In my last couple of posts I talked about some of the ways that I have observed people “provide value” in interesting or unique ways. In this post I wanted to share a story of one of the ways my team found to ‘provide value’ to a builder who is a valued referral source.
One of our agents was invited out to do a presentation for a team of builder sales people. Some of them she had worked with in the past and some she was hoping to solidify a relationship with. One of the things that the sales manager mentioned to her was that she may want to try and find something unique to discuss, given the number of lender and mortgage reps that solicit them.
She came to me and we brainstormed on what type of information she might present over and above the usual platitudes that many lenders and brokers offer. In the process we discussed how I had been really getting my head around social media and the new way of reaching out to both consumers and business partners. She had recently seen me give a presentation on “Relationship Building in a Digital World” and suggested this might make an interesting presentation in the context of how the sales reps might embrace social media to try and drive more business or potential clients to their show homes.
We agreed on a modified version of the presentation tweaked to this specific builder and off we went. When we arrived you could tell that the sales team was quite intrigued by the fact that a mortgage broker was coming to give them a presentation on social media. There was definitely a buzz in the air.
We started right into the presentation without any preamble or sales pitch prior. They all knew who we were and what we did. Well, what was supposed to be about a 20 minute presentation turned into about 45 minutes because of all the questions they had. Talk about engagement!
I concluded the presentation and was about to wrap up when the sales manager turned to the mortgage associate and said “Well, tell us what is going on in the world of mortgages” and proceeded to prompt her to promote all of the skills and attributes she brought to the sales team as a professional mortgage broker. What a fantastic way to be able to present your skills. Have their boss ask you all the right questions without it being a canned ‘sales pitch’.
Once again, value came from a little outside the box!
