Extraordinary Results Require ONE Thing
[6/1/2013]
Curtis Schroeder, MBA Candidate
Achieving extraordinary results and happiness is simple. In fact, each of our personal and professional ambitions should point back to ONE question...
(FULL STORY)
Intergenerational Relationship Selling for Real Estate
[6/1/2013]
Michael L. Mallin, PhD and Ellen Bolman Pullins, PhD
With such a potentially large influx of younger sellers entering the workforce, there will inevitably be generational issues to contend with as they attempt to...
(FULL STORY)
Unpacking What "Relationship" Means to Consumers
[6/1/2013]
Christopher P. Blocker, PhD
Often, developing relationships is the most accepted strategy to successfully sell; however this approach does not...
(FULL STORY)
It Takes Two to Tango: How Empathy Affects Sales Encounters
[6/1/2013]
Jan Wieseke, PhD, Anja Geigenmüller, PhD, and Florian Kraus, PhD
In sales, retailing, or service businesses, employees' performance during personal encounters is the most influential driver of customer satisfaction...
(FULL STORY)
Diversification and the Rise of Cultural Sales
[6/1/2013]
Xiao-Ping Chen, PhD, Dong Liu, PhD, and Rebecca Portnoy, PhD
As minorities and immigrants are the fastest growing home-buying segment, real estate professionals must understand and learn how to leverage...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: Cracking the Sales Management Code
[6/1/2013]
Dennis Thé, MBA Candidate
Organizations must not only have the capability to accurately measure performance, but they also must be able to understand how these metrics are managed to drive revenue....
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: LinkedIn for Business Development
[6/1/2013]
Susan Monaghan, MBA Candidate
LinkedIn is a powerful networking tool that can help real estate professionals build relationships and prospect for new clients...
(FULL STORY)
Keller Center Research Report: Intentionally Searchable and Global
[3/1/2013]
Andrea Dixon, PhD - Editor, Keller Center Research Report
According to the National Association of Realtors ', existing U.S. home sales in December 2012 were well above the level recorded for the previous year...
(FULL STORY)
Communicating the Value of the Real Estate Professional
[3/1/2013]
Daria Dzyabura, PhD
In the first decade of the 21st century, a profound shift has occurred in the way people shop for real estate. Unlike past generations, this new generation of consumers...
(FULL STORY)
Innovative Mobile Marketing via Smartphones: Are Consumers Ready?
[3/1/2013]
Ajax Persaud, PhD and Irfan Azhar, MEBT
Today, the smartphone is central to the lives of most consumers regardless of age, gender or education level. In fact, many consumers cannot seem to live apart from...
(FULL STORY)
Legislation as a Tool for Reform: The Case of New Zealand
[3/1/2013]
Robert Davis, PhD
In November 2009, The New Zealand Government introduced the Real Estate Agents Act 2008. This new act replaced the Real Estate Agents Act 1976. The main purpose of...
(FULL STORY)
Housing & Health Care: Why Should You Care?
[3/1/2013]
Dennis Thé, MBA Candidate
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the major components of spending - food, housing apparel and services, transportation, health care, entertainment, and...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: How Technology is Changing the Sales Environment
[3/1/2013]
Jacob Christie, MBA Candidate; Andrea Dixon, PhD; Curtis Schroeder, MBA Candidate; Mark Tarro, MBA Candidate; and Dennis Thé, MBA Candidate
In a recent issue of the Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, four scholars report on a research initiative involving sales practitioners in the United States and the...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: Using "Power Questions" to Improve Your Business
[3/1/2013]
Mark Tarro, MBA Candidate
Questions are a part of our everyday life and we can often overlook the importance and power of questions we ask. This is often because the person being asked...
(FULL STORY)
Is The Customer Always King?
[12/1/2012]
Christian Homburg, PhD, Michael Muller, PhD, and Martin Klarmann, PhD
Whether in retail sales, business-to-business sales, or home sales, conventional wisdom suggests "the customer is always right." Identifying and meeting customer needs is also...
(FULL STORY)
Using Online Reviews in Creative Selling
[12/1/2012]
Katherine Taken Smith, DBA and W. Glynn Mangold, PhD
Think about the last time you purchased a book or selected a movie to see. How did you go about it? The chances are that your decision was influenced by what someone else...
(FULL STORY)
Ten Necessary Conditions to Highly Effective Personal Selling
[12/1/2012]
Charles Fifield, MBA
Productivity, as it applies to sales organizations, is not uniformly defined. Simply put, productivity is maximizing sales results (output) by minimizing resources expended...
(FULL STORY)
Why Perceived Barriers to Career Advancement are Important
[12/1/2012]
Bill Weeks, DBA, Elten Briggs, PhD, and Fernando Jaramillo, PhD
Finding and retaining high performing salespeople continues to be the #1 challenge for most sales organizations. Organizational commitment has garnered considerable...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: Evolutionary Sales Success
[12/1/2012]
Jacob Christie, MBA Candidate
Have you ever wondered how Pandora processes your musical preferences and recommends other music you might like? Or how Amazon finds and suggests the exact...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: Blogging and Chatting to Promote Your Business
[12/1/2012]
Mark Tarro, MBA Candidate
Promotion and lead generation are two essential functions for a successful real estate agent. However, many agents lack the time and financial resources to promote...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: The Art of the Sale
[12/1/2012]
Susan Monaghan, MBA Candidate
In The Art of the Sale, author Phillip Delves Broughton conveys the primary role that sales plays in business and in life. As a graduate student at Harvard Business School...
(FULL STORY)
Achieving Service Excellence in Real Estate: The Fundamental Tenets
[9/1/2012]
Lance A. Bettencourt, PhD
Service is a critical factor to business success now more than ever (Bettencourt forthcoming). Research shows that improved service drives customer loyalty and...
(FULL STORY)
Has Cold Calling Gone Cold?
[9/1/2012]
Dale Lampertz
Deeply embedded in real estate agent training and development literature is the directive to be constantly engaged in lead-generation activities. Lead-generation is an essential...
(FULL STORY)
Necessary Condition #10 - The Right Commitment
[9/1/2012]
Charles Fifield, MBA
As the sales process has gradually evolved from a transaction-driven model to a relationship-driven and collaborative approach, the underlying methods driving...
(FULL STORY)
Service-Dominant Logic - How Does This Impact Today's Agent?
[9/1/2012]
Kenneth Le Meunier-FitzHugh, PhD
The sales environment is rapidly changing. The real estate sales environment is also becoming more complex and competitive, and is being driven by a rising number of...
(FULL STORY)
First Impressions Matter: Initiating Trustful Service Relationships
[9/1/2012]
Anja Geigenmüller, PhD
Long-term customer relationships are the building blocks of a firm's success. Practitioners and researchers have long recognized the positive effects of close customer...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: Make Your Voice Heard - Make Your Marketing Relevant
[9/1/2012]
Curtis Schroeder, MBA Candidate
Imagine the 60-foot-long boat of the U.S. women's national rowing team cutting across a crystal-clear lake in a heated 2,000-meter race. As the team synchronously rows their...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: Rules of Engagement - Focused Internet Marketing
[9/1/2012]
Jacob Christie, MBA Candidate
In his book 100MPH Marketing for Real Estate, author and real estate veteran, Mitch Ribak, details the formula for Internet marketing success in a no-frills approach that...
(FULL STORY)
Improving Sales Performance Through Moral Judgment
[6/1/2012]
Charles H. Schwepker, Jr., PhD, David J. Good, PhD and Lindsay B. Odneal, MBA Candidate
To be successful in today's challenging economic conditions creates significant pressure on salespeople's ethical behavior. Moral judgment, a precursor to ethical behavior...
(FULL STORY)
Customer Emotion Management: The Customer Needs To Smile Too
[6/1/2012]
Gülnur Tumbat, PhD
In many service provider-customer or seller-buyer contexts, it has been assumed that the service provider or seller must exhibit a positive attitude towards customers, and may...
(FULL STORY)
Necessary Condition #9 - The Right Metrics
[6/1/2012]
Charles Fifield, MBA
Many sales organizations focus on measuring or tracking outputs or results with less emphasis on inputs, which is akin to telling a football team to stop the opponent from...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: Challenge the Common Sales Conceptions
[6/1/2012]
Mark Tarro, MBA Candidate
Today's customers are savvier than ever before, largely thanks to growing accessibility to information through technology. Selling to these customers has become a challenging...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: Next Wave of Social Networking - Integrating The Visual
[6/1/2012]
Aparna Sundar, PhD Student
Pinterest has all the elements for a right brain, visual thinker. Images, pin boards, minimal word content and high quality visuals that makes staying on the site feel like you are...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: Seller Financing - When You Can't Bank on the Bank
[6/1/2012]
Rachel Watson, JD, MBA Candidate
With banks applying stricter guidelines to conventional real estate mortgages, many buyers have found it difficult to qualify for home loans. It is estimated that forty percent...
(FULL STORY)
Making a House a Home: On Happiness & Home Ownership
[3/1/2012]
Jim Roberts, PhD
The Greek philosopher Socrates identified happiness as the ultimate goal of all human activity - everything we do is with this end in mind. And, because happiness is the...
(FULL STORY)
The Importance of Relationship and Consultative Behaviors
[3/1/2012]
Stephen J. Newell, PhD and Richard E. Plank, PhD
In real estate, as well as other sales-related jobs, creating strong partnerships between buyers and sellers is one of the keys to business success. Understanding the types...
(FULL STORY)
Linking Service Attributes to Customer End-Goals
[3/1/2012]
Chiara Orsingher, PhD, Gian Luca Marzocchi, PhD and Sara Valentini, PhD
Buying a house is a complex and involving process. The process is much more significant than just deciding on a location, a space, and a set of features. The home purchase...
(FULL STORY)
Necessary Condition #8 - The Right Outcome
[3/1/2012]
Charles Fifield, MBA
Both buyers and sellers desire win-win outcomes; however, most salespeople have a natural bent toward win-lose thinking. Our culture has too often indoctrinated...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: Don't Sell Short Sales Short
[3/1/2012]
Rachel Watson, JD, MBA Candidate
Due to the recent downturn in the economy, the use of short sales has risen in the real estate market. A short sale occurs when a property is sold and the lender...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: The New Gold Standard
[3/1/2012]
Steven Bell, MBA
Loyal staff, engaged clients, impressive brand recognition; these are adjectives that managers and leaders hope to ascribe to their business. In his book...
(FULL STORY)
How to Reduce Client's Perceived Availability of Alternative Agents
[12/1/2011]
Brian N. Rutherford, PhD, Scott B. Friend, PhD, and G. Alexander Hamwi, PhD
Given the highly competitive market in which real estate agents work, striving to attract and retain valued customers is important. Understanding what makes a client want to...
(FULL STORY)
Understanding Consumer Willingness to Pay for Professional Services
[12/1/2011]
Nada Nasr Bechwati, DBA
When it comes to utilizing professional services, consumers have a choice: perform the service for themselves or outsource the job to a service professional. The purpose of...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: Listen, Contribute, Connect
[12/1/2011]
Dennis The, MBA Candidate
By now, most consumers are familiar with social media. It is easy to track how many Facebook friends, Twitter followers and LinkedIn connections exist on an individual...
(FULL STORY)
Necessary Condition #7 - The Right Approach Method
[12/1/2011]
Charles Fifield, MBA
What is the right approach method for the professional salesperson to lead a buyer-seller interaction and achieve effective, efficient and consistent sales results? The pragmatist...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: Socially Identifying with Clients
[12/1/2011]
Amanda Holmes, PhD
As a culture, we encourage young people to sample and engage in a variety of activities. The goal is, in essence, to understand one's gifts and talents, thereby finding those...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: Establishing an Effective Search Engine Marketing Campaign
[12/1/2011]
Mark Tarro, MBA Candidate
Whether a consumer knows it or not, using a search engine to browse content on the Internet automatically engages him with the world of Search Engine Marketing (SEM)...
(FULL STORY)
Three American Generations and the Real Estate Marketer
[12/1/2011]
Charles S. Madden, PhD
Over the past 50 years, groups of people in the United States have been classified into generational categories to better understand how age groupings tend to behave...
(FULL STORY)
Using Workplace Wellness to Strengthen Your Sales Organization
[9/1/2011]
Ann M. Mirabito, PhD, William B. Baun, and Leonard L. Berry, PhD
Joe is a highly successful broker in northern Virginia. Until a month ago, his life seemed ideal. He enjoyed a professional reputation for integrity and insight. Scores of agents...
(FULL STORY)
The Performance of Performance Incentives: What's the Downside?
[9/1/2011]
George Dudley and Trelitha Bryant
Real estate agents must undertake a variety of tasks to establish, sustain and develop a clientele base. Acknowledging the complexity of their job, most agents recognize the...
(FULL STORY)
Necessary Condition #6 - The Right Approach Plan of Action
[9/1/2011]
Charles Fifield, MBA
Whether it is the first or a subsequent meeting, salespeople must have a clear understanding of their call objectives and how they plan to achieve their desired...
(FULL STORY)
Extending the 'Strangers on a Plane' Phenomenon to Real Estate
[9/1/2011]
Leslie K. John, PhD
Why does a plane ride create such an intimate setting, often inspiring strangers to exchange life stories and share intimate personal information without regard for privacy...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: Unique Sales Stories
[9/1/2011]
Steven Bell, MBA Candidate
Any salesperson will tell you that the ideal method for generating new clients is through word-of-mouth and referrals. No advertising or cold calling is necessary with this strategy...
(FULL STORY)
Health Care: Planning for Baby Boomer Retirement
[9/1/2011]
Concha Neeley, PhD, Holt Wilson, DBA and Crina Tarasi, PhD
The Baby Boom Generation, born between 1946 and 1964, has played a dominant role in the residential real estate market over the past four decades. As this generation enters...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: Rainmaking Conversations
[9/1/2011]
Curtis Schroeder, MBA Candidate
How have you set yourself apart from other agents in your market? Consumers have many options to consider when selecting a real estate agent. Experience level, services offered...
(FULL STORY)
Value-Based Service Quality for the New Generation of Home Buyers
[6/1/2011]
Stacey Schetzsle, PhD and Casey Ray Rusk, NALP
With a constantly changing market and a new generation of home buyers on the rise, value-based service quality will play an important role in customer satisfaction. Service...
(FULL STORY)
Necessary Condition #5 - The Right Approach Priorities
[6/1/2011]
Charles Fifield, MBA
When a salesperson commences a face-to-face sales interaction, certain call priorities must be the central focus of the early interpersonal exchange. First, the salesperson...
(FULL STORY)
Divergent Brand Building Strategies: How Do They Match Up?
[6/1/2011]
Kirk L. Wakefield, PhD
In competitive selling environments, brand identity is an important differentiator for both the sales professional and the consumer. For service industries such as real estate...
(FULL STORY)
Making Social Media Effective in Real Estate
[6/1/2011]
Michael Rodriguez, PhD
In order to overcome the challenging housing crisis, real estate professionals have had to become more innovative in the way they reach prospective customers. One of...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: The Lunch of a Lifetime
[6/1/2011]
Steven Bell, MBA Candidate
Would you like to receive more referrals? In his 2010 book The Lunch of a Lifetime, the world's most referred real estate agent, Michael Maher, reveals his secrets to...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: Making the Customer Comfortable With You
[6/1/2011]
Drew Johns, MBA Candidate
Customers have more power in the buyer/seller relationship than most people think. The relationship is dependent on how a customer relates and reacts to the salesperson...
(FULL STORY)
Effective Information Management - Key Lever to Realizing Gains
[6/1/2011]
William A. Weeks, DBA and Charles Fifield, MBA
In today's fast-paced, competitive marketplace, effective information management is arguably the most powerful non-employee lever to trigger sales productivity and...
(FULL STORY)
Exposing Social Media Analytics
[3/1/2011]
Sarah A. Fischbach, MBA
Real estate professionals must leverage social media but engaging with potential customers via the right social media can be complicated. In addition, making sense of...
(FULL STORY)
Necessary Condition #4 - The Right Prospects
[3/1/2011]
Charles Fifield, Senior Lecturer and Baylor Sales Coach
To increase sales productivity, salespersons' interacting with the right prospects is an essential core competency to success. The inability or unwillingness to effectively...
(FULL STORY)
Getting Off to a Fast Start
[3/1/2011]
Bruce Robertson, PhD and Andrea Dixon, PhD
Runners to the starting blocks... Take your mark... Wait for the starter's pistol. A sprinter knows the drill. S/he begins a race so many times in ...
(FULL STORY)
Conviction: Why Skills Alone Are NOT Enough
[3/1/2011]
Scott C. Watson and Ron Gajewski
Assessing the developmental needs of a sales organization normally involves measuring behaviors against a set of competencies or performance metrics, in order to pinpoint...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: Sales & Negotiation
[3/1/2011]
Laura Tweedie, MBA Candidate
One of the leading business speakers in the nation and bestselling author, Patrick Henry Hansen, draws insightful conclusions in his novel Sales-Side Negotiation, Negotiation...
(FULL STORY)
Keys to Success: Salesperson's Internal Relationships
[3/1/2011]
Michelle D. Steward, PhD, Beth A. Walker, PhD, Michael D. Hutt, PhD, and Ajith Kumar, PhD
Salespeople have myriad experts within the organization whom they can recruit to create a successful customer engagement. However, in companies in which experts are...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: Go-Givers Sell More
[3/1/2011]
Amanda Holmes, MBA Candidate
We all know someone who has enjoyed extraordinary personal or professional success in their life: a classmate from high-school who has become a corporate executive, a...
(FULL STORY)
Are We on the Same Wavelength?
[12/1/2010]
Christopher P. Blocker, PhD
A two-sided study of emotional intelligence with agents and clients reveals that only 26% of the pairs operate on the same "emotional wavelength" and 46% of agent-client...
(FULL STORY)
Necessary Condition #3 - The Right Day-to-Day Operational Focus
[12/1/2010]
Charles Fifield, Senior Lecturer and Baylor Sales Coach
The sales function has probably the greatest single operating impact on the financial results of business. What business needs is a salesforce driven by productivity...
(FULL STORY)
How to Turn Your Employees into Brand Champions
[12/1/2010]
Felicitas M. Morhart, PhD and Walter Herzog, PhD
In most service businesses customers' perceptions of a corporate brand depend highly on the behavior of frontline staff. Service firms face the challenge of having employees...
(FULL STORY)
To Keep Your Agents: Consider Servant Leadership
[12/1/2010]
Fernando Jaramillo, Douglas B. Grisaffe, Lawrence B. Chonko, and James A. Roberts
Sales force retention is a critical objective facing managers. The costs of high turnover rates can be substantial and include lost sales, abandoned sales territories and costs...
(FULL STORY)
Changing Organizational Cultures: The Power of Stories
[12/1/2010]
William A. Wines, JD and J. Brooke Hamilton III, PhD
Culture influences many aspects of an organization. Unlike the tangible outcome measures that determine profitability, market share, or the value of good will, culture...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers
[12/1/2010]
Steven Bell, MBA Candidate
There is a longstanding belief in the service industry that in order to gain loyalty from customers, companies must "delight" them with customer service that goes above and...
(FULL STORY)
A Manager's Credibility Crisis: What It Is and How to Fix It
[12/1/2010]
Avinash Malshe, PhD
In business organizations, the relationship between marketing and sales personnel is often sub-optimal. Marketers view their sales counterparts as short-term, tactically-focused while...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: Proactively Managing Your Team
[12/1/2010]
Drew Johns, MBA Candidate
There are two different types of sales managers, those that wait and react to a situation after it occurs and those who proactively engage themselves to ensure their sales team...
(FULL STORY)
Is Achieving Customer Satisfaction Enough?
[9/1/2010]
William A. Weeks, DBA and Larry Chonko, PhD
Research has often failed to find a relationship between customer satisfaction with salespeople and sales performance. Some research shows that as satisfaction levels...
(FULL STORY)
How Your Client's Private Self-Awareness Influences Choice
[9/1/2010]
Caroline Goukens,PhD, Siegfried Dewitte,PhD, and Luk Warlop, PhD
What is self-awareness and why is it important? Self-awareness is critical for buyers and sellers because self-focused attention makes people more conscious of their attitudes...
(FULL STORY)
Necessary Condition #2 - The Right Process
[9/1/2010]
Charles Fifield, Senior Lecturer and Baylor Sales Coach
The sales process is how a sales organization chooses to effectively transform its throughput flow of inputs into outputs. In the case of real estate sales, the process...
(FULL STORY)
A Social Networks Perspective on Sales Force Ethics
[9/1/2010]
Matthew T. Seevers, PhD, Steven J. Skinner, DBA, and Scott W. Kelley, DBA
The past decade has witnessed a number of well-publicized ethical misconduct disasters, including accounting fraud at Enron and WorldCom, product liability at Firestone, and...
(FULL STORY)
The Persuasive Role of Incidental Similarity on Purchase Intentions
[9/1/2010]
Lan Jiang, PhD, Joandrea Hoegg, PhD, Darren W. Dahl, PhD, Amitava Chattopadhyay, PhD
As any well-seasoned agent knows, creating a connection with the client is essential. Connections can be made in a variety of ways and usually hinge on some common value...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: The Mindset of a Sales Superstar
[9/1/2010]
Donald Jackson, MBA Candidate
How can I achieve higher sales and develop better relationships with my clients? What are some hidden obstacles that are slowing my growth as an agent? In The Optimal...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: Selling to Giants
[9/1/2010]
Laura Tweedie, MBA Candidate
Sales management gurus, William T. Brooks and William P. G. Brooks, co-author an insightful novel entitled, Playing Bigger Than You Are: How to Sell Big Accounts Even...
(FULL STORY)
Necessary Condition #1 - The Right Attitude
[6/1/2010]
Charles Fifield, Senior Lecturer and Baylor Sales Coach
Highly effective personal selling begins and ends with the salesperson's or agent's right attitude. Football Hall of Fame coach, Vince Lombardi, is quoted as saying, "Winning...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: Selling to Zebras
[6/1/2010]
Heather McLeod, MBA Candidate
How successful are you at closing sales? In their book, Selling to Zebras, Jeff Koser and Chad Koser use an analogy of a hunt in the African savannah as the key to selling...
(FULL STORY)
Overcoming the Stigma of Commission-Based Sales
[6/1/2010]
Vinita Sangtani, PhD and John Andy Wood, PhD
Recent polls suggest that the public continues to hold a dim view of the sales profession and to rate commissioned salespeople as dishonest and unethical (Gallup 2006)...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: In an Age of Authenticity, Does Insincere Flattery Fit?
[6/1/2010]
Donald Jackson, MBA Candidate
Does insincere flattery actually work? How can understanding the psychology behind flattery allow an agent to maximize his/her ability to attract more clients and close...
(FULL STORY)
Personal "Touch" Portfolio (PTP): Connecting with the Right Clients
[6/1/2010]
Andrea L. Dixon, PhD
What causes most sales professionals sleep loss? "Satisfying my current clients" is frequently close to the top of the list. Yet, while many sales agents focus on current...
(FULL STORY)
Retaining Your Client Requires More Than Satisfaction
[6/1/2010]
Lin Guo, Jing Jian Xiao, and Chuanyi Tang
Extensive research has been undertaken to define the relationship between client satisfaction and client retention. Despite the widespread findings that client satisfaction...
(FULL STORY)
Wait...I'll Do My Prospecting Right After I...
[3/1/2010]
George Dudley, Trelitha Bryant, and Jeff Tanner, PhD
Why do people go into sales? To make money. That’s no secret. It fits the stereotype. But, that doesn’t make it wrong or improper. One of the most common motivators for...
(FULL STORY)
Building Blocks of Trust
[3/1/2010]
John Andy Wood, PhD, James S. Boles, PhD, Wesley Johnston, PhD, and Danny Bellenger, PhD
Agents are often advised, encouraged, and even admonished to gain the trust of the seller, the buyer, or both. This advice is based on a wealth of research that shows...
(FULL STORY)
The Necessary Conditions to Achieve Personal Selling Success
[3/1/2010]
Charles Fifield, Senior Lecturer and Baylor Sales Coach
Being an agent and having a career involving personal selling is essentially a for-profit business enterprise. Therefore, the basic goal of personal selling is to make money, net...
(FULL STORY)
Consider the Role of the Trusted Advisor
[3/1/2010]
Wayne A. Neu, PhD, Gabriel R. Gonzalez, PhD, and Michael W. Pass, PhD
Individual agents with whom clients interface are often the most critical vehicle for developing and maintaining high-performing buyer-seller relationships (Palmatier 2008)...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: Ethical Salesperson Behavior in Buyer-Seller Relationships
[3/1/2010]
Laura Tweedie, MBA Candidate
Marketing professors, Dr. John D. Hansen and Dr. Robert J. Riggle, conducted a cross-sectional study of 206 purchasing agents to evaluate the implications of ethical behavior...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: Managing Conflict in the Buyer-Seller Relationship
[3/1/2010]
Drew Johns, MBA Candidate
Approximately one in every six hours of a salesperson's or agent's time is spent dealing with conflict (Bradford and Weitz 2009, p. 35). The difference between losing a client...
(FULL STORY)
Giving the Client a Sense of Control Can Shape Clients' Satisfaction
[12/1/2009]
Lin Guo, Jing Jian Xiao, and Chuanyi Tang
Satisfaction has been identified as a central determinant of client retention, and its effect on client retention has been intensively discussed within the paradigm shift from...
(FULL STORY)
Use the Person-Job Fit Approach to Find and Keep Top-notch Agents
[12/1/2009]
William A. Weeks, DBA and Christopher P. Blocker, PhD
Good salespeople are still hard to find and keep over the long haul. The national turnover rate for real estate agents remains high and many individuals do not survive in the...
(FULL STORY)
Insider - Tell 3000 Friends
[12/1/2009]
Mark Chou, MBA Candidate May 2010
In this age of emerging technology, the modern homebuyer holds countless devices to discuss his experiences with other peers. Tools from blogs, videos, consumer websites...
(FULL STORY)
Insider - The Female Brain
[12/1/2009]
Ivory E. Welcome, MBA Candidate December 2009
Dr. Louann Brizendine provides the technical perspective on the obvious physical differences between the minds of men and women in her appropriately titled book...
(FULL STORY)
Bouncing Back Following Failure
[10/1/2009]
Andrea L. Dixon, PhD
Sales is a profession in which one must not be a stranger to failure. Being a successful agent depends, in part, upon the ability to respond effectively to failure...
(FULL STORY)
When A Customer is Grateful to Be Your Customer
[10/1/2009]
Robert W. Palmatier, PhD
"Relationship Marketing" (RM) refers to a long-term and mutually beneficial arrangement in which both the buyer and seller focus on value enhancement with the goal of...
(FULL STORY)
Insider - Buyer/Seller Relationships
[10/1/2009]
Preston Sneed, MBA Candidate December 2009
How can the relationship between the buyer and seller prove to be more efficient? How can both parties benefit in the short-term and long-term from establishing a relationship?
(FULL STORY)
Insider - Recognizing Emotion in the Buyer-Seller Interchange
[10/1/2009]
Heather McLeod, MBA Candidate, May 2010
How does the awareness of emotion impact interaction between buyer and seller? In "Perceiving Emotion in the Buyer-Seller Interchange: The Moderated Impact on...
(FULL STORY)
Selling is Really Shorthand for Storytelling
[8/1/2009]
Charles S. Fifield, MBA, Lecturer, Baylor University
When we buy something, we're really buying a story. A salesperson's job is to tell a story. For example, last year Americans bought six billion dollars worth of bottled water...
(FULL STORY)
The Emotionally Intelligent Salesperson
[8/1/2009]
Christopher P. Blocker, PhD
Today's market offers home buyers and sellers an abundance of choices for selecting a real estate agent. In this increasingly competitive environment, communicating...
(FULL STORY)
Is Your Picture Worth 1,000 Words?
[8/1/2009]
Ann Mirabito, Ph.D.
If you placed the business cards of agents at a real estate conference in a fishbowl, and then put the business cards of the people in the conference room next door in another...
(FULL STORY)
Language of Selling and Science of Persuasion
[8/1/2009]
Professor Gwilym Pryce, PhD
Two and a half thousand years ago the grandfather of modern philosophy set out his thoughts on the science of persuasion...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: Consumer Emotional Confidence
[8/1/2009]
Preston Sneed, MBA Candidate, Dec. 2009
How does emotional intelligence affect consumer choices? In Emotional Calibration Effects on Consumer Choice published in the Journal of Consumer Research in December 2008...
(FULL STORY)
Closed-Loop Lead Generation
[5/1/2009]
Jeff Tanner, PhD
Leads are the lifeblood of any successful real estate agent - there's probably not a single agent with any experience who hasn't heard that in one form or another. Yet most create...
(FULL STORY)
DISC Behavioral Styles and Selling Confidence
[5/1/2009]
Kirk Wakefield, PhD
What DISC behavioral characteristics best describe individuals who have an ability to sell? Who has the least confidence in their selling skills? In our latest studies examining...
(FULL STORY)
The Three Most Important Words in Highly Effective Personal Selling
[5/1/2009]
Charles S. Fifield, MBA
For the business in which personal selling is an integral component of its strategy for sustainable market success, the three most important words to guide its future...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: Consumer Emotional Intelligence
[5/1/2009]
Heather McLeod, MBA Candidate May 2010
How does emotion impact the purchase decision? In Consumer Emotional Intelligence: Conceptualization, Measurement, and the Prediction of Consumer Decision Making...
(FULL STORY)
What Do Consumers Expect from Real Estate Agents
[11/1/2008]
Kirk Wakefield, PhD, Chris Pullig, PhD, Laura Indergard, MBA, Suzanne Blake, MBA Candidate, Bryan Gregory, MBA Candidate, Chris Matcek, MBA/ME Candidate, Tara Gitau, BBA
How do home buyers or sellers decide on an individual agent? We conducted a focus group among recent home buyers and sellers asking just that question...
(FULL STORY)
DISC Behavioral Styles and Sales Performance
[11/1/2008]
Kirk Wakefield, PhD
Does an agent's behavioral style influence performance? Do groups or offices work better if there is an appropriate mix of individuals with different behavioral styles? What is a...
(FULL STORY)
Lead Conversion: Adaptation, Influence, and Customer Value
[11/1/2008]
Christopher P. Blocker, PhD, Laura Indergard, MBA, Jacqueline Simpson, MBA Candidate, Chris Matcek MBA/ME Candidate
A national study was conducted to explore the approaches that real estate agents use to influence their clients in face-to-face meetings. Findings revealed the following insights...
(FULL STORY)
Housing Prices Likely to Turn Around in 2009, Survey Finds
[11/1/2008]
Charles North, PhD, Chris Pullig, PhD, Laura Indergard, MBA, Jacqueline Simpson, MBA Candidate
Housing prices are likely to stop falling by the end of 2009, say nearly three-fourths of economists in a recent survey. In addition, life-cycle issues, such as needing a home...
(FULL STORY)
Stress: It is Your Business!
[11/1/2008]
Chris Pullig, PhD
Are you stressed? Are the people you work with stressed? Undoubtedly, we all feel somewhat stressed these days. However, stress is not universally bad...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: Cause-Related Marketing
[11/1/2008]
Chris Matcek, MBA/ME Candidate
How do your agency's marketing campaigns influence not just your customers but your agents as well? In Linking Cause-Related Marketing to Sales Force Responses and...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: Efficiency of Franchising
[11/1/2008]
Jacqueline Simpson, MBA Candidate
Is franchising in the residential real estate brokerage market efficient? What are the impacts on firms by franchising? What are the benefits for firms when franchising?
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: The Effects of Friendship on Business Relationships
[11/1/2008]
Bryan Gregory, MBA Candidate
How do you manage friendship in your business? If the answer is "I don't," then this study may change how you do business. The effects of friendship on business...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: Probability of Sale
[11/1/2008]
Chris Matcek, MBA/ME Candidate
Is there a way to tell ahead of time how likely a listing is to sell? In The Probability of Sale for Residential Real Estate (Journal of Housing Research) Ken H. Johnson, Justin D...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: Referral Reward Programs and Referral Likelihood
[11/1/2008]
Suzanne Blake, MBA Candidate
How can referrals affect your business positively? Conversely, what is the significance of the damage they can inflict? Referral reward programs can play a considerable role in...
(FULL STORY)
What is Brand Equity and What Does the Branding Concept Mean?
[6/1/2008]
Chris Pullig, PhD
Brand equity is a term most of us are familiar with and probably even use from time to time. But, as with many business concepts we may have a less than perfect...
(FULL STORY)
How Consumers Respond to Commissions
[6/1/2008]
Ann Mirabito, PhD
The traditional real estate commission structure is under fire. Commissions used to average six or seven percent, but with the escalation in housing prices over the...
(FULL STORY)
Lead Generation: What Really Works?
[6/1/2008]
Chris Pullig, PhD, Laura Indergard, MBA, Suzanne Blake, MBA Candidate, and Jacqueline Simpson, MBA Candidate
As a way of beginning to understand what really works in the area of lead generation, a survey was created and conducted with a large group of real estate professionals...
(FULL STORY)
Lessons From the Top: Strategies for Building Your Business Game
[6/1/2008]
Lynn Schleeter
Real estate professionals looking for a winning business strategy should take a hint from high performers in sales who responded to a recent national study...
(FULL STORY)
A Strategy for Referrals Pays Big Dividends
[6/1/2008]
David J. Lill, PhD and Jennifer K. Lill
Location, location, location - three critical words in real estate! But there are three other words that perhaps are even more important: referrals, referrals, referrals...
(FULL STORY)
Selling the Lean Way
[6/1/2008]
Charles S. Fifield, MBA
To achieve increased productivity, competitive advantage, and profitability, high value-creating businesses around the world have consistently turned to "lean thinking" for...
(FULL STORY)
Want to Convert More Leads? Dig Deeper into What Customers Value
[6/1/2008]
Christopher P. Blocker, PhD
Today's consumers are demanding and more sophisticated than ever. They have a world of information at their fingertips - and in a crowded real estate market they know they...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: Current Trends in Web Data Analysis
[6/1/2008]
Suzanne Blake
Is it possible that you could be using web data analysis more extensively? In Current Trends in Web Data Analysis, Arun Sen, Peter A. Dacin, and Christos Pattichis...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: Effective Use of Your Marketing Budget
[6/1/2008]
Laura Indergard
How did you spend your marketing dollars this year? Do you really know how effective they were? In A Three-Stage Model of Integrated Marketing Communications at the...
(FULL STORY)
INSIDER: Making the Most of Website Advertising
[6/1/2008]
Chris Matcek, MBA/ME Candidate
Are you using your website to its maximum potential? How do you know if your marketing initiatives are really bringing in sales leads? In A Two-Stage Model of the Promotional...
(FULL STORY)
Grab-and-Go Expertise, Streamlined Content Highlight KCRR Update
[5/1/2013]
Real estate professionals looking for grab-and-go expertise are excited about the newly-launched website and email format for Baylor's Keller Center Research Report (KCRR)...
(FULL STORY)
Cold Calling Study Featured On "Business 2 Community"
[4/1/2013]
The effectiveness of cold calling as a lead generation tactic is still a much-debated topic in B2B marketing and sales circles. Many thought leaders and practitioners contend that cold calling is no longer an effective and efficient way to generate new sales leads. It's also clear, however, that many B2B companies still rely heavily on...
(FULL STORY)
Keller Center Seeks PR Intern for 2013-2014
[3/15/2013]
Baylor's Keller Center for Research is looking to hire an undergraduate PR intern for 2013-2014...
(FULL STORY)
Research from the Keller Center Featured on Realtor.com
[3/12/2013]
The condition of your local housing market dictates which approach will ultimately lead to more sales. Research from the Keller Center at Baylor University shows that...
(FULL STORY)
Global Real Estate Trends Hit 'Home' In The Keller Center
[3/1/2013]
Many international and US firms are developing a global real estate focus. US-based firms, including Coldwell Banker, Keller Williams Realty International and Century 21, are...
(FULL STORY)
Baylor's Keller Center Promotes Undergraduate Research Through Research Report
[2/12/2013]
In the final semester of her senior year, Baylor alumni Sydney Garcia completed an important online readership survey on behalf of Baylor's Keller Center for Research. The survey was distributed to the readers of the Keller Center Research Report, a journal of academic research positioned for the real estate industry, and uncovered important insights that are helping the Center refine the editorial strategy and improve the journal's usefulness to practitioners...
(FULL STORY)
Baylor Cold Calling Study Sheds Light On An Age-Old Method
[9/28/2012]
Baylor University's Keller Center for Research in the Hankamer School of Business has published its latest Keller Center Research Report, a web-based journal of academic research targeted to the real estate professional. The report addresses topics that are relevant to the real estate industry. This quarter's issue includes a study on the effectiveness of cold calling: "Has Cold Calling Gone Cold?" by Dale Lampertz, lecturer in Marketing at Baylor...
(FULL STORY)
Baylor University Publishes Quarterly Real Estate Research Report
[9/28/2012]
Internet marketing and cold calling are among the topics in the fall edition of the Keller Center Research Report, published by Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business. The Report is an online source of academic articles focused on residential real estate research and summaries of scholarly journal articles and books relevant for real estate sales agents...
(FULL STORY)
Keller Center Selects 2012-2013 Public Relations Intern
[9/11/2012]
Senior Aimee Gomez was recently chosen for the 2012-13 Keller Center for Research Public Relations Intern position in Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business...
(FULL STORY)
Baylor University Publishes Quarterly Real Estate Research Report
[6/19/2012]
Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business has published its latest quarterly Keller Center Research Report, an online source of academic articles focused on residential real estate research and summaries of scholarly journal articles and books relevant for real estate sales agents. The report includes topics such as seller financing, social media, and customer relationships and sales performance through moral judgment...
(FULL STORY)
Keller Center Featured on UniqueHomes.com
[2/7/2012]
The Keller Center's release of the December 2011 Keller Center Research Report is featured on UniqueHomes.com - a website highlighting unique and luxury real estate properties...
(FULL STORY)
Baylor University Publishes Quarterly Real Estate Research Report
[1/5/2012]
Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business has published its quarterly Keller Center Research Report, an online compendium of academic articles focused on residential real estate research and summaries of scholarly journal articles and books relevant to real estate sales agents. The report takes a look at distinct marketing approaches to...
(FULL STORY)
