We Help-U-Sell folk are pretty passionate about what we do. We see ourselves as anything but ordinary. We have a better idea, one that works better and costs less, and we are very proud of that fact. We’re not just selling real estate, we’re changing the way real estate is sold. This sense of mission, of participating in something bigger than the job, becomes a driving force in a Help-U-Sell career.
Talk to Help-U-Sell people and it doesn’t take long before the passion oozes out. You see the fire in the eyes and notice the quickening of speech. It’s the kind of thing that’s almost impossible to keep tucked in — as if you’d ever want to. I think this passion for the mission is one of the reasons our crew is so successful when they get face-to-face with a potential client. The client sees the excitement, feels the passion and it’s hard to resist. The fact that our people believe so strongly in what they are doing is one of our great secret weapons.
Here’s the important thing about this: you can’t manufacture it. You could go to sales seminars for a month and still not be able to muster this kind of excitement about what you’re doing if what you’re doing is . . . no big deal. Believable passion for the work comes from knowing that you have something really special to offer, believing you bring something of great value to your customers and seeing your biggest challenge as simply spreading the word about what you do.
In every successful selling situation, there are two sales being made. Of course, the customer is buying; but so is the salesperson. Every time a Help-U-Sell person presents his or her program to a consumer, they are drawing on a deep well of belief in what they do, and each time the consumer says, ‘Yes!’ that belief is further reinforced . . . and we get stronger.
There’s a rather cynical phrase commonly applied to passion and a sense of mission in business. It’s ‘Drink the Kool-Aid,’ and it’s a reference to the tragic events that occurred in Guyana in 1978. The followers of Jim Jones believed in him to the point that they were willing to drink his poisoned Kool-Aid. When we tell someone to ‘Drink the Kool-Aid,’ we’re saying they need to suspend their logical skepticism and just do it.
I actually went to a business meeting several years back with thousands of others, where we watched a business leader on the stage mix a gallon of Kool-Aid. As he talked about his product (which was nothing special at all), he added stuff: Mustard and Ketchup, vegetable oil and vinegar. At the end of his presentation as the throng rose to its feet in roaring approval he drank a cup of the stuff . . . and then invited others to join him on stage to do the same.
Listen: There is no Kool-Aid to drink at Help-U-Sell. There is no suspension of logic here, no misplaced belief in smoke and mirrors. We have no special effects department, no stunt men. What we have is real, it is tangible, it makes sense and it can be grasped by most people in a few minutes. That’s why the passion is believable, why the sense of mission is strong enough to drive us even when the market is challenging. Our message is the mission.