Imagine that your tires are bald. They are so bad that at any moment your vehicle may go careening off the road and into a ditch. It's time. The duct tape, and bubble gum just won't cut it anymore. You're going to have to go the tire store today and buy some new rubber shoes for your gasoline guzzling chariot.

After walking into the store and waiting in a long line of other procrastinators you finally reach the clerk, a high energy kid fresh out of high school. As your eyes meet, he smiles and then does something really, really crazy. He bounds over the sales counter, wraps his rubber stained arms around your new white shirt and gives you a big kiss on the cheek.

"Welcome back!" he exclaims. "It's so great to see you again. We've really missed you around here."

How would you feel at this point -- uncomfortable, awkward, or perhaps just a little frightened? For most normal adults this would be an extremely strange encounter. Why? Because we have no desire to enter into a personal relationship with our service providers. Instead we simply want what we want -- in this case a new set of tires -- or just as easily a new television, a car stereo, a cup of coffee, or a new home.

Client Relationships

Professionally Based: Based on the client's needs and the services you can offer them.

Personality Based: Based on the client "liking" you more than your competitor.

So does this mean we don't want friendly service? Of course not! We all want our service providers to be affable, courteous, and helpful. We also want them to explain their services thoroughly, be ready to answer our questions, and listen to our problems. But beyond this boundary lies a no-mans land, a black hole for sales professionals that can lead some unfortunate souls to making a string of potentially career ending bad first impressions.

The monster under the bed is the tendency by most agents to think that the key to building a good first impression is to "win over" clients with sheer personality.

Blind each new prospect with the power of your great suit, expensive haircut, and bubbly chit-chat and they will melt like a small pat of butter on your business pancake, right? Wrong! Wise agents have learned from experience that what clients really crave is a rock solid professional relationship, an exchange of values, money for service.

Think about yourself and the tire store example. Going in, what is it that you really want from the clerk? You want professional service, right? In other words you want to pay a fair price for your new tires, perhaps advice on what would be the best type of tires for your type of vehicle, a guarantee would be good, and, of course you want them put on quickly. To top it off you probably want someone who asks you detailed questions about your needs, and provides concise easily understood answers.

And here in lies the key to sales excellence. To become a master presenter requires that all client meetings are first and foremost built atop a professional relationship. Can a personal relationship follow? You bet! I have become close friends with many of my own clients over the years. But the cornerstone of the relationship, the beginning and the end, the alpha and omega, was my professional presentation. After all what if you just don't "click" with every single client? If your career depends on you being the most likable, outgoing, or "on" person in every sales situation sooner or later you are doomed to failure. Sometimes a client simply likes another salesman better.

On the other hand if your sales presentations are based on determining what the client's true needs are and what services you can offer them to satisfy those desires, your likeability factor, although still important is not the determining factor in your being hired. Instead it becomes a question of who can offer the client the most value for dollar spent. Most value for dollar spent is the basis of every great presentation.

Value Equation

When the perceived value of a product or service exceeds the cost is the only time when a consumer will consider a commitment to purchase or proceed.

As a consumer when I perceive that the value of the products or services I am considering exceeds the cost this is when, and only when, I begin reaching for my checkbook. I need to be sold. Not on how many compliments a sales clerk can throw my way, or how good a "vibe" I am getting, but on the reasons why this particular purchase will satisfy my personal needs. This is exactly why you may not be willing to spend $5000 on a Luis Vatton hand bag but the woman next to you will. The value equation in her mind has been solved; the value of this product to her has exceeded the cost. Likewise once a real estate agent can tip the scale in her favor by offering each and every one of her clients a solution to the value equation the presentation cards are suddenly stacked overwhelming in her favor.

Published: December 6, 2006

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Jim Remley is a speaker, author, and consultant. He is also an active real estate broker in Southern Oregon where he owns a network of six offices. Jim won the Rookie Instructor of the Year award in 2001 from Realty-U, the largest network of real estate educators in the nation. He was the winner of the 2002 Pacesetter Award, and nominated for the Real Estate Instructor of the Year Award during the first quarter of 2003. To learn more about Jim, please visit ProPerformer.com or e-mail him at .