Move from just customer service to the notion of creating community. People are hungering to feel connected and when you offer this type of thing, customer will respond.

Here are two key points to remember:

1. Profitability is usually conditional on current customer loyalty and new customers. The way to increase loyalty and attraction are:
   • Continually add value without being asked to and at a similar price. This builds a reputation.
   • Create a community of people and help them “get to know” each other.
   • Be known for something…a philosophy, feat, and result, compelling vision.
   • Be known as someone. Have a personality, a personal style, personal qualities, and abilities to listen.
2. People prefer to buy from an individual or firm that they know and feel a part of. Create this with your company. It’s more than just customer service.

Carpe diem,

I had an interesting meeting with an agent recently – one that has been a reoccurring theme over the last 18 months with agents across the nation.  We started the meeting under the auspice of setting goals, markers and expectations for the next 90 days.  We ended with tears, hugs and a new lease on life.

After 20+ years in the business, a full pipeline and momentum shifting in her favor the dark cloud that has been hanging over her business was starting to clear.  Despite the rays of sunshine a haunting depression and frustration was finding its way in each morning.   Bitterness was building and the excitement of real estate was waning.  She struggled with tears as she admitted to a growing distain for both houses and people.  She was faced with burn-out and wasn’t sure how she got here or even if she wanted to continue in this crazy business.

We talked at length about finding purpose, and the importance of having the significant as fuel for our success.  We talked about the realities and destructive road that lies at the end of a life that is being lived out of integrity.    We can only fake it for so long, and while I am a believer in positive thinking, there are times in which we need a radical adjustment to our perspective.

I have discovered that integrity can be defined as morality (not doing wrong) plus character (doing what is right).  You cannot do what is right when you are doing what is wrong.  When we start to make choices from the place of what I need to do versus what I want to do, our lives (and businesses) take a very dangerous turn.  She is moral and good, but neglecting doing the right things because of demanding clients and lack of good boundaries.

She is working on finding herself by exploring some places she can give back.  We will re-visit whether she wants to leave her real estate business or not in a few months, until then, she is going find something that she can throw her heart in, because it is the right thing to do and it is the quickest way to avoid burn-out.  Investing in the significant and being in integrity is the quickest way to give a shot of vitality and life to a business that is stagnant and struggling.

When struggling, down or feeling a bit defeated, recognize that our fulfillment must come from something outside of the real estate business – our lives and business depend on it.

Carpe diem,

Do you have a vision for yourself and for your business? Most people do not.

What is a vision? By nature, a vision is unreal, not necessarily logical, and certainly not commonly regarded as available today. In other words, with your vision, you’re carving out a new reality, much like an inventor or pioneer. It’s actually a fun process once you learn to ignore the nay-sayers and devote your energies to creating what you have in mind.

You can accelerate your vision discovery with a few “simple” questions:

1. What is something that you deeply want to do for or give to others that seems out of your present reach?
 
If you’re even thinking in terms of vision, you’re probably a forward thinker and a person who desires to provide service to others. Given this, why not go for broke? If you had the strength, the power, the delivery technology, and the language, what is the ultimate thing that you would want for others to have in life?
 
Think big. Be unreasonable. Be willing to be scoffed at. Rather than think through every linear step that it will take to reach your goal, simply identify the end. The vision must be bright enough to light your success path to it. With a bright enough vision, the needed solutions will also appear and ignoring the small minds around you will be easy.

2. Who wants what I’m thinking of? A vision that is only yours becomes a monument to your ego. After getting in touch with what you most want for others, it’s time to go find those “others” and discuss your idea with them. Listen to what they want and ask for help with how to apply the idea to what they want today, not what they should want or need. Most of us won’t buy something just because it will help us or because we need it; we must also want it (or the consequence of not getting it must appear so great) so that we just must buy it. You don’t want to have to sell your vision. You want ready buyers. Don’t get caught up in having to have your vision be a particular way. The whole idea behind a vision is to serve, not prove.

3. Let your “customers” coach you in customizing your vision.

Whether it’s the board members of your local non-profit, the employees in your company, or a few of your key customers, it’s much easier to include others in your vision from the very start. Ask them to become your partners as you develop your vision from an idea to a measurable improvement in the quality of life.

By developing your vision and applying it, you will create a new and stronger community of colleagues, customers, friends, and partners. And some of your associates won’t keep up. I suggest that you keep serving the ones who are ready and love the ones who aren’t. Don’t try to serve the ones who aren’t ready.

Carpe diem,

“Do you have integrity?” I was asked this at Richard Robbins conference a few years ago. As I looked around the room, 99% of the people in attendance had their hands raised. Richard then asked if you had ever made a commitment to yourself – to eat better, be organized or get to the gym. Then he asked if we had ever not lived up to that? Have we ever made a choice to lie to ourselves and break a commitment? All the hands went down. He made the point that if we couldn’t have integrity with ourselves, how could we extend that in our dealings with others?

I recommend the book – Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality by Henry Cloud. It is a great book that outlines the importance and elements of integrity. Among the highlights and points of the book, he included what he thought were the essential elements of integrity -

· The ability to connect authentically – which leads to trust

· The ability to be oriented toward the truth - which leads to finding and operating in reality

· The ability to work in a way that gets results and finishes well – which leads to reaching goals, profits, or the mission

· The ability to embrace, engage, and deal with the negative – which leads to ending problems, resolving them, or transforming them

· The ability to be oriented toward growth – which leads to increase

· The ability to be transcendent – which leads to enlargement of the bigger picture and oneself

Carpe diem,

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You don’t sell houses. Let me say it again, you don’t sell houses. Not in a successful marketing campaign. You sell your USP or Unique Selling Proposition. There are hundreds of thousands of agents in world today. If all you do is sell houses, then there are at least a few others that are willing to do the same thing. What makes you better than any other? Why should a client hire you? As an industry, we have been caught without enough distinction which is why over the last few years we have experienced such a high level of “Commission Compression.”

Here’s an example - If I were to buy a new BMW 7i and one dealer had one the car for $80,000 and another dealer could get the exact same car for $72,000 which would I choose? All things being equal, price will become my determining factor. But let’s say that I just wanted to buy a car that allows me to get to and from work in a safe comfortable manner. What makes me consider an $80,000 BMW versus an $18,000 Kia? Price no longer becomes the only factor. BMW knows they aren’t selling a car or mere transportation; they are selling “The Ultimate Driving Machine.” In fact, they’ve done quite well getting buyers to buy to satisfy the buyer’s own ego needs. And more interestingly, how many BMW owners would cop to ego being their primary reason for buying the car? With that said – let’s not beat up on the BMW crowd too bad, the same could be said about Lexus, Mercedes and others and they don’t have the distinction of being the “Ultimate Driving Machine.”

What is your USP? What are your strengths? What can and do you do better than anyone else? What are your values? What do you care about and hold most dear? Market around those things and you will find yourself in the rare air of those agents who make the rules about how the real estate game is played and who hold the top %1 who dominate the marketplace.

Carpe diem,

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I highly recommend the book The Starbucks Experience by Michelli. It’s a great read on why people will stand in line and pay $4 for a cup of coffee. As I read through it, I thought I’d share a few of the principles from the book in a condensed form as well as some of my thoughts on how they apply to your business.

Principle #1 – Make It Your Own
We all have common objectives. Our goals and those of each of our clients are similar in their construct. Where we soar is in the individual creativity and passion that we apply to what we do. It is in those things that we form the bonds so that people will continue to come back. It is there that we connect, discover and respond. It is in our core values and strengths that we learn to love what we do.

Principle #2 – Everything Matters
In a service industry, everything matters. Every detail, every conversation every nuance makes a difference. Master the simplicity of the basics and spend the rest of your time perfecting your game. It is in the details that the pros stand out from the masses.

Principle #3 – Surprise and Delight
Pursue “wow” moments. Think through your business and ask yourself – “where can I give a ‘wow’ moment to my clients? Those are the moments where you have exceeded expectations and delivered something above and beyond. It is in these moments that we demonstrate and prove our value. We need a certain amount to justify our compensation, we need more to create buzz. Deliver the exceptional, surprise and delight at every opportunity.

Principle #4 – Embrace Resistance
Change is going to happen, people are going to complain, life is going to hurt at times. Learn from it all. Everyone has something to contribute, every challenge offers an opportunity. Be open to hear about your faults and shortcomings and where others are disappointed. Learn from them and except that you are a work in progress, not perfection.

Principle #5 – Leave Your Mark
What do you leave behind? I’m not talking about a notepad either. What is it that has added value and where have you invested in others? Success is sweet, but significance, yes significance, is what brings glory to our soul. Joy and peace, the deep internal kind that marks your life and the lives of those you come into contact with is manufactured in spades in significance.

Carpe diem,

You can also click on one of the following links to have the mastery coaching blog with helpful life and business tidbits geared to real estate’s elite delivered to your computer,

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“In life, you are either moving in the direction you want to go or someone is moving you in a direction they want you to go.”

Who do you let make or influence your decisions?  Really, who has access to that area of your life?  Is it a spouse, a manager, a coach, or do you regulate that all important responsibility to the other agents in your office that spend more time making coffee than doing business?  I don’t want to be too harsh, but I can’t express how important it is to protect your core vision and motivation.

The “why” you do is far more important than any other factor.  The “what” you do can be formulated, changed and is in constant flux.  But “what” you do only make sense in the context of “why” you do.  If you aren’t designing your business with the end in mind, you’ll end up with a job in real estate that you hate instead of a business that you love because it provides for you and protects your core values.