“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.
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