The Power of Selling a Dream
If not for the price of a $20 ticket, that might have been the end of the story. But in the telling of any fairy tale or epic adventure, there are always those key moments when the naive hero stumbles across a piece of good luck. Jack, of Jack and the Beanstalk fame, for instance, came home with three magic beans for which he had traded the family’s last asset, a cow. His mother, crushed and beaten by Jack’s foolishness, tossed the three beans into the garden, and that should have been the end of it. But the beans were actually magic, and a giant beanstalk grew. Jack climbed the beanstalk, discovered a kingdom filled with riches, killed the giant who ruled the kingdom, and came home to a hero’s welcome, making his poor old mom proud of him after all.
In Dave Liniger’s case, a $20 ticket to see a real estate motivational speaker amounted to his handful of magic beans.
He went to the talk because he had already paid and, well, . . . what the hell. The magic speaker was a man by the name of Dave Stone. Hearing him talk at the Mountain Shadow Country Club in Phoenix was the turning point in Dave Liniger’s life. He sat in the first row, mesmerized. Stone was a brilliant real estate man who loved to teach, the predecessor of all great real estate instructors; and his words penetrated Liniger’s brain like none he had ever heard before. At the break, Liniger ran up to Stone and introduced himself. They talked until the speech started up again. Liniger watched Stone from the front row and felt the power of ideas burning in his mind.
At the next break and every break that followed, Liniger jumped up to talk to Stone some more. No doubt, Stone must have been puzzled by the young man’s enthusiasm and zeal, but he gave Liniger his full attention. Liniger told Stone that if only he could talk like Stone, explain things the way he did, he would be able to get a listing, too. This admission puzzled Stone, and he asked Liniger how many listings he’d gotten so far in his career. Liniger answered none. So Stone asked Liniger how long he had been trying. Liniger said that he’d been working at it for six months. Stone was probably shocked; but he kept a straight face and gave Liniger a reasonable, sound, and helpful suggestion: Quit.
Coming from a motivational speaker, this might have been a tough piece of advice to ignore. But Liniger took it as a kind of reverse psychology, a test to see how up he was for a challenge. In truth, it was the most motivating thing Liniger had ever heard, and he felt as though he had been knocked out by a hammer and woken up a changed man. On his way home that night, he stopped at the grocery store to buy a carton of milk for his family. A Hispanic girl was in front of him in line. She was about 18 years old, and she was talking to her father, an older man standing next to her. Liniger could understand enough Spanish to know that they were probably talking about real estate, and it inspired him to do something out of character: He spoke up and asked them if they were trying to sell a house. The girl told Liniger that her father was going to be moving from Tempe, Arizona, to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and he had to get rid of his home. Liniger looked at the old man and said, “Se?or, do you understand how much a real estate commission is?” The old man shook his head, and the girl said that he didn’t speak any English, which was why the whole ordeal was so confusing.
In that instant, Liniger realized that the customer needed him more than he needed the customer. Liniger knew more about the real estate business than the old man did. Liniger could speak English, and the old man could not. He had never felt so capable and confident in his life. “I can help you,” he said to the old man. The old man nodded, as though he understood; and Liniger felt deeply touched by the trust and vulnerability in his gaze.
Liniger went with them to see the house the next day. It was a fixer-upper, one that would have easily fit into the book about buying a distressed property and turning it over for a profit. Liniger knew all about fixer-uppers from his own investment projects, so he felt even more confident. He knew he could sell the house. In fact, he knew that people would pay more for a fixer-upper than they probably should. He listed the property, and it sold that very night for full price. When he woke up the next morning in bed with his wife, he said, “Honey, you’re sleeping with one hell of a fine real estate agent.” She asked him what he meant, and he said, “Do you realize that 100 percent of my listings have sold for 100 percent of the price in one hour or less ?” They both laughed because they knew that somehow, overnight, everything had changed for them.
It didn’t stop there. The young Hispanic girl and her fianc? were going to get married. Liniger took them out that day, chatting with them like old friends by that point, and sold them a nice house before the afternoon was over. Then they referred him to another Hispanic couple, and Liniger sold them a house, too. At the end of 48 hours, Liniger had four sales and a solid listing. Two days earlier, he had been at the end of a six-month dry spell. The only difference in him from one day to the next was a remarkable change in confidence, a feeling of certainty, and some reinforcing success. He felt suddenly as though there was nothing to this whole real estate business except one huge beanstalk that led straight up to the kingdom of riches. If there was a giant waiting for him up at the top, well, that sounded like fun, too.
Technorati Tags: real estate marketing
Jonathan Steele, RN (Nurse, Artist & Husband of Realtor) says:
Thanks for sharing that.
It’s a great story with a few simple messages.
1) We may just get what we ask for (if you ask for nothing…) And of course it helps if you learn to thrive on rejection.
2)The sooner we try to help other get what they want the sooner we will get what we want.
December 1, 2006 — 10:31 pm