Coming from the financial services industry, I learned the importance of letters after your name.  It doesn't matter what the letters stand for, it just shows a potential client that you're a little smarter, different, than the average broker.  I went through my company training and mentoring program, and learned how to cold call, call expireds, FSBOs - YUK!  Talk about depressing.  So I asked my manager about designations, which was silly because she has none (not knocking her, she's awesome).

I found two I could get easily, and importantly for me, without any production requirements, the GRI and ePRO.  Ignoring the shaking heads, confused looks, and questions about how many calls I made last week, I set out to get both.

I got the GRI in February.  A local paper has featured me in "Who's New and Hot" and I've been trading referrals around my state.  Just got another one tonight!  The confidence these classes has given me, and the knowledge that even senior agents in my office don't have, is well worth the price of admission.  One veteran was busting me, saying "no one knows what GRI stands for anyway, why did you waste your time with that?"  I replied, "it doesn't matter if they know what it stands for or not, they just know I'm smarter than you.  I must be, I have letters after my name."  Then he asked how I got them.  Maybe I shouldn't share my new secret to success.  I think he likes cold calling.