Whose job was that?

I came into the real estate business the way many agents do - from a career in sales in another industry. In my case, it was the computer industry, where I had sales and marketing jobs for over 25 years with many of the big (and many now defunct) names in the computer industry - Burroughs, Digital Equipment Corp, Compaq, EMC and SGI. It took me quite a while to get reoriented into the role of being an independent contractor who sells real estate. I remember making lots of early mistakes (from which I learned - see post of August 14) or having things go wrong or not go at all. I*n the beginning I'd look around and likely blurt out, "Whose job was that anyway?"

You see, the large companies that I worked for had things pretty well compartmentalized. I did the selling and took the order. Someone else maintained the catalogs and pricing files, yet another person actually processed the order, still others were downstream in the delivery process and there was always someone at the end to go install and maintain he equipment. There was always someone else (most of the time many someone elses) in the value chain who had responsibility for things that I didn't have to worry about. It didn't always work smoothly, but that was the fault of someone else. Not so with real estate sales.

Now, I tell new agents coming in, especially those who have just left corporate jobs, to go out and buy a cheap hand held mirror. then, whenever the urge is there, out of whatever frustration about something going wrong, to yell out "Who's job was it to check on that or to do that?" I tell them to hold up the mirror and stare intently at the only person they have to blame. Maybe they should put a green dot on their mirror, too (see post of August 12). Sure, there are administrative people in the chain who do many of the clerical tasks; but, the only person who is overseeing the whole process, the one person who must catch any and all mistakes, and the only person that the clients can hold accountable is the person staring blankly back at you in that mirror.