It always amazes me when I hang around some seasoned real estate sales people. Sooner or later the conversation always shifts to the “good ‘ole days” of real estate. The bemoaning begins and quickly grows in intensity…the pitch turns more into a whine within a few short minutes.
The pity party will run all day if one has time to commiserate….amazingly the sobbing and long faces quickly freshen up to don the “perma grin” when a prospect enters the door. There is a slight problem with this flip of the switch…..the problem is the attitude tends not to change with the flip of the switch and the customer can see right through it.
I’ve stood in on many presentations only to hear the sales person attempt to feel important in a down economy by using their well placed words to up their ego with flowery descriptions about themselves and their accomplishments. We some how forget that the person we are attempting to sell did not get the intro letter about how important we are and how we need to be treated by them…they seem to only want a home they can live in and (to our perception) have missed a chance to stroke our ego.
I’ve seen many sales people walk away from a busted sales opportunity scratching their heads and blaming a down market, when the reason they lost the sale was their own abrasive personalities and their poor attitudes kept them from it. The real interesting thing about this is the I mainly see the Veterans doing this routine…..the ones who had it all for just showing up in the years of the bumper crop. In this market the sales are very hard to come by and making the most of every opportunity requires grooming. We need to be aware not only what we look like on the outside, but we also need to groom our inner sales person.
Ways to groom our inner sales person:
- Take time off to detox from this current market
- Spend some time with the family (you may miss one customer, but you won’t miss your kids or grand kids growing up)
- Read a fiction book or inspirational book
- Waste some time at the mall and buy an ice cream (more…)
Another misgiving about the current situation in the market is the reality that this is buyer’s market will not last forever. I have had several offers to buy in the last few weeks come to me and try to negotiate the same price we gave on a home we sold earlier in the year. The push back from the seller is starting to happen.
