I really do think the best part of Sotheby’s International Realty Global Networking Event is talking to people that do what you do. It’s inspiring in a practical way. You walk away with some ideas that you’re going to bring to your practice. I took away three things.
It’s about our clients
One, this brand speaks to our clients. Our clients are major-league executives who want quality. They demand a certain level of service and a certain level of firm. That’s one of the reasons I decided to go with this brand.
Learn your market
Two, learn your market. One agent who sells $80 million homes in the Hamptons said, “Focus on your market, and learn your market.” Then Mr. Hamptons told a story He got a phone call from a major player on Wall Street who said, “I’m coming out to look at some houses in the Hamptons. Meet me at my helicopter.” The agent met him, and Wall Street says, “Get in the helicopter.” They go up, and he says, “Start telling me what they are and who owns them.” “Thank God I did my homework,” the agent said. “I could pick out the houses and tell him what had happened and where everything was.”
The top agents all do their homework. Every single one of these successful agents knew what they were talking about. Knowledge of the space is power. Have a focus, because you cannot learn everything about every neighborhood. Decide where you’re going to be the expert, then become an expert there. How many 10,000 square foot lots are there here? How many lots are there, period? How many people live here? That’s what’s going to make people hire you. That’s what’s going to get you over the top. When you get the call from Mr. Wall Street, you better be ready. When you’re in an open house, you better be ready.
The drive to keep learning
One of the older agents held himself up as a cautionary tale. In the 80’s, he was king of the hill. He had his notepad, his rolodex, and all this stuff. He was #1 in the Wall Street Journal. “I was big. I was everything.” And then he said, “Ten years later, they caught up with me and passed me. I had to sit down and learn computers, and learn this, and learn that. I almost lost my business because I thought I had the system. You never have the system. You got to keep learning and keep going.” This is a guy who was sitting on top of the world. You’d think he could get away with it, but he said, “I couldn’t get away with it, and you have to keep reinventing. You have to keep going. You have to keep learning.”
The great basketball players learn a new shot every year. Everybody knows the old one, so you have to learn a new shot. Every year, you got to come back to GNE, take something in and be smart about executing on it. Don’t try too too much or you won’t do it. Every year, choose one new thing to roll into your business. And every morning, get up and do the simple things first.
All of us who went to GNE came away with those kind of ideas. There are common themes: the top agents work hard. They are very methodical about execution. They follow up. They cultivate a personal network of clients. And they all take care of their clients like we all take care of our clients.
Networking better is an obvious opportunity with this brand. Connect with ten worthwhile agents, and have a message about what you can do for them. Learn their markets a little bit, too, because that referral gets so much easier when you know what’s going on in Tahoe or New York.
