The Daily RICHual

Well, we on the Gregorian calendar have an extra day Saturday, Leap Day.

Wikipedia says, "February 29, known as a leap day in the Gregorian calendar, is a date that occurs in most years that are evenly divisible by 4, such as 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016. Years that are evenly divisible by 100 do not contain a leap day, with the exception ofyears that are evenly divisible by 400, which do contain a leap day; thus 1900 did not contain a leap day while 2000 did. Years containing a leap day are called leap years. February 29 is the 60th day of the Gregorian calendar in such a year, with 306 days remaining until the end of that year."   What?

Talkers block has crept into this blog today. Or maybe it's nothing block. I feel like talking about something but nothing is popping into my head. So, being a go-with-the-flow kind of guy, I guess I'll write about nothing. The question is: is nothing something?

In every corner of the world, at some moment today, a person will ask another person, "What are you doing?" The answer, probably given more often than any other answer, will be, "nothing.”

SO, here goes “nothing”

After attending the R4 RE/MAX convention, I am reminded of the number of real estate agents that are not aware of the tools at their disposal. Most of the major real estate brands have spent millions of dollars attempting to give their agents an edge in the marketplace through a plethora of tools, systems and resources. At the same time, agents everywhere complain that their companies take their money and do nothing for them

My Grandfather, Ernest Sands, was a railroad guy. After World War I he began working for the railroad and pretty much never stopped until they kicked him out at retirement. What I remember about him was working. And the best memory was him working with me. 

Every Saturday morning, before normal people were awake, we would walk for four hours or more delivering handbills. Handbills, at least that's what we called them, were a one piece door hanging advertisement for a local cleaners (where my Mom worked). I received $10 for my efforts, which seemed like a king's ransom to an eleven year old.

When it comes to customer service, do your people perceive you as giving more or taking away? As we know, a huge part of customer service is perception. What does the customer think they see or think they experience?

A group noticed two candy stores in the same neighborhood that offered, pretty much, the same candy. Kids, however, preferred one over the other by leaps and bounds. When asked "WHY?" children responded that the one store always gave them more candy while the other store took it away. Was this true or simply a perception?

Without naming names, there are quite a few entities in the real estate business focused on delivering products, services, and methodology to obtain more sales. Some sell programs and apps, some sell their services, and some “employ” agents.

As a trainer of real estate agents, I have seen it all and see more every single day. And while some of it is great, some of it sucks and some of it sits squarely in the middle, my question is this….Who’s teaching the greatest sales tool of all time? Who is teaching the thing that can transform any agent in any city at any company into a top producer? Who’s teaching people?

This past Friday, as I listened to keynote speaker Scott Stratten, author of most famously, Unmarketing, discuss with 700 agents the “secret,” he focused on just that: people. Reaching them, building with them, enhancing relationships.

So how about teaching listening, attentiveness, empathy?

With texting sweeping the nation, a natural bi-product of this movement is the reaction of older people who believe that texting is sending us down the path to absolute non-communication or worse, the devil. The same reaction, by the way, that my Great GrandpaBlackmer had to the telephone.

So is it? Of course not, BUUUT is it?

Famous UCLA psychologist Albert Mehrabian who taught us about effective communication, said this: 

7% of effective communication is the words we use.

38% is tone or how we say what we say.

That leaves 55% to body language.

If you’re in sales or LIFE, you have heard the following word before…… NO.

According to Theo Williams, the word no originated around 900AD. It combined “ne” (not) with “o” (ever) to give us NO meaning not ever. The word has evolved through the ages to include new phrases like no can do (I guess denoting non action) no problem (which actually means yes), and NOOOO WAAAAY.

Because the average person wants to say no, before yes, here are six things no can mean according to Chris Voss

Who invented the perfect sales presentation? Tommy Hopkins? Zig Ziglar? Benjamin Franklin? Benjamin Franklin? Maybe, he pretty much founded the oldest insurance agency in America and insurance companies led the way in early sales techniques.

Nope. Not them, and not Thomas Watson of IBM, and not Dale Carnegie.

Fats Waller. Who? Fats Waller.

Thomas Wright Waller, born 1904, died 1943 in his landmark musical “Ain’t Misbehavin’” from 1929, wrote the following: Find out what they like, and how they like it, and let them have it just that way.

Today is President’s Day. Presidents day happened when whoever the holiday makers are decided that it was impractical to celebrate Lincoln’s birthday on the 12th and Washington’s on the 22nd. Now we celebrate ALL of them.

They got their job as a result of Article 2 Section 1 of the Constitution. It says, “The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.”

There have been some good ones, some bad ones and many, many in between.

SO, in the interest of celebrating al President’s while singling out a few: here are my ten favorite Presidents of all time with the caveat that I was a history teacher who studied what the did while in office, not who liked them or to which party they belonged: