The recession is over | What are you going to do about it?
In my youth I sold 3m Copy Machines, the Secretary 2 weighed over 200 ponds, had to be wheeled in on a dead body gurney; and it would start on fire if you got a paper jam during the presentation.
The reason I share this is to draw parallels: it was not long before there were Savin, Rico, Royal and a host of other competitors breaking down every door challenging 3M (who invented the copy machine) in their marketplace. Just as this market has changed, so has Real Estate.
Stuff changes:
- If there is fat on a hog (market), somebody will show up to do the butchering
- Price competition always increases
- Ebb and flow in this market, the construction business, any market: are constants
- The playing field has been leveled – home court advantage removed
- Increased competition confuses the market – consumers are confused
- Many Baby Boomers have failed to adopt to new technology, making their clients fair game
- A major changing of the guard is underway
Some stuff never changes:
- The young are quicker, smarter, healthier and more educated with technology
- Doing the same thing yields the same results: perpetual decline
- Innovators win
- Followers work for innovators
- There is a dollar somewhere in the world to chase every dime over here!
Please bear with my parallels: there are many:
- The top salespeople do not share their secrets until they no longer work
- Beware the self proclaimed consultant/trainer!
- Call reports have been falsified for so long that good office politics involve who can falsify the report to satisfy the boss and get away with it
- You cannot do everything all the experts tell you to do and succeed
- News flash: nobody makes 24 cold calls per day and does it well
- The market is huge, constantly growing, constantly changing
- I never made more that a few cold calls per day, although QUOTA was 24!
- The system was messed up to where it was impossible to be honest and still win – terrible
- I never did what everybody else was doing
- You are sitting on a gold-mine that nobody is working!
- I was number 1 out of 150 reps in nine states selling Savin copiers two months after I ‘jumped ship’
The rest of the story: very relevant
- In those days they gave us keys to the office
- Being an ex-logger (healing from broken ribs and a broken back) I woke up at 4:00 am every morning
- With the rest of the world sleeping, I had nothing to do
- The office was full of old files, some them dead for years, of past customers records
- The ‘old clients’ were what I like to call ‘warm calls’
- By 8:00 in the morning when the others started showing up, I already had a hit list of past clients to call
- By 9:00 AM I was on the phone
- By 12:00 noon I had appointments
- They wanted us to sell four machines per month to keep the job
- I sold 20-30 copy machines per month
- I did not have time to chat, share war stories, or otherwise lolly gag – I was busy
Ok now I am hitting closer to home, hmmm? Now some you can use:
- You cannot compete by doing what everybody else is doing – especially true online!
- Most raining is outdated, regurgitated crap with the best stuff left out – again especially true online and in your industry
- Technology is outdated before it hits the market – think if this in terms of technology training!
- Everything you learn from self-proclaimed coaches is outdated by definition, because everyone is doing it
- Doing things the same old way is like betting on the stock market by following the crowd: you will always loose by definition
- If you are a follower you need to realize that and join a team with a leader: you cannot lead from behind
Now the challenge:
- What are you doing different that will make you excel?
- What is the top producer in your office doing that they are not telling you or anyone else about?
- When are you going to wake up?
- Who are you going to call today?
- How is your phone call going to be different so that they do not hang up?
- Why should I choose you over all the alternatives? If you do not know the answer, who does
- What are you doing to maximize your exit traffic: how big is your list?
A major changing of the guard is underway: but you have an advantage: they do not make American real estate in Japan!
Need and excuse to call? Call me, I will give you many in a free consultation you will not forget! (yea, shameless plug)
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I agree with your assessments.
[...] it or not, it is a documented fact that I reserved socialmediasystems.com and .org for $8.95 each in the spring of 2007, and everyone asked [...]
[...] it or not, it is a documented fact that I reserved socialmediasystems.com and .org for $8.95 each in the spring of 2007, and everyone asked [...]
Nice read. I never think about it but now that you wrote something about it…you got me thinking.