A duck and a dream

I had the pleasure of watching arguably the world’s best magician David Copperfield live in Melbourne recently. The magic itself was awesome...

17 reasons you should always carry a book with you

1. As someone who used to spend a lot of time waiting for real estate clients to show up – I know that clients / appointments / people in general are often late...

Reality Television your way to Success

I think I’m one of the only “motivational speakers” (not that I call myself that) who will openly admit that I watch television. I watch bad television too… even… dare I say it… reality television.

Where is the love?!

One of my businesses, Elephant Property, works in the notoriously under appreciated category of residential property management. The old adage in property management...

The power of the word

I’m quite distraught. I was eating my personal trainer approved afternoon snack of 12 almonds (my suggestion of 12 Tim Tams: not approved)...

Showing posts with label new. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new. Show all posts

Monday, January 10, 2011

Old or New?

When I was a young whipper-snapper aged 19 in my first year in sales I listed a property in a suburb of my home town. I’d seen other properties advertised as being in the same suburb but in the “old” part of it.

Using my superior intellect, I decided that if they were being advertised as being in “old ” – I’d go one better and advertised mine as being in “new ”.

New is better than old right?

Well, not in this case. The old part of the suburb was seen as far more desirable than the new part.

Not surprisingly I spent my open home at the property in complete peace and quiet (in other words completely alone).

Ironically – an “older” (aka more experienced) agent in my marketplace would probably have never made that mistake. “Old” once again trumps “new”!

But new doesn’t have to always lose out. New doesn’t have to deal with the assumption that “they should have known better”. If new owns up to the mistake and goes about fixing it appropriately, new can oftentimes create a better relationship than was there in the first place. New also often has more time to fix the mistake.

At that stage, as new as I was, I had fewer listings than my colleagues, I had no family commitments, I had all the time in the world to open the property 5 times a week if was necessary and all the time to put in to fix the relationship after my little slip up.

As a newbie in any industry let it sink in that you’re going to make mistakes. What you do to resolve those mistakes using all the advantages of your “newness” is what really counts and what will decide whether you get past the new stage or whether instead you move on and become new in another industry.

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By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Swamp - That Special Feeling

I recently ate lunch with a girlfriend a new restaurant in a neighbouring suburb. This suburb is predominantly built on previously flooded land – hence the name of the restaurant “Swamp”.

I ordered some sushi, a ham roll and a banana smoothie for my lunch that day (hey – I like to eat!) and one thing really stood out. When my smoothie came to the table it was served in a massive cocktail style fish bowl glass, it had a cocktail umbrella, a snazzy yellow plastic seahorse and a fancy straw. Swamp had taken something fairly innocuous and created an experience I wouldn’t soon forget.

They took the ordinary – me ordering a smoothie - and with a few simple, not very costly techniques, they made it glamorous and unforgettable.

Today consider how you could you change an otherwise ordinary for one of your customers into something extraordinary? Congratulations Skye and Paul on a great new business!

By Kirsty Dunphey with 2 comments

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