Toby Boyce

By Toby Boyce

The question on my local NPR station was simple enough: “Why do symphonies sound different when they are made up of the same parts?”  The response was very eloquent and educated — I assume. It made as much sense as Pig Latin to me. “Well each one focuses on different things…”

I’m sure that musicians in the audience totally understood what the conductor was describing. But the “common person” was lost and tuned him out.

Are you doing that to your real estate clients?

How about that letter soup? Or the intricacies of how your company differs from the next?

Make sure you’re explaining things without their eyes’ glassing over. All they want to know is that you are a great agent who will handle their transaction like it is the only one you have.

However, you have to continually read your clients and provide them the information they need to make a decision without overwhelming them. How do we do it? Well, it can be quite natural — just shut up. Yes, I just told a group of REALTORS® to shut up, and know that is almost impossible for any of us to do so. But we need to just stay quiet and let the clients talk.

Before you start rattling off the details on an FHA 203K loan, how about finding out if they need to know about the 203K loan. Kind of embarrassing when you explain it for about five minutes and she says, “I know, I created them for years as a loan officer.” Did I build any rapport with them during that five minute session? Probably not, as they already knew and were debating whether to use satin or silk in the living room.

The point is, if you listen to your customers and provide knowledge where the gap is present, then you have done exactly what they’ve hired you to do: You are adding value to the transaction. And the next time they hear a real estate agent going on about “blah, blah, blah,” they’ll just tune him/her right out because they’ll know — you’ll provide the answer they need.

Toby Boyce, MBA, is a real estate practitioner with Keller Williams Consultants Realty in Westerville, Ohio. Visit his Web site: www.delawareohrealestate.com.