The Altman Close

Chapter 16WORKING WITH BUYERS: PART CHEMISTRY, PART THERAPY

Before you dig into work, you’ll want to dig deeper into agent/client relationships you’ve entered. You may be all over it when it comes to self-care on the job, doing what you do to stay chill under pressure. But your clients need constant reassurance that you are the one agent for the job. They need support.

We’ll get to the nuances of the agent/seller relationship in the next chapter. For now I’m going to focus on buyers. But still, the first section about personality types applies to all clients. Remember: today’s buyer may be tomorrow’s seller.

So, in one way it’s like your clients are your family. And you are like theirs. For this agent/client thing to work – to become a functional working relationship – you can learn to play off one another’s styles, feelings, and emotions to the advantage you both. Win-win. This process may begin at an office meeting, a lunch, or at a first showing. It will continue to the close and often beyond. It’s business but it’s more.

In another sense, quality real estate agents are as much therapists as they are concierges, middlemen, facilitators of property – and family. But wait, the client is coach! You’ve got to sort this out. Read on.

Assessing Personality Types

How well do you really know your client? Sit down with their portfolio, you know, the one you’ve already constructed from everything you know about them. If you have partners in your firm, it’s a team meeting. Who is ...