We are working on future posters designed around each of the three keys – Honesty, Competence and Care as the eleven steps on the Path to Clients First.

“A pleasant surprise to be sure,” states the publisher. “Only five percent of the almost 900,000 new titles published each year ever go back for even a second printing. This is especially true for new or first time authors,” the publisher goes on to say. “With first timers the odds drop to one in a thousand.”

Of course, the surprise was somewhat mitigated with the fact that “Clients First” opened on the New York Times Bestseller list and followed that with a Number One ranking in The Wall Street Journal. Beginning as a favorite of the real estate industry, the authors are successful real estate agents, the book has now transcended to the business community at large.

“We didn’t want to limit Clients First to a category,” says the publisher. “Its message goes far beyond dealing with prospective buyers and sellers of homes. This book can be applied to manufacturing, retail, large corporations, small business and any professional service. Barnes and Noble has it displayed in the Sales section but it could just as easily be in marketing, management, human resources, or any other part of the business books section.”

Another industry source calls “Clients First” a classic. “It came as no surprise to me,” says Dottie Dehart of Dehart and Associates, a North Carolina based publicity firm. “I think we will see twenty and thirty printings of this book. Its message and capacity to change and inspire readers is right up there with “Think and Grow Rich” and “The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People.”

They were there to meet their editor for the first time. He had invited them to “a proper author lunch” and they passed the moments looking at Manhattan and reading framed documents from two hundred years ago.

Richard arrived presently with his assistant, Lydia, in tow. He suggested the short walk to the W Hotel and the foursome set out.

“People can’t believe it.” JoAnn said over a delicious pasta, “when I tell them about your call.”

“We had heard about their manuscript from a trusted resource,” Richard reminded Lydia. ”I don’t think you knew who I was,” he said to JoAnn.

“Actually, I was at my computer Googling your name” Joseph said.

“I remember it was the second week in January last year and you said you wanted to read our book.” Richard nodded as JoAnn continued, “so we sent it overnight and we now know you read it on Wednesday and then you called on Thursday to say John Wiley wanted to publish Clients First.”

Richard said something about that not being the usual routine but it was a good book and he didn’t want someone else to get it. JoAnn replied that she later got calls from two other publishers but by then the bond was made.

The conversation continued over an abundance of subjects; Lydia is Greek, Richard’s wife is a University professor, which shows would win a Tony. They danced all around the title of the next book. Joseph said they were working on it and assured Richard that an outline was forthcoming. They all smiled.

Back at Wiley the Callaways got the tour and ended up in Richard’s office whereupon he presented Joseph and JoAnn with copies of a dozen of his best books. It was a beautiful gesture and JoAnn said something about catching up on her reading.

At the curb. Richard suggested JoAnn not miss Carlos Bakery, the home of the Cake Boss TV Show. That was all it took and Those Callaways were off on a mission. – to be continued…

When we appeared before the Lubbock, Texas Board of REALTORS in January the local Barnes & Noble came to the event with books. Although every attendee bought a copy, and some bought several, the store’s Customer Relations Manager still had 25 books left. This worried us so we called her two weeks later to check, and sure enough, they were sold out. We asked if more were on order. The manager said, “I suppose we could.”

This story has played out so many times in the months since Clients First hit the stores. The reality is that if they stock it, Clients First will sell. They just need a nudge and that needs to be expressed as local demand. So, if you love Clients First and want to be a part of the movement, start by telling your local bookseller. Ask them to stock Clients First and when they put it on the shelves take a photo and send it to us along with the name of the store and who’s in the picture. We will post it on our facebook page and send you a 11×17 suitable for framing Butterfly Poster signed by Joseph and JoAnn. You will also be entered into our monthly “Where in the World is Clients First” drawing for a $200 Barnes & Noble gift card.

P.S. If you travel, take your copy of Clients First with you and email us photos of you and your book in front of iconic locations (The Seattle Space Needle, The Lincoln Memorial, The Alamo … you get the idea) and for every photo we post your name goes into the hat. The more you enter the better your chances to win.

When JoAnn and I combined honesty with competence with caring we unleashed a powerful synergy which changed our lives and suddenly made everything easy.

Our lives before Clients First had been a series of ups and downs, anticipations and disappointments, successes and failures.  We were like most folks.  Life was often a struggle.  Suddenly our lives became a progression of ups and ups, expectations exceeded and undreamed of successes.  It was as if a logjam had busted up and now everything was flowing in the same direction.

I know of no other way to explain what was happening than using synergy.  At the time these three Key changes seemed small.  As we were going through the process of first deciding to undo that one transaction and then passing our decision on to Marta and Susan, we were excited at the way we felt without knowing why.  We felt good.    But we had no idea that this was some monumental moment in our lives.

I’m sure our forefathers were sober men as they penned the Declaration of Independence and later the United States Constitution but I doubt they had any idea about the vast consequences of their actions.  You simply don’t think about making history.  John Adams was probably preoccupied with his family’s needs and Benjamin Franklin may have been more concerned with a new ache or pain that morning.  They had no idea what was to come and how they would change the world.  Now I have no delusions that Clients First is as important as a government of the people, by the people and for the people, but it has a synergetic power to change lives.

Clients First changed our world. We were free.  We no longer had to think about what we were saying or had said.  Whatever we said was the truth or, we didn’t say it.  The only challenge was to know the truth and it’s surprising how easy that becomes when your goal is honesty.  Whatever we said was competent or, we didn’t say it.  How liberating it is to acknowledge your limitations and say, “I’ll find out.”  Whatever we said was anchored in a deep and passionate desire to get what our client wanted.  The synergy which results from the combination of the three Keys gave us the gift of freedom.

Yes, we have been lucky and we have worked hard.  We have invested in marketing because we know that even executives at McDonalds and Walmart cannot sit on their laurels no matter how many satisfied followers they have.  The reality of the real estate market is that it is cyclical and there is no right or wrong time to enter it as opportunities and dangers are always present.   The real secret, and if we are talking secrets here it cannot be what everybody else guesses, is how we treat our clients.

But, how do you prove it?  How do you know if Clients First is the real reason for our success?  What is the formula?  How do you subtract Clients First or divide Clients First?  Maybe it’s not as simple as arithmetic but the question still cries out.  How do we prove our work?

The scientific community grapples with this question all the time.  Scholars have all sorts of rules and procedures by which they move from postulating to theory to scientific laws.  Criminal investigators have well-documented methods by which they narrow the field of suspects until they have enough evidence to make an arrest.  In our civil courts, cases are decided after a preponderance of evidence has been presented.   The medical community argues over the anecdotal proof of naturopaths versus the results of clinical trials.  There are probably hundreds of ways to prove or disprove anything.  So how do we prove Clients First?

Our decision to put Clients First required us to not only know what we were doing but to know how to do it better than anyone else.  And because our commitment was so strong we felt a need to constantly find ways to be more and more competent.  Clients First compelled us to do better, to be the best.

From that quest to be the best, Clients First changed us further.  We looked at our practice of real estate with new eyes.  How could we possibly put Clients First and serve more than one client at a time?  After all, a client deserved our full attention.  The minute the cell phone rang with a call from a second client, the client we were with was neglected.

Until this time, real estate agents were a one-person-show.  They tried to do everything for everybody.  Some had hired an assistant or two to remain in the background and take care of paperwork but they still handled all the client contact.  Many agents still operate this way today.  Some work as a team dividing the client load.  When one agent goes on vacation, the other agent acts as a substitute.  We knew firsthand how that might fail.  We needed a new way to operate if we were going to put Clients First and serve more than one client at a time.

Read what happens next. Go to www.clientsfirstbook.com to reserve your copy.

So JoAnn told Anita to bump us to a later flight.  It had been a challenging Tuesday, the first day back from Labor Day weekend and there was no way to leave the office at 2:00pm.  Panic had actually set in the Friday before.  We were going to Dallas for the Five Star Convention and our to-do list seemed to grow rather than shrink.  After a feverish paced three days off, we were working 12 hours a day to prepare the business for our absence; Tuesday began with late arrivals exclaiming the traffic was the worst in years.  Then the company meeting ran over, calls had to be taken, decisions had to be made and as overachievers, we had decided to squeeze in a 1:00pm appointment that went well and ran long.

The next flight was at 6:55pm giving us an extra three hours.  JoAnn said, “book it” and Anita made the change.  At the airport, we bought trail mix and a bottle of water knowing that once in the air, we could eat for the first time that day.  Fifteen minutes after takeoff, the cabin attendant requested our beverage order.   I asked for coffee and she said, “We don’t have any.” I opted for a Diet Coke and was once again reminded of why we don’t fly this airline (which shall remain nameless).

Have any of you out there ever heard of a commercial airline without coffee?  As I sat there eating my trail mix, I contemplated the possibilities.  Was it really possible that a major air carrier couldn’t pay their grocery bills?  I thought through the possibilities including the image of our cabin attendant opening a bare cupboard but, still, I couldn’t get beyond her response of, “We don’t have any coffee.”

Now, I am not convinced, and I may be utterly wrong.  There may be some other wild explanation but I believe she simply did not want to bother with brewing a pot of coffee. This was a deadhead flight for this Dallas based crew and just as JoAnn and I were on it as a last resort, there were only a few passengers opting to arrive just before midnight.  There were maybe twenty of us and perhaps I was the only one who wanted coffee.  It was easier on our cabin attendant to turn down one die hard caffeine junky than to perform the small task of making coffee.  She was not putting me first.  She was putting herself first and in that small act of selfishness she was losing a customer for the giant corporation upon which she depends.

Sadly, I am sure when her airline is forced to cut back, go bankrupt or reduce her retirement, she will lament her circumstances and never truly realize she did it to herself. She won’t recall all those times she chose to put herself first rather than make her passengers happy – passengers who will, from this point forward, choose the competitor.  I think this small example is special because it highlights the fact that Clients First so often is about the small things, those little acts of duty or kindness that, in the end, make all the difference.

I also like this story because people often don’t think what they do matters.  Most flying decisions are, after all, made based on schedule or cost and if the employees disappoint a passenger here or there they can enjoy the momentary reward of dozing in the jump seat while their clients suffer in silence.  But the fact is, that if at all possible, I will never fly this airline again.

My favorite airline always has coffee.  They also charge as much or more than their competitors and even seem to take advantage in some markets where they are the majority or only connector. They land hard because that is a characteristic of the aircraft they like to fly.  They don’t offer reserved seating or any frills but they are the top money maker in a business that views losses as normal and maybe, just maybe, it’s because their cabin attendants are always upbeat, attentive and hard working. These crew members can feel quite confident that their retirement will be there when the time comes, because clients like me will continue to fly with the airline that makes me feel like I come first – where a single cup of coffee can create a lifelong fan.

In my first attempt to put pen to paper after Charlotte, I wrote down a list of 122 ways to put clients first.  I did this in a flash of inspiration at two in the morning.  The next day JoAnn read my list and said, “I didn’t know you had it in you.”

“What?” I said, “You think you’re the only one who takes care of the clients?”

It wasn’t going well.

While it was a good list, it wasn’t new or unique.  My list existed in a hundred books, newsletters, magazines and newspaper articles.  It was just another version of the same customer service stuff people have been reading for years.  While each item was valid and rang true, how could we expect people to remember it all?  How could we expect this to change anyone?  It was like one big To Do List.  Do this.  Get inspired about that.  In the end people are not changed.  This would just exhaust a person and ultimately be forgotten.

For the next year or so we talked about it off and on.  Actually I had begun to grumble.  JoAnn remained positive but neither of us could unlock the magic room.  We were searching for Clients First.  We talked to each other and we talked to people we knew.  We talked to staff.  We talked to other agents with whom we had professional relationships.  We talked to vendors and mortgage people and title officers.  We talked to everybody.  We tested this theory and that theory.  We got a lot of wonderful comments about taking care of clients but these were just another 122 ways to please clients.  Send them handwritten notes, smile, use first names…I wanted to scream.

Clients Last

This was impossible.  I reread all the books.  We bought new ones.  Nothing. Clients First had become a grueling quest, a confused quagmire of sucking up.  There is nothing worse than sucking up.  It’s phony.  I love it when a server with a soprano voice asks, in an alto voice, if she can take our order. This two octave rise in her tone tells me she is faking it and when she brings me cream with my black coffee I know she’s not listening.

I got so bogged down in bad customer service I suggested we call it Clients Last.  Thankfully JoAnn said – No!  She said there might be a place for the comparison but only when we could first explain Clients First.

It was like looking for something misplaced.  It nagged at us.  It became a burden.  More than once one of us would ask the other, You want to give up?

Read what happens next. Go to www.clientsfirstbook.com to reserve your copy.