In his book Ten Greatest Salespersons, Robert L. Shook covers sales success in ten different fields. For the real estate field, he spoke with Rich Port, president of one of the nation's largest real estate firms and a former real estate salesman. In this article, Port shares the concept that set him on the high road: Service means more and better sales.

"We're in a unique business," Rich Port explains. "In most other fields, a salesperson can offer his customer a product which will have some differences from his competitors'. But when we sell a residential property, we're often selling the same product which the buyer can purchase from the real estate office down the street. So in order for us to offer something better, we must give him or her more service. The key to success in the real estate business is service."

As you listen to Rich speak, you notice that he seldom uses the word "I" but rather says "we." Rich Port is 100 percent committed to serving his client. Only after the client is satisfied will Rich think of his own interests.

"Sure, we're interested in the bottom line," he asserts. "What business isn't? But if one thinks in terms of his client first, everything else falls into place, and at the same time you'll make a profit, too. When we first began to sell multiple listings, one of our salesmen didn't relish the idea of not getting the 100 percent commission which he was accustomed to receiving on an exclusive listing. Well, every time he had a prospective buyer, he'd only show our homes. It was fine to show our homes, but while he was doing it, someone else might sell his buyer one of their listings. It happened to this salesman three times in a single month, and that was the end of that. He thought his people were so loyal to him they would only buy from him. It's his duty and obligation as a professional real estate person to find the right home for his buyers regardless of the amount of the fee."

In spite of some early warnings from the old pros in the real estate business, Rich Port Realtor had little turnover of salespersons. "In the beginning we decided to have the most highly educated, most professional salespeople in the community," Rich states. "Once, after I'd delivered a speech to our real estate board on my thoughts about training and developing new people, the old-timers told me I was crazy. They said I would make salespeople too smart for their own good. You see, I wanted to educate them so they could take a transaction from the listing right through the closing without any help from anyone. We wanted a truly professionally trained all-broker staff. Well, the old-timers believed if we made all of our people professionals, then they would open their own offices right down the street.

"What they were telling me is that I should keep my people dumb. Our people, meeting the public representing our firm, and yet they should be dumb so they won't go into business for themselves. Well, that kind of thinking made me furious. We felt if we couldn't make our operation so appealing to the staff, convincing them they were better off with us than in their own shop, well then there would have to be something wrong with the operation.