How to Lose Clients & Alienate Colleagues
October 29, 2009
By: Eric Bramlett
Author's Website: http://www.ericbramlett.com/
In college, and for a couple of years after (including the first 6 months I worked as a licensed agent,) I was a bartender. It was a pretty cush job – working ~25 hours/week and meeting interesting people who had to be nice to you in order to get a drink. During happy hour, you’d see the regulars, and strangers would wander in. Conversations were had. And I had one rule: No politics or religion. Seriously.
There is no faster way to alienate someone you don’t know well than to bring up politics or religion. There are typically two sides to any political issue, and by taking a side, there’s usually a 50% chance that you will disagree with the person you’re speaking with, or people listening in. The more issues you discuss, the greater the chance that you’ll disagree with your listeners on some issue. While that doesn’t matter much to an engineer, to a salesperson, it’s quite poignant. If you publicly debate politics or religion, you’re probably alienating potential or current clients.
Over the past year or so, a few minor events have made significant impact on how I manage my web presence:
About a year ago, my business partner & I hired a development team to begin work on our RETS mapping system. After the initial meeting with the main contact, I googled him and found his twitter page. Scanning through his tweets, this guy was very politically & religiously opinionated, and I disagreed with him a lot. A few months later, we were approached by another development team, and we moved our project to them for a number of reasons. While only a subconscious part of the decision, I would be lying if I said that his twitter account didn’t influence me at all. I now protect my tweets from public viewing. Check it out.
About six months ago, I was working with a couple buying a home in Austin. We’re roughly the same age, and we really hit it off. After our second or third appointment, one of them mentioned a blog post I’d written on “my personal blog” that he thought was particularly entertaining. While it entertained this client, I looked at the post and realized that it could have just as easily offended another, and I very well could have lost clients over it. I audited the blog and buried everything potentially offensive (by changing the dates to 2007.) There’s no such thing as a “personal blog,” as you have no control over who reads your blog posts, or comments.
Very recently, a local colleague forwarded ~100 of her closest friends & me a politically charged email that I highly disagreed with. As I see email as a bit more personal than other forms of social media, I’ve always restricted anything potentially offensive to family & friends (who I don’t care if I offend.) However, I don’t want to continue receiving email like this from someone I’ve done business with, and will do business with again, as I want to perform my job at the highest level. I emailed her and ask that she refrain from sending me any political messages again. I’ll reply in this manner to any colleague that emails me political or religious messages, no matter if I agree or disagree with them.
The internet, and recent social media innovations in particular, have helped us get to know each other a lot better. There are many people that I consider friends who I’ve never met, or spoken with on the phone. If one of my friends would like to discuss politics or religion via IM, email, over the phone, or over beers, I’m game. Friendship should be stronger than political or religious differences. Professional relationships, however, rarely are.
As agents who use our web presence to find new clients, and ultimately pay our mortgages, we should be hyper-conscious of our online personae. The next time you get the urge to write that post or comment about how great or horrible the latest political move by your favorite or most hated politician is, think about all of the potential clients who probably disagree. Half of them do.
- Stumble it!
- Categories: Identity Management, SMM
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Karen Goodman on October 29, 2009 6:41 pm
Agree 100%. I am very aware that anything controversial could lose clients for me.
Anyone relying on finding clients to make a living needs to be very careful of what they say in the public sphere.
Josh Ferris on October 29, 2009 8:57 pm
Great, well written post! I agree with you and Karen 100%. There are two laws (well four if you count them individually) I abide by in business:
1) Never discuss politics or religion, ever.
2) Don't do business with friends or family.
I think a lot of times we write on real estate blogs like this one and assume the audience is made up of only real estate industry people. What a disappointing shock it would be to discover a client opted to no longer work with you because you inadvertently offended them with an old blog article.
Locksmith Services on October 30, 2009 2:57 pm
You are so very right………Many a time unknowingly you may loose on a really good client without even knowing how you would loose him. Though if you see from the other side of the table you can make a very good deal by knowing som of the ffacts prehanded……so it depends on which side of teh tabel are u….are u the vendor's hat or buyers..
Locksmith Services on October 30, 2009 2:57 pm
You are so very right………Many a time unknowingly you may loose on a really good client without even knowing how you would loose him. Though if you see from the other side of the table you can make a very good deal by knowing som of the ffacts prehanded……so it depends on which side of teh tabel are u….are u the vendor's hat or buyers..
Real Estate Is Local – So Is Leadership | RISMedia | Management Business Wisdom on October 31, 2009 8:39 am
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Marlow on November 2, 2009 10:29 am
I couldn't disagree more.
Why would I want to work with someone who didn't respect me, my beliefs and my opinions? And why would I want to work with someone who I thought was incorrect, misguided or just plain wrong? That just doesn't make any sense. Unless one values money over values. Then I guess it's a good strategy. And Josh's rules that include not doing business with friends or family just seems ludicrous to me. If your friends and family won't work with you or hire you, how could you ask a stranger to hire you?
Josh Ferris on November 2, 2009 10:45 am
Marlow — I might not have properly conveyed what I was trying to say with that point. I will not do business with friends or family, not the other way around.
The reason for this is simple: Imagine someone in your family asks you to find a home for them and they bought it in 2005 at a great price (at the time). Now the market has taken a significant plunge in home values and they're wondering who to blame for owning a home that's worth less than what they owe? After all, you, the family REALTOR, told them they were getting a great price on the house (and they were, at the time.)
I would rather not have every family function with that person revolve around their home's value and why I couldn't see the market taking such a steep tumble four years in the future.
It's a personal comfort zone thing. I always work to get the best price for a client in a home they're happy to own but there needs to be some separation between your work life and personal life. That's my view anyway.
If you are the family REALTOR who has managed to accurately forecast market changes years into the future and verified every inspector's results to ensure nothing will ever fail in their home in the future then I have much to learn from you.
ericbramlett on November 2, 2009 1:02 pm
I guess I'm a little more of a capitalist than a politician. If I owned a “widget sales” store, I wouldn't feel inclined to post political signs in front of my store. Just because I don't vote for the same person as my customers doesn't mean that I shouldn't sell them a widget. If you're willing to lose out on sales for the sake of politics, then that's a decision you're making. If you'll notice, the title of the post is simply “how to lose clients….”
personal career coach on November 3, 2009 11:38 pm
I agree that by having any thing controversial the clients can break contact with you. So we should maintain good relation ship with our clients.
life coach on November 20, 2009 1:58 am
you don’t know well than to bring up politics or religion.i think that proper good relationship should be maintain with the client.
geschenkefrmnner on December 29, 2009 10:32 pm
Hi,
I believe word of mouth is one of the best ways to get clients. Once you start getting clients, treat them as 'People You Know' and ask them to refer new clients and tell people they know about you.
Grüner Tee
vessel sinks on May 10, 2010 11:38 pm
The internet,and recent social media innovations in particular, have helped us get to know each other a lot better while i think the Face book and Twitter are the best form.
nile cruise on June 2, 2010 12:38 am
Friendship should be stronger than political or religious differences. Professional relationships,however,rarely are.
nile cruise on June 2, 2010 7:38 am
Friendship should be stronger than political or religious differences. Professional relationships,however,rarely are.
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