It is the Market. Or is it?

By Michelle Glover, Sales Leader and Coach Copyright 2011

Every day we get a new statistic or opinion of the market.  “Sales are up” and “Recovery may be months away” are headlines you might even see in the same day.  The reality is that every project has its own market; the traffic driven to a community is the market for agents hired to sell those homes.

Myers Barnes inspired me a few years ago with the quote “The market is the person sitting across from you.”  It forced me to take a closer look at agents and ask myself why some consistently make their goals while others lament the decline of the real estate industry.  I have continued to watch this trend in various price points and product. There are agents who constantly outperform the competition without excessive incentives or price cuts. Why?  They aren’t counting on our former volume of traffic.  They focus on the person who is still walking through the door and treat that lead like gold.

A presentable, well-spoken, personable agent used to be enough to represent the company and follow the escrow to close.  Those days are gone.  If you want to improve your results, you need real Salespeople.  They may be the same agents you have IF they are ready to embrace the new reality.  Today’s superstars are curious, driven, and competitive.  They approach every opportunity with an excitement about the possibilities and dig deep with the visitor to find the personal reasons for the move.  Competition isn’t a dirty word to them – it is a way to keep the game lively.  Objections aren’t road blocks; it is an opportunity to build trust with empathy and solutions.  These SALES agents are out there and we need to see them as the blueprint for our hiring and training.   So how do you spot them?  Stay tuned – we will be exploring these subjects in the weeks to come.

The market is not what it was four or five years ago.  Time to reset our expectations – and I don’t mean about sales results – we’ve already done far too much of that. It is time for us to re-evaluate expectations of what it takes to make a sale. This is an unexpected bonus for our profession; it gives us an opportunity to grow and take our skills to a whole new level.  But we need to believe it is possible and raise the bar for ourselves and those around us.   HBA is committed to raising that bar; we help improve results for agents and teams.  Click here to see how we can help you.