I recently read an article by Seth Godin and Dave Ramsey. It was really more of a conversation. In this conversation Dave asks Seth questions regarding marketing and business. One of the Q and A’s stuck out to me in a big way.
It went like this:
Dave: One of your most popular sayings, and I love it, is, “The customer pays three ways: money, trust and referrals.” Can you break that down for us?
Seth: Money is the one that everyone is obsessed with, right? But the other two are trust and referral. So when I trust you, I am giving you something that is emotionally difficult. I am out on a limb. If you violate my trust, I will carry that around far longer than I will carry around the money I lost to you. Getting people to give you their trust is way more difficult than getting them to give you their money. The magic, though, is if people give you their trust and you treat it with respect, they will respond by giving you a referral.
I am a Dave Ramsey fan (mainly because I have personally seen my clients lives changed by taking his financial advice.)
I am now a Seth Godin fan.
It is our highest honor as Realtors to receive a referral from a previous client. What I learned from this Q and A, however, is that it should be our highest aim as Realtors to receive someones trust.
We have a policy on our Real Estate team- People Over Profit. This insight from Seth Godin put hands and feet to that promise we’ve made to ourselves. We desire to get paid in order to provide for our families, in order to bless others by giving and to fund what we each personally consider to be the ideal life. And like Seth say’s we get paid in three ways, “money, trust and referrals”.
If you are a past client, we hope we earned your trust. If we did, we would love a referral of someone you know who is needing to buy or sell real estate. If we didn’t earn your trust, then we ask for your forgiveness and the opportunity to get it back.
You can read that full conversation between them here.
Justin Bailey
Real Estate Agent
865.599.2208