Doug Jones's (dougj) Blog

Real Estate and Finance has advantages that carry over to all business. I am a magician and constantly get magic requests online. I received two requests for magic this weekend that were clearly fraudulent.  The first person contacted me via text and wanted magic on a certain date for a "homecomi...

When I first took sales training one of the things we were required to do was to gather packet of testimonial letters. I real up to date testimonial was to actually put your client on the phone with a satisfied customer. Today we have things such as Yelp, Angie's List, Home Adviser, You Tube,Goog...

Buyers are interested in the house layout, the immediate community, and school ratings. They are of course also interested in price and financing as well as the condition of the house. There is one more area that Buyers and their Realtor need to focus on. Who are the neighbors?  I sold a home on ...

One thing I have learned about me over the years is that I am consistently inconsistent.And because I am consistently inconsistent my results may move like a roller coaster with highs and lows.What to do ? The answer is always back to basics. I played football 9 years and every year the coach wou...

Today has been a calamity. I was going to say something like calamity of events but looked the word up and it is a noun; So just calamity.I have been working on a loan that needed special circumstances for the title company, the bank, the seller, sellers attorney and the chapter 13 court. After m...

Out of ideas for marketing? Here is something you can do that is a re-hash but will get you thinking again and you will quickly see how valuable you are !If you have been an Active Rain Blogger for a few years simply go thru your blogs and and when you click on a blog you will notice that an Icon...

An outsider looking in will see real estate as a simple transaction...but there are negotiations everywhere and they are complex;  the appraisal can change the sales price and need negotiation, the property inspection and termite report many times have to be negotiated. Other items to negotiate; ...

When I would teach a sales class my own sales production would always increase. Always. Why would that be? I realize that there is a sales step that I have never heard a sales trainer  focus on or point out its value.  That step is Concentration. We used to teach a five step sales approach; Atten...

"He is with a client"  These words were part of a sales tape I listened to a few years ago. I cannot remember the name of the speaker or the name of the tape series. I do remember the ideas were a little off center but the reasoning made sense.The speaker asked if when in a fancy restaurant do yo...

This past two weeks two Realtors have approached me and asked how to get more business. I used to teach sales but now I rarely give any suggestions unless asked specifically. Well, I was asked so here are my simple words of sales wisdom for today. The STP idea comes from a sales book by Tom Hopki...