While it's gratifying to think of yourself as a professional, the word professional is an adjective, not a noun. If you are a professional, what kind of professional are you? A professional negotiator, consultant, taxi-driver, fiduciary, listing agent, buyer's representative, coffee-drinker, dual agent, or are you a salesperson?

Most "professional" Realtors are real estate salespersons, associate brokers or brokers, but many would like to distance themselves from the sales aspect of what they do.

But you can't separate professionalism from sales. It is the professional who makes sales.

The reality is that you may be an independent contractor, but you are being paid by your broker to sell real estate. You don't get paid until closing, which means it is your job to sell real estate.

Currently, the industry is bogged down in trying to reinvent itself and make itself more appealing to an increasingly resentful, litigious public that doesn't understand that brokers and salespeople really have one job - to sell real estate.

Realtors are professional salespeople, and there's nothing wrong with that. There is no greater professional in the world than an excellent salesperson. An excellent salesperson makes sure everybody wins and walks away from the table happy.

While national campaigns like "Real estate is our life," by the NAR, and the tongue-in-cheek RE/MAX ads that suggest that their associates work so hard that they "aren't much good at anything else" may mollify consumers that Realtors earn their keep, they really only add to confusion about what Realtors do, and confusion breeds commission compression. It simply doesn't pay to continue to distance the practitioner from the sales aspect of their jobs.

It would be much less disingenuous to simply say, "We provide the services you need to help you buy or sell your home."

How about - "Selling real estate is our life." "Proud to be a Realtor. Proud to sell your home. Proud to sell you a home." "We're good at selling real estate, but not much else."

Now those are slogans that could eliminate almost all confusion between consumers and real estate professionals. The job is now clearly outlined. Real estate practitioners will know who they are, and so will the consumers who hire them. And the industry can stop doing things like lobbying legislators to do away with agency and salespeople, and spend more time and money on training people in good salescraft.

The NAR has made ethics training mandatory, which is a huge step in the right direction, but ethics is only one aspect of sales. Meanwhile many states are going in other directions.

States like Colorado, Oregon and South Dakota have legislated the word "salesperson" away. New Mexico is considering doing the same thing. The result will be higher and more difficult licensing tests for salespersons because they will be taking on the responsibilities of brokers.

Other states like Oklahoma have done away with agency representation. Numerous states offer transactional brokerage.

The result is licensees who don't understand their own state's laws, and openings for new competition to jump through the cracks of weaknesses the industry is displaying.

The threat of referral services and limited services has slapped the industry in the face as it realizes but doesn't want to admit that many of those services don't involve getting a house sold or bought, yet they are taking a significant slice of the industry. By running away from sales, the industry has run from service, and allowed a new generation of brokers to define to consumers what brokerage is.

Now the industry is having to back-track, but it still doesn't get the real issue - that real estate sales is about sales, and many sales don't happen without good to extraordinary service from a salesperson or broker.

Many of the new business models are trying to convey to consumers that better service can be had through "certifying" brokers and agents, and the industry is vulnerable because it doesn't want to admit it is in sales and provide the service necessary to do a job to be proud of.

Now the industry is trying to legislate these mistakes away.

A new Illinois law has just been passed that requires brokers to give a minimum level of service from "exclusive brokerage agreements" where the broker and his/her agents act for the benefit of the client to "accept delivery of and present to the client offers and counteroffers to buy, sell, or lease the client's property or the property the client seeks to purchase or lease."

The Texas legislature, at the encouragement of the Texas Association of Realtors, is in the process of revising similar legislation that will have the net effect of putting the service back into sales.

The industry needs to make up its mind. No matter where it turns, brokers and agents are left with the same responsibility - to sell real estate for sellers and to put buyers in homes.

So instead of pretending that sales aren't a part of what the industry gets paid to do, how about glorifying the sales aspect instead?

Published: October 25, 2004

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Blanche Evans is the award-winning senior editor of Realty Times, the Internet's leading independent real estate news service. She is featured daily on the Realty Times Video Network in the "Realty Viewpoint" segment. Blanche has been named one of the "25 Most Influential People In Real Estate" by REALTOR Magazine, and has been twice recognized as a "notable." In 2005, she was named "Top Reporter Covering the NAR" by Delahaye-Bacon's. Blanche is a renowned author of five real estate books. Her newest, Bubbles, Booms and Busts: Make Money In Any Real Estate Market, McGraw-Hill, was rave-reviewed by The New York Times. She was also selected from hundreds of real estate experts to contribute to Donald Trump's book, Trump: The Best Real Estate Advice I Ever Received: 100 Top Experts Share Their Strategies, Rutledge Hill Press, and is featured on page 68. Order Now Review - Honors In 2006, Blanche was selected among scores of candidates to author two consumer real estate guidebooks for the National Association of Realtors: The NAR Guide to Home Buying, and The NAR Guide to Home Selling, Wiley & Sons. She is currently planning two new books for the NAR and its members.       Known for her keen insight into real estate industry issues and for her ability to make complex subjects easy to understand, Blanche is a sought-after keynote and continuing education speaker. Real estate organizations from MLSs, to brokerages, to franchisors, to associations hire her to provide up-to-the-minute analysis of real estate industry news and advice on how to improve revenues. Her passionate delivery, peppered with stinging wit, is a huge hit with audiences and fans. Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors, Blanche Evans, Richard Courtney, president 2007, GRAR "The GNAR membership meeting last week featured Blanche Evans as the keynote speaker. Her comments and insights resonated extremely well with those in attendance and we have had many requests for copies of her PowerPoint Presentation. She was a terrific part of the membership meeting and convention program!" - Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors Coverage from WSMV, Nashville - 8-14-2007 That Interview Guy - Get Inside The Head Of Today's Generation 2007 AE Institute Session - To purchase 2006 AE Institute Session - Parts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 HouseValues Mastermind call - Parts 1 2 Blanche's fireside chat with Jeremy Conaway, HAR - Click here. To contact Blanche, email her at . For more articles by Blanche, click here.