Top Producers Talk for Food

 

“If I see farther than other men”, said Isaac Newton, “It is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants”.

 

Five years ago a creative, rookie Arizona real estate agent named Brett sent a certified letter to a local top producer named Russ. In that letter there was a check for $500 and a request for lunch. The request was granted. The luncheon took place. A lasting friendship was formed. Ideas were exchanged. And a superstar was born.

Five years after that lunch, that rookie agent has a listing inventory of 170 homes! Today, they both participate in top producer panels.

 

What’s the moral of this story? Lesson number one is that all top producers don’t ‘eat their young’. Many are approachable, kind, and willing to share their ‘secrets’ and scars. All it takes is a courageous rookie and a free lunch. Unfortunately, many rookies, unlike Brett, would rather learn by trial and error, than ‘pick some fruit from very tall trees’.

 

Lesson number two comes from Abe Lincoln, who said, “If I had a week to chop down a tree, I’d spend the first day sharpening my saw”.  In this ‘great recession’, some agents have strayed from the basics of education, prospecting, and networking. It’s easy in ‘tough times’ to wish to win by doing less than your best. Brett wanted to become better by talking with the best in the business.

 

Charles ‘Tremendous’ Jones said, “Each of us will be the same person next week, next month, and next year, except for two things; the people you meet and the books you read”. When was the last time you were courageous and took a top producer to lunch?

 

Lesson number three is to ‘get goaling’. Brett had a goal to improve. He realized that ‘success leaves footprints’. Now Brett has a responsibility, as all real ‘top producers’ do, to pay it forward and talk for food.