One of the things about being with the BASB is that the Bureau has carefully screened all of their speakers. The quality is definitely there, but what about the bloggers, the panel members who sound great, or the IT folks who have in-depth knowledge? Having mastery in a content area is great – it has no relationship, however, to how well the person can convey that knowledge in front of a group.

Today, anyone can proclaim that they are an expert. This seems to be particularly true in the areas of social media and distressed properties. Just because someone has a certification or is blogging or writing about a topic, doesn’t mean that they can deliver that material in front of the room. The question is how to distinguish those who have both the content AND the platform skills that will provide the best value to your audience.

With money being tight right now, it’s tempting to go for the low cost alternatives. The question is, what is the value to your audience? If you cut corners and go for a second tier speaker who has the knowledge but can’t hold the room, everyone loses. The audience is deprived of the skills that could have helped to build their businesses. REALTORS® vote with their feet and when they don’t like something, they leave (and often don’t come back next year!). Furthermore, with the advent of social media, feedback about the quality of the session is instantaneous. There’s nothing that can kill your future attendance more quickly than having negative posts all over the social media about how lousy a session was.

To keep this from happening to you, ask for references. If the speaker or trainer doesn’t have a video tape, request that they make one. Search the speaker’s name on Google as well as on the major social networking sites such as Twitter. See what the speaker’s reputation is online.

Even more importantly, ask their references about how easy the speaker was to work with – the big ego off stage translates into big ego onstage. The bottom line is that if someone doesn’t express gratitude for the opportunity to speak before your audience, then they’re missing the most important point of all – speakers and trainers are there to be of service, not the other way around.

Do you lead meetings? Do you want to do buyer or seller seminars? Do you present to two or two hundred? Managers, trainers, and even agents sometimes have to present in front of three, to hundreds, of people. Unfortunately, many who have to get in front of others lack training and dread the thought of it! It doesn’t have to be frightening, though. Take a look at the three ‘pro’ speaker tips below to make your next time in front of a few, or many, enjoyable, memorable, and equally enjoyable for your audience.

Grasping Skills Makes us Competent—and Confident

The very best part about performance is that anyone can get better at anything through learning skills and practicing them. I learned that as a pianist/flutist, and I’ve seen it over and over again, no matter what adults think! (I taught adults piano lessons, so I know all the barriers that get in our way!) Just keep in mind the quote I read from the great UCLA basketball coach, John Wooden:

It’s what we learn after we know it all that counts.

Three Powerful Speaker’s Tips

1. Vary your delivery. Don’t lecture for more than 10 minutes. Adults just don’t have that long an attention span (too much on our minds!). Change it up. Use various “alternative delivery methods”–methods to teach rather than lecture. In my Instructor Development course, I help students learn these teaching methods by modeling them so they can observe me teaching. Then, we de-brief on what we did. Finally, each student teaches a short module using creative methods, and the rest of the students provide feedback. (We really only learn when we do something.) Doing greatly increases confidence–and competence.
2. Anticipate adults’ fear barriers to change. When you want to change adults’ perceptions, beliefs, or knowledge, don’t just start talking to them. You may just cause them to shrink more into their beliefs, and to defend it (have you observed students who live to argue with the instructor?)

How to tackle the ‘old belief’ challenge:

Prepare students to learn something new. For example: Use a ‘true-false’ or ‘multiple choice’ to start the presentation, or to check learning. I do this in my IDW course in the middle, and ask students how they would have answered at the beginning of the course–and then contrast that with their new perceptions and learning. It creates lots of ‘ah as’ with them, and further cements their learning experience.

3. YOU are the medium, not the visuals. Don’t just read from the PowerPoint on the screen (and, just as onerous, provide the student with the PowerPoint as the “outline”.) If an instructor does that, I feel I want to just take that outline and leave. I can read, thank you! Too many real estate instructors rely on PowerPoint to do the teaching.

Your Right Brain Can Save the Day

Effective teaching is much more than just talking. It should be creative. Use all the “attention strategies” at your disposal (that means to get them into your repertoire).

Suggestions:

Use props, stories, various audio-visual aids, handouts to control the audience “contour”. I learned this as a musician playing for dancing. You direct how you want the audience to dance, and you ‘contour’ the whole experience (slower to faster, then back to slow). As a great instructor/ facilitator, you can direct your audience in an awesome learning experience. It just depends on the skills you bring to the table.

Check Out These Resources To Help You Gain Skill and Confidence

Very few people seem to be born with innate talent for getting front of people. However, for most of us, it’s a matter of gaining and practicing the necessary skills. Here are some methods to get skilled, and raise your confidence level dramatically:

Join Toastmasters. It’s inexpensive, and will provide you skills and practice.

If you get serious about speaking, look into joining your local chapter and national organization for speaking professionals, National Speakers’ Association. As a long-time member of both my chapter and the national organization, I highly recommend it for both skill and marketing development.

It’s Worth the Effort

Most presenters/trainers aren’t in it for the big bucks (where are those big bucks, again?). They’re in it to assist others. Gaining and practicing presentation skills helps us give back better. The bonus: deep appreciation from our audience. We’ve even been known to change lives for the better! No amount of money can provide that sense of accomplishment.

Do you suffer from “Negotiaphobia?”

You are not alone. Many people in this country have a fear of negotiating.

Yet, negotiating is a fundamentally important component of a REALTOR®’s duties to their customers and clients, you also need to negotiate to get what you want in your personal life, as well as your professional life. I recently collaborated with Dr. George Lucas, an expert on negotiating, and together we worked on compiling the five biggest mistakes REALTORS® make when negotiating. They are as follows:

1. The first one is this, we fail to invest in a concerted personal development effort.

   Too many of us fail to take a class, a seminar, or even read a book to hone our negotiation skills, and yet we use negotiation every day in both our personal and professional lives. It pays to invest your time in learning the differences between collaborative (win-win) or competitive (win-lose) strategies. Studies indicate that neither men nor women are better at negotiating, but there is a traditional perception that men are stronger at the negotiating table, so we need to study, so we can to do our best for ourselves and our companies.

2. The second biggest challenge is our fear of confrontation. Many of us suffer from a malady called “Negotiaphobia” – A term Dr. Lucas coined to deal with the desire to avoid confrontation. Negotiaphobia is a challenge for many of us who have a fear, or a distaste of anything associated with the negotiation process. In many cases, we’ll often settle for a bad deal, just so we can avoid talking about the deal, and avoid negotiating. To overcome Negotiaphobia, we need to learn more about the actual negotiation process, and then learn to focus on the MEANS, and not just the END, when negotiating, which will help you to negotiate from a place of POWER instead of WEAKNESS.
3. The third challenge is that we are typically less likely to ASK for what we really want (and this is especially true for women).

   Dr. Linda Babcock and Sara Lashever observed in their book, Women Don’t Ask that their male students asked for all sorts of extra’s that the female students rarely asked for. As a result, the women were missing out on a lot of resources and opportunities that the men were getting! So in negotiations, there are many times the other side doesn’t even know there is a problem or concern, and would be willing to consider another option if those options were put on the table. So we must learn for ourselves …and for our clients …to simply ASK for what we and they want. We may still have to negotiate, but we are more likely to have a greater probability to get more than we thought. This comes from good and detailed preparation, which we’ll talk about in a minute.

4. The fourth challenge is that in many negotiations we all tend to generally make ineffective concessions.
   It is common for people with an accommodative interactive style to try and please the other party in the negotiation process; and often times, they confuse AGREEMENT with NEGOTIATIONS SUCCESS, and they think the negotiations are DONE!

   All too often, we tend to believe that once everyone shakes hands on the agreement, that the negotiations are complete; when, in fact, this initial agreement may actually initiate multiple phases.

   Just know that the agreement is not done until it is written up and executed. Once the agreement is executed, then give it a careful review, as a competitive negotiator may have added or changed some options to include more than what was originally agreed upon.

5. And the last challenge is lack of preparation.

   The real key to successful negotiations is PREPARATION.

   Many novice negotiators think deals are won or lost at the negotiating table; but, in fact, the biggest impact on negotiations is what you do before or after the initial meeting. Preparation helps you understand both your needs and their needs, and allows you to brainstorm a set of options consistent with the real needs BEFORE you get there. You are more likely to reach a collaborative agreement when you are acutely aware of the differences between the negotiable and the non-negotiable issues of the agreement.

Imagine if you were negotiating an agreement for a seller and the buyer says the carpeting is going to have to be replaced and is offering $8,000 off of the list price. If you were properly prepared, you would have already secured a bid for a similar replacement that is really only $3,000. You win, and so do your sellers!

It takes real preparation to get as much information as you can about what the other party’s real needs are, and to be clear about what the distinction is between their wants and needs. Experts are adamant that most negotiations are won or lost by the depth of preparation, so do your homework!

Just learning about negotiations won’t be enough to make you comfortable in the actual process. You’ve got to actually practice, and you can do that when it doesn’t really matter or count.

One of my favorite examples is to practice negotiating with your dry cleaner. They say they can have your cleaning ready by Thursday, take that opportunity to “practice” and say, well, I really needed to pick this up on Wednesday”…can you make that happen? And then watch how getting what you want, when you want it, was simple, and even a little fun!

We negotiate every day in real estate for ourselves, and for our clients and customers, and even in our personal lives, from giving our kids that extra cookie, or negotiating with the dog for the evening walk. In any case, studying these five steps can help you begin learning a better process so that you negotiate to win!

This article focuses on risk management for real estate agents. We are continuously encouraging agents to be more aware of risk management and techniques individual licensees can use to reduce risk.  Before I get into the article’s topic there are two areas I want to briefly cover.

First, what is risk management?  In its basic form, it is the processes, structures, etc put in place to monitor, reduce and/or get rid of risk.  You practice risk management every day, but probably do not realize it.  The simple acts of buckling your seat belt or brushing your teeth are ways of reducing risk.  The same applies to your daily activities as a real estate agent.  You need to get in a routine of reducing your risk.

Second, you must know that you are ultimately responsible for your actions.  Your firm may have risk management guidelines, procedures, etc. for you to follow.  They may even have training classes and audit files.  The bottom line, however, is that you are responsible for your actions and your reputation.

The following are ten work habits you can use on a daily basis to help reduce your risk of a claim.  While some of the habits may seem obvious, I can give claim examples for each item where agents have fallen short.  Sometimes it is the obvious items that we take for granted that gets us into trouble.  Also, this list is not all encompassing, but designed to get you started thinking about your daily work habits.

1. DOCUMENTATION: I cannot emphasize this enough.  Proper and consistent documentation can save you an enormous amount of grief.  Do it in real time as much as you practically can.  The longer you wait the more likely you are not to do it or leave out important information.  Documentation not only includes the notes in your file, but consistent confirmation and verification of information, phone calls, etc. with clients, title agents, banks, etc.  A little extra work here will save you time in the long run. Also, be sure to commit all oral agreements to writing.  If it is not written, it usually does not count.
2. DISCLOSURE: This is the corollary to the documentation.  There are two main points about disclosure that I want to make.  The first is that there is no such thing as too much disclosure.  When in doubt, disclose.  If you know about it or the seller knows about a problem, regardless of when it occurred, disclose it.  Never tell someone not to disclose something.  As sure as death and taxes, that is the item that will come back to bite you.   Second, never fill out a disclosure form for a client nor make any changes to it in your handwriting.  If anything is missed all the client has to say is that I told you to include it or that is not what I said.  If the client for some reason cannot complete the form, have them get a friend or family member to complete it.  You may think you are providing that extra level of service by filling it out, but all you are doing is potentially creating a headache for yourself.
3. KNOW WHAT YOU KNOW AND WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW: There is no possible way to know everything there is to know about a property.  Sooner or later you will be asked a question that you do not have an answer to.  It is alright to not know the answer.  Do not, under any circumstances, make up an answer or pretend to know the answer. This is actually an opportunity to provide good service.  Tell the clients that you do not know the answer and then get back to them quickly with the correct information.  Most clients will appreciate the fact that you were honest with them about what you know and do not know and the fact that you got back to them quickly.  Do not let your ego or fears of looking bad in front of a client get in the way of doing your job properly.
4. AVOID CONFLICTS OF INTEREST: Try to avoid such conflicts if at all possible. Even an appearance of a conflict of interest can lead to problems.  The client may no longer believe that you are working in their best interest.  Should there be a conflict of any type, please refer back to items 1 and 2.   The disclosure must contain what the relationship is and what, if any, remuneration you may be receiving.  Let the client make the decision as to what is in their best interest at this point.
5. AVOID OVER COMMITMENT OF SERVICES, WARRANTIES, ETC.: This is a trap that is easy to fall into because you want your client to remember you as the agent who went above and beyond the call of duty for them.  Providing great service is a wonderful thing, but make sure the service you are providing is within the scope of services to which you have agreed.  Do not assume any liabilities.
6. ALWAYS ACT ETHICALLY: This may seem like the most obvious one of all, but we still get claims and the commission still gets complaints.  The usual cause is that the agent becomes more concerned with the sale than making sure things are done the right way.  It is usually more about cutting some corners than dishonesty.  The bottom line is that your client has to come first.  It goes back to the Golden Rule.  Treat them as you would want to be treated.
7. DO NOT RECOMMEND SPECIFIC CONTRACTORS: Recommending a specific contractor is a sure way to find yourself with some problems.  It does not matter if it is your best friend, a family member, etc.  As soon as something is not done right, your client will be looking to you to fix the problem.  All the client knows, particularly if they are new to the area, is that the contractor you recommended messed up and they want the problem taken care of now.  At most, you should give the client a list of contractors.  The list should contain some type of wording indicating that previous clients have used these contractors and it is up to the client to contact the contractors to get pricing and references. You should also advise your clients to verify that the contractor has insurance, by getting certificates of insurance. (Your attorney can come up with wording that best meets your needs.)  Let the client decide which contractor to use.  Also, please keep in mind item number 4 if there is any potential conflict.
8. CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION STAYS CONFIDENTIAL: It must be clearly explained and documented to the buyer/seller what information will be kept confidential (typically Motivation and Personal Secrets).  It also must be made clear as to what types of information will be disclosed (Primarily Property Conditions).
9. COMMUNICATION: As in disclosure, there is no such thing as too much communication.  Keeping all parties informed makes life easier for everyone.  Letting people know what is going on helps them feel comfortable and it also lets them adjust plans if given advance notice of changes.  The lack of communication is one of the leading causes of claims.
10. 10. DO NOT ACCOMPANY INSPECTORS: Under no circumstances should you or your client accompany inspectors.  You do not want to give any impression that you are supervising or influencing the inspections.  It is the kiss of death in a claim to be in that position.  If your client is uncomfortable with an inspector being in the house alone, see if a friend or family member can be there.  Just be sure they know not to answer any questions.  You should wait for the written report to start dealing with any issues brought up.

All of us at Williams Underwriting are committed to educating you in risk management.  Should you have any questions about this article or about risk management in general, please feel free to call us at 800-222-4035 or at wug@wugieo.com.  We will be glad to assist you in any way we can.

This article is not intended as legal advice.  All legal advice needs to be tailored to your specific circumstances.  The general information provided in this article is not a substitute for the advice of professional counsel.

Dated September 18, 2010

The most common questions an agent is asked are:

“How’s business?”

“How’s the market?”

The way you answer those questions can attract business to you or drive it away.  On our free daily webinars I often remind you (agents) to consider that half of the people that ask you those questions are either thinking of making a move in the upcoming year themselves, or they know someone who is.  They have a son or daughter moving to town; a parent or grandparent needing to sell; they are losing their job, or getting a promotion, etc.

Answer those questions with negativity, or a lack of enthusiasm, and you are communicating that you lack confidence in your ability to do the best for them. Even if the market is soft, there are easy ways to be honest and positive.

Answer those questions with complete honesty, and with the most positive spin you can find for the current market conditions; answer with modest enthusiasm, and you are communicating that you are the person to find the best way to get the job done.  On our daily webinars (which are recorded so you can listen to them anytime during the day) I share lots of ideas and scripts to communicate that enthusiastic, honest and positive response.

Right now, wherever you are reading this, imagine that you have just been asked, “How’s the market?”

Answer it quickly with the first thought that comes to your mind.  Examine that response.  Does it attract or repel?  Then consider all the ways you could answer it to make a better impression, to attract.

Make a note of those compelling, attracting answers.  Ask it of yourself again, and this time answer out loud.  Keep this up in your car, in the shower, at random until it is natural for you to use these opportunities to generate some of the easiest business you may do all year.