Do you think about this, whether in regard to your own family or just the aging population in general?

As I approach the 60′s, I find myself thinking more about these sorts of things. I also notice that so many of my friends cannot afford these sorts of expenses, some suffering in the tumultuous stock market, some suffering from lack of planning.

What will they do? What will you do when time comes to help your parents? If you haven’t started talking about it yet, you’d best get on with it.

Times a-wastin’.

‘As much as you need a strong personality to build a business from scratch, you also must understand the art of delegation. I have to be good at helping people run the individual businesses, and I have to be willing to step back. The company must be set up so it can continue without me.’

Who said this? It’s not really germaine, however, it is from Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin group.

I pass this on because delegation is something that is a massive struggle for nearly everyone that I meet. The trouble is, not being able to delegate means not having freedom. How much fun is that?

Nearly everyone in the real estate business claims to have gotten into it because of the freedom they perceive they can enjoy, and then they do everything in their power to sabotage their freedom.

Do you delegate? How well?

In the ASA course, we talk about the 4 stages of an agent’s career, as illustrated below:

So many agents are stuck in the Unknown or Commodity quadrants by either lack of experience or lack of exposure. An agent stuck in those quadrants typically doesn’t have any walk-away power – they need every deal. A ‘Secret Expert’ has some walk-away power, and a ‘Go-To Expert’ has the most power.

So, to answer your question, sometimes, there is a need to not try and explain value.

If we believe the NAR stat that says you have a 75% chance of getting the business if you are talking to them about their buying or selling, then the question is ‘what are you doing to lose the business?’. Let me expand on that a bit . . .

I believe that many, many agents go on all kinds of unqualified appointments, and very few qualified appointments.

The reasons for this are multiple, usually around the fact that ‘If I have an appointment, at least I’ll look and feel like I’m working in real estate’ sort of thinking. If agents were to properly qualify people, and find out what is important to them, the explaining of value would be less of a conundrum. If people stopped ‘handling/overcoming’ objections and started ‘dismantling’ them, they would find it much easier to explain and demonstrate value.

What does it mean to ‘dismantle’ an objection? Well, if you accept that we live in a cause and effect world, then you can accept that an objection is the effect of a belief (the belief is the cause). So, if you can separate out the cause of the effect, then you can demonstrate your value.

Want to know more about this? Ask me in the comments section and I’ll expand on it.

Thanks, Shirley, for your brain stimulating question!

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RE/MAX Advantage Realty

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