A Post Completely Unrelated to Sacramento, Real Estate or Landlording

Well, maybe not completely. There's very little I do that's completely unrelated to all of the above. I share Cari McGee's reaction to "Under All is the Land."

But a phone call last week got me thinking. A telemarketer called me with something she said related to my real estate business. Now, I do listen before I dismiss them, especially if they begin like she did by asking me questions that related to my goals and accomplishments. Good beginning - a promise of something good, maybe.

But that promise was never kept. She did not keep a single word she said. I was supposed to get an email to confirm an appointment which I did not receive. The day we were supposed to have our "teleconference appointment," she called me twenty minutes before and said she had a training class she had forgotten about and would like to move our appointment to two p.m. that day.

Well, I did not keep that "appointment." And I did not return her call and hoped she got the message. Apparently not, because today I get a text message asking me to "forgive her" and asking permission to talk with me again.

Frankly, I could do without the drama.

But it made me seriously think about how often Realtors do this. And how the best and most successful Realtors and Brokers I have met do not. With them, there is no drama, no need to ask "forgiveness." There is only The Client and The Needs of The Client.

I was also having a discussion with my husband about salespeople yesterday and he said that although the company he works for has salespeople, the customers prefer the technicians. Why is that? It's obvious, of course. Salespeople make promises; technicians do the job.

The thing about being a Realtor is that I am both. The person who makes the promise and the person that gets the job done. Which means I must be extra careful not to promise more than I can deliver.

Fulfill the needs of the client. There's nothing more to it than that.