Working in an industry like real estate, it’s inevitable that we are going to run across problem clients. There’s no way around it; it’s just part of the deal.
But it doesn’t need to be.
We’re going to run across all kinds of different personalities while we’re working, and it’s imperative that we learn that some clients’ money is worth more than other clients’ money. Even though the same dollar amount is deposited in our bank account, the fact remains that there’s a big difference in our own client experience.
With some clients (God bless them), the transaction goes smoothly, and everyone ends up happy with the proceedings. Unfortunately, there are the other clients: the ones we all remember. The ones who, eventually, move us to a point where we would simply give them all the money that we stood to make from them as a customer, just to make them go away and exit our life forever.
Here’s a large sum of money; now please just go away.
While there are certainly individuals that we wouldn’t wish on our worst enemies, the fact remains that the reason we all too often find ourselves working with this type of client lies much closer to home. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, the problem is not with the customers, the problem is with us.
When we don’t properly vet our clients, we end up working with crazy people.
Obviously, when we first start out in the business, we’re going to be dealing with more than our fair share of crazy people. The experienced professionals have already weeded them out of their pool of potential clients, and we’re left to put them on our schedule.
What powers of the universe are conspiring to put us in this situation? How (and more importantly, why) the other inspectors seem immune to this same problem is the $64,000 question. Figuring out the answer to this question can mean the difference between a successful inspection career and one that we’d rather not suffer through.
As a professional, there is value in the service that we provide to our clients, that fact’s not up for debate. The bigger question is how do we, as business owners (ultimately, a business of one), place a dollar amount on our value? The amount that everyone decides to charge for their services really hinges on two important questions. We’ve got to ask ourselves:
- How much do I believe I’m worth?
- How much do my clients believe I’m worth?
If we imagine that we’re a $300 per hour home inspector (which, by the way, is a thing), but our clients don’t think we’re worth $300 an hour, it’s not going to do us much good to try to sell ourselves as a $300 per hour home inspector.
If we find ourselves consistently doing inspections for crazy people, there’s only one way out of that trap: we need to figure out how to increase our value in the eyes of our potential customer base. The quickest way to do that is by becoming a better-informed inspector. The more we learn, the more knowledge we possess, the better we are at finding answers to our clients’ questions, the more valuable we will be to those clients.
The more value our clients see in our service, the more they’ll be willing to pay for something that they can’t get elsewhere. If we’re offering the same “fast-food” style inspection that they can get from anyone, there’s no incentive for them to pay any more than the least amount they can for that service.
If we’re sitting around, wishing that we could be that inspector, the one that’s making $150, $200, $300 or more for an hour of their services, the truth is that there’s really only one person that can do anything about that.
Yes, a quality education is expensive but compared to the cost of a lack of education, it’s really a bargain at any price.
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Thanks, Joe
