Brian Buffini & Company

Program review by Merle Braley, Internet Marketing Advisor

Brian Buffini Review -

Oh, by the way… or Oh BUY the way… ?

The career of a real estate agent is statistically very short. The barrier to entering the field is pitifully low. People typically don’t get into the field because they want to run around showing houses. Most get in because it’s easy and hey, why not try it.

So, along comes Brian Buffini. He dresses sharp, he’s funny, he’s got great stage presence, he’s got great stories of cold calling back in the old days and snappy answers to how to close. Very likeable guy. The new agents are like deer in the headlights and sign up for some 100 Days to Greatness. Hey, that’s sounds good. It took Gandhi much longer. So, they are being trained in the techniques that worked back in the days when Brian sold real estate. The broker-owners are happy. They don’t have to worry about training these new recruits. So, everyone’s happy… for a while. When they end up leaving real estate and a new crop of agents come in and they cycle through. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Now the newly trained agents start calling and sending warning letters to all their family and friends to let them know that they are no longer family and friends. They are now prospects, or more formally known as Sphere of Influence (SOI). And if they ever sell their house, their biggest investment, they should hand the responsibility over to someone who decided to “give real estate a try.”

New agents don’t go to family reunions or class reunions. Instead they go to Sphere of Influence reunions.

There’s a perpetual stream of new agents to keep Brian Buffini & Company in business. And what they learn could be applied to other sales jobs as well. Used car sales would be an example. Or a dentist, or chiropractor, or department store. Practically any profession.

If the real estate sales profession is to ever earn respect in the public eye it’s not going to happen if we keep doing the same thing over and over. We can’t continue to teach new agents the same old methods from the 1970s without considering how computer literate GenX is. But, that’s a whole other story when we start talking about how you’ve got to think of yourself as an Internet marketer. But, it’s true. I’ll cover that another day.

If you think that you can succeed in this business with ONLY the 1970s approach then you’re in deep trouble. Don’t get me wrong. I think that what Brian Buffini teaches is important. He teaches relationship building as well as business principles for small business owners. Good stuff. We all should be doing those things. But, the market is different now. People are starting the buying process on the Internet now. They are trying to avoid sales people who have the answer to every objection and can close in the style of Glengarry Glen Ross. Let’s face it, if you’ve got to be a great closer then you didn’t make a very compelling presentation. Focus on giving a great presentation, then you don’t have to be a great closer. You need to be where people are starting their search - you need to be on the Internet. And, you need to learn from someone who’s still doing real estate every day. Someone who has a real estate license. So, I digress… Back to Brian…

The MOST powerful message, I think, that Brian gives is generally not followed by his students. Everyone would agree that his note, call, and pop-by system will create more business. (A bag of micro-wave popcorn is a cute idea - - but, am I going to list my house for sale because someone gave me popcorn? What if it gets caught in my teeth? And, please don’t give me receipes for Christmas cookies. I want a real estate professional handling my transaction, not Aunt Bee from the Andy Griffin Show. Give me confidence in your knowledge of real estate!) But anyway, I ask how many of Brian Buffini’s students, or any other sales trainer’s students, follow-up at all? I think the percentage is very low. This is not a reflection on Brian Buffini or any other trainer. It’s the student’s responsibility to implement proven systems. The best of the best salespeople wrote handwritten notes to create and maintain a relationship. And that’s how they became the top salepeople.

Try this for an experiment. Just send a handwritten greeting card to five people you’ve done business with in the past year. See what happens. And please don’t just say “Oh, and by the way…” Don’t send to get. Send to give. Just see what happens in your business. If your budget allows, throw in a gift certificate to Lowes or Home Depot.

So, why have the best salespeople used handwritten greeting cards? Because it works. People always open handwritten cards. It doesn’t look like a bill, or junk mail. And certainly now days, it doesn’t look like spam or the dumb E-Cards that people send. It gets past the gatekeeper opening mail over the waste basket. There’s a new technology that let’s you do “thank you card marketing” on a large scale. Check out my review on SendOutCards. It’s a lot cheaper than the cost of the store bought cards. It’s a heck of a lot easier. There’s a hugh selection. You can customize them with pictures of your customers in front of their house. It’s in your own digitized handwritting!!! Looks like you hand wrote the card. I’m not kidding. It looks like you wrote the card in ink. Then the card is stuffed, sealed, stamped (with a real stamp), and sent via regular first class mail. And all you had to do is type the message just like you would an email. Now, it doesn’t get any better than that. [NOTE: If you want to know more about the Send Out Cards Referral System check out David Frey’s The Referral Movie - - this is well worth the look if you want to build a referral business.]

Are you a student of Brian Buffini? How about recording a testimonial for this review? I’m sure others would love to hear your experience with Brian Buffini’s programs.

Keep up the good work Brian. Your students love you. How do I know? They’ve been sending me emails calling me names I’ve had to look up in the dictionary and some that I learned as a young boy. And, “Oh, by the way…” Cheers!

Review by Merle Braley

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After reviewing scores of home-based business opportunities, Internet marketing, and so called marketing gurus, you can guess I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t. Click here to see how I make money…

 

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| Category: Marketing Gurus, Real Estate Coaching |

Tags: greeting cards, sales training, send out cards, sendoutcards, sendoutcards.com, thank you card marketing