Melissa Krchnak
By Melissa Krchnak
We all have pieces of our business that can suck our time away from being successful: meetings that don’t feel productive, emptying our inbox, conflict resolution, admin tasks, and chatting with our friends and colleagues. Just yesterday I encountered the worst of the time sucker, the commitment-phobe. This particular person is an over-analyzer who uses that as an excuse for, you guessed it: Never. Making. A. Decision.
I’ve met with this person three-to-four times over the last couple of weeks with each meeting lasting an hour or so. Yesterday, when he was supposed to be signing on the dotted line, he again wanted to ask more questions. He knows this is the best decision, but can’t “buy in.” I worked through every objection masterfully until I was fed up. So, I gave an ultimatum. “You need to make a decision on how you want to move forward by Wednesday at 3 p.m.” No ifs, ands, or buts about it. I don’t know what Wednesday holds precisely, but one thing it certainly does possess is a resolution.
Melissa Krchnak is the assistant team leader for Keller Williams Realty in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. Connect with her at kwrancho.com.
Comments 7
Melissa,
I think you are doing your client a good service by forcing him to make a decision. Often buyers become paralyzed by their fears. Kudos to you!
I know, from personal experience, how hard it is to give buyers and sellers a deadline when they are making excuses for not making a decision…Good for you!
Thank you, Jan and Bettyann! I so badly want to baby my clients and take good care of them so to get to that point of pushing them into a decision is difficult but altogether necessary. Thank you for your support!
I wonder if this is a first time homebuyer? I find this type of paralysis is very common with first time homebuyers. I hope we find out the result in this case.
Seriously? You’re frustrated after spending 4 hours with a client who’s probably making the buggest financial commitment of his life? He obviously has questions that haven’t been answered and/or doesn’t feel comfortable with his options or the advice he’s getting. For the amount of money we make in real estate, I believe that you need to be more patient because sometimes these deals go very fast…and sometimes they drag a bit. Find out what his REAL objection is and deal with that.
Love it! Nice job Melissa.
Nathaniel, it wasn’t a first-time Buyer. He was given 20% from his parents to buy in a very nice i.e. expensive area and after picking apart a home for something he loved in the last place, we had to have “the talk”.
Andrew, I believe in taking all the necessary time a Buyer needs to make a purchase. I often have clients sleep on offers, counters and any other major moment in the transaction. I want to make sure that they’re taking only the steps forward they want to take but this person had taken up more time than just the 3-4 hours. We had been working together for nearly a year via email. When we’ve hammered out what he wants and he then backs out, I feel like my investment of time (remember Jim Rohn says that time is more valuable than money) needs to be reciprocated. I value my clients, their time and their money and don’t want either one of us spending it recklessly. We’re in this together… as a team.
Thanks, TG! Can’t wait for our next set of meetings!