Categories for 2 Cents Worth
March 2, 2018 
__________________________ Like many professions, the Real Estate sales industry is one in which it is common for prospective clients to interview multiple salespeople before selecting one with whom to work. Google How to select a Realtor, and you will probably be exhorted to interview a minimum of 3 prospective salespeople before making your decision. Salespeople know this, and the more successful of them, thrive through this process because they have honed their skills to such a degree that they know... View Article
February 1, 2018 
________________________________ This spring marks my 30th year in organized real estate (oddly, aside from crime, the only profession that feels the need to let people know we are organized). As mine was a family business, it was not uncommon for former clients of my father to wander into the office when the circumstances of their lives required the services of a Realtor. In an age in which database management amounted to dropping by unannounced every few years, one would think... View Article
January 4, 2018 
___________________________ Like many businesses, ours relies on the part-time labour from University students, mostly covering evening reception duties. It is a position that requires answering the telephone in a friendly manner, and efficiently relaying the messages to our salespeople. It can be mundane work at times, but vital as well. A missed call can be costly for both our salespeople, and more importantly – their clients. Matt is one such student, and Matt made an error. While paging out... View Article
December 6, 2017 
_________________________________________________________ The psychology of sales is the subject of volumes of books, endless seminars, curiously absent from our educational system, and not necessarily something I profess to be an expert in. Few do it exceptionally well, but most of us would probably recognize how not to sell something. An acquaintance of mine recently relayed a fine example. The pertinent background information on my friend the buyer is that he and his wife are, in the parlance of salespeople, qualified purchasers.... View Article
November 2, 2017 
______________________ Three friends and I were sitting on a street cafe patio on a sunny September afternoon when we were approached by a man with a cane panhandling. Not much older than myself, he operated slowly and deliberately, as if impeded by some physical disability. After he had petitioned each of us he moved away and began down the street, the few short steps to the next street side cafe. Watch, watch one of my companions said. The rest of... View Article
October 3, 2017 
___________________________________________ My wife and I saw both our kids off to University last month, our first taste of the ‘empty nest’. Naturally our thoughts turn to our children’s next stages of life. We hope that we have prepared them well, but as anyone who has either had or been a parent knows – parenting is never over. Rather we trade the worries we had when they were young for the worries of life’s next stage. During each stage we delude... View Article
September 6, 2017 
________________________________________________ Under the category of ‘even a broken clock is right twice a day‘, Donald Trump struck upon a truism in what otherwise might have been mistaken for an election night victory speech – albeit 7 months late – when he addressed the Boy Scout convention in Virginia on July 24th. It is too easy in the President’s case to throw the baby out with the bathwater, and I almost did as I joined the international cringe at the majority... View Article
August 1, 2017 
______________ Salespeople, with virtually endless variations in between, come in three basic categories. Bad ones tell you what they think you want to hear. Good ones tell you the truth. Great ones tell you the truth – even when its bad – and leave you excited to have received the news. This generalization probably translates into the rest of our lives as well. Unfortunately, I have to admit my position on the scale falls well short of great. Years... View Article
July 4, 2017 
_____________________ Success is a nebulous term. By societal measure success is often equated with financial achievement. If making money is your primary objective, setting out to achieve that result can be an exercise in futility. Conversely, examples abound of passionate people, even in the most obscure arenas, reaching the pinnacle of both their profession and their bank account. Passion and process it would seem, is the egg that comes before the chicken. This is not to suggest financial achievement ought... View Article
May 2, 2017 
In an age when so much is made of marketing, and speaking from personal experience, much pressure is placed upon companies to spend marketing dollars. Perhaps it would serve us and our businesses well to pause and consider exactly what we are hoping to achieve when we market ourselves or our company. Are we wanting to create an image for the consumer? Or would we be content to accurately reflect what we really are? All businesses have a brand.... View Article