The Hacking of Estate Agent Mindset.

The hacking of estate agent mindset. Its here.

From the USA, of course.

In the form of another Keller Williams 'opportunity'.

"Teaching business ownership" - not just estate agency.

A collection of systems and models offering "true wealth."

The veritable shiny object syndrome - alive and well in the UK estate agency sector.

"What I learned, slowly, was that it was less about education, and more about indoctrination." -Doug Harris.

An article in Medium, from Doug Harris, an ex. KW realtor who, incidentally, has two degrees from the University of Georgia.

"What I learned, slowly, was that it was less about education, and more about indoctrination. The techniques were so miserable and degrading that most people would recoil at the thought of lowering themselves to such actions......Ignite was less of a class and more of a support group and motivational seminar.  Unfortunately, the motivation was to cold-call, door-knock, and the biggest one of all, harass your friends and family."

The Keller Williams model is based on the premise that "if there's evidence that 1,000 people have got this by doing those things, it's really smart to copy these 1,000 people."

Straight out of the Tony Robbins playbook.

It's not smart - it's stupid. 

There's numerous ways of achieving the same result. Find what's best for you being most obvious.

If the hustle isn't for you, no amount of indoctrination is going to fix you - because you're not broken.

You have a different belief system and set of values. You just need to figure out how to use them to produce better results.

If everyone copied what everyone else did, there would be no innovators, no artists, no differences.

Estate agency would become a bland, vanilla landscape, littered with realtors calling up the appropriate script for each situation they encounter.

"Our brains filter out consistency in favour of focusing on differences."  - Chip & Dan Heath, Authors of Made to Stick.

"Let's look under the bonnet", said Christopher Watkins, when interviewing Keller Williams UK Managing Director, Ben Taylor.

There wasn't much on show as it turned out.

"We put them through a truly brilliant training course" (Ignite), he said, without revealing much of the content.

So here's a brief insight into what you might expect.

The 1 month Ignite course consists of eighteen 2-3 hour sessions, plus two additional sessions for specific needs.

You're encouraged to uncover your BIG WHY (Simon Sinek, for the few who haven't heard the term) and shown how to achieve it.

You are expected to commit to daily lead generation exercises to grow your business and fill your pipeline with prospects.

To use influencing sales language to win clients.

Learn powerful scripts which allow you to know what to say in every situation.

And to be accountable to your BIG WHY.

The core message seems to be that agents need to cultivate their database. Adding ten new contacts every day.

To prospect more by speaking with ten people in the database every day.

To follow up by writing notes to people you know every day and to preview ten homes for sale every day, visiting ten in person every week.

Four activities that 10X your habits , as per Grant Cardone.

There's a comprehensive p.d.f available online for those who haven't been discouraged by this insight, but the standout for me was a quote from head honcho, Gary Keller.

"What is the ONE thing I can do, such that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary?"

The answer, it seems, "will always be a dollar-productive activity."

I have a different point of view, as you might imagine.

For a start, what works once doesn't always work twice. The Law of Conditional Probability to give it its correct terminology.

So, you have to ask those million-dollar producing realtors how they achieved each of their sales?

Did they pester? Were they unwilling to take no for an answer? Did they manipulate?

Perhaps, or perhaps not.

But since every vendor and buyer is different, what they did to win the instruction won't necessarily produce the same result for you. Whether you copy their systems and scripts, or not.

KW use the success as "evidence" that the system works. But, to counter that, every home that was sold through another agency, at any time,  is also "evidence" that other sales processes work just as well.  There's nothing new.

But back to that quote from Gary Keller.

"What is the one thing (a dollar-productive activity) I can do such that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary."

You're not given the answer. You have to work it out, yourself.

So, here's my One Thing, but it's not necessarily a "dollar-productive activity."

Build a Personal Brand.

Such that by doing it, vendors will seek you out, rather than you having to chase them.

Such that by doing it, you won't need to 'sell' your services - they're already 'sold'.

Such that vendors will be more inclined to accept your advice. So there's no need for you to justify everything.

That vendors will share more information. So you're clear on what they need.

That vendors will refer you to others. Without you asking of them.

Give you the benefit of the doubt.

Forgive a mistake.

And such that they will involve you earlier in potential issues.

Everything will be "easier, or unnecessary"

That's the simple secret to mastering this business.

Get vendors to like you - before they even meet you.

Use story to grow your personal brand.

Tell vendors the story that only you can tell.

The hacking of estate agent mindset comes when perfectly competent and personable estate agents/realtors are persuaded that they're not good enough.

Persuaded, by these training gurus, to do things that don't feel right - because that's the way to achieve "true wealth."

A bi-product of which is that they condemn themselves to the purgatory of inadequacy and a life of endless comparison.  For which they pay dearly.

There comes a time when good enough is enough.

When competence is sufficient and it's time to focus on character.

The ONE THING that vendors look for in any realtor/agent.

The Keller Williams model of teaching "business ownership" seems, on the face of it, just some dated 90's motivational blurb, collated from various freely available sources on the internet.

They can claim to be #1 training company.  But if the information that you ingest is going to damage your reputation by encouraging you to hustle friends, family and anyone with a warm pulse, that will make your life as a realtor/agent more difficult.

Not easier and not more successful.

The KW culture, though, will attract like-minded individuals.  Those that are happy to take. Those that will do whatever it takes. The cold-calling and the unsolicited door-knocking.

Those that enjoy the journey, but find infinitely more satisfaction in achieving the dollar-productive goal.

Hacking of estate agent mindset, or "more about indoctrination." as Doug Harris mentioned earlier.

Either way, it's not, in my humble opinion, good for the UK estate agency sector.

I'm not a fan.

Don't drink the Kool-Aid is my advice.

If you have any questions on personal brand, I'm happy to help.

www.andsothestorybegan.co.uk

email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

Chris.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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