I noticed an interesting thing this week where when I was comparing prices of various spaces, in some cases the contact person was the same as the real estate agent was listed for multiple properties. Now I took my time in looking at various spaces and in the end I narrowed down my searches to certain buildings. Here comes the interesting part.
Now for one property I was talking to a real estate agent who had shown me one of the spaces that I liked. I knew before hand what the minimum and maximum asking prices were in leasing the space in question. When I first talked to the person, she didn’t know too much about me and I was also casual in appearance. She quoted me prices that were close to the minimum asking price and in terms of an agreement I was told I could sign for a term as short as one year if I wanted as that building was very flexible in terms of leasing a space.
About a month later, I saw another building I was interested in which the same person just happened to represent. Of course, I was delighted to meet the person again as she seemed very honest before. In setting up the meeting, this time she had a better idea in terms of the presence of my business. On top of that, I was wearing more typical business attire this time around as I had some meetings afterwards and she almost didn’t even recognize me. For the entire tour of the building, I was being quoted close to the highest asking price and on top of that I was told that it would have to be with a five year commitment as well.
I personally didn’t favor that too much but figured that different buildings have different values. It also didn’t seem like she was as friendly as before when it came to pricing. So to test it out, I asked about the other building I was still interested in and mentioned how the other one was so much more flexible it seemed. She couldn’t remember exactly what she told me since it had been over a month and told me that people have to commit to at least a three year lease with that building. After that, to me it just felt like she was trying to maximize a sale as I seemed like a person who financially had no problems with it. I decided to not go through with any of the offers afterwards as to me honesty plays a big factor on whether or not to do business with someone.
I think this is especially true when it comes to sales people or anyone who say works under commission. I guess there is nothing wrong with that as they are just doing their job as they have to live too, but from my experience you can never really stereotype people either. There are so many times I can say where others neglected to do business with certain people as they thought they were poor which turned out to be the complete opposite. I always like to be consistent and not to stereotype people. Similarly, I don’t try to get more out of another based on how much I think they are worth. I present similar offerings based on their needs. If you think about it too, establishing a good relationship will usually translate into more business.
While there are a lot of people who choose to use a profile sales approach, I just think it is better to be consistent.