Speaker 1: Today, I'm going to share my secrets of how to handle difficult clients in your business. Stay tuned. Hello there, ladies and gentlemen, I hope you're all having a phenomenal day. If you don't know, my name is Aram. I'm a real estate agent here in the Chicagoland area, and if you end up enjoying this video, as always, please like, comment, and subscribe. In regards to what to comment, I would love to hear your thoughts, feedback, concerns, compliments, insults, whatever you got, leave it down there for the algorithm so we can get this video to more people, because this video right here, while a very simple topic, how to handle difficult clients, will change your life, peace of mind, and business forever, okay? If you figure this little ingredient out of how to handle difficult clients, virtually you will never have a difficult client again. It just allows you to have such a more sustainable, long-term, enjoyable business that I think is worth for every single person. Now, quick disclaimer, this is not going to be a long video because I am so hot, I have to wear this coat because my microphone looks weird on my neck, so some of the little problems behind filming content just wanted to share with you all, but that being said, let's get down to brass tacks and talk about the video at hand, and this was inspired, I have to give props where props are due, Julia Kiba, I think she's a Chicago, yeah, she's a Chicago broker, she just asked, she sent me this DM, I would like to read it to you guys, and I think a lot of you are probably going to be in the same boat. I am a new agent, and today I was unable to show the properties to my new client because I was booked, and I gave her options for tomorrow and other days throughout this week, and she says that this doesn't work out for her, and she will look for other agents, but will continue seeing the houses with me this week. So just an idea for a new video, so she was giving me a, basically a little, she had a question and she wanted me to address it on video, so Julia, here we are. When it comes to handling difficult clients, you have to understand clients, and this is, come in with me here. Clients will be as difficult as you allow them to be, period. You are in control of the transaction, okay? Yes, they're the one buying a home, but without your help, they are going to lose a lot of money, make a lot of mistakes, and go through a lot of pitfalls that you could save them from, alright? So you need to have a little bit of a high self-worth in regards to yourself when it comes to this stuff, right? And a lot of the times, the reason that clients are difficult has got nothing to do with the client. It's our fault. How we set our business up, how we do the intro with every client determines whether they're going to be difficult or easy. So here's my way of how I handle difficult clients. Number one, let's first go over how to make sure clients don't get to that level of being difficult, okay? Number one is having that initial conversation about setting the expectation for how it's going to be working together. Whether that's a listing, you do it at the listing appointment, or that's a buyer, you do it at a buyer consultation. Now Julia, I will bet $95 that you did not do a buyer consultation, which for a lot of new agents, for some reason, that's something you guys are nervous about doing, and I get it. I get it. It could be intimidating. But when you do the buyer consultation, you are able to set expectations. For example, I will tell my buyers, look, I'm a human being. I got things to do. I got family to take care of. I will make sure that you will never, ever miss out on seeing a property or at least having a chance to put an offer on it due to my schedule, whether I got to get another showing out there, whatever the case is. But that being said, you've got to understand that I'm a human being, and my schedule, there's other clients that require to have the same type of commitment I have to you. Is that okay? And once you set that expectation, from the jump, you can't set it two weeks down the road because now they're used to you jumping when they say jump, right? You have lost all control over the client, and this is huge because it shows up in other parts of your business. For example, if you lose control of the client, right, and they're being difficult, the reason is they're being difficult is they don't either trust you as an expert, they don't look at you as an expert. They're literally just using you to get the doors open. You don't want those type of clients, and it takes a certain level of confidence to say, hey, man, if you're going to be difficult, go work with somebody else. Because the stress and the time that a difficult client will take from you is not worth the commission check or all the business you will lose trying to appease that client. It's just not worth it. You're better off working with good people. So one way to just not even have to worry about dealing with difficult people or difficult clients is set those expectations and those boundaries in the beginning. If they're not okay with it, let them walk, all right? At least if they're not okay with it and you're okay with that, at least now you'll know they'll be difficult so you'll make the decision of how you want to approach it, right? So that is the most important thing you could do because when you set those expectations, now you have control of the transaction. You are the expert now. So when you give advice, hey, let's not ask for 72 items on the inspection because that's going to cause issues. You can always lean back. Remember when we first spoke, before there were any properties involved, before there was any money, before there was any emotion, I told you when it comes to inspections, these are the things we want to do. When it comes to appraisal, these are the things we want to do. And when you set those expectations before, if it's a real life scenario, it's a lot easier to basically maneuver through. So that's way number one, how to handle difficult clients. In her scenario, this is a very difficult case because every now and then, you're going to meet clients that even if you set expectations like her, they're going to be jerks, okay? I mean, she's done nothing wrong. She said, I can't show it to you today because my schedule is booked, but I could show it tomorrow. I guess I would ask, why does that not work for you, right? What's the issue? I bet you they're not accepting offers between today and tomorrow either, so it's not like she's missing out on the property. So in this scenario, I would find out what is her issue. Why is that a problem that you can't see a tomorrow, right? Is she going out of town or she has family coming in? Is her schedule not allow it? I'm assuming that's not it. But in most cases, that's generally going to be it. So how would you handle a client that even if you've set expectations, they're still being difficult? Number one, you have to be willing to lose them and understand it's not worth the headache. I'm going to tell you a story about a difficult client I've had, okay? This was a client that had to be on pins and needles. If I said one wrong thing, they would misunderstand it, make it drop. It was honestly stressful and it would take an hour looking at a house they didn't like. I showed them for two years because they're cash buyers with a good budget and they were going to sell a home afterwards. But instead, let me tell you what happened. I didn't set expectations. I didn't have a buyer consultation because I met them when I was a newer agent and I hadn't really established my systems. What really ended up happening is every time they texted me, they were very pleasant in regards to scheduling times, working with my schedule. However, they were very difficult in the sense of what they're looking for, how I needed to talk to them. Again, pins and needles, I'd be very careful. And then they didn't listen to any of my advice when it came to the inspection. They made a big deal out of a little deal and I had lost all control of those clients. So what really ended up happening is after two years, they're like, you know what, ARM's not doing a good job. We're going to go in a different direction. That's what ends up happening. That is the end result of working with difficult people, right? They'll waste your time. They will not make you any money and they will take away time from working with better people who treat you better and will actually buy a house from you. So you have to be able to walk away. Now, as a new agent, it's going to be hard. You have to have that foresight that, hey, I'm going to get better business if I just walk away from it. So once you're willing to walk away, so in her scenario, as soon as a client tells me they're going to see showings with another agent, I should have read it right now. That's not how I do business. So I would call them or text them, however you're comfortable with like, hey, let's say the person's name is Sharon or a Karen. This sounds like a Karen, like, hey, Karen, look, uh, you know, I appreciate you being upfront with me, but I, this is not how I run my business. I expect I'm very loyal and committed to my clients and I expect the same out of my clients as well, uh, towards me. So if you're going to be working with other agents and that would be the end of our business relationship. So please let me know whether you want us to reschedule or if this, you know, if we have to go our separate ways, I think will, that will lead to is number one, you may lose her. If that's the case to the loop or number two, which I think is going to happen 30 to 40% of the time, most likely you're going to lose her and that's fine. But in that 30 to 40% of the time, she's going to be like, Oh my God, I didn't realize that this was a big deal that you had committed all this time that, that, that, that, that, that, that this is actually a business. You know what? I'm so sorry. We could see another time. But that respect that you've not built with that client, that individual, not even con that individual will serve you long term. You'll get much better referrals and your life will be much better. But all in all, if you're finding out that it is a pattern that all your clients are being very difficult, this is not a problem with your clients, you, it's a problem with your systems. All right? The way you are approaching it is allowing them to get out of hand, allowing them to be difficult because oftentimes clients are difficult because they are confused. They feel in the dark, they're like, I don't know what's going on. I'm stressed out, that, that, that, which leads to them being difficult. So the way you handle that is to remove any of the unknowns, let them know the whole process, make sure that they are up to date on everything, right? This is on the buy side and on the sell side and you know, set those expectations early about how you do business. I'll leave you with this final example. I met with a gentleman, his name will be left unnamed because I really don't like, I didn't like him that one bit. I'm, I were doing a buyer consultation and he's telling me that he had another agent, he was talking very negatively about this other agent. As a professional, yeah, I understand there's bad agents, but I also sense that there was a little bit of, like everything he was telling me, the agent didn't do anything wrong and I'm all about ethics. I don't need the business, but I'm not going to sit here and watch you trash another agent when I know you can do the same thing to me if something goes wrong here. So that's not, I was not interested in it. So I'd ask them, what's the reason you have reached out to me when you've been working with this other agent for several months? The way, as soon as he answered that question, I told him, listen, I can't work with you. This is, we're not going to be a good fit. Here's what he said. We walked into the house and the agent did not know the age of the furnace, the roof, or the mechanicals, da-da-da-da-da, right? And I told him, let's call him Frank. I'm like, Frank, let me tell you, let me tell you the truth here. I have no idea about not a single one of these houses until I make the phone call. And I'm never going to waste my time and make that phone call if you have not expressed interest in that house, because otherwise I would have no time for other people and your price point is too low for me to spend that type of commitment on you. So I think we need to go our different ways, because I'm no different than your last agent. And he went his different way. And now some other poor agent out there is wasting his time with this difficult guy. When I washed my hands of him, I saved me that 50 minute drive, you know, once a week or twice a week to the God knows locations he was interested in. And then I ended up helping three or four other people, same month, close the deal. And life was good. So that is how you handle difficult clients. If they get too difficult, don't handle them at all, move on with your life. And if you had set the expectations, they should be nice and smooth. And ultimately, if it ever comes to it, look within yourself, am I doing something wrong? If not, just put it to them straight. This is the situation, you take it or you leave it. All right? Hope that was helpful. If you watched it all the way to the end, number one, thank you. I want you to put in the comments, handling business. I think that'll do. Handling business. And if you did make it this far, a couple of housekeeping notes. There is a Patreon link. If you want to look at that, if you want to basically watch those hour long coaching calls I do, I'm going to start posting them this week with individual agents from all different markets, all different walks of life. And that's $10 a month. And I'm only charging so that way I can hire an editor so we can make more content like this, come at you faster, better edits. And maybe a little bit more detailed content as well, because I'm a one man show here. There's only so much I can do, right? And if you're interested in a coaching call, that link is in the description below as well. It costs $150. You don't have to do it, but if you want it, great. Otherwise, thanks again for watching. Make sure you put handling business in the comments so I know you mean business. Thanks again. Take care. Bye.