[Frankie]

Chad,

It sounds as if you may have already found your answer here but I do want to give you an outsiders opinion, as I have been with Tom Ferry S.S.I. for about 6 Months now as I had signed up after I went to a two day seminar locally here in Orange County, where they are located, anyway I signed up for the twice a month session which runs $500/month. The very 1st session was great, a really getting to know you session. The 2nd 15 minute phone call was just a repetitive agenda of plan your work, work your plan and I didn't get anything out of it. As weeks went on I realized that this was too expensive for a 30 minute a month pep talk. I originally wanted help with a way to streamline my business and help with the internet leads that I had coming in, you know follow up techniques, etc… come to find out that my coach was more of an old school coach (actually new to coaching too) with old school philosophies, no real modern day database, internet lead, experience. Basically everything he had mentioned was in Gary Keller’s "The Millionaire Real Estate Agent" book (Great book by the way). By this time I thought I would cancel the coaching, however in the fine print it states that you cannot cancel, if you cancel you must pay the remainder of the year up front or transfer to someone who is willing to take over your payments. They also had a double back guarantee, however if you miss any of their sessions, including retreats, they will not honor that as well. What I learned so far is to really interview your coach BEFORE SIGNING UP, all reputable companies allow it, find out what experience they have, and how many years experience in coaching. Do not pick a coach because your friend said too, interview for yourself as you may have different need than your friend.

So where do I stand currently with Tom Ferry’s S.S.I. coaching program? Well I had told my coach that I wanted to switch coaches (You must go through your current coach not the office) I am currently interviewing new coaches to see if I can find a fit for me to use until my contract runs out. In the meantime I have spoke with Corcoran Coaching who I regret not signing up with previously because Corcoran has given me more helpful information in their FREE consultations than I have received from S.S.I. to date. I don’t mind spending the money if I am getting something useful back in return.

I am still hoping that I find a decent coach at S.S.I. that’s a good fit for me so I don’t feel like I have wasted all this money, if I can find a good fit for me I may consider staying on with S.S.I., let’s see if I can find the right person for me.

- Frankie

PS – If the S.S.I. Office calls you and asks for referrals to invite friends to one of their free events, be careful because they never stop calling even after being asked politely to stop.

I Apologize for the wordiness and grammar, I didn’t want to spend too much time on this topic.

[webmaster]

ugh bad form - if someone is not happy with a service, they should be able to cancel that service and not be responsible for future service they do not want or need.

Chad can you speak to this? I mean certainly your organization is willing to stand behind it's product and has enough confidence that it is worth the $ and let people cancel if it is not right for them.

I realize you have a business to run, and have structured a contact a certain way, but based on this feedback, I think there is the potential to sully your reputation by having these fine print clauses in there. Of course Frankie has a contract and cannot get out of it, but certainly as the contract holders, you could release the contact no?

[Garlick]

Actually I'm the one that would be answering this as I work for the company.

We do put in the contract that it's a 1 year agreement. We also put in the terms and conditions that it's non-cancelable and non-transferable. I can only speak for myself in this regard, but I have every one of my clients read and understand that clause before they sign the agreement. I make it a point to let the agents know that they have the ability to interview their coaches upfront, also the agents have the right to change coaches during their contract at any point if they're not satisfied with that coach. We have over 75 coaches and over 1200 agents in our coaching program, so we do at times get the agents with the wrong coaches. We rely upon the coaches and the clients to let us know if there's an issue with their coach or the process, we also do try to check in with our clients on a regular basis to see how the coaching is going and if there's anything we need to do to make the experience better.

As a company each person here is told to emphasize these points during any conversation with the client.

As Frankie states there is a guarantee on our agreement, and we do stand by that guarantee. The guarantee is for the full contract and we do require that you complete all contractual obligations on the agreement. If you do everything on the contract for the full year we do offer a 100% money back guarantee. These obligations are not difficult to complete, and we allow for certain leeway when it comes to vacation and time away from the business. That's why we ask for a year commitment from our clients, otherwise we would have no way to guarantee results for the clients, and if we didn't guarantee the results, I believe there would be no reason to hire us as coaches in your business. We could then do month to month contracts, but we wouldn't be held accountable to creating results for our clients and therefore the coaching wouldn't be effective at all. If we didn't have year commitments the coaches would be spending time reselling the program every month rather than focusing on implimenting change in someone's business.

This is pretty standard in the coaching industry, all coaching companies that I know of (and yes, I don't know of everyone) have contracts that are non-cancelable for a certain period of time. In Real Estate coaching a 1 year agreement is fairly standard. There are only a handful of coaching companies that do not have non-cancelable clauses in their contracts, in fact I only know of 1 company and it's not a 1-on-1 coaching environment.

In Frankie's case I can see that an employee here was made aware that he was not satisfied, and if there's anything we didn't do right it was communicate to his coach that we needed to switch who he was coaching with. It is standard procedure that we ask the clients to speak to the coach when they are not satisfied and inform the coach they want a change. I don't know if Frankie did this back in July when we spoke to him, and if we didn't inform him of this, I do apologize.

Also, as Frankie has stated, we have offered to allow him to transfer the remaining balance of the agreement to another agent in his office that's interested in coaching with us. This would be releasing him from his contractual obligations and would void the money back guarantee for the person taking over his contract. Also the person assuming the contract would only have to pay for the remaining balance of the agreement.

I will state that there is never a 100% satisfaction rate with any companies services and there will always be situations where companies could do a better job with customer satisfaction. This happens to be the case. What I can assure you is that I've heard many more success stories with this company than any other company I've worked for.

I hope Frankie finds the right coach and we correct the experience he's had and if there's any way I can help facilitate this, please let me know.

Brian Garlick

[waynelong]

I know nothing about the Tom Ferry program but I have found that almost anything that I sign up for that is not cancelable is very disappointing. If a company has a good product - they don't have to hold you with a contract. I have come to the point that if a company has a monthly program - that I can not cancel in 30 days - I won't sign up. Just my .02

[Sam Dodd]

Wayne,

I am right with you. If the service works why would you force a 1 year contract. I would also like to see the number of people who sign up for one year then don't renew thier contract. Those numbers would give you a good idea of the programs worth.

[webmaster]

I am truly disappointed with the answers provided here by the Tom Ferry Rep - why in gods name would someone transfer a service to associate, partner or friend if they were unhappy with it? That isn't letting someone out of a contract it's making the client do your passing the back for you.

I think your defense of your contacts here shows that you do not have faith in your product. As many have mentioned, if you have so much faith in the quality of your product why hold your disappointed clients hostage?

[Garlick]

I'm a little confused as to the caution when it comes to contracts.

I don't want to cause any more conflict on this board, we're not here to argue our case, and now I'm writing this of my own accord. **As a disclaimer this is not a company response nor does it represent the company as a whole in anyway.**

I purchased a vehicle a year ago, right now I'm not really happy with it, I can't get my money back and I've still got 4 years to go on payments. There is no cooling off period in the state of California so when I drove it off the lot, it was mine and there was nothing I could do about it. I can't cancel that contract and I'm sure that others here on the board have done the same. If I wanted to sell it, I would owe a lot more than what it's currently worth, but I bought the vehicle non the less and it's now mine.

I've also purchased a house, and since we're talking about Real Estate here, I had to enter a 30 year contract that once it closed there was no 30 day testing period. If I don't like my house, I could sell it to my neighbor or someone who might like the property better than me. Would I really be passing this "bad" property on to someone else if I sold it? I'm sure all of you would agree that I would just be finding the right person for the home.

Now, we guarantee our contract if you do the things we're stating for you to do. I don't know of any way to better stand behind your product than to give a 100% money back guarantee on a product. If you don't produce results and you've completed all the required actions, you receive 100% of your money back, and we've given money back to agents in the past because we do stand behind our product. I really can't think of a better way to put our neck on the line then to give our products away to people if they don't work.

Also, if you would like to know our numbers, we have an 85% customer retention rate from year to year, I really believe that's extremely high. Especially in the service industry, and especially in an industry were there's an 85% dropout of agents in the first year.

I stand behind my product. I believe in it whole heartedly, and to see other's come on the board and tell me that a 1 year contract is bad, when they repeatedly sign people to much longer contracts just doesn't seem right.

I love Real Estate, I love the agents and I truly want to help people and their business, and I'm a little dismayed at the response to what we do.

I'm sorry you don't share the same views on committing to a program for one year, most people commit to 4 or 5 years for their education, you can't get a college education in 12 months, and to really truly learn anything takes more than a month. I don't think anyone would be satisfied with College after one month, but you have to pay for a semester in advance and you can't get a refund once you pay.

This post will probably bring some harsh words, and I'm sorry it's progressed to this. Again, I'm only here to help people and wanted to add value to this board, but if you feel that our organization doesn't work inline with the way you want a business to operate, I completely understand and will leave this board.

I still offer to help Frankie in anyway I can to rectify the situation, and if anyone wants to discuss more in depth the philosophy please email me and I would be more than courteous in the discussion.

Brian Garlick

[waynelong]

Comparing a Real Estate purchase to coaching is ridiculous. Coaching is a service and Real Estate is Real Property - hence the name. Realtors themselves are in the service industry and if we don't do our job we don't get paid at all. Even listings have a clause that allows the homeowner to withdraw the listing if they are not satisfied with our service.

It seems to me that if you offer good service and that people want to stick with you - you shouldn't need to hold them to a contract. As I said before my experience is that companies that allow you to be with them on a month to month basis give much better service than companies who lock you into a contract and won't release you - no matter how dissatisfied you are.

My disclaimer is that I have not had coaching thru Tom Ferry. I would have considered before I found out that there is no release from the contract if you are dissatisfied. I do know of more than one company who provide Real Estate coaching services that operate on a month to month basis with their clients.

Thanks. Wayne

[Garlick]

Actually when you purchase a property you enter a contract for the services of financing a property, that service is backed by a colateral of a home, but really it's just the service of financing, so essentially it IS the same thing and the comparison is valid. I've been through the process so I know you don't enter the contract for the home.

Also, we state, with our guarantee, that if we don't do our job correctly and get the transactions we promise, but we've done everything in our power to do it, we don't get paid because we refund the amount for the contract. It's the same principal we just ask for commitment upfront rather than in the back end as you do.

Again symantics.

Also when getting an education it's a service, and colleges ask for payments upfront, and you sign a contract for that semester.

My experience, and I can only speak to my experience, is that when you are on a month to month agreement for services more time is spent reselling the service than is adding value.

As evidence, this company started with month to month contracts, we had a 90% fallout rate, since the change to a year contract our retention rate has gone to 85% with a 15% fallout. The only way to explain this is that more value is given over the full year, compared to one month trial period. Also the agents we're looking to coach are committed to really doing what it takes to make a full change in their business, change doesn't happen over a 1 month period, it takes time working hard and creating habits. As we all know habits can take up to a full year to create and that is another reason to have a full years commitment from the agents we work with.

Wayne, I'm sorry we don't see eye to eye, and again, if you wish to continue this discussion I would be happy to outside of this forum by email.

I'm going to resign my place on this board as it seems this is going to be a sticking point, and any more discussion on the topic will bring more negative feelings up and not be valuable to anyone.

[waynelong]

Sorry you feel that way. I thought we were just having a disscussion. It hasn't brought up negative feelings with me. Real Property can be resold because it is recognized as real. I would have a hard time selling your service that I am not satisfied with to another person for anywhere close to what I paid for it. With real property you might even make money reselling it. I still think the 2 are not very comparable.

As far as the "semantics" between real estate services and coaching. I get paid after I perform - not before. Also a pretty big difference. How about if I sign up for coaching and at the end of the year I will pay you if I am satisfied.

Wayne