Why Real Estate is NOT a Sales Job!

Janeese Jackson — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 03:33:22 +0000

I am often engaged in conversations about real estate. Mostly I find myself discussing market conditions, the pricing of homes and neighborhood trends as these aspects of my job affect the state and health of the economy as a whole. Portland Oregon real estate buyers and sellers are like every other market in the world in that they love speculating, discussing and comparing. I always love to talk about real estate because I’m fascinated by the business (and all business-related matters). When asked “how do I like sales?”, I have to answer that my job is not “sales”. I would love to sell houses (and would be honored to have actual “sales skills”), but I guess I have a fundamental belief that you can’t “sell” a house to someone. Real Estate is much too large a purchase, too fraught with emotion and even for the investor, too tied to “the bottom line” to simply “sell”. Webster defines “sell” as “to exchange goods and/or services for money”. A Real Estate Broker helps people exchange money for goods by providing service. This service includes meeting that buyer’s sense of urgency, providing consultation, brainstorming, evaluating, offering information and occasionally being the inspiration or “muse” for such an investment. This job is sometimes “situation management” and often during escrow it is temporarily “crisis management” or for the individuals involved, it is “stress management”. The fact that I continually see and evaluate homes in an incredible variety of market conditions (the good, the bad and the ugly) and have done so for 25 years should be of consequence to someone who occasionally buys and/or sells. But, I can’t convince them to buy a house if the right components aren’t there (nor would I want to). I have influence, information, opinion, financial common-sense, a darn reliable “nose for real estate” but my job is a consulting, not sales!

“GUILT” as a Business Model?

Janeese Jackson — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:10:17 +0000

I’ve recently had some business-to-business experiences that make me go “hmmmmmm”???!!! How does “guilt” work as a business model? I’ve had some interesting interactions where I was enlisting services to repair items and where I was utilizing services I use daily. In both instances (and I’m sure I could retrieve many more examples) I either pay monthly for these services or had recently made a large purchase from this business and was asking for a non-purchase-related repair (for which I was willing to pay, of course). In both cases, the people were extremely nice and accommodating but with that with that “oh-so-subtle” guilt that was reminiscent of some “Saturday Night Live” character that I can’t recall, who always said: “no…no, don’t worry about me”! Are you following my drift? Is anything other than gratitude appropriate in our very trying economy? I think it is so important as business owners, service providers (and humans on the planet) to be appreciative of the business and services we receive. Obviously, abusive or insulting customers and clients are not tolerated but requests and job-related activities are what you are hired to provide. Rolling of the eyes is out of line, but an extreme example. Subtle exasperation and reiterations of how busy, redundant, unappreciated, obligated you might feel are counter-productive to a successful business owner/service provider-to-client relationship. I’m writing this as a reminder to me to be delighted and appreciative that someone actually remembers my name and calls for advice, services, confirmations or even to respectively “unload”. Portland Oregon real estate is struggling alongside many other businesses right now and I understand stress levels are high. We are all in this together!!

Portland Real Estate Update by Janeese Jackson » Business Models

Why Real Estate is NOT a Sales Job!

“GUILT” as a Business Model?