Episode 19
Hey, are you in sales? And you want to know how to smash that glass ceiling. Do you want to make more money than you ever thought was possible? You're in the right place. My name is Sandra Carder. I've been in commercial real estate for over two decades, and I know how to sell. I'm going to teach you the habits, the formulas, the tips, the tricks, and the tools that you will need to be a superstar salesperson in whatever field you're in.
Sit back, relax, tune in and listen to my podcast million-dollar agent and let's smash some glass ceilings together. This episode is brought to you by M2 Moringa. Hey, million-dollar agents at Sandra. Again, welcome to episode 19, I might sound a bit blocked up because I've had the flu, but I'm going to get through this as best I can and it will be short, but sweet.
So just bear with me today. I'm going to talk to you about following protocol. It's human nature to take shortcuts when we can. I just want to tell you about an experience that I had just recently and why it is never a good idea to cut corners and take shortcuts and the ramifications of this If you're in sales, particularly if you're in property.
When you're selling leasing or settling properties, there are legal check boxes that have to be checked off before the process happens. And solicitors are used to make sure that these things all line up and there's a good reason for it. If they don't follow the protocol and they don't follow the systems, then there's room for litigation.
There are people can sue for damages. There's obviously a risk of loss for either party. We use solicitors to make sure that these things. But there are other things that can go wrong that you need to make sure your systems cover you for that the solicitors don't deal with unless you know about it. It's really easy to fall into the trap of cutting corners and not doing everything right.
So let me tell you what happened to me.
So happy keys back, all is good. Found another tenant for the property. Application forms in everything's good. Landlord is happy. New tenant is happy waiting for the solicitors to do the lease. New tenant says to me, “can I get my painter in early so that I can get a head start on the fit out?” And I'm like “we'd have to check with the landlord.”
Check with the landlord and landlord's happy with that. Say to the tenant, “you need to have a few things in place, bond and deposit paid certificate of currency which is the public liability cover for the property and you cannot have occupancy. You can only have access for your painters and only your painter.”
Tenant transfers the bond and deposit the tenant speaks to his insurance broker. The certificate of currency is coming in. The key is left with the neighboring tenant. The tenant takes liberties and goes and gets the key, lets the painter in and does not get the certificate of currency through. He also doesn't return the key.
He also starts moving equipment into the property without anybody knowing landlord goes down, finds out that instead of just refreshing the paint, the tenant has painted the entire property black inside, has put down the flooring, has put down equipment has literally moved in without permission. And has not done all of the things that they need to do. In this tenant's mind, he hasn't done the wrong thing because he is waiting for the lease.
He's paid his deposit and bond. He's spoken to the insurance broker. So that looks legit. But what happens if somebody hurts themselves in that unit, then nobody's covered? There's no insurance. There's no public liability insurance. This is the first thing that can go wrong. Second thing goes wrong, the body corporate gets involved. They don't want that tenant in there. The landlord freaks out and landlord says, “I don't want the tenant in now because the body corporate is going to give me a headache.” So, she or he decides to pull out of the agreement. Tenants already moved his stuff in tenants already painted the walls.
He spent a heap of money. He shouldn't have done it. He shouldn't have been in there. He shouldn't have painted it a different color. Long story short, never ever let a tenant have access until the certificate of currencies in place, the leases assigned and the bond and deposits cleared in the bank account.
Half of these things had been done, but there were some vital things in play. First of all, landlord change their mind, unless the lease is assigned, then you're going to have trouble. This poor tenant had to paint the unit back a different color again. The lease isn't going to proceed. There's a cost to the landlord for preparing the lease.
The tenant doesn't have to pay that because there's no lease going ahead. And we basically end up back at ground zero with everybody unhappy. What was the fatal mistake in this for me? Leaving the key at the tenancy next door and assuming the tenant was going to do the right thing, but again, the tenant wanted to cut corners.
The tenant wanted to take a shortcut and get in and get all his stuff into the unit. Now people don't do the right thing always and often take liberties. But unfortunately, if you don't keep be the gate gatekeeper and you don't guard the gate, people will do this to you. know never to give occupancy, the difference between access and occupancy is they have the keys.
They've signed the keys over to that tenant and they have right to do whatever they want. Access is where you may let tradies in, who once you've got insurance to do things to the property, say they want to polish the floors or they want to lay the carpet. We give the tradies access to do this, but when the tenant doesn't do the right thing and keeps the key and then moves in you've lost control.
Learn from my mistakes. And I know this I've been doing this a long time, but. I had a good rapport with the tenant and I trusted him. And I'm not saying don't trust anybody because most sales are based on trust. People buy from you because they trust you. And you want to be able to believe what people are telling you.
You ask them to do the right thing and you believe that they're going to, but don't. Just assume the worst, because it will keep you out of trouble. This applies to all sales and systems that are in play for whatever you are selling. So, if there are check boxes in play wherever you are working right now, whether it's in a property field or whether it's selling Coca-Cola, I always refer to selling Coca-Cola.
You need to follow the systems, do not take shortcuts, because there's a reason for it. People are trying to minimize any chance of litigation, any chance of loss, any chance of the ramifications of that loss. Follow protocol people, don't do what I did. It was a bad idea and I thought it would be fine.
Everyone was on the same page until they weren't. Often, we get complacent and we decide that we don't need to follow the rules because it's word of mouth and handshake stuff and you take people on face value. Just don't do that. You need to be the bad guy in some situations and say, look, I would love to help you out.
I know you are desperate. I know your painters are hard to get. I know your tradies are hard to get, and if you don't lock them in for Wednesday, then you're going to have to wait another month, but this is what can happen. And unfortunately, this has happened, so never do it. Be the bad guy. Unfortunately, sometimes we have to do that.
We can't always be yes. People. And I've always had a saying about being the yes men. Yes men come last. That's a whole another podcast. If you keep saying, telling people what they want to hear, you are going to get yourself into a lot of trouble. And this comes from personal experience too. If you keep trying to please everybody around you, you will please nobody.
What you need to do is please yourself first and then take care of others. So don't be a yes, man. Don't tell people what they want to hear and because it's a rabbit hole, you can fall down and it's very hard to claw your way back out again, topic for another day. Let's do a quick recap on today's podcast, follow the systems, follow the protocols.
If you're in franchising, for instance, they are all about systems. Why? they want quality control, they want consistency. They want to deliver the same product again. And again, you have to look at a sales role in the same way. Be consistent, follow the rules, find out what's right, and what's wrong. If you want more information on what you need to do each time a sale goes through a release goes.
You need to look at my training course, and I tell you how to do these things, but if you're working for an office, they'll have these systems in place. So do not cut corners under any circumstances, do not try and fast track, do not try and be someone's best friend, stick to the protocol and keep yourself out of trouble.
Look after yourself first. Don't be a yes man. Make sure that you. Being honest, being truthful and you can't please, everyone again, you have to do the right thing, not what somebody wants you to do. So that's it pretty quick, pretty simple, less than 10 minutes, maybe a little more, just a bit more.
Anyway.
Thank you so much for listening. I really do appreciate it. My name's Sandra Carder. I'm a commercial real estate agent. You can find me on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and LinkedIn under Sandra Carder commercial agent. If you want to know more about selling commercial real estate, you want to do my course drop me a line.
sandra@milliondollaragent.info. And I can send you a link and yeah. Keep selling hard, follow the protocol, people and smash that glass ceiling. This episode was brought to you by M2 moringa. This is the tea that I have every single morning. I have it with lemon and hot water. And it's so packed with vitamins.
That I've had to throw away all my pills, it has vitamin B one B2. B3. It's got vitamin C. It's got calcium. It's got chromium It's got iron magnesium. It's got Magnes. It's got phosphorus, potassium, protein, and Z. So up with. And the website is www.m2moringa.com.au