Keep Those Cards Going Out!

As we finish up our first Peak Producers class in Indy and get our second class underway in the Lafayette office, I wanted to share some more of Brian Buffini’s approach to developing and maintaining a steady level of activity and revenue and avoiding the extreme peaks and valleys that come with the traditional approach to the business.

One of Brian’s keys to achieving that steady level of business is consistent, personal contact with our “database,” his term for that well maintained list including our clients, sphere of influence, contractors, friends, and family. He says that “Writing personal notes is the most powerful and least expensive way to grow your business!” Here are the Top 6 reasons for us to write personal notes:

1.              Personal notes leave a positive, lasting impact.

2.              They help you build a database of high quality relationships.

3.              They deepen your personal and professional relationships.

4.              Personal notes show you care and make you a more likely candidate to receive referrals.

5.              They make you stand out from the competition.

6.              They can make someone’s day!

And here are some tips on the Who and the When:

Write notes to:

·      Your clients—current and inactive (I don’t like to call them “past!”)

·      Family and friends

·      Your personal service providers; doctor, painter, landscaper, accountant

·      Lenders and title agents you do business with

·      Business owners you respect

·      Someone you’d like to meet

Write notes when:

·      To follow up a mailing, phone, call, pop by, or a meeting

·      After you’ve received a referral (duh!)

·      When someone does something that you appreciate or after you have received excellent service

·      Before, during, and after a transaction

·      To re-establish contact

·      To simply make someone’s day.

The bottom line is that personal, handwritten notes, even with only a sentence or two, DO make us take notice when we receive them, so making personal notes a lead measure as part of your daily rainmaking activities is sure to help you build and maintain relationships and earn more referrals on a proactive basis.

So fill up that trusty fountain pen!

David M. Hassler

VP, Director of Business Development

The Word for the Day--Every Day!

Recently, I listened to one of Brian Buffini’s coaching tips on Prioritizing Your Day and I realized that that single tip, if we can all remember it, can make every one of our days far more productive, less stressful, and thus more profitable in our business and more enjoyable in our lives! Buffini’s Peak Producers Training Program focuses on building our business by focusing on referrals from our Sphere of Influence, so his suggested prioritizing starts with People. Current clients of course would come first, but if we think about who among our sphere is most important/helpful/responsive, ie, those we might consider our business advocates, and focus our time on them first, we’ll enhance our success. Of course, prioritizing this way can also help us realize on whom we should spent less time!

Buffini goes on to say that once we prioritize the people we want to focus on, we then can prioritize the actions we need to perform to optimize our ongoing service relationships with people, showing our professionalism as well as our appreciation for their business and their referrals. So, what will we do to interact with those important people when we engage with them?

Then, once we have set our priorities of people and actions, Buffini says, we can then more easily prioritize our time. And knowing the impact of proactively working with our key people, we should be more aware of the need to protect and make best use of our time.

Finally, he concludes by noting that prioritizing has two dimensions to it, that of focus and that of boundaries. Keep in mind that focus will be difficult if not impossible if we don’t set boundaries! Buffini reminds us that we should spend our time and energy on the people who deserve it, not just those who only need it! Of course, our business is serving client needs, but we’ve all had those energy sucking clients, friends, or that kindly agent down the hall who loves to chat without asking us if we have a moment, so Buffini suggests a few of the tips we’ve covered in the Playbook before: don’t answer your phone, turn off the dinger on your email device, (oh, no mine just rang!!) close your office door at least part way, and maybe offer that friend/agent a chance to chat later once you finish your tasks. All good ideas, and much easier to implement if we remember the goals of prioritizing and setting boundaries: to enhance our business, reduce stress, and enjoy life and family more and more!

Have you set your priorities for today . . . for next week . . . next year?

David M. Hassler

VP, Director of Business Development

And in this Corner . . .

All too often we find ourselves in negotiation--either with the other broker and their clients, or even sometimes with our own clients--where the posture on the other side feels like we're in the Roman colosseum facing a gladiator prepared to battle to the thumbs down! And maybe sometimes we even find ourselves acting this way and then realize we've backed ourselves into a corner. The bottom line is that the "king of the hill, I win you lose" approach to negotiation may have its place occasionally, but if we overplay it and the other side is a savvy negotiator, we may end up with less rather than more.

Our recent Buffini Peak Producers class covered the seven different types of negotiator and made the point that, if we understand the "type" we're dealing with--whether our own client or the other side--the more likely we are to be successful in our negotiations.  Plus, Buffini points out that the Skill of negotiation is the second most important overall Skill a topnotch broker needs, right after the Skill of communication.

Buffini lists the seven negotiation styles as:

The People Pleaser

King of the Hill

Earnest and Honest

Linear Logical

Emotional Ping Pong

The Expeditor

The Rocking Chair

We won't go into detail on all seven in this week's Playbook, but we can make two points: first, if we are simply aware that there are many different negotiation styles and that we can learn to, first of all, recognize them, and then also to discover how best to respond and deal with each, that should go a long way toward smoothing our transactions and our relationships; and, second, as we master the Skill of negotiation, we can list that as something we bring to the table when pitching that competitive listing or in that initial buyer consultation, to give us a competitive edge. How many other brokers do you know who address their training and skill in negotiation? And what better way to justify your full service fee in terms of a tangible benefit to your client!

Anyway, back to that King of the Hill posture. First of all, it can come across as bullying and who likes to be bullied? Most folks, when faced with bullying, end up holding back and not giving as much as they might if they felt the other side were being fair. So, as a tactic for us to use in negotiation, we need to be very judicious and probably only use if it there's no other way.

More important, the savvy negotiator recognizes that the King of the Hill can often be pacified by letting them feel they're winning--both in attitude and on minor items--while we make sure we get the more important points for our side. Buffini tells the story of how an early mentor of his always included in any buyer offer a request that the seller was to "repaint the front porch," whether it really needed it or not. The tactic is to include something in your offer or counter that you would like but that you would be fine to "give up," letting the King feel they have won. This tactic is referred to as "The Decoy" and it can work wonderfully when you're dealing with that King of the Hill!

Buffini concludes his comments on dealing with the King by suggesting we test the waters in advance as we prepare the offer or the counter by a phone call to ask how best to cover or respond to something relatively minor for your side like maybe the closing date or possession and then gauging the response as it will tell you whether you're dealing with a King or another negotiation style.

We'll take a look at some of the other styles in future Playbooks and how a professionally skilled negotiator serves their clients.

Now get that front porch painted!

David M. Hassler

VP, Director of Business Development

Five Skillful Keys to Success

A recent “B.I.T. o’ Brian” video covered—in three minutes—“The Five Skillful Things You Need to be Successful Today.”

Buffini starts with his key concept: A SUCCESSFUL AGENT PROMOTES CONSTANTLY.

He immediately reminds the audience that when he puts something in a list, number 1 truly means it’s number 1, that is, it’s what he considers the most important item! In other words, if you do his first item faithfully you’ll be fine, no matter what you do with the other: s, yet if you do all the rest of the list well, you’ll achieve phenomenal success. So, promoting as a posture is crucial to success, but it’s not exactly what you might think!

Brian’s second key clarifies the first: we’re not promoting just to do transactions, but we’re promoting in order to BUILD RELATIONSHIPS. When we build relationships, we create a long-term business and become professional business owners.

The third key—and it’s especially crucial in today’s world—is the importance of PROVIDING VALUE. Today’s potential client is savvy and has access to so much raw information, we have to demonstrate our knowledge and expertise—providing value—so we can overcome the tsunami of often worthless and confusing information and earn our clients’ trust.

In order to achieve the previous pair of keys, however, we also have to SELL SKILLFULLY. While we often shy away from the word “sell” and its connotations of the used car lot, when we get right down to it, the world constantly revolves around “selling” at various levels and most of the time that means we’re “selling” ourselves in different contexts. Brian makes the point that skillful selling is done in such a way that it really serves the other person, not ourselves, and to be most genuine, it involves a high level of integrity. Most folks these days can smell an old school snake oil pitch a mile away, so skillful selling is very different.

Finally—and in my mind, absolutely crucial, since if we neglect this foundational key, the rest of the structure crumbles—we need to SERVE FASTIDIOUSLY. We must meet and exceed expectations—yes, it’s a cliché but it’s true—and if we believe in and achieve that impeccable level of genuine service, we will be wildly successful and generate consistent referrals to maintain a peak state in our businesses and enjoy our lives and families more than ever.

Not bad for a three minute video!

David M. Hassler

VP, Director of Business Development