A month back I wrote about what it was all about to be a part of the Coldwell Banker Real Estate network — a part of what we call Generation Blue… and this is what I said:
What IS Generation Blue?
Well, after touring the country and hearing discussions from experts about what a Baby Boomer is supposed to do, vs a Gen Yer or Xer, and putting people into neat categories defined by birthdate, I was having trouble jiving this thought with what I was seeing from the over 20,000 agents and managers I actually met. They don’t fall into nice neat categories. What they do and how they adapt to new technologies, or their abilities to negotiate the best real estate transactions for their clients depends on their mindset and not their age.
So here’s another, non Coldwell Banker ® Gen Blue example that I came across last night. Great video from the Washington Post about their new iPad app. Take a look here...
Loved All the President’s Men and this promo even has a Robert Redford reference. But the kicker is how 89 year old Ben Bradlee has to show Woodward how to use the iPad and the app. Just brilliant.
This is where it’s going, so if the average age of today’s real estate seller is 49 and the average age of a first time buyer is 29, according to the National Association of Realtors ®, sellers need to take a piece of Ben’s advice. Get with today’s technology so that you know what buyers want and how they get their information. But if you don’t or can’t, a Coldwell Banker Gen Blue agent will be there to help you…
Photo from linked article from Huffington Post…
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Real Estate and Joshua Patz, Dustin Schmidt. Dustin Schmidt said: Gen Blue, Part Deux http://goo.gl/fb/Zh2Xd […]
Finding out how our clients prefer to be communicated with is a topic I consistently discuss with the Coldwell Banker agents I mentor. By asking quality questions of buyers and sellers, we not only discover their preferred mode of communication, but we also learn a tremendous amount about their expectations. Once I understand their expectations, I simply need to cater to their needs while avoiding methods they do not prefer.
For instance, I have sold real estate in Silicon Valley for the past 21 years and I have come across many different attitudes regarding buyer and seller expectations. Logically, an agent could assume that our "sophisticated Silicon Valley" clients would be expecting their information to be delivered using the latest technology, whether it was voice mail, fax, email, website, blog, text, a tweet or a comment on FaceBook. What I have found is that without asking good, solid questions on their preferred communication, an agent might as well have thrown a dart in the dark! I have many of my clients say "I get so many emails at work each day that I can't even make it through all of them". On the other hand I have clients who say "texting me is the best way to communicate". The bottom line is unless an agent has a solid plan of what questions to ask to find their clients preferred mode, they risk alienating their client.
I have always asked my clients what is the most efficient way to get them information. I break it down into two different categories:
1. Vital, time sensitive information
2. Information I want them to have, but not crucial to the moment
By categorizing information in this way, I am letting my extremely busy clients know I understand how valuable their time is. After all is said and done, our clients want to feel we understand them and their needs. What better way to achieve this than to be sure we are communicating with them on their terms.
There's no doubt about it, most first-time buyers are tech savvy. They know and understand texting, fan pages, twitter, reading blogs, and using the web to perform their searches. They are computer wise and Internet smart. To thrive, not just survive, we have to be just as technical or we run the risk of losing their business…if we want business, we need to go where the consumer is at, not wait for them to come to us.