Coach’s Corner: When The Bar is Low, Exceeding Expectations is Everything
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By Mark Johnson
CEO, JPAR – Real Estate
For years, The Harris Poll asked people to assess their regard for various professions. Real estate agents were always found at the bottom of the list, below attorneys and car sales associates.
Yet what is interesting when clients have been surveyed post-transaction, the large majority express satisfaction with their agent and a willingness to use them again.
My friends over at 1000-Watt consulting indicate the paradox outlined above isn’t unique to real estate. Americans have very low regard for the United States Congress yet re-elect their incumbent congressperson 98 percent of the time. They do this because their congressperson delivers what is called in social science a “selective benefit.”
I could go over the survey in detail, yet I’ll spare you the extra reading and get to the point. Two respondent comments stood out to me as very instructive to our associates and were repeated in various words by several respondents:
“I just don’t trust the process.”
“I think they try to sell you houses that they want to sell, rather than listening to what you want.”
These objections can be preempted by clear and thorough communication at the beginning and throughout the client relationship. Most people know very little about how the real estate process works – heck, at most, they buy or sell a home once every seven years. And since distrust thrives in information-poor environments, you must level up your communication game. Ask for feedback and ask what would be most helpful. Listen more and talk less.
When 1000-Watt asked people who had bought or sold with an agent what went the furthest to earn their trust, the results were clear:
Open and honest communication wins the day.
Real estate sales commissions. Interestingly, among respondents who had bought or sold in the past (85 percent of all respondents), 10.4 percent still had “no idea” how agents are paid.
This is shocking to me yet also a huge opportunity. A clear, open, thorough discussion of this with clients is an opportunity to provide context and build trust. I learned this the hard way as a very young agent; I did not explain how commissions work – the client bought using another agent in my office – and they said, “well, we used an agent from your office!”
In a separate study conducted by the National Association of Realtors, consumers simply viewed the online marketing of two different agents. One had overhead drone photography; the other did not. Consumers stated they would have more “trust” in the agent with overhead drone photography.
In the absence of trust, all you have is delay, objections, and no future referral stream.
The National Association of Realtors spends tens of millions each year reinforcing what a Realtor is and how it differs from a real estate agent who is not a member. Forty-seven percent of survey respondents believe there is a difference, while 53 percent either believe there is no difference or have “no idea.” This data suggests there is lots of room for individual Realtors to explain the value of their membership. I wrote a blog about this earlier, and it might just be worth reading again.
Open, honest, transparent, and two-way communication is clearly what is needed to exceed expectations in today’s hyper-competitive real estate sales environment.
#WinTheDay
Mark is the Chief Executive Officer of JPAR Real Estate, a rapidly growing full-service transaction-based real estate brokerage, the host of “Success Superstars,” a weekly show that highlights the blueprint of agent success, and the co-founder of CoRecruit. He has invested decades in understanding the inner workings of high-performing real estate companies, managers, teams, and their leaders in major markets across the world. Mark has served as a business coach in progressive leadership capacities for one of the largest US-based real estate firms, in sales and customer marketing leadership capacities for a major consumer goods company, and served in the US Army. Mark is a father of 3, a lifelong learner, Spartan, and adventure athlete. He earned his MBA from California State University and a Behavioral Change Certification from the National Association of Sports Medicine.
