by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Steven Oniki gave an energetic speech to a room full of Realtors at last month’s Northeast Florida Association of Realtor meeting at the Marriott Southpoint.
Oniki spoke of the art of soft selling, treating others as they want to be treated, and how it can be effective.
Oniki talked about the golden rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” However, he said that the rule just doesn’t work everywhere.
“I had to adopt some type of selling philosophy that worked everywhere,” said Oniki. “So here’s what I came up with: Do unto others as they want to be done unto. That is kind of a version of the golden rule, but it’s a better version for selling. If I treat you the way you want to be treated, you will think I am on your wavelength.
“When was the last time you’ve found a salesperson that is on your wavelength? If you ever found one, you’d send your entire center of influence to that person. You want to be that kind of salesperson.”
“I believe people love to buy, but they hate being sold to.”
He described four main personalities:
• Sherman tanks are the bosses.
• Socializers are people who are always having happy hour.
• Mother Hens and Teddy Bears are nurturing and stable.
• Analyticals are cautious, careful and picky.
He then gave the Realtors different approaches as to how to deal with those types of customers.
“I see so many Realtors who are so worried about what to say to their clients, instead of listening to what they need to hear from you,” said Oniki. “You have to treat them the way they want to be treated. Your job is to take the client from that emotional low when you first meet them to an emotional high and signing on the dotted line.”
Oniki said soft selling is the way to get there.
Also during the meeting, Gerri Jones, a commercial Realtor with Jones Investment Properties and a representative of the Northside Businessman’s Club, spoke about an ordinance that requires homeowners to have their addresses prominently displayed on their homes and another for street signs to be replaced so that 911 responders can find them in an emergency situation.
She said Realtors can help by printing flyers and distributing them to homeowners to inform them of the law and by painting curbs with addresses on them to help emergency responders find homeowners who need help.
This effort is on behalf of the Jacksonville Code of Ordinances, Chapter 745 Addressing and Street Naming Regulations, “We Can’t Help You Unless We Can Find You” campaign. Ordinance 2003-620-E and Ordinance 2002-992-E went into effect three years ago and have yet to be implemented throughout the city.
For more information regarding property addressing, call Ellen Fales, senior planner, at 630-1071 or Howard Seltzer, assistant planner, at 630-1421 or Clay Whitfield, assistant planner, at 630-7033.