How Your Personality Affects Your Business

AMIABLE: Supportive, Dependable and Pliable
These agents are kind, loyal, patient, risk adverse, non-confrontational and agreeable.

CHALLENGE: If this is you…you often say yes when you really want to say no. Clients and other agents may take advantage of your kindness. You often lose in negotiations because you give up too much. You often take overpriced listings to appease the seller. You often work too hard and give too much in relationship to the commission you receive. You often have time management issues because you have a hard time saying no to people.

SOLUTION: The first word you need to learn is “no”. To give you the courage to say no, you need to understand your cost of doing business. When you understand how much it costs you to market a listing, it is easier to say no when a seller asks you to cut your commission or take an overpriced listing. Understand that you exchange time for money.  If you do too much for clients, you’ll end up working for minimum wage. Every hour you spend with a client is an hour you can’t spend with someone else.

EXPRESSIVE: Enthusiastic, upbeat, talkative, dramatic
These agents are fun to be around, but their lives are a hot mess. They tend to talk more than they listen. They are unpredictable and emotional. They crave recognition. They are master socializers. They get a lot of business from being the life of the party at social events.

CHALLENGE: If this is you…you are creative and come up with brilliant ideas, but you often lack the focus to implement them because you have “shiny object syndrome”. You are great at making money but spend it willy-nilly.  You have trouble staying on schedule. You often get distracted and are late for appointments.

SOLUTION: In a perfect world you’d have an assistant to keep you organized. If you can’t afford an assistant, you need to spend time every Sunday time-blocking your calendar for the week ahead to remind yourself of your commitments. Spend 15 minutes every morning reprioritizing your “to do” list for the day to stay focused. As much as you dislike planning, it is critical that you do a business plan to understand your expenses, so you are less likely to spend money on frivolous purchases.

ANALYTICAL: Serious, calculated, indecisive, persistent
These agents often appear serious and unsocial, but it is because they analyze every detail of a conversation before giving a calculated response. They are persistent, ask a lot of questions and pay attention to the details. They prefer facts without emotion, which is great for commercial sales, but not so good for messy, emotional residential sales.

CHALLENGE: If this is you…you often get caught up in planning versus doing. You love checklists and systems but you spend too much time organizing your business, rather than going out and getting business. You talk yourself out of many opportunities because you analyze all the reasons why it shouldn’t work.

SOLUTION: Bridge to your ace. When it comes to networking, you are better to focus on business groups such as BNI, Chamber of Commerce and Builders’ Associations. You will enjoy marketing rather than hardcore sales. You will be great at selling residential-revenue properties (duplexes and triplexes) which require knowledge in cap rates, gross rent multipliers, etc.

DRIVER: Strong, determined, confident, aggressive
These agents like to be in control. They are task oriented and efficient. They are hunters, so they love hard-core sales, but place little emphasis on building long-term relationships. They are risk takers and doers. They are more focused on production goals than work-life balance.

CHALLENGE: If this is you…your drive is insatiable. You can easily become a top producer but only if you understand how your personality affects others. When in conflict, you can often win the battle but lose the war. You become aggressive, and your conversation skills tend to be sharp, so you intimidate others. This may be great for winning the immediate opportunity, but not for building long-term relationships. You are not the best at client retention because you find maintaining relationships tedious.

SOLUTION: Think before you speak. Kindness is not a weakness. If you want business to get easier, you need to focus on the relationship more than the sale. People love humility, not arrogance. Shift to a win-win mentality…every negotiation isn’t a zero-sum game.