"GOOBS Syndrome

“GOOBS Syndrome”

Article by Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown

In Michael Dunn’s seminar, “Color Your Rainbow,” he teaches that for someone to be fulfilled in life they need to have a balance.  A healthy balanced life produces growth that is the essence of life.  In the rainbow of life, according to Michael, we have:

Red                 =                     God                  =                       Passion

Orange            =                     Self                  =                       Growth

Yellow             =                      Family             =                       Unity

Green             =                      Needs              =                       Create and Build

Blue                =                      Mission            =                        Help Others

Thus, if someone is successful financially but neglects the other areas of his or her life, they have a Green Rainbow Syndrome (GRS) that creates success without fulfillment.  This is failure.

When you are engaged in a sale, where is your focus?  When someone comes to me with a problem sale, I sometimes realize that there is an underlying fear of losing the commission rather than meeting a customer’s needs.  For example, when a buyer wants out of a sale, is it  “buyer’s remorse” or do they have a serious consideration that can only be served by voiding the agreement to purchase? 

I have discovered a unique outlook towards resolving problems and it was described in Gary Keller’s book, “The Millionaire Real Estate Agent.”  First let me reiterate the underlying principle of being a real estate agent – you owe a fiduciary duty to your customer whether that is a buyer or a seller or both.  As a fiduciary, you are to protect the best interests of your customer even when those interests may be in conflict with YOUR best interests.  Therefore when a buyer says they want out of a sale, the first question you must answer is do they want out for a reason or are they just nervous about the sale?  Then you MUST talk to your inner-self and ask yourself from where you are coming from in the manor in which you respond.  Here is the problem solving technique.  Simply assume that you are who you want to be.  That could be a Millionaire Real Estate Agent or something else. Then ask yourself, if I were a Millionaire Real Estate Agent, what would I do in this situation?  If I wanted to shoot a 69 on this golf course what would I so in this situation?  If I wanted to earn $100,000 in real estate sales, what would I do?  If I were . . . you fill in the blanks.

Let me tell the story from Michael Dunn’s book “What’s the Big Secret?”  If someone owns a housekeeping company and their only goal is to get rich cleaning houses (or get rich selling real estate), they become easily frustrated when things do not go right (about to lose a sale).  They could care less about their customer or their employees.  They just want to know why everything keeps breaking, and they can’t ever seem to get ahead (they become the victim).  They are suffering from “Green Rainbow Syndrome.” 

Now consider that the same man who owns the cleaning service company sells out to a lady interested in his business.  The new owner’s business goal or focus is helping as many families and business owners so she can free up more time in their lives to spend with their families.  She plans on doing this by taking away many of the tedious time consuming burdens of housekeeping.  She knows the money will come.  She loves to find out what peoples needs are then take over the burdens in their lives.

People love her service and are glad to pay for the quality work she provides.  They tell their neighbors and friends (referrals).  She has a constant flow of appointments to share her service and give a free estimate (lead generation).  She cares about the needs of her employees and has found it inspires them to share her vision of offering her customers not just a clean house but also the freedom to do the things they are called to do.

Does this not describe how a Real Estate Consultant should approach his or her business?  I would like to suggest to any Real Estate Consultant that reads this article, they are NOT in the business of selling real estate!  I would suggest they are in the transportation business!  They help people get from point A to point B in regards to meeting their real estate needs.  If this is true and that you are truly in the transportation business, would it not also be true that from time to time, trucks get flat tires, engine blow, they are delayed due to road construction and drivers get sick?  When you are working with buyers and sellers should you not only “expect” detours but also “plan” for them?  Having a goal to close 100% of the sales opportunities you encounter is admirable.  However, real life has shown us that it is not realistic to expect a 100% closure rate.

I cannot tell you how many times I have heard someone say, “I have done this and I have done that and this is how my buyers or sellers treat me!”  Or, “can you imagine, they bought a FSBO over the weekend, how can they do this to me?”   “I worked so hard and now I have nothing to show for it!”

So what!  Get over it!  In most cases, when a buyer or seller goes about their business without you, you need to take a very serious look at how you conduct your business.  You can do everything right and not get the sale and sometimes you can do everything wrong and get the sale.  The truth lies somewhere in between.  If your first thought when experiencing a problem sale is that you are about to lose the commission, you may be suffering from the “Green Rainbow Syndrome”.  Your first thought should be where did I fail my customer?  What needs did I fail to recognize and satisfy?  Did I do a proper “needs analysis” on my customer?  What made them do what they did?  Did I explain to my customers how I work and how I am compensated?  Did I promise them my loyalty and did I ask for theirs?

Yes we would all like to be rich and financially independent.  You cannot, however, work toward that goal at the expense of your customers and your own reputation.  Like Michael Dunn said in his book,  “Green Rainbow Syndrome (GRS)…is probably the number one mental disease not registered with the Center for Disease Control (CDC).”

He goes on to say, “The pursuit of money seems to produce a cancerous growth in our soul which can easily consume us and take our happiness.  Yet, if our goal is to serve and help others (notice he did not say our goal was to earn a commission) it seems to open up the supernatural flow of help we need to overcome any obstacle including financial.”

To sum it up, if you are focused on the gain or loss of a commission check, you are effectively conducting a GOING OUT OF BUSINESS SALE!  I’ll call this the GOOBS Syndrome!

Could this possibly be where the term “Goober” comes from?  I would like to think that Goobers only work for our competition.