I’ve known people who live their whole lives using this philosophy. They put off or refuse to acknowledge problems until the problems grow too big to ignore. Then they don’t have a choice – they have to either deal with the problem or, usually, suffer some pretty serious consequences.
Why would someone operate this way? I’ve found that generally these individuals don’t want to acknowledge the truth, because the truth is messy or painful. So instead, they hope that by ignoring the problem it will magically resolve itself or go away.
I think we’ve all felt this way before in our lives. I wrote a few weeks ago about the importance of stepping on the scale, which is something a lot of us put off doing to avoid the truth about our weight. However, we also know that this kind of procrastination rarely works out well in any situation. Usually, it results in a much larger and more difficult-to-solve problem than it would have been if the problem had been addressed earlier.
In my business, one of the biggest problems that arise from this is when a client is surprised by some information. Usually, the broker learns something that they know the client isn’t going to be happy about and then avoids giving this information to the client. In almost every case, the client will find out eventually. And when they do, they often feel as though they have been misled and negotiated with “in bad faith.”
All of this can be avoided by facing the truth and working with your client in a transparent manner. As soon as a potential source of conflict arises, it’s time to sit down with your client to identify and resolve it.
I typically start these conversations with the approach that we’re all mature adults here, so let’s work together to come up with a solution. Most importantly, I always take ownership for it if my team or I created the problem. By addressing the problem openly as soon as you realize it is an issue, you lay the groundwork for clear, open lines of communication between you and the client going forward. You also go a long way towards establishing a trust between yourself and the client that will be helpful in completing the deal and could potentially lead to other deals in the future.
In commercial real estate, we work with many of our clients for years. I’ve got a few clients whom I have worked with for over 25 years, nearly as long as I have been in this industry. I just completed a transaction with one client who is the 3rd generation of his family that I have worked for.
If you’re going to last that long in this industry, you have to develop solid client relationships built on trust. I have seen many brokers become “Rocket Men”: they soar high and then they crash and burn. The crashes come at different times and for different reasons, but the one constant is that those brokers couldn’t deal with the truth effectively.
Don’t wait until your problems are so big you can’t solve them. In life and in business you’ve got to “get to the truth quick” and deal with problems as they come up.
Have a great weekend,
Ro