Now that summer is in full swing, it’s time to catch up on a few good reads. Here’s a list of some of the best books to help motivate and educate real estate professionals…
1. The Seven Levels of Communication by Michael J. Maher
How many of your clients would attend your funeral? One of the top real estate professionals in the country has written a book that details how he became “America’s Most Referred Real Estate Professional”. In (7L) The Seven Levels of Communication, Michael J. Maher tells the inspiring story of real estate agent Rick Masters who is suffering through a down market when he meets a mortgage professional who has built a successful business without advertising or personal promotion.
Step by step he learns to change the way he interacts with his clients and begins to focus on people instead of numbers. Yet with each new success comes a new challenge and Rick soon realizes that if he is to fully utilize the lessons of the (7L), he must be willing to change himself as well as his business. He soon learns, however, that the rewards for doing so are far greater than he had ever imagined. (7L) shows Rick how to build a more profitable business and a more fulfilling life in the process.
2. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcom Gladwell
Gladwell defines a tipping point as “the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point.” The book seeks to explain and describe the “mysterious” sociological changes that mark everyday life. As Gladwell states, “Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread like viruses do.” The examples of such changes in his book include the rise in popularity and sales of Hush Puppies shoes in the mid-1990s and the precipitous drop in the New York City crime rate after 1990.
3. Less Blah Blah More Ah Ha: How Social Savvy Real Estate Agents Become Trusted, Preferred, Referred — and Rewarded by Ken Brand
Ken’s book shines a flood light on how to create modern success?and self-respect by focusing on others; how to listen, share, communicate and serve real people in the real world — a place where selfish sales strategies, arrogance and insensitivity are shunned. The book leads readers through the three stages of Social Savvy Success.
4. We Are All Weird by Seth Godin
For generations, marketers, industrialists and politicians have tried to force us into little boxes, complying with their idea of what we should buy, use or want. And in an industrial, mass-market driven world, this was efficient and it worked. But what we learned in this new era is that mass limits our choice because it succeeds on conformity. As Godin has identified, a new era of weirdness is upon us. People with more choices, more interests and the power to do something about it are stepping forward and insisting that the world work in a different way.
We Are All Weird is a celebration of choice, of treating different people differently and of embracing the notion that everyone deserves the dignity and respect that comes from being heard. The book calls for end of mass and for the beginning of offering people more choices, more interests and giving them more authority to operate in ways that reflect their own unique values.
5. Shift: How Top Real Estate Agents Tackle Tough Times by Gary Keller
Markets shift, and you can too. Sometimes you’ll shift in response to a falling market, and other times you’ll shift to take your business to the next level. Both can transform your business and your life. You can change your thinking, your focus, your actions, and, ultimately, your results to get back in the game and ahead of the competition. The tactics that jump-start your business in tough times will power it forward in good times. No matter the market-shift! Shift explores twelve proven strategies for achieving success in any real estate market.
