Brian Tracy is a Canadian-American motivational public speaker and self-development author. He is the author of over eighty books that have been translated into dozens of languages. His popular books are Earn What You’re Really Worth, Eat That Frog, No Excuses & such! And no wonder as I always say (read as admire) about USA’s marketing skills that it’s the communication & not just the product which makes you successful. Indeed, quality of the product does matter but it has to be backed up with the service & the service starts with right communication.

Do mind, I am saying right communication & not just good or bad as these terms keep changing depending on which side of the table you sit, but right & wrong never changes whichever side of the table you may be on! Well, why I required or say felt the urge of taking this subject is present scenario in not just real estate but entire society & on that background real estate (read as builders & all entities related to them) stands more prominently dark when its field of communication!

Not long back, I remember an incident where there was a demand for a rate hike by stone quarry owners for the supply of metal (its stone) & crush sand etc. These are raw people & their representative panel has come to meet us at CREDAI i.e., the social body of real estate developers. I was one of the panel members from the CREDAI side. During the negotiation one of the builders said to those traders that they can reduce payment duration for the supply instead of increasing the rate of the material. Hearing this argument, one of the supplier said, “Maf kara sheth, tumho olakhla nasel mala pan, me tumhala supply karato, pan payment sathi shambhar chakara marayala lawatat tumache loak & ta tas baswun thewatat tumachya officeat aani tumhi tar bhetat pan nahi na phone uchalt, aani tumhi payment term kami karayachya goshti karar rao!” What he said meant, he was supplier of that builder & said not only his bill payments get delayed but that builder’s staff makes him visit hundred times to his office for payment & make him wait for hours at office the builder never meets the supplier nor take his calls! I am sorry my fellow builders, but when it comes to communication, we are ranked as worst in the entire fraternity of businessmen. It is a shameful fact which is directly related to the brand or say image of the entire builder’s trade, this is why I chose communication as the subject of my sharing!

And let me tell you very clear, this is not because I am perfect in communication or runs any gyan.com or I love to give bad name (read as shame) to the builders which most media & Aam Janata loves to do but I myself have experience of the ways people communicate in our industry & someone needs to tell the facts if we want to improve, that’s why this sharing! We all have land lines, mobiles, emails & then we can actually write a letter, these are the basic ways of communication apart from actual meeting across, right? Please correct me if I have missed anything. And I have come to one basic conclusion while dealing with people in real estate, it’s only when other person’s interest are involved (read as money) or you have great nuisance value for the other person then your call will be taken, your WhatsApp message will be replied or you will get answer for your email that too in time. If you don’t fall in to any of above two categories, then you will have to call a hundred times on mobile, leave a message to PA (most builders as well professionals have one) or at office to call back, your WhatsApp messages will show as read but you won’t get a reply & email, well lesser I say is better, is the scene which every one of us has experienced while dealing with fellow builder, accept it, at least to your own self!

And joke is, this when you are a builder by yourself & dealing with another fellow builder, so, imagine what it would be if you are a flat holder or a supplier or a vendor or service provider with a builder, you just keep trying to reach other person in hope that someday he (or she) will revert back but that day doesn’t come only unless the builder has some work of his interest with you. And then he will be all guns to reach you & best part is in a public meeting this guy will make a general comment, “kay rao call pan ghet nahi tumhi aamche!” i.e., you are never reachable, while he himself lives by that way only! When a builder says to others that you are never reachable that means when he wants you to be available you should be & this pattern is so common with everybody associated with real estate that it spreads faster than corona virus. Not only the govt officers (sorry my friends from the system) but not taking calls of the builders or professionals & not even reverting them is Birth right of the people in power but you miss their one call & see the reaction! Anyway, I can spare govt officers as they are already loaded with their bosses i.e., political rulers (though the govt officers also must have a system in place to revert the person who is trying to reach them for genuine reason, is what I feel. But what I can’t understand is even the builder’s staff are like samartha gharache shwan, (please don’t ask what it means) in nutshell they leave behind their boss in reverting back only unless their boss orders to revert the vendor or client which again is the case when client’s recovery is involved or any supply is pending from the vendor! Never ever has any builder staff been known to call the vendor & update about his pending bills, if there are any such cases then they must be advertised, really! Neither any staff is known to be in touch with the client to update about the project or asking in general, “Hal kaisa hai janab ka?“ types, as that’s considered a waste of time in real estate, right? And if you think I am making too much of fuss the not-reverting birth right just doesn’t ends at the builders or his staff or govt officers but even the so called successful professionals(read as architect, CA’s, Lawyers & such) they also have taken up the baton of being non reachable from the builders hand, again my fellow builders, how many times you have complained in closed company about your own consultants, how useless they are in reverting back, accept to your own self & you will realize how the it tastes when your own bitter pill is swallowed down your throat by some other guy!

Here, in this industry, I have to tell my staff that call someone, leave a message on SMS & WhatsApp that we are trying to reach you & email him too & get a screenshot of your SMS & WhatsApp & save it, so that when the other person claims he didn’t get any call or message I can share the screen shot to him (not that it will make any good, yet), such pathetic is the scene of communication in the real estate! As answer on this is, “sorry, I didn’t read you message”, yeah can understand as the message wasn’t to pick your check is sarcastic reply which comes to my mind hearing such replies & this is how every person dealing with a real estate must be feeling & then we expect respect to this profession, wow! Here people are needed to call & told that have you read the email, oh sorry, its, have you received the email! Every day I meet many people who curse builders & the way they communicate, this includes not just avoiding payment calls but even not accepting delivery of material to signing of documents to anything which the builder doesn’t feel important to him! Guys, you can take the call & say no, I won’t pay for a while or reply to the message saying you can’t meet or just say you will revert back & do revert with whatever answer you want to give, isn’t that a simple way to deal with most problems in life? This is why we as a builder or as a real estate fraternity are not respected in the outer world which is far bigger than what you think because it’s our attitude & actions which gains us respect & not just our bank balance (they too are now gone), high time the real estate should understand this basic of business! Oh yes, one more thing, & it’s about cancelling or postponing or reaching late to any in-person meeting. All those who have ever been fortunate (or unfortunate) to meet any builder for a meeting, are well versed with the outcome. Right from cancelling the meeting at the eleventh minute the message or call may even come post meeting’s scheduled time also to reaching the meeting hours later & not being in communication till all this time, is one more characteristic of real estate people!

If you are not happy or agreeing with what I am blaming, then carry these some small surveys at your end.
1. Ask ten of your clients who have booked flat at your project & are already living in, what they feel or think about contacting you as owner & what is their experience before possession & after?
2. Ask your ten suppliers about their experience in contacting you as owner for taking orders & later for their payment?
3. Run a similar exercise with your labour contractors about contacting you.
4. Now ask you CA, Architect as well other professional consultants about contacting you. As well what is your experience in communicating with them this also write down
5. Now, ask your ten employees about contacting you one on one as well as a group for your approvals or for their works & what is their feedback.
6. Lastly ask your ten friends about contacting you & your response as well you doing the same for them?
7. Oh, yes, try contacting your ten fellow developers & write down what your feedback is too.

Best way is forming a group for every project & add only necessary people on it on WhatsApp as open communication always helps. As well make a habit of noting down all the calls, messages, emails once at start of the day & once at end of the day while leaving office, at least evert back to the concerned so they will be assured that you care to communicate back!

Guys, please conduct this exercise, it’s very important & do this for WhatsApp, call & email on all three fronts. And then we do have some very senior builders in our fraternity who are extremely particular in communication, (Mr Satish Magar & Mr Suhas Merchant, Mr Shantilal Kataria are such) who despite being busy revert on every message or call or at least ensures the caller or messengers job is being taken care via their team, that’s all is what people need, right? Learning from such people is what I will advise to not just the youngsters but even seniors as I too am still learning if not perfect! Do mind, communication doesn’t mean you are required to go out of way & spare your busy time; communication is a two-way thing & any medium is welcome till there is a dialogue between the two parties & with so many ways at your service all one has to do is just be a bit particular, that’s all! I understand a cell phone is not a land line which can be answered via dedicated person all the time (i.e., operator) but you have a call record & you can revert by going through the same, that’s the very basic of communication & which will be in benefit of your own brand, as an individual as well as a company! To conclude, I will share a small story about being communicative…

THE BRICK A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag’s side door! He slammed on the brakes and backed the Jag back to the spot where the brick had been thrown. The angry driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car shouting, “What was that all about and who are you? Just what the heck are you doing? That’s a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?”

The young boy was apologetic. “Please, mister…please, I’m sorry but I didn’t know what else to do,” He pleaded. “I threw the brick because no one else would stop…” With tears dripping down his face and off his chin, the youth pointed to a spot just around a parked car.

“It’s my brother,” he said. “He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can’t lift him up.” Now sobbing, the boy asked the stunned executive, “Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He’s hurt and he’s too heavy for me.” Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into the wheelchair, then took out a linen handkerchief and dabbed at the fresh scrapes and cuts. A quick look told him everything was going to be okay. “Thank you and may God bless you,” the grateful child told the stranger. Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the boy push his wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk toward their home.

It was a long, slow walk back to the Jaguar. The damage was very noticeable, but the driver never bothered to repair the dented side door. He kept the dent there to remind him of this message… “Don’t go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention!”

Guys, these are changing times & you need to be in touch with people who are your clients as well people who are part of your team & that’s in your own benefit, so, don’t underestimate the power of right communication! If even after reading this story, do I need to explain more about being communicative with the outer world, think over as the dent on our posh car may get repaired but what about the dent we will have on our mind, adios! –

-Sanjay Deshpande
-Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about real estate in Pune at You Tube link below..