When You Are Being Judged By Your Actions, Act Accordingly

March 16, 2007 |

I wrote a few months back about how marketing isn’t just about pretty ads and effective copy. Sometimes, marketing yourself is about what you are communicating through your actions as well.  Both referees and real estate agents are judged largely by their actions. Two recent events remind me of this point, one from the basketball floor, and one from the real estate trenches.

A few weeks ago, I was watching a local high school basketball game. I had arrived early, and it was before the game had started, so the officiating crew was out on the floor observing the players during warm-ups. The coaching staff for one of the teams had congregated near their bench, while the other coaching staff was talking amongst themselves at the exit from the locker-rooms, which was on the opposite side of the court from their bench. As these coaches began to walk to their bench, they had to come across the floor in front of the officiating crew. The head coach from the team approached the crew and began conversing with them, shaking hands, smiling, and being generally friendly. I immediately knew the impact from this small, seemingly benign interaction.

When I looked towards the coaching staff of the other team, you could see the head coach pointing at the congregation of opposing coaches and officials, and talking to his staff in what can best be described as a frustrated, and animated manner. It was obvious to me that the coach was offended by the action of the officials and opposing coaches. The game had not yet started, and the officiating crew had already put themselves in a dangerous position with one of the coaches just by that simple action. While they didn’t intend anything by it, that didn’t matter. Marketing isn’t always about intent, but it is definitely about effect, good or bad.

Fast forward to this past weekend. My wife and I both showed homes to clients, and our listing clients had showings as well. One of our listing clients had the unfortunate experience of having and agent call to show the house, and then that agent never showed up. This is something that occurs more frequently than it should. It has become a sad, unfortunate fact of selling a home.

In this case, not only did the agent not show up, but the agent never called to let our client know that plans had changed, and that she wasn’t going to show the home. Our client was upset because he made plans to have the house ready for the showings, which includes tidying up the house and getting together the rest of the family so that they can be out of the house for the showings. Unbeknown to the other agent, our client now has a less than glowing opinion of her due to the fact that she not only didn’t show up, but knowing she wasn’t going to show up, did not call the seller to let her know she wasn’t going to show up or call afterwards to apologize for not showing up.  Our client simply expected the courtesy of some type of communication from the other agent; one which I think is deserved, frankly.

What you do and the way in which you do it says a lot about you to other people.  In fact, unless they have the time to really get to know you, your actions are the only way you will be judged by most people.  In both of the cases above, a very simple action has the potential to cause very big problems.  For the officials, their credibility is called into question without ever having made a single call.  For the agent who didn’t show up, a simple phone call would have been enough to avoid hurt feelings and a tarnished reputation.  There are those that might say that these types of tarnishes are slight, and hardly worth worrying about.  When it is something that is completely avoidable and well within your control, however, any amount of tarnish is too much.

Is it too much to expect officials to say, “good evening coach, I can’t talk right now, I have to be with my crew,” or for agents to call and say, “I’m sorry, our plans have changed, and I won’t be able to show the house”?  I don’t think so.  In fact, these two simple sentences could have made all the difference.  Sometimes, the devil truly is in the details.  If your not careful, that little devil has the power to reek havoc on your reputation.

[real estate, realtor, charlottesville, virginia, reputation, officiating [/tags]

Posted by Daniel | Filed Under Buying, Industry Issues, Officiating, Selling 

Comments

One Response to “When You Are Being Judged By Your Actions, Act Accordingly”

  1. Jeff Brown on March 16th, 2007 3:45 am

    Daniel - You caused a few umpire memories to remind me of how right you are. As usual, you’ve nailed this subject to the wall.

    I was doing the plate in a pre-season college baseball tournament. I happened to know several players on one team very well since they’d played with and against my son, (an injured teammate) since Little League.

    The visiting team was from San Bernardino, which had many players for whom English was their second language.

    So we’re in the bottom of the first inning and the leadoff batter for the home team comes up, taps my shin-guard with his bat, and says, “Hey Jeff, long time no see - how’s Josh’s shoulder coming?” Well, the catcher doesn’t say anything, but takes an extra second to throw the ball back to his pitcher.

    This happens three more times, with almost the identical conversation. The catcher is getting irritated, and goes out to his pitcher. I follow.

    To make a long story short, the head coach came out to add his two cents. I patiently explained my history with some of the players, and asked the catcher if he thought my strike zone had been fair so far. He said it had been very fair, and as a matter of fact he loved how I was giving his guy the corners.

    The head coach smiled at me, looked at is two players and told them both to shut up and play.

    Of course, between innings I had to explain to the home team’s coach why there was so much laughter on the mound. :) Sometimes you can’t win for losing.

    What capped off the situation for me was when the visiting catcher came up to bat for the first time. He tapped my shin-guard with his bat and said, “Hey Jeff, long time no see. How’s Josh’s shoulder doing?”

    Now I had to explain why the catcher, the hitter and I were all laughing our heads off. :)

    Again - great post.

    [Reply]

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