Thursday, February 21, 2013

Jean Cherni, Our Rock Star

Jean Cherni, a valued member of our Senior Services Department, is also a columnist for The New Haven Register.  We are always amazed, when we travel with her, how wide and how deep her ties are in the region; her readers span all generations and professions, despite the title "Senior Moments".  She's a wonderful writer, and seems to strike a chord with subscribers.

She certainly did this past weekend, when she wrote a column about buying a new car!  She talked about her experiences with various dealerships, including some where she felt minimized or overlooked.  It was a wonderful reminder for all of us in sales, that appearances can be deceiving, and that we don't always gauge correctly, when trying to determine the time line or the decision maker.  The other point that the column made, since she thought she was just looking, yet ended up driving home in a new car just hours after she walked into the final dealership, is that salespeople can sometimes influence the time line.  In fact, part of our challenge is to create a sense of urgency, or at least appetite for going forward, in buyers.  Jean's column showed us what can happen, both on the positive and the negative sides, when we either achieve or don't achieve those objectives.

The final part of this story is that we are handling Jean's fan calls, as well as ones from those who think they might have been targeted in her essay.  We can't get over the number of people who want to reach her, and tell her how they've been influenced by what she has written.  So, for some of our time this week, selling real estate has taken a back seat to answering readers of Jean's.  And we're happy to do so, as well as proud to have her on our team!