Scott’s Thoughts

Thank You

Scott’s Thoughts: The Best Gift?
Easy: Gratitude.

“The only people with whom you should try to get even are those who have helped you.”
–John E. Southard

Gratitude might be the best gift ever.

Have you ever asked yourself what really makes you happy? If so, your answer is mostly likely not “material things,” is it? I know it’s not for me. For me, it’s the small things in life… like today’s milestone.

This issue of Tuesday Tactics is our 52nd edition, marking one full year of publishing free help for real estate professionals.

While I’m wildly proud to see how far things have come over the past year, along the way I wondered if what we’re doing really helped. Based on the feedback I’ve been given, I can honestly say the gratitude shown by many of you is the real fuel that keeps driving this newsletter forward.

I can’t thank enough the thousands of people who have taken the time to show their appreciation. You’ll never see first hand how much it means to me personally and to our entire team, but trust me when I say that it means the world.

I guess over the past year, our experiment has proven that the philosophy holds true: When you DO GOOD, you GET GOOD. For us, and I feel for everyone in real estate, the most powerful way to form relationships with others is to turn the table and instead of focusing on yourself, focus on helping others. Though the byproduct might be a commission, the real return comes in the form of sincere gratitude.

So, as we celebrate our 1-year anniversary of the Tuesday Tactics newsletter, I challenge you with a simple question: What are you going to “DO GOOD” today that will lead to “GETTING GOOD” tomorrow? (I apologize to all of our grammar sticklers out there!)

Again, thank you for your loyal support of both Oakley Signs & Graphics and Tuesday Tactics!

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Scott’s Thoughts

Resentment is a Silent Killer

Scott’s Thoughts: Managing Resentment
Work to manage this silent killer.

“Resentment is one burden that is incompatible with your success. Always be the first to forgive; and forgive yourself first always.”
–Dan Zadra

Resentment is a deal killer. Whether between managing brokers and agents, agents and other agents, or between spouses, resentment is one of the most corrosive elements in a relationship. Sometimes called the “silent killer,” resentment is largely the result of unaired grievances or poor communication. What may be in actuality a very small (and often misperceived offense) can be the seed from which a series of bad decisions arise– passive aggressive behavior, professional sabotage, and higher stress levels across the board.

Resentment can also become toxic between buyers and sellers. You’ve probably been in negotiations where one side begins to really dislike the other. This attitude is ultimately counterproductive to closing the sale. Rather than focusing on the terms and compromises at hand, the two parties become entrenched in personal warfare. Successful negotiation means keeping resentment out of the picture.

One thing you can do to mitigate resentment is to make sure you never make a comment, however small, that disparages the buyer to the seller or vice-versa. Even if you think the comment may be sympathetic to and supportive of the listener’s frustration, what you’re actually doing is encouraging resentment. What’s worse, if the resentment ever boils over to full-scale confrontation, you might find yourself in the uncomfortable position of defending or explaining comments you may have made carelessly during the course of the deal.

Keep an eye out for growing resentment on either side of the fence. Anything you can do to diffuse or manage resentment before it manifests itself will go a long way to securing your future success.

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Scott’s Thoughts

Incrementalism

Scott’s Thoughts: Winning By Inches
Incrementalism means winning by inches, not sprinting through marathons.

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Scott’s Thoughts

Following Through

Scott’s Thoughts: Fewer Ideas, More Follow-Through
Good ideas aren’t “great” until you act.

“Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent.”
–Samuel Johnson

Way back when I founded my first internet company in 1996, I hired a bright kid right out of college to help build the business. He was creative, eager to learn, and had been working on computers almost his entire life. In the interview, he seemed to have a ton of enthusiasm, and offered many promising ideas.

As he worked with me, I realized he did have a lot of great ideas. Too many, in fact. Too many ideas? Sounds impossible, right? Most employers would kill for bright, forward-thinking people in their organization who had a lot of ideas to offer.

So what was the problem?

The problem was this: He was great at coming up with ideas “on the back of the napkin,” but when it came to making those ideas happen, he lost focus. It wasn’t long until a new, shiny idea came along that took up all of his attention. He was always running on to the next big idea, while the last big idea sat there, barely started.

Ideation, the process of brainstorming and coming up with ideas, can be a lot of fun. The real challenge is following through with the idea, through the muck of implementation, setbacks, changes in direction, and (occasionally) failure.

One idea well done is better than twenty ideas well said.

The next time you see yourself drifting away from any formerly “great” idea, ask yourself if you’re drifting for good reason, or if you’re simply feeling the resistance of trying to take an idea to completion.

Don’t give up! Press forward and carry that idea– whether it’s marketing, self-education, or simply sticking to the nuts and bolts of a client relationship strategy.

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Scott’s Thoughts

Common Sense

Scott’s Thoughts: The Genius of Common Sense
Genius isn’t complicated… sometimes it’s doing simple things well.

“Common sense is instinct. Enough of it is genius.”
–George Bernard Shaw

What makes a garden grow? Daily attention. Observation. Watering and weeding and minding the weather. Slow and steady, with an eye on the pests, you bring a garden from a seed in the ground to a bush full of ripe tomatoes. Sure, you can make it as complicated an endeavor as you like, investing in expensive technology and expert advice and experimental nutrients, but if you’re not consistently hitting the basics, tomorrow’s salad bowl doesn’t have a chance.

What makes a marathon possible? Putting on the shoes and running. Incremental mileage increases. Attention to injury, rest, and nutrition. You can buy that Garmin 405 and invest in cutting edge shoes and hiring a running coach, but unless you’re dedicated to the common sense tenets of training, you’ll never cross the 26.2 miles to the finish line.

So why do we often seem to think exceptional client service is any different? If you truly want to work by referral, it’s not a rocket science marketing program you need… you simply need the basic tools and presence of mind to consistently reward your clients and remind them (both past and present) how much you care. A note, an interesting article shared, a small gift out of the blue… they all serve to make you a remarkable real estate professional in a sea of “next shiny marketing trick” amateurs.

All of the tools and tips we feature should be applied in service of the common sense basics of uncommon client care. Add up enough common sense and it starts to seem like genius.

When the world seems to be moving too fast to keep track, keep in mind that the underlying principles of great building exceptional relationships has never changed. You have the power to grow your garden and go the distance.

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Scott’s Thoughts

Handling Insults

Scott’s Thoughts: How Do You Handle Insults?
What do you do to deflect your detractors?

“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.”
–Oscar Wilde

As you probably imagine, I receive a lot of email after Tuesday Tactics goes out. I spend a good part of Wednesday and Thursday responding personally to feedback. Most of it is positive, constructive, interesting feedback that helps us improve. I love it.

Last week, though, I received the following message:

“Oh please… Have you not any original thought…any critical thinking…this kind of meaningless ‘positive thinking’ is total fiction, false thought and just pure bunk.”

Wow. Just… wow. I took a moment to reflect: Was Tuesday Tactics off the mark? Were our free ebooks and tips all fluff? Sure, we do it for free, but we don’t use that as an excuse to skimp on the quality. Had we strayed from our mission to help the real estate community with truly useful information?

It was the first time we’d heard a nasty word about our work, and for a moment I wondered if there weren’t more people out there who felt the same way. Was this all a waste of time?

Fortunately, I didn’t allow those feelings to last long. We hear from people every week about how helpful they’ve found the newsletter. We have no intention of calling it quits, that’s for sure.

But it made me wonder: How do you handle insults? What’s the best method for reacting? Should you react? In this case, I wrote back a polite note asking for constructive feedback. What were we missing? How could we improve? (Of course, I didn’t hear anything back.)

In the spirit of this experience, I thought I’d share this useful article by Tammy Lenski, from her blog “Conflict Zen.” It’s titled “Zen and the Art of Dealing With Insults.” It’s brief, entertaining, and shows you three great perspectives on handling insults:

http://conflictzen.com/zen-and-the-art-of-dealing-with-insults/

Enjoy… and thank you all for the positive feedback. Know that your words make a big difference to me and my team.

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Scott’s Thoughts

Help clients put their worries away

Scott’s Thoughts: Find and Fix the Fear
Help clients put their worries away, and you’ll earn clients for life.

“Fear is the lengthened shadow of ignorance.”
–Arnold Glasow

Motivating people to act is more about alleviating their fear than it is about provoking desire.

People are filled with desire. Who doesn’t have a dream or two? Rare is the person who looks at their life and has no aspirations, no “one day” goal, no moment on a lazy Saturday afternoon when they fantasize about the future they see for themselves, their family.

Fear keeps the lid on real dreams. Many people go after only their small dreams because the when it comes to the really big ones, they’re terrified. They don’t know where to begin. There’s nothing they can do to put the fear aside, no one who can help them find the trailhead through the dark woods.

As much as you are the person who helps people visualize their dreams of home ownership, you should also understand your role as an educator who works on helping people manage their fear. The sale or purchase of a home is a mystery for most people. As an experienced pro, you may take for granted the ups and downs of a transaction. Your familiarity blinds you to the fear that your clients experience.

A great question to ask in a listing presentation is precisely one about fear. Possible questions include:

“What are your fears about listing your home?”

“What are your reservations about putting your home on the market right now?”

“In selling your home, what are you afraid might go wrong along the way?”

Put your finger on their fear, and then (if you’re able!) explain exactly how you will help them overcome those fears. They fear what they don’t know, and if you can educate them, you’ll alleviate their fear.

And if you can put their fears to rest, you’ll cement the bonds with your clients much faster.

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Scott’s Thoughts

Maximize Your List

Scott’s Thoughts: Your List’s Value
Do you build rapport?

“He who wishes to secure the good of others, has already secured his own.”
–Confucius (551-479); philosopher

When you read a name in your contact database, can you remember anything about the person? Where you met them? What they do? Their interests?

When was the last time you contacted them out of the blue? And no, I don’t mean with a “just listed” or “just sold” postcard.

When was the last time you had an real conversation with them, or offered them something that you knew would brighten their day? (You may remember we touch on great methods to keep on top of this in our ebook
The Prosperity Habit.  Click the link to download it for free.)

I’ve mentioned this in the past on my posts on “loud vs. useful” and “the power of listening“, but it’s a concept worth revisiting when considering your contact list.

Here’s why: The age of “allow me to introduce myself” is over. You are (and have been for some time now) conducting business in the age of “how can I be indispensable to you?”

Accordingly, it is not the size of your contact list that matters, it’s the depth of the relationship with the people on your list. Better to have 30 people who love to hear from you than 2,000 who toss your postcard out with the junk mail.

Build rapport, and you build value.

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Scott’s Thoughts

Prioritizing Your Day

Scott’s Thoughts: Do What You Can When You Can
Prioritize your day according to your focus & energy…

“Time is the most precious element of human existence. The successful person knows how to put energy into time and how to draw success from time.”
–Denis Waitley, productivity consultant

Mastering the art of productivity requires self-knowledge. There are no hard-and-fast rules for becoming more productive– there are only helpful hints which will direct you to discover what strategies work for you.

One tip, however, seems to work for everyone I’ve encountered: Plan your tasks around your capacity to complete them.

Throughout your day, your mental focus and physical energy will vary. As you organize your to-do list for the next day (or coming week), you’ll find you’ll get more done if you match tasks which require complex thought or extraordinary attention to the times of day in which you are sharpest or best able to focus.

Take, for example these three tasks:

1. Cleaning out the SPAM folder on your email.
2. Hand writing “thank you” notes to clients who’ve sent you referrals
3. Drafting a new blog post for your website

Now consider these three times of day:

A. 10AM, after your second cup of coffee
B. 3PM, between client meetings
C. 8PM, watching baseball on TV

If you were to match the above tasks to the above times, which do you think would make the most sense? Your personal situation may vary, but for many, the optimal task-to-time planning would be:

1 = B (cleaning out the spam between client meetings)
(Afternoons tend to be low-energy and since you’re between clients, it’s easy to break-off from the task at any time.)

2 = C (thank you notes during the ballgame)
(Writing personal notes by hand is an ideal task to perform while you’re relaxed and in “leisure time.”)

3 = A (drafting a new blog post after morning coffee)
(With a good night’s rest and a little caffeine, you’re likely to write your sharpest posts!)

Too often we allow ourselves to “slip into” tasks when our focus and energy should be spent on better tasks. Be mindful of not only of what you want to accomplish, but when the best time is to perform it. You’ll reclaim more time and acheive better results.

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Scott’s Thoughts

Sell the Story

Scott’s Thoughts: Have You Sold the Story?
Help people see the home inside the house.

“A good home must be made, not bought.” –Joyce Maynard

The word “house” covers the physical realities of a property.  Three bedrooms, two baths, a new roof.  A loft with a deck.  A fourth-story beach condo with carpet that could really use replacing.

The word “home” goes beyond the mere walls, and occupies a powerful mental space for people.  ”Home” is what a house becomes when the owners have shared experiences in it.  ”Home” is where memories are created, where good fortune is celebrated and bad news is endured.

If you’re only pitching the “house” and neglecting the “home,” you’re probably missing out on a few deals every year. Some buyers need help seeing what can be beyond what currently is.  Ask yourself: Are these buyers disappointed by the property, or uninspired by the lack of story?

You cannot ignore a buyer’s practical reality, but you can assist them with the vision. Rather than tell them what they should see in a property, tell them a story about “a client you had once” that was looking at a similar property or in a similar neighborhood.  Talk a bit about their transition from house to home… how the right-sized house, or the proximity to the beach, or the fantastic schools all contributed to making them “at home” in their new residence.

It’s a bit like time travel.  Give them a virtual tour of their future.

Do you need to turn it into a sentimental Hallmark card?  No!  But helping potential buyers visualize a future in a happy home can certainly help the sale.

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