When I think of a Champion Agent, I think of a Champion Salesperson. That's someone who understands, accepts, and embraces the fact that sales and sales skills are the name of the game. The essence of selling in real estate is to create leads that you convert to clients and then to commission checks.

I often ask Agents, "If you had to choose to be exceptional in one of two areas of your business, and those two areas were creating clients or keeping clients, which one would you choose?" More than 75% of them will tell me keeping clients. Before I go any further, I want to state clearly that I think you have to do both well to be a Champion Agent. You have to be able to create and serve with success, but the question was worded "if you could only do one" for a reason. One is really a sales function: creating clients. One is customer service: keeping clients.

Most salespeople select the wrong one when given the choice between the two. The correct answer is creating clients. Again, I am not advocating such a narrow-minded approach, but we do need to establish priorities as businesspeople. We need to work on these strategic skills that will create the greatest return for us. The truth is you won’t have anyone to serve if you aren’t able to create clients with regularity and consistency. You can’t serve clients if you don’t create clients in the first place. Client service excellence is the direct result of a client’s service experience, so client creation is a necessary prerequisite to outstanding client service.

Client creation is harder than client servicing. It requires sales skills, consistency, and persistent prospecting for clients. We must acquire a level of sales skill and confidence to pick up the phone and call people we know and people we don’t know to ask them for the opportunity to do business with them. We also need to ask them to refer us to others who might benefit from our service. Selling is really the name of the game.

Published: August 26, 2011

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Dirk Zeller is a sought out speaker, celebrated author and CEO of Real Estate Champions. His company trains more than 350,000 Agents worldwide each year through live events, online training, self-study programs, and newsletters. The Real Estate community has embraced and praised his six best-selling books; Your First Year in Real Estate, Success as a Real Estate Agent for Dummies®, The Champion Real Estate Agent, The Champion Real Estate Team, Telephone Sales for Dummies®, Successful Time Management for Dummies®, and over 300 articles in print. To learn more regarding this article, please visit www.realestatechampions.com.