I went to a time management seminar not long after I changed my career to real estate (now beginning my third year). Excellent speaker, good suggestions, except: “Successful agents spend 90% of their time prospecting for new clients.”Waidaminute. If I’m spending 90% of my time selling myself to new clients, what, exactly, am I selling?? Granted the value of marketing, differentiation, and contacts, if I include the time I’m spending typing this and all other posts I still wouldn’t hit 50%. 90%????? Would I go to a surgeon who spends 10% of his time practicing his specialty?
[I’ve met a few who take this to heart. Enormous effort is spent on perfecting listing presentations, overcoming objections, learning to say what people want to hear. But they’re like the car-chasing dog: excellent at the chase, but no idea what to do with the catch. Listing in hand, they move on to the next presentation.]
My approach has always been simple: Take very, very, very good care of the customer. All else follows.
So how do I take good care of customers if I’m busy looking for new customers?
The answer is in the form of a Phil Knight quote:
“Yes, of course Nike is a marketing company, but our product is our number one marketing tool.”
A realtor’s product – and it’s a valuable product – is service. If it’s possible to put the time providing that service into the prospecting column, voila! 90% seems reasonable!
For the record, that’s exactly what good agents do.
I feel so much better…
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