I Lost Out On A Great Listing...And Here's How

Last week I lost out on a great listing with a top executive at one of the world's largest companies. It happens, right? Well, yes...but I walked out of this knowing I had the best marketing strategies, the highest level of professionalism, the most competent knowledge of the market, his house and our industry. I have combined a top level of understanding of the technical side of real estate matched with the intimate side of the sale of a home. So How did this happen?

This same week I lost out on this listing I went to a class offered by Compass that goes over different personality types. They teach you what your personality type is, and how to discover what someone else is. In learning this, you find that some personality types simply can not hear what the other type is saying. It's not because the information is wrong, bad or incomplete. Rather, it's not delivered in the best way to communicate effectively so that the other person can hear what is being said. Months ago, I met Chris Voss who was the Top FBI hostage negotiator for many years (and you thought selling real estate is all about where to point your open house signs and cute bus bench photos) He spoke with me and touched on something I hadn't thought of before. He said "Amber, you seem very competent and direct in your communication. I'm the same way. But is the person you're speaking to able to hear you or do you need to communicate with them in another way?" That was the first light tapping that got me thinking. Then I took this course last week that hit the nail on the head. Some people simply have a way that they take information in and process it. And while all the great information I have may be good for some, others may not hear it the way they need it to be delivered. And I had just left a listing appointment with the CFO of a world-wide company thinking what a great job I had done. I mean, I really went into that meeting giving him all the information I had, with my background in real estate and every top notch marketing piece mixed with technological advances my company and I had in our pockets. Yet, I got the call two days later that they went with another agent. What?! I didn't see that coming. At least before I had taken this class through my company about how to deliver information to different types of personalities. And believe it or not, after I had completed this class and before I got this seller's phone call, my mind had changed on what a great job I had done during our meeting. See, I still believe I left him with everything any top executive looking to sell their home would want from a Realtor. What I didn't leave him with, was the best way he could have heard what I was trying to deliver.

So, lesson learned. And I'm always excited about good lessons. I don't believe I can do my job at a top level without being able to step back and see where I could make improvements and putting that to work.