From RealSource... Glenn's Blog

For the people that spend so much more time talking than listening, I want to offer up yet another reason to talk less. 

Many times others will share more information IF you let them.  Maybe you ask a few questions and make a point to not interrupt the answers.  Maybe you just don't say much for some period of time and watch how others will become uncomfortable and fill the silence.

I don't suggest you trick anyone.  And if the topic becomes inappropriate, unethical or illegal, please stop the other person (even it if is by tactfully and quickly changing the subject).  However, I know that many people will voluntarily share very interesting information that can be useful to you as you negotiate or evaluate potential transactions, deals, sales and purchases.

I had a colleague once call me and say, "I just babble when I am around a certain client.  I know I do it.  But I don't know why."  I've been in meetings with this particular client.  The client is a great, long-term client that also happens to be great at sitting quietly, even after you answer a question or make a point.

I suggested that my colleague was uncomfortable with the silence and thus was automatically filling in that silence. 

Sure enough, my colleague called me back later after a meeting and said I was exactly right.  And now that she was aware of it, she had stopped babbling and helped the meetings move on along to a faster closure.   We decided the client was a "master" at the tool of silence.  We mean it as a compliment.

Likewise, another lesson here is to not share more than you should.  Be very honest and forthcoming, just be sure it is appropriate and professional. 

Are you revealing too much about your business, your deals and your clients?  

Are you really listening when others are speaking?

I remain intrigued by discussions I often hear in real estate where low offers are called "insulting" or other names and descriptions (such as "low ball", "useless", "waste of time", and "disrespectful").

This is usually followed by a discussion of how any "serious" offer on a home should be within 5% to 8% of the list price.  Huh?  Where do professionals get the nerve to disparage a business offer?

I can understand how a home buyer or seller can see things as personal, especially if the house has been their home for years.  What I find particularly interesting is why so-called "real estate professionals" play this ridicule game instead of honestly advising their clients on the current market, value issues, and the business side of the house sale/purchase.

Are there any other business markets/industries where low offers are commonly and publicly ridiculed? 

In my years of running businesses, we make offers on projects and we help other companies with products and service they buy and sell.  Pricing that is too high or too low may remove a company from consideration, but the effort to propose and consider doing business IS APPRECIATED... not ridiculed.

At the same time, I rarely fail to hear these same "real estate pros" make the same "insulting" comments about houses that are listed at 40% to 80% of the price the house sold for in the last 8 years.   Come on... how can it be insulting one direction and not the other?

Where is it written that a seller can jack up a price by huge amounts as "acceptable" but offers that are not close to this new price are "insulting?"

Here are some of my theories of why some of the "pros" play this game of labeling low offers as "insulting" and making business deals suddenly very personal:

* Suggesting that a low price could be "insulting" plays well to many uneducated clients.  This is a pure manipulation ploy.

* Suggesting that a low price could be "insulting" discourages written offers that are less likely to be accepted, thus saving the agent time.  This is independent of the reality that some low offers are accepted or are at least a start of negotiations. 

* Many people, including Realtors, are still uncomfortable talking about money and, deep down, just want to follow a pre-determined recipe instead of possibly challenging negotiations.  The recipe they prefer works something like this:  List Price... Offer of 8% off List... Counter of 4% off List.... Sale of 6% off List.  Everyone plays the dance even though it was all based on the list price, not the value.  Anything else is "uncharted" territory and confuses the recipe-followers.

* They heard others discuss low offers as "insulting" and are just repeating the concept without much thought or concern.  "I heard it in the office, it must be true."

* A buyer's agent learns this is a great "tactic" (dare I say, "trick") to sell their clients a house that may be overpriced (instead of advising on why the house may be overpriced).  These agents are more worried about getting a commission on a fast sale than helping the client get an appropriate deal.

* It may be the listing agent, not the homeowner, that sees the offers as an insult.  They either suggested the current list price or failed to put forth the effort to properly advise their client.  Now the low offers "suggest" they did not do their job and to save face, they disparage the offer.  They may have even priced price appropriately but privately fear the homeowner will think the buyer's agent is smarter or market savvy.

* The buyer's agent honestly believes all list prices represent current house value.  "So what's left to negotiate?  Don't waste my time." they think.

* Many agents passed the licensing exams and have sales training but they are not skilled negotiators.  So, they use name-calling as way to try to avoid negotiations that could be challenging or time-consuming (even if it can result in a purchase). 

* In many business-to-business deals, ridiculing offers or services can come back to haunt a business as this behavior establishes how professional they treat others including those that are not vendors or clients.  The client or vendor you did not make a deal with today may be still be a client or vendor in five years.  So, I wonder if few agents expect to never work with the other party on the deal, thus they are free to ridicule the offer or the price openly.

I want to be clear that I am not clueless... there are buyers that just don't understand the market or have some idea that they can buy EVERY property for pennies on the dollar. 

At the same time, that does not mean that the low offer they submit may not be accepted (more work perhaps but who said ever client and every deal is easy).  Or that the low offer is in any way personal.  An insult is only an insult if it is personal.  The buyers usually don't know the listing agent or the homeowners, so it can't be personal.  It is free market. 

Owners may list as they see the value (right or wrong).  Buyers may offer what they see is the value.  It can be accepted, rejected or countered.   Injecting phrases such as "insulting" takes a business deal and makes it personal.  Once it is personal, all further negotiations are much more challenged. 

Isn't our goal to make deals happen, not make deals harder? 

Are you a "Pop-Tart" or a "Toaster Pastry?"

Huh?

Okay, here is what I mean.  I think we all know a Pop-Tart is a so-called toaster pastry.  But only a Kellogg's product is a Pop-Tart. 

Pop-Tart is the brand name.  I also submit that it is also THE Standard by which all other main-stream, relatively low-cost toaster patries are measured. (I consider fresh bakery goods and super high-end pastries to be different products with a different market.) 

There are some foods where I think the store brand is great.  In my house, however, the other brands of main-stream toaster-pastries have never measured up to the true Pop-Tart.  So much so, that we refuse now to ever buy anything else. 

Now that is brand loyalty.  More importantly, it is an EARNED brand loyalty.

So, do your clients think you are THE Standard by which all others are measured?  

Is there another Realtor they say is "almost as good" as you?   Is there a bank that is "not really as good" as the bank you work at?

Or do people say about you... "He's really nice but he's not as good as Joe Smith?" or "She work hard but her deals just seem to not move as quickly as ABCDEF Bank."

If you are not the standard in your market, do you know why?  And what are you going to do about it?  Are you going to do anything about it?

Maybe I'm spoiled but if it not a frosted stawberry or frosted grape Kellogg's Pop-Tart, I'll just skip having a toaster pastry.  Remember, your clients are spoiled too for the best (or want to be), whether they know it or not.

Be THE Standard.

My dear friend from college, Roger, passed way a couple of years ago after his third battle with brain tumors.  I miss Roger but I don't mourn him.  I've felt that he embraced life so much better than almost everyone else I know that to mourn would be disrespectful to him and how he lived his life.  BIGGEEERR!

"Think BIGGGEEERRRR!"

Even in college, Roger would push me forward on all sorts of things by saying, "Think BIGGEEERRR!" as he held his hands far apart, like a fisherman exaggerating his catch.

What would happend?  I would think bigger.  And he would say again, "Think BIGGEEERRR!"

Know what... I would again!   I'd think bigger each time he pushed me to do so.

Now bigger did not always mean large.  It could be more creative, more interesting, sneakier, funnier or just plain smarter.

In business, I think of Roger's advice often.  And without him in my ear, I have to now stand on my own and remember to "Think BIGGEEERRR!" without that fun, smiling face that could see my potential better than I could see it.

We all need someone to take us out of our comfort zones or to push us along.  Some people do this well on their own.  However, even Olympians have coaches to push and teach.  

I submit that anyone that claims they don't need any push, motivation or training has chosen to stay where they are instead of growing personally and professionally.  They won't say that, but their actions speak for them.

Do you have a Roger?  Can you be your own Roger?  I highly recommend it!

P.S. Here is an example of how big and different Roger could be.... my college stories begin with things like this, "So my friend Roger found this store that sells cannon fuse...."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Other Recent Posts that may be of interest....

My Customers Won't Listen to Me!!

Scared Customer has a Monster in their Closet

Thankfully, Buyers and Sellers can be Difficult

I hear many people complain that the client...

• Is paralyzed on deals (or potential deals) by the horror stories on the evening news.
• Won't listen to the facts.
• Can't make a decision.
• Keeps changing their mind.

These clients are clearly in charge.  They are leading and everyone else in the business deal are following that lead... and often complaining the entire time!

Now, if you are of the school that says "the customer is always right" then I have two questions for you. 

1.  If you really believe that the customer is always right, then there really isn't anything to complain about.  After all, you just agreed they are right!

2.  If you and the customer are stranded on an island and only one of you can be rescued (and the other will die), do you let them choose?  Always?  Really?  After all, they are always right!

I think a bit differently.  I submit that some customers are in need of our help.  Others are not (or not yet). 

The trick is this:

• Some customers are in need of help but don't realize and accept it. 
• Other customers are not ready for help but may think they are ready.

It is this last group (customers that think they are ready but really are not) that can lead you all around the world and jumping through hoops IF YOU LET THEM.  And if you won't lead them, they will lead you on this journey all the way back to where you started (and without a deal).

As a professional, it is incumbent on you to politely, professionally and efficiently ask enough questions all through the process to determine which customers are ready for your help and which are not. 

If they are not ready, help them understand that and move along.  You can begin building a relationship as a trusted adviser but good deals may be weeks or months away.  Spend your time appropriately with that in mind.

Notice I said "ask enough questions."   I did not say "demand they do things your way."   There is a big difference.  

I see many people in sales attempt to lead the process by demanding action, response, and reaction.  These same people then brag about how their demanding process weeds out customers that are not serious.  Well, maybe.  Sometimes.  

"If they won't come to my office to review my process first, I know they are not really serious."

"If they don't have a prequalification letter, I never waste my time on these looky-loos."

I say this demanding process also weeds out customers that want to be professionally led through the appropriate process for them (and that know the difference in leadership and someone just being bossy). 

Think about it from a customer perspective.  As a customer, which do you want:

Someone that waits for you to drive each step the process? 

Someone that does not understand your needs but is sure they have what you need if you'll do as they say?

Someone that works to understand your needs, then coaches and guides you? 

If you were a customer, would you hire you?  

And if you did hire you, can you deliver "a deal" or "the right deal?"