Whether it’s refining your business model, mastering new technologies, or discovering strategies to capitalize on the next market surge, Inman Connect New York will prepare you to take bold steps forward. The Next Chapter is about to begin. Be part of it. Join us and thousands of real estate leaders Jan. 22-24, 2025.
Whenever I felt stuck, my go-to was my father, a hall-of-fame fencing coach at Rutgers University. What made him a great leader was his ability to challenge the given, refusing to get stuck inside the convention.
Known for his undefeated men’s fencing team, his greatest acclaim was how he shattered the norm in 1960 by starting the first female varsity sport — of any sport — in the history of the university.
When the women first approached him, they had no experience in fencing. Undeterred, he advocated for them, formed the team and worked them hard. In only two years, the women had their first winning season.
It was a historic achievement of equal opportunity for women in the spirit of athletic competition. That was my first lesson in breaking norms, and my father’s proudest moment, a moment in college sports history.
If there was ever a time to look outside the mainstream, it’s now
Every decade or so in real estate, the past as we know it gets shattered. That’s why conventional business generation and communication are not surviving the post-Sitzer world. When stuck in time, it’s time to learn anew.
In competitive sports, fencing is relegated to the Summer Olympic Games. Poised and prepared to take their mark, a fencer’s pivots and parries are analogous to those of the adaptive Realtor, pivoting and parrying forth to a new era, new settlement regulations, and new ways of winning business and bringing value.
High performance preempts direct elimination
A fencer’s three-point stance — take your mark, get ready, fence — is the competitive start to stay in the game. Imagine a fencer who’s stuck, immobilized, when the referee shouts, “Fence!” The consequence is direct elimination.
High-performance agents in our industry are already applying the speed and reaction time of a fencer to the new business model that has challenged the basic principle of business growth — appointment generation.
The personal relationship between fencing and my career has helped me create a very special mindset when it comes to managing my business. Here is how finding your “stance” in your business strategy can lead to building efficiency in your customer relationship management.
Stay in the game! Take the 3-point stance
Take your mark!
Compile NAR resources to educate the people you know and meet about settlement changes and how they positively affect the consumer with the NAR Consumer Guide Series.
Get ready!
Earn the client’s trust by clearly articulating your value and your services with full transparency that their needs come first.
Fence!
Advocate from an offensive and defensive position: for the seller, aggressively market a home for a premium while strategically protecting home equity gains; for the buyer, compellingly package an offer to secure a home while adeptly avoiding or curtailing deep-pocket transaction costs.
10 appointment-generating pointers to execute
Be sure to act on these 10 pointers to get appointments, with eight to 10 daily conversations for optimal appointment conversion. Customer service calls and follow-up calls “count” as long as you’re providing value. Use these opportunities to educate your sphere; referrals will multiply.
- Educate with influence content. Check out NAR’s consumer-facing settlement explainers and NAR settlement scripts with Tom Ferry.
- Provide value first in your ask by sharing post-Sitzer knowledge. Make it all about them. Consider the carousel approach Larry Kendall.
- Curate your sphere of influence (SOI) for lifestyle changes. Provide value. Ask more; tell less. Share stories. Ask “what if” questions to solve problems.
- Marketing is a push; follow-up calls are the pull. Push-pull gets appointments. If neighborhood postcards don’t pull, call and share stories.
- Create neighborhood real estate (equity) reviews; coffee dates or front door drop-offs most effective (no one opens email). Schedule two per week. A simple MLS one-liner format is ideal for ‘what if” conversations to spark change and get referrals. Reference: How to Create a RER in the MLS Peter Parnegg, Ninja Selling ∙
- Walk the farm and provide something of value like neighborhood equity reviews.
- Have an open house process to educate visitors post-NAR settlement. Share local stories as you call, walk and invite the neighbors. Check out Inman’s recent article: Open House Signage Tells All.
- Circle prospect, calling neighbors around New, Under Contract and Just Sold listings.
- Make 30-, 60-, 90-day after-close and anniversary calls. Ask questions and be solutions-oriented.
- Call closed client lists from 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024. Commit to “forever clients,” not “past” clients. Be resourceful (need a plumber?) and solutions-oriented.
We all face a defining moment in our life and career. In 1944, my father, an 18-year-old in the U.S. Army in France, was thrust into a fencing match by his CO against a highly experienced fencer – a lieutenant in the French army — 15 years his senior.
In such situations, there are but two choices. Either take the stance, parry and pivot when push-back occurs or not. The risks and consequences are clear and pivotal to success.
My father won the match.
What’s the message? No single action prepares you for a match. No single bout gives you a win. It’s a full stance.
What’s your story? What mindset, which mentor, will you draw from to prepare and adapt? Get unstuck. Take the three-point stance and 10 appointment-generating pointers to fully master what lies ahead.
Annette DeCicco is a real estate broker and director of growth and development at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Jordan Baris Realty in Northern New Jersey.
