You might remember that I got into the locksmith trade while performing weekly property visits as a “baby sitter” of foreclosed homes. One of the perks of that job was sitting in on the Monday morning team meeting at a nearby coffee shop.
Money was tight during this season of my life, so getting free coffee and cinnamon rolls at these meetings was a real treat. Once we were seated and enjoying our goodies, Scott, the buyer’s agent, grabbed the weekly printout and gave a brief status report on each home in the inventory.
Some homes were occupied with people. Others were occupied with personal property. Trash outs were in process for some, while others were cleaned up and market ready.
At times Scott would stop and say, “This property is under contract with such and so REALTOR®,” followed by, “we just got an offer from such and so REALTOR®…..”
Since I was new to the real estate community back then, the names he rattled off sounded like famous people to me. Perhaps it was the articulate ring in Scott’s voice…. “This one is under contract with Adam Graddy….we got an offer from Kim Gaisford….”
After these meetings, when I started my daily “baby sitting” rounds, I would drive by properties and see signs bearing the names of these “famous” REALTORS®!
“There’s that famous REALTOR® I heard about in the meeting this morning!” I’d say to myself. “Wow! Look! That’s them on that billboard!”
Naturally, when these “famous” folks would call me to help with their locks, I would save them to my phone and revel in the fact that I had their personal cell number! Wow!
You’re probably laughing right now and think this perspective is foolish. But I’ll tell you what: it has made building a locksmith business a blast.
Is everybody fun to serve? Of course not. But I confess this “famous” perspective energizes our customer service and continually fuels a business that is now proud to enter its second decade.