Dont Let Good Become the Enemy of Great!

Postcards by Vistaprint

Lisa Ekanger

Who Do You Trust?

Whose opinion do you trust? Whose advice do you seek? Whose numbers are the most accurate? When the question is, “How much can I get for my home?” – the answer for most homeowners in North America is still – consult a local real estate broker. Almost all home searches by prospective buyers that once began with a local real estate broker, now begin on the internet. But people who are thinking of selling look to local real estate for an opinion of value. Yes, it’s true that many people visit one of the websites that promise a price opinion (and usually deliver more spam than accurate data) – some use the old ‘ask your neighbor’ approach – and some brave souls still, believe it or not, test the market waters themselves by trying to sell by owner. But the most common method of finding out current market value is to invite three or more brokers over to the house, one at a time, to take a look and give an opinion. While the vast majority of buyers usually work with the first agent they meet, sellers are interviewing multiple listing agents before choosing. With the current inventory shortages, the competition is fierce, but it can be won more often than not if you remember three sure-fire tie-breakers. Each of these tie-breakers can put you ahead of the game, but all three in combination are unbeatable. The first tie-breaker is relationship. How many people think of you as “my Realtor,” and regularly refer you to their friends and family? As in, “Oh, you’re thinking of selling? You should talk to my Realtor!” The secret is not in how many people you know, but in how many people the people you know are willing to refer to you. That is a trust that is earned by taking really, really good care of the people you know. By always doing what you say you will do, sometimes more, just never less, to paraphrase Floyd Wickman’s Core Values. People will refer you as a favor, not to you, but to their friends and family, when you deliver what you promise. When you keep in touch. When you ask. When you prove yourself trustworthy. All things being equal, if I am competing with two or three other brokers for a listing, but I have been referred in by a friend or family member, that’s a real and distinct advantage. The second tie-breaker is bells and whistles. (I was going to just say technology, but that’s so trite, and bells and whistles sounds cooler.) Bells and whistles mean things like innovative marketing approaches. Take a good, hard look at your marketing presentation and ask yourself, “What differentiates me from my competition?” Sellers expect all the traditional marketing tools to be part of the picture, but I think they are also looking for a “wow” factor. Like a virtual tour put together on hdhat.com. Like a lead capture system. Like a web syndication. Like a network of strategic relationships. All things being equal, if I have been referred in AND my marketing plan is customized and cutting edge, that’s a double whammy to your competition. The third tie-breaker is skill. Selling skill. Realtionships have to be earned over time. Technology has to be invested in. But skill has to be developed and mastered with practice. Out of every 10 really successful people, one gets by on dynamic personality, or natural charisma, or luck, or dogged persistence alone. But 90% of the really great salespeople have added history-proven selling skills to their repertoire. Relationships and technology won’t convert leads to appointments, or put you in positive control, or show you the art of questioning to discover needs, or deliver a professional presentation, or price it right, or handle hesitations and stalls, or get signatures. Only skill can do those things for you. All things being equal, even if I am brand new and my competitors are credentialed veterans, when I am referred in AND I have a wow factor AND I am skillful at presenting, then I really have no competition. By the way, if you’re looking for a training program that will give you all of the how-to’s, and develop all three tie-breakers simultaneously, look no further than The Floyd Wickman Program. Happy listing! Lisa:D

My New Favorite Game ~ Cards Against Humanity...get ready to laugh until you cry...and laugh at how disgusted U R!

Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Cards Against Humanity (Toy) This is not a review about playing Cards Against Humanity, it's a review of the fallout endured from playing Cards Against Humanity. Take it as a warning, if you will. If you aren't a horrible person already, you will soon be. You will play Cards Against Humanity, and as others have said, you will be shocked, appalled, and worst of all, you will learn and adapt. You'll reach for your smartphone and search for terms you've drawn such as "The Übermensch", "Heteronormativity", and "The Three-Fifths Compromise". You will commit these and many other newly-learned words to memory. And that's where it all comes crashing down. At first, you might allow "front butt" to casually wander its way into a conversation here and there. As more of your subconscious fights to unleash the trauma, you'll find yourself uttering "nipple blades" and "mouth herpes" in the most unacceptable of times. You'll visit the Cards Against Humanity website and bomb them with suggestions for new cards like "Cutting the cheese at a funeral" and "Scissoring". Soon, you will meet up with new people to inflict Cards Against Humanity upon them and they'll be hooked. You will receive random voicemails and texts, asking for another hit of that "8 oz. of sweet, Mexican black tar heroin", and you will comply, because you're just as hooked as they are. They'll bring new friends in to freshen up the game...you will feel a rush as the look of shame crosses their innocent eyes as they win a round by playing "Amputees" against your "White People Like _____". "I was just throwing that card away!" they'll proclaim, but you know the sad truth. You will buy the expansion pack. You will host parties where you play through every card in both boxes. You'll wonder where the time went. Your face will hurt from laughing so much. Your friends will buy their own sets, and the infection will be passed on. A team of rescue workers will find you you weeks later in your closet, frazzled, emaciated, and stinking from "Soiling Yourself", because you just couldn't stop with playing Cards Against Humanity against yourself. The light of day will strike your eyes and you'll gaze up at your saviors with pensive anticipation... "Wanna play?" Lisa Ekanger