REALTORS®: It's time to change the conversation

There’s no recession for people who innovate, according to Ross Shafer, the Grand Assembly speaker at the Triple Play REALTORS® Convention held last week in Atlantic City.

Shafer, a former late-night talk show host and the author of the book Are You Relevant?, said, “Too many people inside an industry don’t notice the trends as they’re happening within the industry.” He gave examples of Kodak and Polaroid, companies that chose not to recognize the emergence of digital photography. Shafer joked, “People love to wait several days to see whether or not their photos turned out!”

He said REALTORS® need to take innovations from outside their industry and apply them to the real estate industry. REALTORS® need to change the conversation about homes and make it more personal.

“As REALTORS®, you need to focus more on the legacy, lifestyle and history of a home. It’s not about price; it’s about what the home represents,” Shafer said.

Shafer offered several other tips:

• Reinvent yourself before you have to. Shafer said too many people wait until their business is in trouble to consider how to meet the changing environment.
• Be skeptical of experts. Too many people want to tell you how to do your business.
• Women rule the world. Fifteen trillion dollars in spending power will be in the hands of women consumers in 2010. REALTORS® need to understand women’s buying habits and patterns.
• When people love you, they’ll give you more money. Focus on empathizing with clients instead of customer service, he said.
• The final moment matters. It’s how consumers feel when they leave you that matters. Don’t use a long and tedious survey. There’s only one question that really matters: How likely are you to recommend us to your friends?