In the photo: Sergio De Pinto has finished his holiday baking for another year.
Here I sit on a Saturday afternoon, listening to Bob Marley doing a little reggae and conversing with my old friend and colleague, Sergio De Pinto, who I’ve known since 1985, from my days at Safeguard Real Estate in Thornhill, Ont.
Sergio and I ended up with the same Re/Max office in Woodbridge. Now, Sergio has been a 100 Per Cent Club member for over a decade and has been with Re/Max over 20 years.
Sergio is a single parent with two very outgoing and energetic offspring, ages 18 and 22. He’s a physical fitness nut, exercising four times a week, and has been involved in many community service programs, including the Lions Club of Canada.
Quite often, we chat about what we could do to drop off holiday gifts to our past clients and friends. As the talks unfolded with the seven agents in the class, it came to Sergio’s time to share what he’s been doing for the past eight years with outstanding results.
Like many of us, he was perplexed as to how to remind his client base annually that he appreciated them. Because he had to stay at home with two small children at the time, and was always a good cook and baker, he came up with the idea to bake cookies. Why not, when all else fails, or you don’t have enough budget to go around to your client base?
Sergio embarked on his new project and became an extremely good baker of several varieties of cookies. The best, I can attest to, are his ginger snaps. If he brought enough, I would have eaten my body weight in them!
Sergio tells me that when he delivers the cookies, neatly packaged with a holiday apron and recipes and a suitable thank you note, some of his female clients are so emotional and impressed that a man could do such a wonderful and tasteful (no pun intended!) gesture, that they are moved to tears. They can’t believe that these tasty cookies (oops, I ate another one) are baked by their agent. Many of the women on his client base trade recipes with Sergio. If you want to see his favourites, visit www.callsergio.com.
Sergio starts baking around the second week in November and continues on into mid December, after which he delivers to 125 of his client base. He says he bakes 2,500 cookies, shortbreads, and gingerbread snaps. The boxes are beautifully wrapped and then the chore of delivering begins before Christmas Day. It takes nearly 100 visits over three weeks.
So, if you’re looking for a novel idea for next year, maybe you should try and reach Sergio at his email: callsergio@rogers.com He’s never too busy for your next referral!
To all my friends and fans out there, I wish you, on behalf of all my family, a Happy New Year.
Stan Albert is celebrating his 39th year in active real estate, and is with Re/Max Excellence in Woodbridge, Ont. He serves on committees at RECO and at the Toronto Real Estate Board. He is an established trainer and business consultant and can be reached at salbert@trebnet.com.
Stan Albert, ABR, ASA is a consultant with Re/Max Premier in Vaughan, Ont. He can be reached for consultation by email. Stan is now celebrating his 45th year as an active real estate professional.
