Hi Phil,

I know nothing about Tom Ferry but I love your website and just added the code AMBER to the top of my website.  I promise I will send you all the referrals I have to you for your area....you are the BEST.

Thanks for being you!

Do you mean Mike Ferry?

Hi Phil

Great site and thanks for the link to get the Amber Alert Ticker. Tom Ferry along with his Father Mike Ferry sell a system where you are on the phones all day long calling propects that are not on the Do Not Call List to gain leads. If you like the phone its a good system, if not, well, say la vie. Didn't know I knew how to speak French....

There are so many coaches, seminars, books, ebooks, disks, and systems for sale, you couldn't try all of them in 5 lifetimes.  They each work great for the person who sells them.  I doubt many work well for the realtor who buys them.  The reason is that an average realtor, or an average member of any industry is just that - average.  It takes an above average person to achieve above average results and for that you probably have it in you already and don't have to spend money on somebody elses system.

Mark nails it! Summon your 'inner coach' and inspire yourself to remember what you forgot and use it.  :)

Mark:

What you write makes sense, and is mostly true.  And I tend to agree with you.  Mostly.  

BUT....  

Some above average people benefit from information or experiene they don't yet have, and/or from a little accountability.  

As a coach, I have indeed helped people accomplish things they had not accomplished on their own.

Even Tiger Woods has a coach...  now he is already above average.  But the coach helps him get even better.  

In true coaching, which is NOT the same as teaching, the coach does not teach you his way of selling - but helps you magnify your own strengths and minimize your own weaknesses.  This is the way I coach.  My above average clients set the agenda.  They already know what they want to get better at, or what they want to do less of...  I just help them get there...

So - Mark, I hope you will leave a little room in the world for the idea that good coaching might help above average people - or even average people - to improve performance or results.  

Lonn,  I'm sorry if I stepped on your toes concerning coaching.  I was referring to the people who sell systems, not people like you who work to increase the natural strengths of their clients.  And I tend to say things in short paragraphs instead of long rambly reports so I didn't touch on every nuance of the discussion.  

You must understand something of what I mean when you say your clients already know what they want to get better at.  The realtors I know who buy into the systems only want to improve at making money, not improve their already good habits.

But, Lonn, how many ordinary average clients have you made into great realtors?  My point was that without that innate ability or desire (combination of both) all the true coaching or all of the noncoaching systems won't improve them enough to thrive in this ultra competitive field.  

Yet the sellers of all of these systems seem to thrive.  Year in and year out they sell their stuff and still the turn over in real estate remains very high.  So, obviously they are helping themselves more than their customers.  

Phil,

The psot you are referring to was placed by Nick Coleman on May 1.

I have never attended any of Mike Ferry's seminars but I have watched one of his CDs a few years ago.

In Nov 06, I was invited to attend a FREE three-day seminar given by his son, Tom and sponsored by American Home Mortgage.  Both, father and son, are very captivating, entertaining and drive the point home.

Of course, all motivational speakers are using staged scenarios in front of already enthralled audiences.  Repititiously, show after show, they continue honing they stage skills to make the worse seemingly impossible obstacles look so incredibly easy for anyone to surmount.  

I'd like to take any of those great motivational deities (Ziglar, Hopkins, Ferry, Tracy, Robbins, etc.) and put them in front of some of my horrid customers and their little presentations will fall apart in 15 minutes flat.

Nevertheless, I think all those motivational speakers are wonderful real estate spiritual boosters.  They teach some great techniques to newbies on how to trounce over fears, anxiety, self-defeat and think outside the box.  For the veteran Realtors, they recalibrate their positive attitude.  If nothing else, just go for th entertainment aspect of it.

Although my admission was free, the whole objective of the show was to sell any of Tom's success tool kits.  They have something to fit every budget.  Before we'd go to breaks or before we'd adjourn for the day, Tom would make a brief announcement: "Guys, because you are such a great audience, I want you to have my best seller introductory one CD presentation titled "Sellers are not Jerks After All".  A retail value of $5,500,000.00 but if you buy it during this seminar only, I'll let you have it at an incredible very low special seminar price of $19.95. Plus I will throw in, at no extra charge, this indispensble CD valued at $2,600,000.00 titled "How to Become a Successful Millionaire in Just Thirty Seconds. So please see any of my hundred assistiants in the back.  They are standing-by to take your money."  Then, for the next four days, the assistants will follow up with phone call to hit you with the real thing: The priceless " Personalized Coaching Program".  

As I advocated in a recent post, to be successful in selling anything comes within.  All the curriculum materials available are indeed excellent and they can help to elevate careers.  But all of this is useless if you don't already have the desire to succeed in your soul.

And Phil, if you attend,  please don't wear your plaids. :->

John

I just can't help it ... any time someone tries to "coach" me, I just feel I'm being brainwashed. I guess I have never been able to do what other people told me to ... that's probably where my problem is :-)