Pring's Blog

Oct 2015 Your VERY FIRST time

I was chatting to someone who works in a parallel industry the other day and he was bemoaning his boss’s attitude with customers. He said that his boss is not at all flexible in business. The kind way would be to say that he is “set in his ways”.

“Actually” the chap said “he just comes across as grumpy and unhelpful and his stock answer is that he’s done the job for 32 years and knows what’s best”.

The thing is, experience is wonderful and beneficial to everyone – your clients most of all – but you still have to prove your worth to every new client, every single time…and take nothing for granted.

I once attended a course with a wonderful speaker. He asked us to remember the first time, the VERY FIRST time, that someone instructed us to sell their house. He said, “I bet you were SO EXCITED and felt REALLY PROUD that you had been trusted, above others, to sell their house. I’m sure you rushed back to the office to tell your colleagues and I bet you were so enthusiastic. I bet you can still remember that client’s name and address and every detail about that sale. I’m sure that nothing was too much trouble and you did everything you could to find the right buyer for them. You can remember the viewings, the buyer, maybe even some of the telephone calls but you can definitely remember the way you felt when you had the call to say that contracts had been exchanged. I bet you had a huge grin on your face when you took THAT call. Then there was moving in day and popping by a week later to say hi and make sure that they had settled in well. Maybe the sellers gave you a bottle of wine as a thank you…and you remember enjoying that.”

And I could remember it…every single detail of it. What’s more, 33 years on, I still can!

“Well” said the speaker “no one can bottle that… but you have experienced it! And if you approach every single appointment remembering that feeling and try to replicate it EVERY SINGLE TIME, you’ll be amazed at how quickly time flies, at how much detail you can recall about all the sellers and buyers you meet along the way and how satisfying your career will be.”

I was 18 when I was first instructed to sell a house (actually it was a ground floor flat in Redland Road, Bristol for a chap named James McKenzie!) and it was over 30 years ago when I heard that speaker give us his words of wisdom. And do you know, he was right –
I am amazed at the time that’s passed, I do recall so many details of the 4,000+ properties I’ve sold and I do love doing what I do! Furthermore, I remember that speaker’s name too!

Meanwhile, back to the chap’s grumpy boss… I bet his 32 year career has seemed long - for all the wrong reasons!