Research Report

Bruno Lussier, PhD, Yany Grégoire, PhD, and Marc-Antoine Vachon, PhD Using humor wisely is known to have many benefits in the workplace. In this article, we examine the influence of salesperson humor usage on salesperson creativity, customer trust, and sales performance within the context of a salesperson-customer relationship.

It's not unusual to put in a 60-80 work week, with many of those hours worked at home after hours. But have you considered how your working from home may affect your spouse's work productivity?

Jackson Price, MBA Candidate According to Scott Stratten and Alison Kramer, authors of Unselling, sixty percent of all purchase decisions are now made before you ever get a chance to share your pitch. In short, the majority of your potential clients have already decided on a real estate agent or firm before they even know they need one.

Zachary R. Hall, PhD, Ryan R. Mullins, PhD, Niladri Syam, PhD, and Jeffrey P. Boichuk, PhD Understanding the changing dynamics of customers and competitors in your market is a cornerstone for maintained success. This information, known as market intelligence, helps improve decision-making, especially in real estate. But how do we utilize it in an agency context to bolster sales?

Meredith E. David, PhD In real estate, the ability to connect with and build successful relationships with a client is based on the ability to predict a client’s preferences. However, there is a difference between predicting preferences and social projection, which could lead to misinterpretations of your own preferences as those of a client.

In the growing social media marketing landscape, interacting with customers on Facebook is at the forefront of businesses’ higher spending, but are your Facebook page likes actually driving client engagement and spending?

As a sales person, you must always be ready to embrace the challenges that the selling environment poses in your professional life. In Sales Insanity, Cannon Thomas recounts unique sales blunders which highlight the importance of adapting to the ever-changing sales environment.

To remain competitive, salespeople must provide excellent service while still reaching their sales quotas. When these two ideas converge, sales-service ambidexterity is achieved. But how can sales managers encourage their sales associates to reach this medium?

In this article, we study the relationship between ethical leadership and employee deviance and turnover intentions, considering the role of hindrance stress from the leader and the job. Our findings show that ethical leaders who also impose additional demands are perceived to miss the mark in providing proper social support are likely to have deviant or withdrawing employees.

In his book, When—The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, Daniel H. Pink reaffirms the idea that “timing is everything” through anecdotal discourse and scientific research to impart a better understanding of how to find your perfect timing.

It is widely recognized that political skill enables employees to secure valuable resources within their own companies and to promote positive outcomes with customers. In this article, we examine the effect of political skill in the sales context and draw conclusions for real estate professionals.

In real estate, it is universally agreed that strategic pricing plays a huge role in determining how quickly a house will sell; yet there are still questions on how pricing affects different people.

A strong social media presence is critical to cultivate relationships with potential clients and build credibility in the public eye. Effective use of social media platforms will help convert views into sales, retain those clients over long periods of time, and build a lasting business.

A well-defined and consistent personal brand can elevate agent recognition, generate leads, and build authority and credibility. It can also help agents develop a unique value proposition, identify target customers, and humanize marketing campaigns. Does your personal brand communicate the right message?

In the simplest of transactions, the exchange of goods and services between a buyer and a seller develops a relationship that is dependent on trust. This study examines how direct and indirect impressions influence the development of trust in social relationships.

Community and individual-level factors affect the satisfaction a person derives from living in his or her community. How do we determine if a community is meeting the needs of the person, and how do we better prepare our communities, moving forward, to appeal to potential homeowners?

In Sales EQ, Jeb Blount explains that the emotional experience of buying is more important than any product, price, or feature. To be an effective sales person, it is necessary to approach people the way they buy rather than the way you sell, which requires high emotional intelligence and knowledge of how people make decisions.

Viral ad campaigns have become a necessity in the digital world. Our research examines the key factors driving valuable virality and shows how the sharing of an ad and brand evaluation of a product are dependent on ad content.

Gratitude has immense value to firms and is linked to increases in share of wallet, sales revenue, sales growth, and customer commitment. Our research shows how sales professionals can improve their relational outcomes with customers by fostering more grateful customers through their own expressions of gratitude.

Research shows that women account for 85 percent of all consumer purchases and have $7 trillion in buying power. In Why Women Buy, Dawn Jones shares insights to provide sales professionals with a relevant and detailed guidebook for improving results with and meeting the needs of this powerful market.

Research shows that men and women network differently and benefit differently from networking. In our research, we examine different types of networking benefits for female and male real estate professionals which allows us to offer suggestions for more effective networking.

Buyer and seller markets are now comprised of multiple generations that not only see the world differently, but also value vastly different lifestyles. While the differences between generations provide obstacles to overcome, it is also important to recognize the accessibility, innovation and collaboration these differences provide for the workplace.

Bedtime worry, including worrying about incomplete future tasks, is a significant contributor to difficulty falling asleep. This article examines how bedtime to-do list writing can serve as a beneficial behavioral sleep aid for busy real estate professionals.

How can you ensure trust is prevalent in your real estate operation? In this article, we discuss the three stages of trust, the three forms of trust, and how they affect a client’s behavior so that you can successfully and effectively build trust with your clients.

When a customer clicks the like button on a brand’s Facebook page, what happens? Do these likes have value to a company, or are they merely the click of a button?

Social media has revolutionized communication and advertising and is a useful tool for keeping up with news, family, and friends. As a real estate professional, though, understanding how to best use each social media platform can have a positive impact on your business.

What kind of relationships do you have with those who report to you and with your own boss? We study these relationships in conjunction with empowering leadership to suggest that the better these relationships are, the better position leaders are in to positively influence their employees.

Thanks to the number of popular television shows, many people get the impression that they, too, can immerse themselves in a world of sparkling granite, colorful tiles, and rich hardwoods, all while making a handsome profit. But successful flippers have knowledge that extends beyond farmhouse bathrooms or modern living spaces.

Today, consumers can express their opinions about a product, a property, or almost anything. A few lines written by an anonymous user in a completely different geographic location and time zone can impact success or failure in the marketplace.

The Value Game is not just your normal game encounter, but rather a real-life experience in which sellers and their supporting teammates, the sponsoring company and the products/services being offered, engage with prospective buyers to reach a win-win game outcome.

Do you take the time to request feedback from your clients and customers? If not, you could be missing out on an opportunity to boost repeat business. Research has shown that merely soliciting a review from customer increases repeat business.

Differentiating one's self from the competition is crucial to the success or failure of the business. In his new book, Listing Boss, Hoss Pratt discusses the changing environment and shares insight that will empower you to exceed your sales goals by transforming the way you approach your business.

The ideal real estate agent has high competence as well as high integrity. But not all real estate agents are perceived that way.

The new book, 2 Chairs: The Secret that Changes Everything, is crucial not only for people who are in trouble themselves, but also for those who just don’t know what advice to give to others in need.

Stigma is inherently problematic for any worker but is particularly detrimental for real estate agents and other sales representatives. Stigma can be detrimental to agents because job performance and personal well-being depend greatly on favorable interactions with customers.

Firms often prioritize frontline employee job satisfaction, hoping that satisfied employees will lead to satisfied customers. In real estate, this implies that improvements in agent satisfaction are expected to increase client satisfaction. According to our research, these agencies may be missing an important opportunity.

The need for fantastic sales professionals is greater today than ever before. Increasingly, clients demand sales professionals provide exceptional customer service that coincides with meeting those desired results. To this, motivation is key.

In Emotional Agility, Susan David offers a groundbreaking way to recognize our feelings and gives us the tools we need to avoid the emotional ruts that keep us from reaching our bigger goals.

Our research examines how a consumer's view of this theory can affect his/her preference for luxury, and how advertisers, marketers, and real estate agents can use this information to increase the likelihood that consumers respond positively to luxury, increasing your chances of a sale.

Predicting others' preferences can result in a distinct advantage for a salesperson, especially through creating choice sets based on clients' implicit and explicit wants and needs. Oftentimes, these predictions must be made with almost no information about the client's preferences, so the salesperson may have to rely on previously observed behaviors.

Delivering an effective sales presentation to a prospective real estate client will impact attaining your desired outcome for most client interactions.

In his book, Fearless Public Speaking, Patrick King explains exactly what it takes for you to confidently prepare for a talk or presentation and command the stage once you're there.

The art of being a successful real estate agent largely depends on the need to interact socially. How you interact with your own clients indeed effects their opinion of the services you provide and ultimately shape their opinions about you or your company.

Have you ever felt insecure in your career? Have you ever doubted your ability to fulfill your job duties? If so, you are certainly not the only one in your field experiencing these emotions. While most are unwilling to admit their insecurity or discuss their self-doubt with their peers, insecurity is common among sales professionals.

In every field of study, there are moments when looking back helps us better understand where we are now and the path forward. In an effort to uncover key takeaways for salespeople, we reviewed the lessons gleaned from the past 35 years of sales research.

Throughout our daily lives, we have many options. We can change our jobs, our bosses, our cities, and try endless news sales methods. However, unless we undergo personal transformation ourselves, external changes will not propel us where we want to go or help us become who we need to be.

Forgiving a transgressor plays a monumental role in team or group dynamics. At a team level, forgiveness can impact the cohesiveness of the team or collective action.

Boasting by real estate agents can produce negative and positive reactions from their clients. However, boasting combined with a strategy to develop trust can be advantageous to a real estate agent.

The modern real estate agent's business relationships today transcend obvious interactions with customers and now also include the internal business team and external business partners. The successful agent must skillfully manage these three relationships to complete the transaction.

A basic objective to any selling engagement should be the buyer’s success, however that may be defined by the buyer.