Systems Not Working For You

If your life isn’t working then you’re not working. You need systems to manage your time and keep your energy high. And you need to follow those systems, too – just having them in place won’t do it for you.

First you have to take care of yourself. If you’re not energized then you can’t bring your best effort to anything else you need to handle, including your business. Make the commitment to devote at least an hour a day to your health and fitness. Your payback for that hour will be energy, clarity and drive for the rest of the day.

Along with that, make sure you work when it’s time to work, then you can relax when it’s time to play without stressing over work you didn’t get done. Here’s a secret: If you want to love what you do, then do it often and with all you’ve got to give. The more you do it, the better it gets and the more you will love it.

Another secret to getting it done is to suit up and go without thinking about it. Don’t let your “I don’t feel like it” attitude stop you. Whether it’s your workout or your workday, put on your gear and get going. Next thing you know you’re out there moving and feeling good about yourself. That’s how successful people do it, and that’s how you’re going to do it. Remember, it’s better to feel great about what you’ve done than feel bad about what you haven’t.

Dead time can be a momentum killer unless you have a system for it. Even 30 minutes is an opportunity to get on the phone and call some people. Always have mobile access to a current call list of past market appraisals, potential sellers and past clients, and use it every chance you get. You really can work wherever you are, so capitalise on that time.

Every workday is about your personal fitness and your business fitness. Focus on your work when you’re working, and then you can really enjoy your family time, holiday time, and time to yourself. But you have to make a decision to do this and stick with it. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, all that is a black hole of wasted time that leaves you with nothing to show for it. Make your time count and your efforts pay off. You will feel much better about your life, your business and yourself if you do.

I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s Coaching Tip, and I look forward to seeing you here again next week.

Ep 21 — Building Your Database

In this High Performance Podcast for Real Estate Agents, Josh Phegan and Alexander Phillips stress the importance of building a high-quality database. Alexander describes how the functionality of your database determines your long-term success, especially through referrals. Josh continues with long-term thinking, the value of your network, and maintaining relationships through relevant and frequent communication. They continue with establishing yourself as a reliable friend and enabler in the business.

Josh moves the discussion on to building your database system with proper categories and Alexander gives examples for maintaining currency with clients in those categories. Josh stresses the importance of being able to quickly search and respond to client and property data to build better call lists for more productive prospecting. Alexander clarifies the difference between a fat database vs. a clean database. Josh ends with making database maintenance a daily task so you can maintain your vital relationships with key clients as their trusted advisor.

Ep 22 – Buyer Qualification

In this High Performance Podcast for Real Estate Agents, Josh Phegan and Alexander Phillips talk about what you must understand when working with buyers. Alexander notes the importance of asking clients the right questions from the start and identifying their reasons for buying. Josh notes 3 basic bits of information you need to ask about, and they continue discussion around trends in buyer progression, timing, and price parameters.

Next, Alexander tells why he works multiple markets with a variety of price ranges. Josh explains how buyer qualification evolves as you work with a client, and they continue on to define the most basic data you need to accurately qualify buyers. Josh wraps up with the importance of maintaining a usable database with complete buyer profiles, never making assumptions, and taking time to do quality qualifications.

Scripts and Dialogues

I don’t like scripts and dialogues, but in today’s Coaching Tip I’m going to tell you how and why you should be using them. The bad thing about reading from a scripted dialogue in your prospecting calls is that you will sound like you’re reading from a script. However, if you use these tools properly your calls will be bright, informative and winning.

The first thing I want you to do is forget about following scripts and dialogues by rote, because at their best they define a logical system. Having a script to structure your dialogue with each client will keep your calls brief, effective and productive.

A good script is a series of questions that logically lead to a result. Having a script for each type of prospecting call will keep you on track, and you will know from the start exactly what you need to communicate and what kind of information you need to gather. It will also keep you from falling into sales mode during the call.

Basically you don’t want your calls to last more than 2 or 3 minutes. Beyond that, any further discussion you have needs to be face-to-face with the customer. Rather than telling the customer why they should sell or buy with you, ask them about what you need to know to progress them. Keep your dialogue down to 3 to 5 targeted questions, and allow just 15 seconds for each. Then, book an appointment.

Once you become proficient with your prospecting calls you will feel less hesitant and more confident about making those vital calls every day. You will also sound real in your delivery, as your dialogue will be yours and not some static text you’re reading from. You will also make fewer calls with greater results – more bookings, more listings and more sales.

Your clients will pay for your services only when they are ready and willing to do business with you. The point of your phone work is to progress them, not harass them. Build your confidence through following a scripted system of logical, natural dialogue and your clients will gain confidence in you.

I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s Coaching Tip, and I look forward to seeing you here again next week.

Recruitment Process

Recruitment and progression of the people you hire is vitally important to the growth of your business. In this week’s Growth, Leadership and Management Tip I will outline systems you should follow and improvements you can make for cultivating exceptional team members for your agency.

It all begins with your application process. Your application form is not a formality. The first questions you ask will determine the quality of your new hires and set expectations for the performance you will require of them. Your application form should help you determine their rate of progress in previous positions, wage potential, performance consistency and overall value. In addition, follow up with their referees to validate the information they give you.

In the interview you need to discuss their career goals and aspirations, and be able to align their expectations with career streams you have in place for administration, sales, and property management. From the start, look at this new hire in terms of their potential to move upwards into roles in office management, sales partnership, property management, or even business director. Know what you can offer them as well as what they will bring to you.

There must be benchmarks for career progression based on skills they must acquire and transactions they must complete, as well as maximum wages they can earn before progressing to a higher position. You want to hire people who are motivated to progress in their career so your investment in helping them achieve those goals pays off for both of you.

In the Josh Phegan Company we help businesses set up five levels of career progression that we visualise as “bands.” These bands may start at a wage of around $40,000 a year at Level 5, and progress to $120,000 a year at Level 1. Realistically, you can’t have a long-term office assistant earning $100,000 a year, so that person needs to be able to assume higher roles within reasonable time frames in order to increase their pay.

This career stream and wage system implies that you are building a dynamic enough company to support requisite position and wage increases. The quality of your hires will determine the growth and success of your business. Make sure you understand your own business goals, and know the aptitude and attitude you need your people to provide in order to make that growth and success happen for you and for them.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this month’s Growth, Leadership and Management Tip, and I look forward to seeing you here again next month.

Ep 20 — Bringing Urgency to the Table

This High Performance Podcast for Real Estate Agents features Josh Phegan and Alexander Phillips discuss the state of urgency. Alexander describes how his sense of urgency and responsiveness keeps him on top of his market. Josh notes the advantage of an early start to your day, and Alexander continues with instilling a sense of urgency and quick response to change in your team. Discussion continues around setting clear guidelines for yourself and your team on what your agency does and doesn’t do.

They continue with when to step back a bit on the urgency, and how to progress a hesitant vendor or buyer. Next they discuss how best to communicate priorities to your team so they always know what to do, as well as helping clients to understand current market value and the necessity for timely action. Josh ends with facilitating the urgency of the client, setting clear expectations and following up.

Back to Basics Prospecting

Prospecting is the lifeline to your business success. How well is your current approach to it working? In today’s Coaching Tip I’m going to step you through some back to basics prospecting and help you begin to see some real results from your efforts.

You may not realise it, but your best prospects are the people you already know. Everyone in your life should be in your database, because everybody will need a real estate agent someday. You want to be their agent when that time arrives. Otherwise they will be working with your competitors.

Becoming a trusted advisor is not a status you can demand. It’s a subtle process you achieve through building relationships with your clients over time. It’s about your social proof and the value you deliver. Think in terms of what you can offer to the people you know rather than the business you can get from them. That’s how you become a friend in the business – by being a valuable friend.

Start your approach to prospecting by making a complete list of all the people you know including shopkeepers, service providers, teachers, and everyone you interact with through social media – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all of it. Next, find out where they all live through geographic mapping so you can target your data for just listed/just sold-based prospecting.

All those people you know live somewhere, and someone near them is going to be selling a property at some point. You want to know which clients to call when those listings happen. This is your opportunity to offer information of interest about that property, what it sells for, and how that relates to the current value of their own properties. Building and maintaining that value-added relationship year after year with each person you know will bring you more leads than you can imagine.

Back to basics prospecting really is all about the quality and currency of your relationships with all of the people you meet, or have ever met, and maintaining efficient database, geographic mapping and prospecting systems that allow you to stay relevant and frequent with all of your clients for the long term. Relationships come first; all of your best opportunities will follow from there.

I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s Coaching Tip, and I look forward to seeing you here again next week.

Ep 19 – Setting Up a Great Year

Today’s High Performance Podcast for Real Estate Agents featuring Josh Phegan and Alexander Phillips focuses on when to auction a property vs. when to take it to market. Alexander tells how he starts off his year and sets a rhythm for moving forward. He continues with important conversations to have with client and vendors. Josh adds the necessity of thinking about client progression and time needed to launch.

They continue with ways to maintain momentum at mid-year and work ahead of the curve. Josh describes how open for inspections generate leads for months after, leading into a discussion of how to make better decisions and form a mindset to create a great month. Next, Alexander talks about why he uses direct mail in his marketing campaigns. Josh sums it all up with a reminder to work with people you know, upgrade your marketing, and always stay face-to-face with the customer.

Trigger Points

Cleaning up your database is a lot more work than simply building and maintaining it properly in the first place. You have to make sure clients go into the proper categories, and then continually progress them into new ones. In my Coaching Tip today I will show you the trigger points that alert you to these transitions and what you need to do with them.

You must have your 10 basic database categories in place or you’re lost from the start. With that structure in place you can simply enter new clients into their proper categories. But their situations are going to change and those changes are opportunities you don’t want to miss. You need to be on top of the trigger points that place them into new categories.

This may seem overwhelming with the numbers of new clients you meet every month. You can’t call every single one of those people every week, but you do need to call the top potential clients at the right moment in their process. The key is watching for lead scoring actions that tell you it’s time to change a client’s category from buyer to buyer hit list, or market appraisal to seller.

Watch for those clients who request a second appointment, ask to review a contract, make an offer, or bid at auction. Those are hit list clients and you need to follow up with them while they’re active. Market appraisals also allow you to identify red light/orange light/green light clients and act on the green lights quickly to get them on track as sellers. Any client activity is a potential trigger point.

Also remember that most clients are not one-dimensional and should often be placed into more than one category. A buyer is probably also going to be a market appraisal, and might be a past client as well. They may also be a landlord or tenant. Keeping your categories current and customers sorted is crucial for targeting the right contacts at the best times to move them forward.

Learning to catch trigger points and respond to them quickly will help you build better call lists and complete more transactions. It’s all about searching effectively, prospecting productively, and leveraging the power of your database to get results.

I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s Coaching Tip, and I look forward to seeing you here again next week.

Ep 18 – Differentiation

This High Performance Podcast for Real Estate Agents presents Josh Phegan and Alexander Phillips on how to differentiate yourself from your competition. Alexander begins with reasons why competition is secondary to keeping current with past clients, and Josh adds the importance of prospecting daily. They continue with keeping focused on what the client wants and how to be the agent they want to work with.

Next they discuss how targeting one or two aspects of differentiation is most effective, and how to achieve this as a new agent as Alexander tells how he promoted himself early in his career. Josh notes that your points of differentiation will attract a certain customer base, then they discuss how to leverage that appeal to create a brand identity and direct your business growth. They list some vital elements of brand identity and Josh closes with the importance of having a story around your brand.