RETURN TO HOMEAn Author Wednesday Interview with Jennifer Allan Hagedorn, author of “Prospect with Soul for Real Estate Agents“
In this third book of her “Soul” series, Jennifer Allan Hagedorn guides new and experienced real estate agents to utilize their diverse strengths, personalities, and aspirations to gain new prospective clients. She exaggerates following the Golden Rule of Prospecting: “Prospect Unto Others as You Would Like to Be Prospected Unto”. By being yourself and embracing your strong points, the interaction between an agent and client should be natural and familiar.
In Prospect with Soul, Jennifer examines several “old school” traditional prospecting strategies and teaches agents how to “soulfully” tweak them to better relate and attract to the modern real estate consumer.
Read more for the rest of this great author interview and to learn how you can win a copy of Jennifer’s book!
Q. Thanks for the interview. Can we begin by having you tell us a little bit about yourself and how long you’ve been working in and writing about this topic?
A. Certainly! I started selling real estate in
Q. What’s your new book about? Why did you write it? What main message will readers take away from it?
A. My latest book is called Prospect with Soul for Real Estate Agents and its main message is, well… there are two actually. The first is that you don’t have to change who you are or become someone you don’t recognize in order to successfully prospect for business – you can trust your gut instincts and stay in your comfort zone – in fact, you should! Because when you’re uncomfortable with your prospecting techniques, your audience will sense that discomfort and probably feel uncomfortable right along with you. It’s also, at least to my way of thinking, no fun at all to get up in the morning and do things to build your business that feel unnatural, uncomfortable or even “icky” – and if you aren’t having fun in your real estate career… well, what fun is that? And I firmly believe that “the more fun you have selling real estate, the more real estate you will sell.”
The second message of the book is that there are many traditional prospecting techniques an agent may have disregarded in the past as too uncomfortable, cheesy or aggressive but they can be adjusted so that they aren’t any of those. The book gives several examples of these with common sense ways to alter them to better apply to today’s real estate consumer.
Q. What inspired you to write this book?
A. I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I wrote this book out of a “if you can’t beat them, join them” mindset. I’ve always been frustrated by the real estate industry’s heavy emphasis on prospecting for business over being competent. Even with exceptional practitioners of our craft, new agents are encouraged to hit the streets looking for business before they have any idea what to do with it and then told to simply “fake it until they make it” with their first paying clients.
My first two books (Sell with Soul and If You’re Not Having Fun Selling Real Estate, You’re Not Doing it Right) focus heavily on competence (being a great manager of a real estate transaction) but by far, my most popular blogs, articles and speaking topics have been related to business-building. So, I decided to write a book about prospecting and I’m glad I did. Because if a real estate agent doesn’t have any business to take great care of, all the competence and expertise in the world wouldn’t matter!
Q. What were some of the greatest discoveries, lessons, or findings you came across while doing research and writing this book?
A. One of the epiphanies I came away with was that prospecting for business is far less complicated than we like to make it. Call me cynical, but I believe that an awful lot of sales training programs, systems and tools are intentionally designed to be overly complicated to justify charging exorbitant prices for them.
Seriously having a friendly, intelligent and respectful conversation with someone who might be, or lead you to your next client is a far more effective “technique” than some cheesy script, full-color personal brochure or fancy PowerPoint presentation.
Q. What do you feel sets your book apart from others in the same genre?
A. In my humble opinion, I think the entire “Soul” series, including this last book, gives a whole lot more credit to the intelligence of our audience (our clients, prospects and spheres of influence) than the majority of other training books and programs available.
I highly encourage agents to approach their businesses with the Golden Rule always in the front of their minds. How would they want to be prospected to? How would they want to be treated by their real estate agent? What sorts of things would they expect from a real estate agent they hire or refer? Unfortunately, most real estate sales training seems to encourage us to apply different standards to our prospects and clients than we would want applied to us, which is part of the reason our industry is held in such low regard by the general public.
My message is that the secret to success is not in aggressive marketing and hardcore sales pitches, but rather on being competent in one’s craft.
Q. If someone were a complete newbie when it comes to the topic of your book, what are some steps they could take to dive in and get more educated in this area. (Besides reading your book of course!)
A. I get a lot of inquiries from people who have stumbled onto my website and are wondering which product would best help them. I always tell them to read my book(s) before spending a dime in my bookstore – and I’m happy to send them pdf versions of the books if they don’t want to wait for them to be mailed. I also have several free newsletters, my blog, of course, articles all over the web and I’m pretty easy to reach via e-mail. My philosophy does not resonate with everyone and I’m okay with that, but if it does suit someone, they will know it right away after reading just a few pages of my book or a blog or two.
I’ve realized that my mission in my writing is not to convert anyone away from other styles of selling real estate, but rather to assure agents who intuitively get my message that they can trust their guts, follow their hearts and “sell with their souls.” I’m sort of a preaching-to-the-choir kind of gal with my main goal being assuring the choir that they can indeed sing!
Q. If you could write 1 Golden Rule to take away from your book, what would it be and why?
A. That would probably be the definition of Selling with Soul: that you can “enjoy a wildly successful career selling real estate by treating clients and prospects respectfully, as you yourself would like to be treated!”
Q. What other resources in addition to your book would you recommend to people to learn more about this area?
A. I have loads of free stuff on my website, including newsletters, several blogs and a forum, and I do free teleseminar shows several times a month. I’d also highly recommend reading The Go-Giver and Go-Givers Sell More by Bob Burg and John David Mann. Active Rain (www.activerain.com) is a wonderful blog site for the real estate industry and there’s probably more good information about real estate there for the taking than anywhere else on earth!
Q. What are some of your current projects you’ve been working on in this field?
A. Oh, heavens… where do I start? That’s the curse of the obsessive writer! I just can’t stop coming up with ideas of ways to spread my message and I have a to-do list several pages long. Right now I’m putting the finishing touches on a six-week training program for new real estate agents and next will focus on a follow-up program for first-year-but-not-brand-new agents who want to continue becoming competent, even exceptional real estate agents. I have two more books swirling around in my mind, but they’ll probably have to wait until late 2011 or early 2012. There’s just too much to do between now and then!
Q. Thank you for the interview Jennifer! Would you like to share where we can find you on the web and how we can buy your book?
A. Thank you! My main website is www.SellwithSoul.com and that’s a great place to start. If you’d like an autographed copy of any of my books, you can order them at my bookstore (www.SWSStore.com); volume discounts are available for quantities of five or more. If you have a Kindle or other digital reader, most online bookstores carry the digital versions.
About the Author: Jennifer Allan Hagedorn is a real estate broker, published author, trainer and speaker. Jennifer enjoyed a successful real estate business in
For more information about the author: www.activerain.com/blogs/sellwithsoul
RULES FOR GIVEAWAY – WANT US TO SEND YOU THIS BOOK FOR FREE?
WRITE A COMMENT: Times are tough and we want to know how you are doing! Need to be on a tighter budget? Want to learn how to live “skinny”? Know you spend too much? We want to know how you are doing, how you are managing and what you think you can do better. In other words, why do you need this book? The book won’t be given to the nth participant, but to the best story! Please include an email address we can contact you at if you are the chosen winner!
Want to be a featured author or expert? Send me an email at liz@dalesiegel.com to let us know about you and your book, and we will contact you with the guidelines. If you want your interview to coincide with the day your new book drops, let us know in advance. Be aware, we book months in advance, so get on the schedule early.