You May Not Want to Waste Time on Slow Learners
We all know that “The Greatest Limitations Are Self-Imposed.” When you apply this concept to your Buyers and Sellers, you will believe that you can be successful with virtually every client or prospect. This mentality, gives you the confidence to get the greatest number of sales from the clients you choose to represent.
Unfortunately, “A Great Strength also has the potential to become a great weakness”. For example, if you choose to work with a client that is unreasonable or extremely difficult, you can spend 4x as much time with them before you close a sale. When you consider you could have closed 4 other sales in the same amount of time, your focus on the difficult client becomes impractical.
Avoid making this mistake by applying the Bell Curve used in education to your prospects. Every teacher knows that 16% of the students learn things very quickly. These are also the students that typically do well on tests. Another 68% of the students learn things at a more moderate pace. They comprise the group that has the average test scores. Finally, about 16% of the students learn things very slowly and tend to not do as well on tests.
Doesn’t the behavior of your prospects also follow the Bell Curve? A few (16%) of your buyers and sellers get the logic behind their situation right away, and act reasonably in presenting offers or listing their homes at a realistic price. For your typical buyer or seller (68%) it takes more time and more effort before they understand what makes the most sense. Finally, there are some buyer and some sellers, (16%) that just don’t seem to get it. They’re the one’s that can drive you crazy.
Does it make sense for you to spend 4x as much time teaching the “slow learners” and make a quarter as much money as you normally would? Give serious consideration to referring the slow learners to another agent. If they don’t have enough business, they might welcome the opportunity to work with even a difficult new buyer or new seller as one of their 20% activities. In this scenario, you make 25% of the profit in little or no time, and have the opportunity to take all of that extra time working with “Better Quality Prospects”.
