[Garlick]

If you did sign up for coaching without paying for it first, there would be no commitment from you and no reason to perfom based on the amount you would pay us for the services. You could listen to the calls, take the information and then not take action because it's not costing you. You haven't invested anything into the program to make it worth while.

As an example, you go to a gym, you look at the equipment, you have a trainer tell you what to do, but then you never do it. If you don't pay the gym membership upfront you wouldn't work out and you wouldn't see any results. You'd be completely disatisfied and you'd probably never go back to the gym.

The same principle applies to coaching. If you don't commit yourself to it, and it costs you nothing, is there any reason you should actually do what it takes to make it work.

Selling a home, you get the seller to agree to how much they'll pay you in commission, but if you don't work it costs you money to market the home and list it. You're going to do everything in your power to sell the house. Here's the difference, you provide ALL services to the client. They have to keep the house clean, and maybe improve the home so that it's more appealing, but they don't run the advertisements. They don't show the property, they don't list it on the MLS.

In coaching we can't do the work for you. Someone can't come run your ads, someone can't make your calls, we can't talk to your clients. The services provided are for information and accountability, not work. If you don't work, we're not effective and no one would pay us because there's no "incentive" for working. Having an upfront payment now means that you "have" to make things work because you're paying for it. If you didn't do the work, you would be paying for something that's not valuable because it's just information that's not applicable. That's what makes coaching effective.

Unfortunately with coaching, the payoff to the client isn't as apparant as equity that can be expected on a home. Because there is no collateral backing the service, the incentive seems small, but in reality can be VERY large. Psychologically if everyone could be motivated by future profits of selling more homes, we wouldn't need 1 year agreements. Because it's abstract it doesn't work the same as a home sale, which seems more tangable, but in reality really isn't. Also because we're dependent on the clients working, we can't charge on the back end. It just wouldn't be effective.

[waynelong]

I agree totally with what you just said. Now that we are not trying to compare coaching to Real Property we can have a better discussion.

Where we still probably disagree and where I think your company should re-think their position is that - I think you should not ask a client to continue paying for something and be locked into something that is not working for him. It is true that it may be the clients own fault that the coaching is not working but if it is not working for whatever reason - the client should be able to give 30 days notice and walk away.

Again, I would not sign up with you guys if you do not give a 30 day walk away option. As for my goal it would be to find a coach who could help me go to the next level. My wife and I sold 10 million last year I would want a coach that could help me get to 20 million over the next 5 years. If the coach did not have the ability to help me get there or if we just didn't agree on how to make those transitions - I would want the option to walk away. I might be with you for 10 years but I want the option to walk away if it does not work. This is my just my opinion.

Thanks. Wayne

[Garlick]

Wayne, with our company we offer options for that. You can walk away from that coach and get with another coach, and you should know within 30 days if that's the right coach for you.

What makes us different is that we have 75 DIFFERENT coaches. They each have their own specialty, so you're not being taught one system by 6 different coaches. There's overall themes that are discussed in our coaching but each coach brings their own style and individual specialty to the coaching.

So in essence you do have an out clause with that coach. At which time you can then interview new caoches that should be effective for you.

Now, if you go through the year, and you haven't found the right coach, and you were on all coaching calls, and you attended the events, we'll refund your money, so you're not out any capital for the year.

I will say that we had an agent who had been with 6 different coaches in our program over an 8 months time frame. At that point we couldn't find the correct coach for them and we let them out of the contract then. We did everything, and the client did everything to make the situation work. The funny part is the client still attends our seminars and loves working with us at our live training sessions, so in the end they weren't completely unsatisfied.

We do have a clause that says we can cancel the contract. We've used this clause to let people with extenuating circumstances (ilness, family matters, getting out of Real Estate....etc) out of the contract.

What I hope to make completely apparant is that we are willing to work with any individual in our program to make them completely satisfied with our services and help them in their business. All we ask in return is 1 year of your time, and we promise to help or you get your money back.

[waynelong]

What if I am not satisfied with your company as a whole and I don't want to waste a year on a company I am not satisfied with. You need to know that I am very agressive in accomplishing my goals and if the company as a whole were not meeting my expectations - I would not want to waste a year bouncing around from coach to coach. I want to be set free!!

[Frankie]

Wow! I’m sorry that I missed out the last couple of days. I never thought this topic would have gone to the point it did.

Comparing real estate to Coaching?
Now although I do agree that by paying a fee you are going to get people that are much more serious and committed than those who can receive a service for free. I feel that if someone is dissatisfied they should be allowed to cancel. I mean after all when I take a listing I do my best to market the property and sell it to the best of my abilities, however although I have a 6-12 month contract with them, if my customer is not satisfied because they feel that I haven’t performed as I had promised and I can not resolve the issue, I cancel the agreement – Period. I would rather leave a dissatisfied client and make it as painless for them and move on with their life than to force them to work with me. I mean our name is all we have in this business and we work to hard to build it up especially a positive reputation as no one wants a negative ones as it tends to spread like wildfire.


Any ways, it since I am still under contract I am still in the process of finding a new coach, my current coach recommended Mike, because he is from this area, but I still don’t think he knows what I am looking for or need right now. So Monday, I called S.S.I. office and they had recommended Brent, yesterday I had received a message from Mike so I will follow up with him and see where we are today.

I think my biggest beef here is after going to 2 day promotional events and listening to the coaches that have many years of real estate and coaching experience, then signing up to pay $500 for 30 minutes of coaching each month to find out that the coach may have real estate experience but is new to coaching, and by judging by the profiles on Tom Ferry’s site it looks as if a majority of the coaches have 2 years or less experience in coaching. I am looking at a coach like a teacher, and would you send your kid to a college where you had to pay a Harvard tuition with your hard earned money to find out he is being taught by people with little or no teaching experience. A math teacher may be Einstein at math but horrible at teaching, I hope this helps you understand where I am coming from.

I wouldn’t mind if I had experienced the great impact that I did at the promotional event but my phone calls were generally the same type of phone calls that I have with my friends in the real estate business or even my office manager. So as you can see I just feel as if your company is not truly listening to my needs. We’ll have to see where my experience goes with the new coach whoever he or she may be.

[Saodavi]

Originally Posted by waynelong

Sorry you feel that way. I thought we were just
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 pretty much summed it up right there.

There's a huge difference between financing a physical item and being tied into a service contract. Hopefully most people here know the difference.

Anyone who won't let you out of a service contract obviously doesn't have much faith in their product ... thus they have to force you to stay in. If their product worked, you'd naturally stay in because it's making you $$$. Like any employee or marketing system, you have to produce more than you cost or you're fired.

I told my broker the same thing. If I'm not producing, I'm holding her responsible. That's why I pay her $20,000+ per year! Show me some money or I'm leaving.

[Garlick]

Wayne I have a question for you, if you signed up for coaching, and you wanted it month to month, why would you sign up?? I mean, what would you expect to get out of it?? What goal would you be looking to acheive??

[Garlick]

What I know Wayne, is that coaching is dependent on the coach, not completely the company. As you change coaches, you would essentially be changing companies as well. Because each coach works on different things and has a different philosophy and comes with a new persperctive you would be getting a whole new outlook on how coaching works and how it would fit in your business.

Again, what makes us different is that we don't have one overall set system that we teach. We take a wholistic look at your business, take into account what's currrently working for you in the business, look to enhance those aspects and then push you to improve daily what your currently doing, while suggesting other avenues of business to explore.

I think what you're struggling with is what other coaching companies say. They say "you can only get business by referrals." or "cold calling is the only way to get business." or "the internet is the only thing you should put money into because that's the only place buyers look these days." If you coach with a company like that you're not really being coached. You're being trained. There's a huge difference.

Coaching should be how do we improve you, not how do we teach you our system. When you look at the philosophy I think you'll start to realize that if we're as flexible as we can be with how to help you in your business there's no way you can be upset with the company because we'll flex and match what you want. It then becomes, does your coach give you the attention you need to acheive your goals. That's where we come in, to manage the personal attention you receive from the coach. We're not there to manage what the coach says to you on every call, because that's not personalized. That's not coaching.

If you don't get along with your coach, that's an issue and the company will do everything in it's power to get you with the right coach. With 75 of them, we should be able to find 1 that you get along with and can give you the attention you need to help you acheive. This goes back to, if you're commited to doing whatever it takes to hit that goal, we'll find you the right coach to do that, just give us the opportunity to do what it takes, which may take more than 1 month, it may take 6, it may take 8 and you acheive all you wanted in the final 4 months, and if not, you're not at risk because it's guaranteed.

Being free isn't always the best solution when it comes to acheivement. Richard Branson wasn't always free to do what he wanted, he had to labor to become who he is, and I'm sure along the way he was tied to contracts that helped him achieve his ultimate goal. He didn't see those contracts as burdons he saw them as opportunities.

I know Wayne, I'm not going to convince you a contract is the right thing, and that's OK by me. You really wouldn't be the right person to fit into our coaching, and that's totally OK. Who we're looking for is a person willing to take a risk of giving us 1 year of their time to create permanent change in their business, and feel confident in moving forward for that year. The people who succeed with us do come into the agreement expecting to see results and not questioning constantly whether their going to get results. If you have those doubts there's no question you'll fail at acheiving your goal.

One of my best friends who is a client said to me the other day, "I never realized that getting rid of all my fears and doubts would create such success. I used to doubt that I could do things, now I don't even think about it, I just go and do them and there's no question about failure." That's personal power and that's who I strive to be. I believe that there's nothing outside of you that isn't you, and you create your life and your future daily by the power of your thoughts and your intentions, and if you think about a contract as a burdon as you do, then it's a burdon, but if you think of a contract as an opportunity then it is. You're perception is your reality and the reality I want to have is a successful one with a company willing to work with me long term and asks me to do things I might not be comfortable with but will get me where I'm going if I have an open mind and a willingness to learn.

Just as an FYI, I have a coach, I signed a contract for a year with no out clause and I've had a phenomenol experience with him and will continue to because I know I have to make that experience great, it's up to me, not him.

[waynelong]

I am not fearful of the contract - I just don't have time to waste on something that is not productive. If it is productive - I will stay with it. If it is not I want to be able to move on.

I think we have debated it enough for everyone to get draw their own conclusion.

Thanks. Wayne

[keenjosh]

I thought it interesting that this topic is in the FORUM. I have been in real estate for going on 4 years now (3.5 this month actually) and I've been in some form of real estate coaching for 2 of those years. I coached with Dirk Zeller's REAL ESTATE CHAMPIONS and more recently switched to SSI (Tom Ferry's organization). I'm a firm believer in everything that Brian Garlick has shared here -- especially when he says:

I believe that there's nothing outside of you that isn't you, and you create your life and your future daily by the power of your thoughts and your intentions, and if you think about a contract as a burdon as you do, then it's a burdon, but if you think of a contract as an opportunity then it is. You're perception is your reality and the reality I want to have is a successful one with a company willing to work with me long term and asks me to do things I might not be comfortable with but will get me where I'm going if I have an open mind and a willingness to learn.

I happily pay $1000 a month to have a 30 minute phone call with my coach each week. We've all taken the time here on this foum to develop massive lead generation ideas and systems with our websites -- you now owe it to yourself to hire a coach to keep you on track with your prospecting, lead follow-up and conversion of everything you've worked so hard to create. Since joining the SSI organization, my business has nearly doubled (year over year analysis of the first quarter) and I expect that trend to continue. And I've gotten to know Brian Garlick on a more personal level and, though I've never met him in person, I can attest to the enthusiasm, commitment and knowledge he brings to his life and those in it.

And...for all you pessimists out there...I'm saying this of my own free will. Just sign the contract -- do everything your coach tells you to do and you'll thank me 90 days from now.