Toby Boyce

By Toby Boyce

The sun rose over the eastern sky as my alarm went off on what was quite the unusual March morning. Well beyond the fact that it was nearly 50 degrees, I decided to take my wife’s advice and go to the neurologist and chiropractor after six days of constant migraines.

As I sat in the chiropractor’s office, I was reliving every Charlie Sheen joke about chiropractors from “2-1/2 Men” in my head and sadly it blended very well with my own personal experience. But as I sat there waiting for my name to be called, I read through the pamphlet that was provided to me by the office manager – it dawned on me – these people were on the ball.

Are you on the ball?

They gave me three sheets of paper that outlined three key things that I wanted to know.

1. What was going to happen on the first visit.
2. What is going to happen on the upcoming visits.
3. How to work with insurance and other options to pay for the treatments.

It got me thinking. Am I preparing my clients this effectively for the transaction? Sadly, REALTORS® have about the same reputation as chiropractors for working their clients over.

How can we take a page from this chiropractor?

1. Provide a pre-meeting itinerary that outlines exactly what the meeting will cover and how it will go. This does a few things, but most importantly it keeps the meeting on track and provide a road map, keeping the awkward silence to a minimum.
2. At that meeting, have an outline for the future. This isn’t presumptuous, but rather a letter that outlines the timeline for the future of the listing. It creates a timeline for the marketing, and makes both you and the seller accountable for the future activities in that listing.
3. Create another list for when it goes into contract. How often do we get all excited when a house goes into contract and in the process the home owner or buyer doesn’t get the dates put into the timeline and make it work.
4. Always create the expectation for referral business. The line that caught me the most in the chiropractor letter was “Keep in mind that for optimal wellness, chiropractic care is an integral and lifelong commitment. Pain management will solely help you get through times of crisis and will not make you truly ‘well.’ We value you as a patient and want to see you reach you fullest potential.” Oh my, isn’t that a very eloquent way of saying, we want you to be a client for life? We want you to keep coming back? I absolutely loved how it set the customer up to continue using the company and spend money with them.

So maybe next time you’re thinking about getting a neck adjustment from a chiropractor, take the time to evaluate whether you’re reaching your clients the same way they are.

Toby Boyce, MBA, is a real estate practitioner with Keller Williams Consultants Realty in Westerville, Ohio. Visit his Web site: www.delawareohrealestate.com.