FRAZZLED BUYERS

by Hank Trisler

Your buyers may well be too busy for you. They had thought their lives would be a little easier by now, but no such luck. They were rather pleased when they survived the round of layoffs last year, but now they find themselves doing not only all the work they had, but all the work foisted off on them by demise of their departed compatriots. They're just flat buried.

And they can't even depend on technology to save them. They thought new computers would cut the work load. FAT CHANCE. The learning curve is so steep on all these new toys that they spend most of their time just trying to learn how to do what used to be easy with the old stuff.

And then there's social networking. The boss wants them to tune into Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and God only knows what else. The idea is to learn from others in a social setting and thereby extend their reach. These folks are stretched so thin they're about to burst and it doesn't look like it's going to get better soon.

Now along come you, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed salesperson seeking a "relationship." Here's the bad news. Your buyers don't want more relationships, they want more time and less hassle. If you can add value and do it in such a way that the decisions are quick and easy for your customer, you have a chance, but we all know that's easier said than done.

Hope is riding over the hill. Jill Konrath, author of Amazon Best Seller Selling to Big Companies, has written another goodie. Snap Selling sets forth four specific rules for successfully dealing with the frazzled buyers we encounter today:

1. .Keep it simple
2. Be INvaluable
3. Be aligned with the customer
4. Raise prioities

Well, fair enough, but just how do we go about achieving those objectives? That's what the book is about, pilgrim. Jill writes in a clear, straightforward, no-nonsense style that conveys the information in a readable, understandable and enjoyable manner. If you've experienced any problems getting your fair share of your customer's mind, get Snap Selling just as fast as you can. When you click on this link, you'll get a whole lot of free stuff, too, but the real deal is the competitive edge you'll get from the book. Don't miss it.

RESPONSIBILITY -- TO OR FOR?

By Hank Trisler

Silverback Sellers, a group in LinkedIn, is currently discussing, rather vehemently, the question of whether incomplete disclosure is the same as deliberate deception. I've wrestled with this for more years than I care to admit, and to me it comes down to the question or whether we are responsible TO, or responsible FOR our customers.

Early in my career as the owner of a real estate company, my secretary asked me if I would help her grandmother sell her home. Would I? Is a bear a Catholic? Of course I'd take great care of her grandmother.

Eva Coutinho was a sterotypical grandmother. She was four feet and a bit of change, had a little cap of hospital-white hair and always smelled a little like cinnamon. If you asked Norman Rockwell to paint you a grandmother, he'd paint Eva Coutinho.

Being a professional Realtor, I carefully measured the home, prepared my market research and determined the house was worth $21,000 (that'll give you some idea of how long ago this was). When I revealed to Mrs. Coutinho the results of my labors and told her we should price at $21,950 (to provide a little "wiggle room"), she replied, "Oh, that's way too much."

This is not a response to which I was accustomed. I said, "I've done my research and I'm confident I can get you this much money for your home. I promised your granddaughter I'd take good care of you, so I want to get you top dollar."

"When my husband and I bought this home, we paid only $8,000 for it. I think $16,000 is more than enough." Eva went on, "Prices are getting so high, I don't know how young people will ever be able to buy a home, like we did."

I pulled on my Ferdinand Fiduciary T-shirt, puffed out my chest and said, "I'm responsible to get you the best price the market will deliver and that's what I'm going to do. Now press hard, the fourth copy's yours."

She knuckled under and at that moment I had ceased being responsible to Mrs. Coutinho, and had assumed responsibility for her. In selling and, I submit, all human relationships, this is the kiss of death.

Within three weeks I had a full price offer contingent upon an FHA loan. She readily accepted it. I was RIGHT. I'd rather be right than effective.

We got a low appraisal. Since I was a professional, I had the comps to get the appraisal raised and it only took about a month. During that time, the buyer had bought a boat, so he no longer qualified for the loan. I was madder than a mashed cat, but there was naught to do but put the house back on the market and find another buyer.

It only took about a month to get a new buyer and another couple of months to get the deal closed and I personally delivered the closing check to Eva Coutinho, much like a retriever bringing a duck to his master. After all, I had gotten her a full $5,000 more than she had wanted.

She seemed a little less that totally enthused. Oh, she was gracious, as that was her nature, but she was just a little less than totally tickled. My spirits were a bit damped, but there is no accounting for taste and I had done my level best as a professional.

Shortly thereafter Mrs. Coutinho left this mortal coil. It seems she had terminal cancer and only wanted to get rid of the house so she could live out her remaining days in peace and comfort. I had consumed nearly six months (more than half) of her remaining life in my efforts to get her more money, which she neither needed nor wanted.

I submit to you that we are responsible to be well-educated, diligent, honest to a fault, and industrious on behalf of our customers. We are not responsible for our customers and for the sometimes dumb (in our opinion) decisions they will sometimes make.

Come on over to Silverback Sellers and let us know how you feel about this.

NEW NO BULL SELLING

by Hank Trisler

You've heard them sing about it around the campfires and now you can experience it first hand. The brand new and vastly improved NO BULL SELLING has now been printed and copies delivered to me.

You can learn how to sell at high levels and retain your sanity while doing it.

This modern day sales classic is divided into two sections:

• GETTING SOMEONE TO SELL TO

and

• SELLING SOMEBODY

You're going to learn and laugh out loud while doing it. Don't believe me, ask the thousands of top sellers who have already read it.

Enough of this chit-chat. Click on http://bit.ly/WaOzK and place your order TODAY. You'll never find a better use for twenty bucks.

HI TECH, HI TOUCH

By Hank Trisler

John Naisbitt, the author of the venerated Megatrends 2000, popularized this phrase in his first book, Megatrends. He postulates that reliance on technology isolates us and deprives us of the human contact we so desperately need. I can identify with that.

When I ran a real estate company, I was shaved, showered and in the office in suit and tie by 8:30 in the morning. Every day I met new friends and lunched at a different restaurant. I heard and told jokes and generally had a wonderful time.

Then I got into the training bidness and moved my office to my home. I now have a computer, fax machine, cell phone, voicemail, a website and e-mail. There is even a program which will link to GoldMine and extract pertinent material from fields and print out a 40-page + - proposal which one can then e-mail, post or fax to a customer completely obviating the need to talk to the pesky buggers at all.

It's been six days since I started my car. My only contact with people is when I go out for a training session, tennis, golf or a lunch with my old buddies. Other than that, I communicate with electronic devices and comparatively little of that. This existence can be narrowing for a person. One's interpersonal skills can rapidly atrophy, not to mention one's personal hygiene.

I'm not the only one it's happening to, either. Salespeople in general are making fewer personal calls and relying more on electronics to do their talking for them. We are in danger of losing the human touch.

My Barbara got a star in her windshield from a rock tossed out by a truck. She wanted me to make it all better, which I did by giving her the number of our insurance agent in San Francisco. We've been with this agent for over twenty years. He's an old family friend. He'd retired, so Barbara found herself talking to a woman she had never met. The woman said that Barbara would have to make a claim directly with CNA, the carrier. Barbara called CNA three separate times, each time going through voicemail hell prior to being disconnected.

Barbara reappeared in the office. This was not going the way I had hoped it would. "Can you tell me," she said, knowing damn well I couldn't, "why we should continue to pay premiums to an agent we no longer even know, whose office is fifty miles away from us, when all they do is refer me back to the carrier, who will not take any of my calls?"

That's how I came to be assigned the task of finding a new insurance agent. Fortunately, Jim's a really nice guy, an insurance agent and he belongs to my tennis club. I see him two or three times a week and we always have pleasant chats. I decided to ask him if he would be interested in being my new agent.

"I'd be happy to," Jim said. "Why don't you fax me the front page of your existing policy, so I'll know what we're talking about."

That seemed reasonable, so I faxed him the first six pages, as I wanted our whole shebang insured. I stressed that our decision would be based a lot more on personal service than on price. I also mentioned that I had some concern about his being a direct writer (Allstate) than an independent agent, as I wanted someone to represent me, rather than an insurance company.

A couple of days later, I saw Jim at the club, but he said nothing about insurance, so I let it slide. That afternoon I got a fax from him, asking me to fax him social security numbers, driver's license numbers and dates of birth for both Barbara and me. His fax further assured me that he had been an Allstate agent for twenty-eight years and he felt he worked for the policyholder, rather than the company. I faxed back the numbers with decreasing enthusiasm.

I saw Jim twice more and we chatted, but not about insurance. I finally got a five-page fax outlining his suggestions for our coverage and quoting prices in detail. He again assured me that he prided himself on his high level of personal service.

As much as I like Jim, I'm not going to buy any insurance from him. I wanted someone to come out and schmooze with me the way insurance guys used to do. Someone to tell me I had the best possible coverage at a reasonable price. Someone to sell me, but Jim sent me faxes full of numbers I didn't clearly understand or care much about. That's just not going to get it.

A Carnegie Mellon study links the Internet to increasing loneliness. They say the average person has but sixty-six people in his/her social circle. Sixty-six? I've seen families bigger than that.

George Quinn is one of the brightest and best people I know. He's a land developer and could easily hide behind his computer without much danger of human involvement. But every day he dresses in coat and tie and goes to his office to talk with people. He has lunch nearly every day in a restaurant with someone different. I call him "Sir Lunchalot."

I'm pleased when it comes my turn to have lunch with George. He always has something interesting to say and interesting questions to ask. He reads omnivorously and is prepared to discuss anything he's read. He's a thoroughly fascinating man and my life would be poorer were it not for him.

Did technology make George the way he is? Not bloody likely. He got where he is and the way he is by interacting with people every day. To improve your business and your life, reach out and touch someone.

REAL ESTATE: THE TEFLON OF FINANCIAL PLANNING

by Guest Blogger, Joe Klock, Sr., CRB, CRS www.joeklock.com

By no stretch of the imagination do I qualify as an economist, but with respect to the current recession, I have a case to make (and I'll try to make it brief).

No longer gainfully employed in real estate, my also-retired spouse and I now happily rely on it for an income stream sufficient to finance the lifestyle to which we have become accustomed and endeared for the past several years.

During our productive period, both of earned income and dependents, we stashed away what we could, diversifying our investments in accordance with conventional wisdom.

This diversification included some dabblings on what some are now calling Woe Street, and we watched them rise impressively, then fizzle out like financial pyrotechnics.

Fortunately, we never relied on them for a cash flow which is not likely to come from that source in the foreseeable future.

The bulk of our nest egg comprised real estate-related investments, which were and still are a kind of Teflon on the cookware of our retirement portfolio.

They continue to produce a steady income, while effectively protecting us from the damaging effects of the current recession. (The icky stuff is still there, but it doesn't stick on us!)

Had enough of these lame metaphors? Here are some facts:
The bulk of our present "spendable" flows from income-producing commercial real estate, mostly net-net-leased at rental levels which we deliberately set just a smidgeon below the market.

As a result of that moderation, whatever "loss" has occurred in market value is significant only on our personal balance sheet. In other words, the rent rolls remain constant and the money rolls in unabated.

Along a related route, we have granted short-term mortgages at attractive interest rates to responsible people with good credit records and significant equities. Neither have these been diminished by gloomy headlines nor the general malaise of the residential brokerage market.

Undeniably, there has been great suffering endured by well-intentioned but underqualified home buyers and overly-leveraged investors.

This is both regrettable and irreversible, except for such relief as may be provided by government intervention. (Too late to apply Teflon when the damage has been done.)

More to be censured than pitied are the reckless gamblers who flipped contracts, falsified documents and/or knowingly assumed risks that simply didn't make sense.

It's worth noting, though, that prudent real estate investors are riding out the storm with little or no damage to their financial objectives.

In a wider perspective, homeowners who bought (or already owned) homes within their means may understandably wring their hands over the attractive selling prices of years past.

However, they are mourning bonanzas which are relatively meaningless, given the creature comforts they still enjoy - benefits undiminished by the ravages of recession.

To make a long story longer, all of this is prologue to the case (no longer brief) that I wish to make here.

Real estate - the product and benefit package service offered by readers of these words - is an attractive antidote to the venom of economic downturns.
Your potential customers - representing more than 90% of the population, according to published estimates - should be encouraged to believe that if they are managing their present housing needs, but wish to make a move, they should not hesitate to do so.

Even if sellers are unable to realize the wonderful proceeds of yesteryear sales, there are compensating bargains in the market. (No gain, maybe, but no pain either - and no real loss!)

Likewise, those contemplating the purchase of a home should be helped to understand that the present plethora of listings, and the attractiveness of financing, may not be available again in the near - or even remote - future.
Victims of the financial bloodbath on Woe Street should explore the possibility of switching their allegiance to prudently purchased real estate investments, such as the ones which are enabling this humble scribe, et ux, to ride out the current storm.

Admittedly, some folks may be beyond any substantial help you can offer them.

But, among the majority of your prospects who are still afloat, there are many who may simply need to borrow the courage of your conviction that real estate is, in the long run, the safest and surest path toward financial security.

Even those whose planning cookware was damaged in the past could be - make that should be - introduced to the Teflon-like protection of real estate.
For countless millions of Americans over recent decades, the product and service that you offer has been the foundation of their growth during productive years and their security in a good life thereafter.

If you believe that, sell the Teflon effect of real estate to those who will otherwise be unprotected from the "icky stuff" on the Woe Street Of Broken Dreams!