Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Everybody, welcome to Ed and Ken's mini podcast. Today. Today we're starting Ed with a deep breath, right? With a deep breath. We are our pre show conversation talking about how the sausage is made and the frustrations that come with, you know, being in this business. It's a, it's. Sometimes it gets messy, but at the end of the day, we still have to get out there and teach and learn and, and, and bring as much value as we can to as many people as possible. And that's what you're trying to do. That's what you were definitely trying to do with this Adam Boxman event. I'm hoping today I would have spent a decent amount of time on today's conversation with that Adam Boxman event and your biggest takeaways. So line it up. What was. Who is Adam Boxman? And what. What did. What was he. What was he looking to teach you guys?
[00:00:52] Speaker B: Yeah. So I didn't know Adam prior to this, but he has something that he teaches that's about the epic buyer experience.
And he focuses a lot on buyers. He teaches other agents and other brokerages how to focus on buyers and the buyer experience.
So here are some takeaways. And by the way, we're putting together an. A live event with him sometime, not till October, but I'll make sure that you, your company, and all of your. And our agent partners will be there because it is gold and it's all about efficiency and experience and referral. So here we go. Number one, 80% of consumers don't use the same agent the next time they buy a home. Now, let's pretend that some of those buyers buy in a different state or move out of the country or whatever. So let's pull that down to 50%. That. That's probably way too conservative.
[00:02:04] Speaker A: But 50 to 60, you're saying 50% that could use the same major. But choose not to.
[00:02:09] Speaker B: They don't even know their name.
They. They forget. They forget. Yep. Or they choose not to. I'll give you a perfect example. My house in Florida that I bought 10 years ago, you would. You would literally have to.
A person would have to literally write me a check for $50,000 to use the same agent that I used. They were that bad.
So the next is like referral. Business is vital.
And I've talked about this before, and I'm teaching my agents to look at their, their ELO and who they're using. And this is why if I'm, if I represent a buyer and I know I do my job, man, and I I nail it, man. Now, great experience, but the LO drops the ball.
That client will not use me the next time because the whole experience wasn't great, but I had nothing to do with it. And that's why, again, I didn't plan this, but why I love working with you is I know that experience is top notch.
So what he talked about was passive refer. A passive referral versus an active referral. This is really important, and this is what this whole podcast is going to be really about. I'll probably go on other tangents, but. And other.
[00:03:50] Speaker A: So what is a passive referral?
[00:03:52] Speaker B: Yeah, so a passive referral is if somebody came up to you and said, hey, Ken, I'm, you know, I'm in the real estate business.
I'm having some problems with dynamics building my business and my team, but I'm not looking for a traditional, like, real estate coach.
Can you recommend a coach for me? What's the first name that pops up to you?
[00:04:23] Speaker A: Ed Fordyce.
[00:04:24] Speaker B: Cool. So that is a passive referral. Thank God you said that.
[00:04:30] Speaker A: We would have had to start all.
[00:04:31] Speaker B: Over again, but I saw your eyes go up to the right and you're like, do I want to say Ed or listen?
[00:04:38] Speaker A: I thought about messing with you, man, but I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it.
[00:04:42] Speaker B: So that's a passive referral. You believe in me. You believe in what I do. You've experienced it. It's great. And that's awesome.
What an active referral is is you calling your agent partners, saying, hey, look, I'm going to set you up with an appointment with who I believe is the best coach in the world.
He not only will change your business, he will change your life. And yes, the teams that he's coaching right now, these are real numbers are up 120%, 78%, 92%, while the others are down 60%.
So.
[00:05:32] Speaker A: So an active referral is someone taking proactive steps to bring business to someone versus a passive referral is when asked, they would say X. They would say this person.
[00:05:47] Speaker B: Exactly, exactly. So the. You call it raving fans, call it whatever you want, but it's. They. When they're out to dinner and they're talking about the soccer league or the little league or the basketball, right? The six couples that, that go out to dinner that, you know, live in West Town, Chase, they're like, hey, by the way, I had an incredible experience with this guy, Ken Jordan. If any of you are looking for any kind of funding, he's your guy. That is an active referral posting on social media. Hey, if you're looking for the best pizza in Delaware county, this is where you want to go. It is putting it out there, not waiting to be asked.
[00:06:37] Speaker A: So what did Adam. Since we're going to focus primarily on this takeaway, what did Adam talk about when it comes to. Okay, we understand the difference between the active referral and a passive referral. Short answer. Is one better than the other?
[00:06:51] Speaker B: Oh, absolutely. Yeah.
[00:06:52] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:06:53] Speaker B: An active referral.
[00:06:54] Speaker A: Active referral is better than a passive referral. So how do you and are there ways aside from the experience? Obviously it's got to be great. It's got to be a referral, referable experience. But how do you prompt active referrals from your past customers and and your.
[00:07:13] Speaker B: Sphere deliver an experience that they cannot help themselves but yell from the mountaintops?
[00:07:28] Speaker A: So it's can't just be good. It's got to be great. It's got world class.
[00:07:33] Speaker B: It's got to be great.
[00:07:35] Speaker A: Isn't it funny though that world class is attainable for sure. But how many people settle for good? How many people out there are like, hey, this was not a shitty transaction win? That's so far down the spectrum of acceptability. But it's how most sales people I'm gonna put, I'm gonna loop them all together. That's how most sales people gauge a successful transaction. Is that it didn't suck. Yeah.
[00:08:06] Speaker B: His thing was go deep.
Go deep into your clients lives.
Instead of the big fishing net, focus on them. And what that looks like is taking the time to send a video text rather than a written text.
Remembering, hey Ken. Like it literally would be like I'd be doing a video. Hey, Ken, just wanted to drop a note.
I'm sure you remember, but this time last year we were at the settlement table and I just really appreciate your trust in your business.
And I'm going to be dropping off pizza tonight because I know you guys love Pika's pizza.
Like that kind of stuff. Remembering authentically this isn't something. And if when you meet Adam you can tell because he tells the story about his mother's passing.
Right. It's a, it's a different kind of experience.
It's a different kind of training.
Right. So I'll give you an example. It has. And the only reason why I talk about my experiences is because they're my experiences. One of my coaching calls yesterday is, was great agent doing great business. And he just in the course of the conversation said, yeah, life's business really good right now. My, my Wife's pissed off at me though, because I've been working late and, and we had a, you know, we had a snip, you know, this afternoon. I snapped at her and I was like, all right, tell me what, what's happening there, what's. And it went into this deep conversation of like, when he gets that right, his business is going to be great.
If his business is great and he continues to fail here because I asked all the questions I want, you know, how long has this been going on? I was like, all right, dude, like, this is what you're going to do. This is the tool you use to make this better.
That, that's a, that's a difference. That's world. And he, he texted me later and he's like, dude, thanks so much for the talk. So, Adam Boxman.
[00:10:46] Speaker A: Yeah. What are components of a, a world class fire experience? High level. What are some of the things that he showed you? This has to be on every, every transaction. You got to do X, you got to do Y and you got to do Z.
[00:11:00] Speaker B: Anything new, Take the time up front.
I'm looking at my notes right now. I wrote a lot of them.
Don't take the shortcuts.
Give me a second here.
[00:11:37] Speaker A: So I think that consistency has to be part of it. And I think there's a, I think that's a similarity between both the mortgage and the real estate business. I work with buyers, buyer agents work with buyers. I don't work with sellers outside of maybe just an interaction at the settlement table.
Understanding that I've sold houses myself. I know what it's like to be a seller. But my world is buyers. And I think that consistency creates credibility. You know, one of the things I always tell my loan officers and the loan officers that I work with is, you know, the old adage, don't over promise and under deliver.
I mean, don't say you're going to do something unless you are 100% sure you're going to do it. And I think that managing expectations in what they're going to see or hear from me at certain stages, just, you know, trust is built on little agreements, right? So if I say, hey, I'm going to call you at 5:00 today, don't call a 501. You might think that's an innocuous, innocent, simple 501, 5:00, what difference does it make? But I promise you, it creates a little disconnect a tiny bit. But those tiny bits do start to add up to the point where then they're like, well Ken said everything's good, but is it really good? How do I know it's good? He also told me he's going to be there at 5:00 and he was there at 5:01. So like it does start to build up that when you're making your commitments, deliver on those commitments, deliver it a hundred percent, especially on the little ones because you need their trust. You need that. There are times where someone's going to be amped up, their temperature is going to be high, maybe there's something going on the transaction. We got to work through it. And I'm going to say, hey look, I'm going to get it worked out, okay? You and I are going to work this through. I'm not worried about it. Get worked out. Just got to get the right documentation. They need to know that that's true. And if they don't, it's probably because you misaligned on a commitment earlier on in the relationship.
Did he talk about that at all?
Yes.
[00:13:37] Speaker B: And what it, what it. This is what I took away from it. And I remember Tony Robbins saying this literally 21 years ago.
20 years ago, good.
Built you a great business, got you a pension or you know, kept your career going. Today, good gets you fired and in pressure. What's that?
[00:14:06] Speaker A: That's a lot of pressure.
[00:14:07] Speaker B: Yeah, but, but it's, but it's the truth. Like the ones, the gap, right, is, is, is becoming a bigger gap.
People in our businesses don't have a choice, Ken.
Like we're either delivering world a world class service and experience and there's a difference.
[00:14:30] Speaker A: I agree, I agree.
[00:14:32] Speaker B: There's a big difference. And you have to deliver both.
You have to deliver both today.
[00:14:42] Speaker A: Yeah. World class service is world class service. In my mind an example of world class service would be delivering a fast turn time on a pre approval. Right. Super fast. Right. Like you apply at 9 o'clock and if you need that pre Approval letter by 10, here it is and it's fully under it. That's world class service. World class experiences. You're pre approved. And by the way, you just opened your mailbox and there's a little cookie in there from Princeton Mortgage. It says congratulations on your pre approval. Right. That, that's the difference between experience and service in our world. And it's the same in the buyer agents world. Right. Like bringing a smile to someone's face when they always say people won't always remember everything about the transaction but they'll always remember how you made them feel.
[00:15:27] Speaker B: That's it?
[00:15:28] Speaker A: That is the experience piece.
[00:15:30] Speaker B: Yeah. So anyone, this is what I would suggest. And then I know we both have to roll. Part of the experience would be, again, I like to make it visual. So if I'm a real estate agent or a loan officer and you just went under contract, you're the buyer, Ken.
[00:15:54] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:15:55] Speaker B: I'm going to pick up my phone, hit record, and I'm just going to go something like, hey, Ken, I know it's 8:00 at night. I don't usually send out messages like this, but I know you just went on the contract and I just wanted to check in to see, like, how you're doing, how you're feeling.
Do you have any fears? Is there something that you feel is unanswered? I just want to check in to see how you and your family are doing. I'm going to make sure that you go to bed tonight, like, totally peaceful, knowing everything's being taken care of.
That's what I'm doing now. I'll tell you. Doesn't have to be word for word. I can't say when I do something like that and somebody says, yeah, but maybe if you said it, I'm like, I'm just doing a.
[00:16:41] Speaker A: You get the idea.
[00:16:42] Speaker B: I'm just doing a podcast.
[00:16:44] Speaker A: Settle down.
[00:16:45] Speaker B: And yes, I always spell your wrong. Sometimes I spell it, all right, so is. I failed English. Give me a break.
So. But those are the things that Ed cares about me.
He genuinely cares about me.
And that's how you operate, dude, I've seen it. And that's why you. You have the business you do. And why people have the same. I've never heard somebody say, I can't stand that dude. Ken Jordan, he's never happy. He's not good at what he. I literally have never.
[00:17:28] Speaker A: You haven't asked enough people in Upper.
[00:17:30] Speaker B: Darby, and I've planted pretty bad evidence on you. And still they're like, ken would never do that. Ed, maybe you would. Ed, stop planning the bad evidence.
[00:17:39] Speaker A: All right, so we're gonna say action items for the people that are listening. God bless. 17 minutes and 45 seconds in. Look for opportunities in your buyer process to improve the experience.
Look for opportunities to show them how much you care and remember that they'll always remember how you made them feel. And that's going to determine the level of experience that you created for that buyer. And then you're going to increase your active referral business. And I will also. Anyone that's interested, I'm going to make a book recommendation.
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. One of the books I've read in the last couple of months. Some great stuff in there about mavens and what an active referral is and what a maven is. So there's my book recommendation for the week, and I will let you get. We both have these 1030s we got to get to, so we're already over time. But as always, man, I appreciate you, and I can't wait till next week.
[00:18:40] Speaker B: Sounds good, brother. Have a great day.
[00:18:44] Speaker A: All right, let's make sure.
