Click here to watch on YouTube
There are some surprisingly simple systems you can use to get yourself back on track and working at your ultimate level of productivity.
First, increasing your daily bookings is as basic as starting each call session with a list of your top 5 potential sellers. It’s those face-to-face appointments with clients that get listings and, ultimately, sales. Just think about what happens if you start every business day calling five potential clients first thing, before you even check your email. You can’t take them to market if they don’t know you, so make those calls and see those people.
Out of the hundreds–or thousands–of prospects in your database, you need a reliable method for choosing which ones are potential sellers. One of the simplest ways to do this is to create a special Seller Hit List category in your database for potential sellers. These are people who own property in a marketplace where they are likely to sell in a given number of years. For some markets that may be five years, for others it could be twenty years.
Your goal in locating and contacting potential sellers is to progress them into a market appraisal. This is where you can talk with them directly about what it will take for them to make a decision to sell. Pricing context is a key component to this discussion as you must find out if there is a price range they would not consider at all for their property, a price range that might interest them, or a price range they would definitely sell for if they could get it.
Once you are clear on a client’s pricing expectations you can then advise them on whether selling in the current market is a good move, or if they might want to wait for market conditions to improve for their property. Delivering a sound professional recommendation to a client is the best way to become their trusted advisor and gaining their loyalty for future real estate transactions.
The people who come through the market appraisal looking like potential sellers are the ones you categorize in your Seller Hit List. These are the people you will call regularly in order to bring them to market as soon as they are ready.
Keeping your systems simple is key to remaining flexible, responsive and current. Unfortunately many agents suffer from “task load” which means they encumber their databases with too many tasks and activities and eventually burn out trying to keep up. Consequently the few truly important tasks get buried and lost. You can avoid this pitfall by being clear about your process, and selective in your tasking and scheduling. One way to do this is to simply wrap up your phone calls by asking when you can next speak with that client, and scheduling that next contact point before ending the phone call.
Ultimate productivity is based on working a category, not individual clients. Each client fits inside a category, so if you address communications to the category—emails, market news, videos, etc.–then each individual will get the specific message that is relevant to their situation.
Still, it is your daily 45-minute phone sessions that drive your business. If you’re not making calls then you will have no appointments, no listings and no sales. Therefore the best time to make phone calls is the minute your day begins. Very simply, if you want more business more often, then you’ve got to be on the phones more often. So your most important task every day is to have your list of people to call, and get on the phones first thing. This is what it takes to be a great agent. It’s up to you to get serious about your business and make it happen.
I hope you have enjoyed today’s Coaching Tip. If you have a topic you would like to see discussed here, simply reply to this email. We’d love to assist you at the Josh Phegan Company, and we look forward to seeing you here again next week.