Time to Be with People
One of the core elements of our ethos and Select Title Fredericksburg culture is that we are bringing calm through a quiet, efficient process making more room for the actual relationship. Did you read that right? More room for the actual relationship. Because we know that all business is driven by the art, the strength and (most of all) the time spent in building relationships with people. Litmus question: if all you did was your job, but for a faceless, mindless robot, would it be less valuable to you? For us, that would be hell.
If we make more time, what fills it?
So we value people, it takes time to really get to know someone, and the ever-idolized golden goose of “trust” is closely tied to that deeper relational material. It’s pretty simple, we just don’t trust faceless companies as much as we trust the warm smile and firm handshake of someone we know in more than just the workplace context. So when we sit here and espouse all this time-making efficiency, what are you going to do to spend that time we create for you in a meaningful way? No, not more emails, please, we’re all going to die with unread emails in our inbox. And no, not more sales calls, there’s a place for that. Humbly, we would suggest using the margins that are created by efficiencies in your work process to “waste” time with people.
What? Become efficient so I can waste time?
Someone (possibly Stephen Covey) once said, “You can be effective with people, but never efficient with them.” He was edging in on what we’re talking about. Clients can smell that “all business” attitude on a person and the resulting defensiveness and degrading trust is the bane of many professionals, especially in transactional services like real estate. Treat people like a “deal” and they may stick with you through one transaction, but you can bet your top and bottom dollar that they will be keeping an eye out for another person to use on the next one. So if every action has an equal and opposite reaction, the counterintuitive “slow down” with people must yield the opposite result.
Before you sneer, think about it.
When you are with someone and you don’t jump straight to talking about business, or (heaven forbid) launch into your self-aggrandizing elevator speech, you create room to grow context with people. Questions should become the new replacement for the sales-pitch. When we become curious about people, we want to know their life, their contexts, their likes, and dislikes. When we approach people with an ear for their stories, they are quite literally inviting us into their lives. And when you remember a story, oh my, that’s like laying railroad tracks for the trust train. But good dialogue is slow. It happens in simple words and a very “regular” meter. Hit the gas and rush a conversation, and you’ll watch people’s armor come back. People feel highly valued when you are willing to linger with them, in whatever it is they feel led to talk about.
That’s what we mean when we use our efficient process to create time for the actual relationship.
It’s not about doing more, it’s about doing better. Look, where we sit, we see the tail of the tape. We oversee hundreds of closings, and we observe the relational integrity of the parties and their salesperson or broker. This isn’t just a piece of our mind, it’s an observation (nearly scientific) that we are in a unique position to make. That is: People with stronger relationships do more transactions. And, they’re smoother. A pothole tells you a lot about the condition of your car. Hit a snag while navigating a rusty and barely-there relationship and you’ve never seen more damage. Conversely, you can tackle a lot of rough terrain when you’ve built that relationship like an ICON Land Rover. Solid, Steel, welded slowly and carefully, with a lot of intention.
None of us can do everything in life. But rather than feeling like a free moment is just another chance to be busy, why not make it about someone else? Why not share a few minutes of wasted time just getting to know someone? You may be surprised just how many minutes you’ll have if you work with us, so we hope you spend them wisely.