{"id":13067,"date":"2010-08-23T20:45:02","date_gmt":"2010-08-24T03:45:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=13067"},"modified":"2010-08-23T23:02:28","modified_gmt":"2010-08-24T06:02:28","slug":"are-you-closing-on-the-wrong-objectives-the-most-insidious-form-of-sales-call-reluctance-is-proudly-racking-up-empty-accomplishments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/13067\/are-you-closing-on-the-wrong-objectives-the-most-insidious-form-of-sales-call-reluctance-is-proudly-racking-up-empty-accomplishments\/","title":{"rendered":"Are you closing on the wrong objectives? The most insidious form of sales call reluctance is proudly racking up empty “accomplishments.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

I want to talk about being a sales monster, so I want to issue a disclaimer first: We are all about value. I get paid for closing real estate transactions, and I like getting paid, but I never want to get paid for encouraging a client to do the wrong thing. I’m going to be talking about closing in a lot of different contexts, but I am never talking about arm-twisting or even the mildest kinds of suasion. The ancient Roman law of agency is respondeat superior<\/em> — let the master answer — and this is how we conduct our business.<\/p>\n

But still, as a salesman it’s my job to close. That’s important just by itself. It’s one thing to be an ethical salesperson, as above, but it is quite another to fail to close at all. My job — always — is to move the process to the next logical step. If my client wants to make a deal, it’s my job to make it happen, and the way I do that is by closing on the step of the deal-making process that happens next in the sequence.<\/p>\n

That’s Salesmanship 101, except that no one teaches salesmanship these days. And, alas, many of the salesmavens who taught this discipline in the past were creepy, oily, slimy, smarmy moral degenerates. Selling is not a confidence game, and there is nothing at all wrong with helping your client take the steps necessary to achieving his objective.<\/p>\n

Because marketing on the web is so cost-efficient, I can do a lot of my closing with software — passively, automatically, at any hour of the day. But: I still need to close.<\/p>\n

When a new vistor lands on one of our web sites, I’m closing on one idea: More. Stick around and read — there’s lots of content. Or swap over to our free Phoenix MLS search<\/a>. At an absolute minimum, I want you in our internet universe, so I do a lot to attract people, then I do a lot more to hang onto them.<\/p>\n

When we get someone to do something we want them to do, we call Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I want to talk about being a sales monster, so I want to issue a disclaimer first: We are all about value. I get paid for closing real estate transactions, and I like getting paid, but I never want to get paid for encouraging a client to do the wrong thing. I’m going to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[212,29,6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13067","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-flourishing","7":"category-group-therapy","8":"category-marketing","9":"category-real-estate","11":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":120,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/120\/the-seller-paid-my-closing-costs-with-my-money\/","url_meta":{"origin":13067,"position":0},"title":"“The seller paid my closing costs — with my money!”","author":"Greg Swann","date":"July 22, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Not all of the calls I get in response to my Republic columns are irksome. I like the calls I get from real people, rather than Realtors or brokers. Very few of them are viable, in-the-market, potential clients, but that's not why I write the column. On the other hand,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":301,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/301\/who-pays-when-seller-pays-closing-costs-the-buyer\/","url_meta":{"origin":13067,"position":1},"title":"Who pays when “seller pays closing costs”? The buyer . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 8, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"This is me in today's Arizona Republic (permanent link):Who pays when \"seller pays closing costs\"? The buyer... Not all of the phone calls I get in response to these columns are from angry Realtors. I like the calls I get from real people, rather than Realtors or brokers. Even so,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":116,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/116\/who-pays-whom-for-real-estate-follow-the-money\/","url_meta":{"origin":13067,"position":2},"title":"Who pays whom for real estate? Follow the money . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"July 21, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The second in my series of articles devised to tick off real estate brokers appeared in the Arizona Republic today. (Here is a more permanent link to a longer version of the article.) Torquing the brokers is not really my intent, just a secondary consequence. Next week we get to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Enduring Interest"","block_context":{"text":"Enduring Interest","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/enduring-interest\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2198,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2198\/a-consumers-guide-to-the-divorced-real-estate-commission-were-just-sitting-here-at-the-closing-table-watching-the-money-flow\/","url_meta":{"origin":13067,"position":3},"title":"A consumer’s guide to the divorced real estate commission: We’re just sitting here at the closing table, watching the money flow","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Part III: The who-pays-whom of real estate is not as simple as you might have thought... All right, let's go buy a house. I want to talk about the flow of money in a real estate transaction, and there is no better way of understanding that flow than wading right\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4234,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/4234\/august-was-a-great-month-for-real-estate-sales-but-when-40-of-buyers-are-pushed-off-the-playing-field-home-prices-could-plummet\/","url_meta":{"origin":13067,"position":4},"title":"August was a great month for real estate sales, but when 40% of buyers are pushed off the playing field, home prices could plummet","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This is my column for this week from the Arizona Republic (permanent link). \u00a0August was a great month for real estate sales, but when 40% of buyers are pushed off the playing field, home prices could plummet We won't have reliable numbers for a few days,* but preliminary results leave\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Investment"","block_context":{"text":"Investment","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/investment\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":762,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/762\/who-needs-realtors\/","url_meta":{"origin":13067,"position":5},"title":"Who needs Realtors . . . ?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"December 12, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I was talking with a reporter yesterday about the idea of disintermediation in real estate. I brought up the question of what is the ideal closing date, just as a quick and dirty illustration of why buyers and sellers need professional advice, even if they think they don't. This morning's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13067"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13068,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13067\/revisions\/13068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}