By Constance Rosenblum | The New York Times
Sometimes it seems as if New York brokers can’t catch a break. The stereotype is that members of the species are rude, arrogant, aggressive, and more apt to talk than to listen. While the image may be just that — a stereotype — it clings to the people who help clients buy, sell and rent houses and apartments in this sharp-elbowed metropolis.
To counter this perception, many brokerages have professional coaches on staff; others bring in outside consultants. The goal is to teach brokers to project a warm and friendly image to their clients — who themselves aren’t always the easiest people in the world to deal with — and thus to be more effective in their work.
“For many years, the field of real estate didn’t change much,” said Laura Scott, an in-house coach with Douglas Elliman Real Estate, “and the broker was mostly an order-taker. But now, thanks to the Internet, everyone has his or her mousetrap, and so brokers have to be much more skilled, much smarter. They need to be better at building relationships, at getting out of their skin and putting themselves in their clients’ shoes, better at asking the right questions and not driving deals down people’s throats. That’s what we try to teach people to do.”
