The Hidden Agendas of Modern Webinars and the Exhausting Era of Endless Pitches.
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The Hidden Agendas of Modern Webinars and the Exhausting Era of Endless Pitches.
I’m sick and tired of the constant hustle. I attended two webinars this morning and both were relentless pitches for expensive programs. I assembled a few friends last week to attend an online talk on investment opportunities in an AI Era and even though this was a paid service, it was a brutal pitch for an expensive program. Super irritating. Are you experiencing this?
The disguised Sales Pitch.
It’s a difficult time. Not just for real estate professionals but for brokerages, boards and people who provide services to the real estate industry. When there is less revenue, it affects everyone. Coaching and training companies with large overhead, are likely feeling the pain and doing whatever they can to increase revenue and so, what is billed as an educational webinar, becomes an infomercial.
It’s important that in these more challenging times that you don’t spend money that won’t directly benefit you and your real estate business. Avoid putting yourself in situations where you are vulnerable to persuasion tactics and tricky sales techniques. Watch out for people telling you what you want to hear versus what you need to learn.
One thing that many REALTORS® don’t know it that speakers at conferences, for the most part, aren’t paid. In some cases, the speakers pay to be there. Many real estate publications get speakers, coaches and other influencers to pay to be featured. This means that their primary reason for being there is to sell their products, not educate you. They may strive to offer something of value as a teaser to get your interest, but selling is their primary motivator.
The Irritation of Constant Hustle
This non-stop hustle isn’t limited to webinars. Emails, social media ads, and even blog posts are rife with upsells and pitches. While there isn’t anything inherently wrong with selling a service or product, the issue arises when these sales tactics are veiled as genuine help or support.
For real estate agents, especially in a challenging market downturn, genuine guidance is needed. The constant bombardment of sales pitches can feel disheartening, misleading, and downright frustrating. The last thing you need to be doing if you are struggling in your business is to spend money that won’t help your bottom line.
The Real Value of Education
What you need now are the skills to adapt to this market and what lies ahead. The rate of change is accelerating and improving your adaptability quotient is essential. The new skills are about using AI and about human connection, interaction and collaboration. While lots of trainers are pitching lead gen, without the emotional intelligence and communication skills to build trust, people are unlikely to share their story with you. If you don’t get their story, I can assure you that you aren’t going to get their business.
As a coach and trainer, I have offered an abundance of low and no cost training throughout this market downturn that offers real skills with little or no sales pitch. I have always just asked for you to join our community.
Sure, I offer courses that cost money and program that are a significant investment, but my aim has always been to help the agents who are motivated to learn and succeed in real estate.
Over the past 2 years, 28 people have taken advantage of our scholarship programs to take negotiation courses or receive one on one coaching at little or no cost. Most of these scholarship recipients had experienced significant hardship of no fault of their own and we were honoured to help them get a leg up. Click here to apply for a scholarship.
Real skills are required in real estate, especially now and into the future. Your ability to interact with people and get them to agree to work with you, move forward and get to an agreement of purchase and sale is the only way to a commission cheque. This all falls under negotiation skills. It’s hard work to learn for real and those that do will be rewarded now and will emerge from this market with an increased market share and well set up for significant success.
Whether you have no money to allocate for education, or you can invest in your future, building your skill stack matters. I have included my free, low cost and regular programs below along with some book recommendations that will be inexpensive and helpful.
How to Navigate the Noise
How can you discern genuine educational opportunities from hidden sales pitches:
- What do they teach? Is it simply lead generating sales techniques or do they have a track record of teaching professional skills? Lead generation matters but doing more of what isn’t working won’t help.
- Ask for recommendations from people you trust. Ask fellow agents about webinars, blogs and other free or low-cost opportunities that they have found truly helpful.
- Trust your gut. If something feels too salesy or lacks substantive content, don’t be afraid to click out and move on.
Moving Forward Together
The market is challenging, and the real estate community deserves genuine support, not a masked sales pitch. My commitment to you, as always, is to provide real, actionable insights to help you navigate in any market.
Free Resources:
Blog Posts – use the search button to explore a world of real estate excellence and please invite others to subscribe to our blog.
Mindset Matters mini E-Book. Click here to receive for free.
Monthly Fireside Chats – October 18th 10-11 PT and 1-3pm ET. Email Suze to register.
Low-Cost Resources:
Coming soon: Quick (re)Start to Real Estate Success. $99 for a 10-session online, on demand course with Suze. Pre-register and receive 25% off.
Book Recommendations:
Getting to Yes, Negotiation Agreement Without Giving In, Roger Fisher and William Ury. Harvard Negotiation Project
Emotional Equations, Chip Conley
Other Courses and Programs
Accredited Real Estate Negotiator (AREN) Course. $399 Information and registration.
Professional Real Estate Negotiator (PREN) Course. $399 Information and registration.
Business Planning Workshop. $349 Information and registration.
Group Negotiation Coaching – small established group. $395 per month. Information and registration.
Individual Assessments. New Program. Information here.
Team Assessments. New Program. Information here.
Accredited Real Estate Coaching Course. Become a coach, mentor or team lead. Or game sales training. Information and registration.
One on One Coaching with Suze. Information and Consultation form here.
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