Sell with Soul (eBook)

Creating an Extraordinary Career in Real Estate without Losing Your Friends, Your Principles or Your Self-Respect

GRI Jennifer Allan (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2008 | 1. Auflage
237 Seiten
BlueGreen Books (Verlag)
978-0-9816727-7-9 (ISBN)

Infos

Sell with Soul shows new agents how to successfully navigate the critical first year of their new career. With more than 60 true-life (and sometimes embarrassing) stories from the Real World of real estate, Jennifer Allan-Hagedorn offers rookie agents no-nonsense advice and step-by-step instructions that will help bring in that first paycheck as quickly as possible.

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Even in boom markets, rookie real estate agents almost always find their new careers to be harder than anticipated, but today, even experienced agents are failing in record numbers. Statistics quote figures ranging from 70% to 95% dropout rate for first year agents and it s common knowledge in the industry that only a small percentage of the licensed agents are making enough money to live on. Why is the failure rate so high? Is it a matter of unrealistic expectations? Maybe. A lack of enthusiasm? Probably. A lack of support and training? Definitely. What agents need is good solid training on how to competently sell real estate and Jennifer Allan-Hagedorn's book Sell with Soul offers just that. The second edition of Sell with Soul has been updated to reflect the realities of today s more challenging real estate marketplace. The book takes on the tough issues of survival in a slowing housing market and provides a blueprint for success to help new agents navigate the critical first year and beyond. Sell with Soul comes complete with checklists to help agents keep on top of listings and contracts, step-by-step guidelines for building a thriving real estate practice as well as anecdotal examples of real world real estate dilemmas and solutions to them. Yet the book is so much more than a rookie survival guide. The author discusses such touchy subjects as commission discounting (she s all for it), buyer agency (don t push it), prospecting at open houses (do so with caution) and generating bidding wars (it s your duty). Practical advice is offered on everything from building a loyal client base to marketing listings to negotiating inspections and even handling pricing objections. Sell with Soul focuses on helping new agents become competent at their craft, so they can be confident with their prospects and clients. This confidence enables them to stay true to themselves because they will have no need for the Old School prospecting strategies and aggressive closing techniques that force many new agents out of their comfort zone. Readers consistently praise the readability of Sell with Soul, commenting that it reads almost like a novel instead of just another business self-help book. The book is written in a casual voice, with a relaxed style that is noticeably different from the more authoritative voices of the competition.

Textauszug

 

Chapter One

 

welcome to sell with soul...

 

You have a choice to make. Today. And tomorrow. In fact, you will make a very important decision every day you work as a real estate agent, from today until the day you retire from the business.

 

Each and every day, you’ll have to choose between Right and Wrong. Fair or Unfair. Respectful or Disrespectful. Every time you meet with or talk to a client...a prospect...a buyer...a seller...every time you make a judgment call or “executive decision” on a matter with no clear-cut answer...you’ll need to choose on which side to hang your hat. The side with Soul...or No Soul.

 

What are some dilemmas you might face? Here are a few to ponder...will you pursue a referral fee from your brother’s real estate agent? Should you encourage a bidding war on your brand new listing? Will you refuse to show your listing to a buyer who already has a buyer agent? Should you take advantage of the opportunity to learn an unfamiliar market with a new buyer? How much will you charge your first seller client? We’ll discuss all these situations and many more−and you may be surprised by the “soulful” choices I recommend.

 

I’d like to tell you that if you make too many un-soulful choices you will fail miserably in your real estate career. I’d like to tell you that, but I’d be lying (and that would be un-soulful!). Unfortunately, thousands of real estate agents have experienced wild financial success treating their clients and associates disrespectfully and, well, like dirt.

 

This has not gone unnoticed by the general public; real estate salespeople “enjoy” a Top Five ranking in a recent list of the nation’s most un-trusted professions. Ouch! We’re up there with car salesmen and politicians, a fact largely due (in my humble opinion) to what I call the “Old School” of real estate thought and training.

 

You may already be familiar with the Old School philosophies. According to the Old School, the way to succeed selling real estate is to treat it like a numbers game. To use condescending sales scripts, hard-core prospecting techniques and high pressure closing strategies. Old School agents are frequently depicted in the movies as greedy, self serving creeps. Unfortunately, these characters weren’t invented by screen writers; they are alive and well and working in your neighborhood. And some are even making a pretty good living.

 

But I’m guessing that if you purchased a book called “Sell with Soul,” you’re hoping there is a better way. A way to succeed without sacrificing your soul to do so. While you may freely admit that you want to make lots of money (and there’s nothing wrong with that!), you’d prefer not to make it at the expense of your integrity or dignity.

 

Or, let’s be blunt here, maybe you don’t consider yourself particularly soulful, but you doubt your ability to use the methods you’ve been taught by Old School trainers because they’re just too “salesy” for you. You cringe when you imagine yourself making 100 cold calls a day, or putting those tired old closing techniques into play. You might even feel inadequate that you aren’t overly enthusiastic about pestering strangers for business.

 

Quite simply, you know in your heart (and soul) that something is wrong with the advice of the Old School masters, yet you worry that you might not be successful unless you follow it.

 

Well, take heart—I have terrific news for you! You absolutely, positively can succeed in real estate sales without resorting to Old School methodology! And when I say succeed, yes, I mean you can make a ton of money, but oh, so much more.

 

A successful career selling real estate can be a beautiful thing. An extraordinary thing. If you are a great real estate agent, that’s something to be proud of. And chances are, if you are great, you will love your job. Can you imagine bouncing out of bed in the morning, every morning, eager to get to work? Or not dreading the end of your vacation because you’re so excited about getting back to your business? Itching to check your voicemail messages because you can’t wait to find out who called you while you were in the dentist’s chair? If you’ve never experienced the euphoria of doing a job you love, and being well-paid to do it, ahhhh, you have something wonderful to look forward to.

 

With that, I welcome you to Sell with Soul. The Sell with Soul approach is radically different from the vast majority of real estate sales training programs out there. Selling with Soul centers around r-e-s-p-e-c-t. Respecting our clients — buyers, sellers, customers, prospects. Treating them like intelligent, competent human beings who don’t need a lot of slick sales B.S. to make the right decision. Who don’t need to be smoothly “closed” in order to sign the paperwork that secures our all important paycheck.

 

To Sell with Soul means that we acknowledge and appreciate the generous “contributions” our clients make to our children’s college educations (in the form of real estate commissions). That we are willing to part with a few of our precious commission dollars when it’s the right thing to do. Especially when we screw up. But even when we don’t. That we care as much about the clients we have now as the clients we hope to have in the future. When our FOR SALE sign goes into a yard, we truly care about selling that home as much as our client does.

 

It means that when we forget to put our client first (it will happen), we at least feel bad about it. We might even <gasp> ‘fess up and apologize.

 

When you Sell with Soul, you learn your job at your own expense, not at the expense of your paying customers, your buyers and sellers. You are competent. You know your market, your systems and your contracts. You are a good negotiator.

 

Not one of the tips, techniques, opinions or strategies found in this book is insulting or patronizing to your client. All my suggestions have clients placed firmly in first position, where they belong, and where your agency agreements (legal documents, remember) declare them to be. You’ll find none of the hostility or cynicism toward your clients here that you may encounter elsewhere. Even in (especially in) your own real estate office.

 

I have a confession...

 

I’m not a people-person. I’m not shy, exactly, just...socially uncomfortable. Small talk is a foreign language to me. If I spend a day showing buyers around town or even holding a three-hour open house, I’ll need some time alone to recharge afterwards. Cold calling or door knocking to prospect for business? You’re kidding, right? You won’t find me at any chamber of commerce networking event; heck, I get anxious about going to closings!

 

Not the best profile for a successful real estate agent, huh?

 

But I am successful! And not because I am pushy, schmoozy or even particu-larly friendly. Just the opposite, in fact. Can I sell snow to Eskimos? Nope. Can I sell 75 homes a year? Yep. No problem.

 

I succeed in real estate sales, not because I’m charismatic, but because I am Very Good at my Job. Good at the details, good at negotiating, good at the follow up. And no one is better than I am at creatively solving problems. Since I can’t dazzle them with my charm, I have to blow them away with my competence.

 

I went into real estate sales on a whim, like so many others. My big plan was to get my license and make my fortune buying hot investment properties...and maybe sell a few homes along the way (sound familiar?). I knew I’d never be successful if I had to knock on doors or dial-for-dollars, which is the “only” way to succeed, right? Well, that sure wasn’t going to happen, so I figured I’d just hope that enough friends would hire me so I could pay the bills while I built my personal real estate empire.

 

But it didn’t happen that way. Somewhere along the line I fell in love with my new career. I actually enjoyed selling real estate! No one was as surprised as I was when the sales results were tallied at the end of my first year, and I was the second highest producing rookie out of 75 new agents. Okay, so I didn’t set the world on fire, but I was doing something right. And believe me, it didn’t involve calling up strangers or pestering By-Owner sellers.

 

This is not to say I didn’t consider the traditional sales methods. Sure, I purchased and read all the guru books recommended to me...I say I read them...but I can’t say I followed much of the advice I found within those sacred texts. Many of the techniques for cold calling, door knocking and farming left me cold and I sincerely doubted my ability to stick with programs that admittedly involved, even celebrated, cold hard rejection.

 

For those of you who shudder at the thought of chasing down your prey, this book is for you. First, I’ll help you build your...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 11.7.2008
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Betriebswirtschaft / Management ► Spezielle Betriebswirtschaftslehre ► Immobilienwirtschaft
• ISBN-10: 0-9816727-7-9 / 0981672779
• ISBN-13: 978-0-9816727-7-9 / 9780981672779