, it’s not easy to do but it’s our conviction it must be done.
I love this business and love to work with my clients (most of the time 😉) and part of that is to be able to serve them when they need me the most.
There is a lot being said about the value agents bring in the media right now. Most articles I’ve read seem to focus on buyers agents and how they don’t even find the house for the buyer anymore. Buyers find it themselves and call their agent. Well, if we made our main service finding houses then we’re in trouble.
We do so much more and I know my job really starts when we find the house. I used to be a systems engineer and much of my job was spent solving problems in complex systems to make it all work. I got to do the jobs no one thought of or even considered important until things didn’t work.
We had a statement in most specs for things outside our scope. It was ‘work done by others’ and it applied to anything outside our scope but it rarely identified who was going to do it expect to name them as ‘others’.
I had a hard hat that was labeled ‘Others‘ and I was proud to wear it.
That’s the hat I wear for my clients. When something has been missed by anyone I consider it my job to find the right person and make sure it gets done. I may not be the one to do it but it’s my self assigned job to follow up on it so it doesn’t kill the deal.
That’s enough for now. I got to rambling so we’ll stop here. I’d love to hear your comments or thoughts on this. What do you do for your clients that is above and beyond your scope of work?