Being a Salesperson

Being a Salesperson

August 4th, 2021

Today I received an interesting phone call from a potential client stating that she wanted to use our company and had actually interviewed Stacey twice to sell her home, however, she did not hire him because of his success.

Huh?

This woman told me that she saw how successful we are and she wanted to give some smaller fish a chance to swim in the big pond of real estate, however, the two people she had thus hired had not been able to sell her home.

I remarked that we are successful for a reason. And that reason is not because we’re funded by huge sponsors or even corporations, for that matter. Valnes and Company is a small, family-owned brokerage.  We have experienced prosperity because of our hustle, drive, determination, and passionate energy for what we do everyday.

She then went on to tell me that she hated all salespeople. Gee, lady, you’re really making me want to work for you right now. Queue eye-roll. Thanks to our achievements in our industry, Stacey nor I are desperate for business. I find no reason to work with someone who hates me based solely on my profession with absolutely no basis for such an attitude.

I think they call that “predjudice”.

I said as much to her and she back-peddled a bit and the conversation proceeded. It ended well and I learned, as usual, that this woman’s prejudice was based on her personality, issues, and experiences. There was no need for me to take any of it personally and I was able to laugh it off.

However, the bit about hating salespeople did nag at me for a bit--enough to prompt this blogpost. Salespeople, especially real estate agents, are often unfairly and negatively reputed. We are accused of dishonesty, manipulativeness, being pushy, etc, et al. There are always those who will be wary of anyone trying to sell anything, including real estate. 

These characteristics of a stereotypical real estate agent have always bothered me deeply because they do not resonate with the person I know myself to be--at all!

Being a successful salesperson does require being charming and graceful, which is not to be confused with being patronizing and contriving. There are those who think anyone nice, kind, and considerate is out to get something--these are not the people I care to work for or with because these people are paranoid and their opinion is really a reflection of their own self. Perhaps they are only nice when they want something. Hmmm…

Okay, I’m done defending myself.

It would seem this entire blog is a letter to myself, reminding me of who I am and why I do what I do.

I love selling real estate because of the relationships I get to form with so many different types of people. I have created many wonderful friendships out of what started as a professional relationship and I cherish these evolutions. Likewise, I have been able to learn so much from some of my highly sophisticated clients, the type of hands-on-see-it-in-action learning that I find invaluable. 

I also really love creating success stories for my clients. Buying and selling homes is incredibly personal and involved. My job is to be of the utmost service to my clients, plain and simple.

Maybe it’s obvious, but I clearly love houses, architecture, design, and experiencing the intimate world of people’s homes and how they live. 

So salespeople, we may get a bad rep, so it’s important to remember who we are and why we do what we do. 

We are to be of service, serve the highest good, create happy success stories, and offer a product or service that lives up to the hype. When we approach our job in sales from an empowered place of confidence, we will find success. Yes, it takes dedication, passion, drive, and focus, but it’s also incredibly fun to put in the work and taste the fruits of our labor. And the fun is where it’s at.

Being a salesperson is nothing to be ashamed of if you’re performing your work with integrity. Don’t allow the perceptions of those not acquainted with your performance to have any negative impact on you. Let the impressions of your clients guide you to become better and implement changes when necessary. Wake up every day with the intention of being the best version of yourself, offering the highest level of service and value to your clients, and either blocking out the haters, or using their negative assumptions to fuel your fire and make you even better!