Progressing the Pipeline

You need to make sure you have the pipeline you think you have, or your listings and sales will suffer. The first key is to have a lead magnet bringing customers to you so you have plenty of listings in the market every month.

One of your best lead magnets is your social proof, and the most basic form is having your for sale and auction signs on lots of properties, and sold stickers applied in a timely manner. And of course, open for inspections are a primary source of leads. You will meet a good number of investors and first time buyers this way, especially in the lower section of the market.

First time buyers are potential future customers because they are least likely to stay in that first home for more than 3 years, so maintain relationships with those people and they will come to you when they need an agent to sell that home as well as buy their next property. Being aware of where your potential customers come from is vital. Property management investment leads are also fertile ground for nurturing future transactions.

The lead nurture cycle comes next, and involves actively moving clients toward their next steps before losing momentum with them. Sending out market reports is good, but you also have to meet with as many of those clients as possible and track on their progress so you can identify who might be getting ready to move forward. Make yourself available for market appraisals, updates on property values, investment advice, property improvement tips, and making sure your clients always know their options.

From lead generation through lead nurture, the next step is lead conversion through the listing presentation. All these numbers need to be measured and evaluated regularly.

Let’s review the core categories in your database:
• Buyers
• Buyer hit list
• Potential sellers
• Market appraisals
• Seller hit list
• Current listings
• Past clients who bought from you
• Past clients who sold with you
• Key referrers
• Landlords

You need to know how many people you have in each category in order to see what stage each client has reached in your pipeline and where any blockages are.

List consistently and you will sell consistently. Every day your commitment is to make those calls, book those appointments, meet with your clients, track the numbers and keep that pipeline flowing smoothly.

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

Reward for Effort

Rewarding yourself before your important tasks are completed leaves you with nothing to work toward or look forward to, and little motivation to do the work that will make you a successful agent. In this Coaching Tip I’m talking about self-discipline and learning to see rewards as the benefits of your accomplishments after you have done the work that needs to be done.

A mindset of rewarding yourself only for work you have actually finished is vital to building and maintaining momentum. It starts with having a schedule for everything you must do to make sure it gets done. Your rewards are built into that schedule. Set a time to wake up and a time to be at work, and a time frame for the first task of the day. Once that task is completed, have a reward – like a morning coffee. But discipline yourself not to have that coffee until that task is finished. You have to earn that coffee before you get it.

Your most important task every day is to book appointments, and you do that with prospecting call sessions. You may already keep track of your call sessions, but you also need to track the number of appointments you are making. You also need to make sure you are scheduling for the things you need to sustain your energy so you can do your work. For example, don’t skip meals. Meals are not rewards; food is fuel and you can’t keep up with your busy schedule without proper fuel. Think of lunch as your first appointment, just as important as any other, and book that every day.

We use a code to categorise each appointment so we can track them accurately:

MAP = Market appraisal
BAP = Buyer appointment
LAP = Listing appointment

Using the search function in your calendar software you can use these codes to see how many market appraisals, listings and appointments you have done in a given time period. This then tells you where you need to improve as well as where you are doing well. This is also where you can set goals for your rewards.

I find that every six weeks is a good window for setting goals and earning rewards. Know what you need to achieve, and know what you will get for your hard work. Give yourself something to strive for that is personally rewarding beyond the business, like a weekend trip or a family event. After all, working is not an end in itself, but the means by which you enrich your life. These are the goals that will make the work to acquire them more meaningful and enjoyable.

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

Career Progression

When you hire a new assistant, that person probably doesn’t intend to be your assistant forever. If you don’t have a career progression path inside of your company then you have no real plan for growth and you will lose your best people as they become ready to move upward. This month’s Growth, Leadership and Management Tip is about growing your business by growing your people because I want you to understand how critical career progression is to you as well as your team members.

If your vision is too small then your agency has nothing to offer new prospects and talented agents. You have an obligation to yourself and to your team to dream big towards a successful future for your brand.

You must have an organizational chart with defined career paths that you can share with your people, and encourage them to always be thinking about where they might want to go in your company. A major part of your role is to sit down with new sales reps regularly to discuss their options so they know the steps they must take to become a senior agent, or even an owner or co-director. Helping them set goals and work towards them whilst improving their skills and results makes them an asset to your company because their results are your results.

Set specific goals and measurements for listing presentation skills, numbers of transactions, and fee amounts that indicate when someone can become a junior agent, then a senior agent. Help them get their real estate license, perfect their prospecting skills, and learn to do listing and clearance. Share your books and training materials with them, including the resources you access through your Josh Phegan Company Membership. Guide their experience and exposure, help them build social proof, and teach them the core values your company is based upon. From this foundation they can aspire to become a senior manager, a director and eventually an owner.

From the moment they are hired your new prospects need to know what is expected of them as well as the opportunities for coaching and personal development you are willing to offer them if they demonstrate their worth to you, but it’s a waste of your time and theirs if they’re not more committed to their own growth and success than you are. A quarterly review process is necessary to keep your team members accountable, and to evaluate whether they are shaping up to be the kind of people you want to continue to invest in.

As you progress in your business, make sure you look into our Josh Phegan Company membership as well as our Master Class Program, Prospecting School, and our incredible Blueprint Event, all coming up soon.

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

Building Self-Confidence

Contrary to what you may believe, self-confidence is not something that some people “just have” and others don’t. You can build tremendous confidence in yourself, but you have to commit to do whatever is necessary and follow through.

In order to be a great agent you have to feel like a great agent, and that requires confidence. If you feel good about yourself and your abilities then you will do the work that must be done. But you can’t do what you haven’t even thought about. You must get clarity around what you ultimately want to accomplish, and I’m telling you to dream big here. If you could accomplish anything in your career, what would you set out to do?

Your most fundamental need is the security of wealth. This is not about net income, but overall net worth. Most people never consider that they could become wealthy and that’s why most people aren’t financially secure. Your bank account is directly linked to your self-confidence, so learning to understand wealth and make the right decisions to build that security is vital.

The way you think about your self-worth also determines what you can accomplish. A simple exercise to boost your self-esteem is to keep a list of your achievements. Once a week sit down and write out everything you have accomplished over the past week. Then read through your accomplishments regularly. You will begin to realise just how much you are capable of doing, and how much higher your goals can be set.

The key to reaching goals is commitment and consistency, so you need to keep a list of your goals and review them often to keep you on track. Reading inspirational books is also valuable to your personal development, as is spending time with confident, successful people – mentors and tormentors.

Perform a personal S.W.O.T. to identify your Strengths, Weaknesses, Obstacles and Threats. You can use our website to search on your weak areas and watch coaching videos to help you improve those skill sets. Set goals beyond your comfort zone and push yourself to achieve them to prove to yourself that you can do more than you think you can. This is how you move from a beginner’s mind into a specialist’s mind: you try, you fail, you learn, and then you try again. If you don’t give up and quit, you will eventually succeed.

Considering the amount of time you spend watching television and posting cute kittens to social media sites, surely you can devote a little more time to defining and creating the life and career you’d like to have. How much are you willing to do to succeed?

Make sure you look into our Josh Phegan Company membership, Master Class Program, Prospecting School, and our incredible Blueprint Event, all coming up soon.

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

Backing Yourself

You know that amazing feeling when you’re dialled in and everything is hitting just right. You can actually generate that feeling for yourself, but you have to be willing to fail a bit first – and you have to know what you really want to accomplish. Today I’m going to tell you about backing yourself by using what I call the beginner mind to boost your business skills.

When you are setting out to do something for the first time, you look at it and think it’s easy enough and you can do it right off. But then you give it a try and you fail. What do you do next?

A lot of people focus on the failure, decide they can’t do this thing, and never try again. But a failure is actually a challenge, and you can choose to try again. Understand that it’s not confidence that motivates you. Confidence is gained through success. It’s the courage to work through your failures that will get you there. Learn from your attempts, learn from others who have the skills and knowledge you want, and keep working at it until you can meet that challenge. Then look for opportunities to use your new skills and get even better.

You can use this beginner mind in your business once you really decide that you want to be a great agent and commit to that decision. Probably the most important challenge you should take on is learning to list successfully, because listing is the source of all other opportunities.

Also learn to recognize how emotion can hold you back. How often do you fail to follow through on something because you don’t feel like it? The best way to combat that is to commit to a routine. Start your day early because the earlier you see results, the more you will want to do. Booking appointments can be like a game in which you want to perform well and win. Also involve other people so that you have to maintain accountability, plus a little competition helps as well.

If you want to be a high performance agent then accept the challenge and commit to it. There’s a lot of work and a lot of failure along the way, but if you are serious you will make it. Get effective coaching, have successful mentors, and keep your courage up. That’s how the best agents got where they are, and it’s what will get you there as well.

Make sure you look into our Josh Phegan Company membership, Master Class Program, Prospecting School, and our incredible Blueprint Event, all coming up soon.

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

Prospecting That Works

Prospecting is not just about gathering names to fill up your database – it’s about building and maintaining relationships with people you meet and people you already know. And your call sessions need to accomplish more than listing and selling properties; you need to be checking in with those people to see where they are in their lives. If you aren’t interested in your clients on a personal level then you’re in the wrong business, because real estate is all about people.

Being a successful agent starts with being relevant to your clients and frequent with your communication. You can’t be relevant if you don’t know about your clients’ lives, and you can’t know what they’re working with if you don’t keep in touch with them. You will find clients at open for inspections and through online inquiries, but your involvement with them is only beginning at that point.

You know that the purpose of call sessions is to book appointments. How many more appointments could you make if you were seeing people you have done business with in the past? Beyond listing and selling, you can offer advice, news and information to past and potential clients who can use your input in their ongoing decision-making. And don’t make the mistake of forgetting or neglecting those clients who have already bought from you. Go see them, see the home, answer their questions, and give them a fresh appraisal each year. Don’t forget them, and don’t let them forget you.

Just because you aren’t currently doing business with a client doesn’t mean they don’t matter, because they know other people and can give referrals for your services. Be their friend in the business and you will be the agent they think of first when their friends and associates need to buy or sell. There are thousands of potential leads you will miss if you aren’t establishing real relationships with everyone you meet.

Commit yourself now to improve your prospecting. Follow up on inquiries, increase your number of open for inspections, keep up with past clients and earn those referrals. You’ll be amazed with your results.

As you progress in your business, make sure you look into our Josh Phegan Membership, training events and coaching opportunities.

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

Past Clients

Your past clients are some of your best referrals and potential future prospects. So why are you ignoring them? Past clients should be included in your daily call sessions, and today I’m going to tell you why you need to stay in touch with them.

Most agents are focused on prospecting for new customers and expanding their databases, and of course that is necessary. But collecting data is not enough. All those names represent people you need to know personally. It’s those relationships that provide real growth inside of your business. If you think you are too busy to keep up with people you know who are not currently active in the market then you’re missing the point.

Staying in touch with your past clients is not hard if you have a system. It’s much harder to try to re-establish with them if you have not seen them in such a long time that you don’t remember them – or worse, they don’t remember you. That situation is not about them – it’s all on you. At some point they are going to sell their home and buy another again, and it will be your loss if you are not their agent when that happens.

We follow a simple system based on a one day, one week, one month, one year schedule for keeping up with our past clients. It works like this:

One day after the clients move into their new home, you call them and offer to address any questions they may have about the home — even follow up with the previous owners if necessary. We call this a “moment that matters.”

One week after that you call the client again to check in, and offer them a welcome gift. Refer them to a local business owner for a free meal at a local restaurant, or a discount with an area business. This courtesy gift helps them make contacts in their new neighborhood. It also helps you maintain your business relationships in that area.

One month later, you call the client to let them know you will be stepping away from them, but will call periodically about listings and sales in their area, and that you will continue to be their friend in the business. This is a critical call to establish your commitment to an ongoing relationship with them.

One year after the original sale, contact them to schedule a visit to have a look at the home, give them a fresh appraisal, and answer any questions they may have about the home or the market in their area. Continue to call on them at intervals with information that is relevant to them. When they are ready to sell that home, who do you think they are going to call first?

Now, a lot of agents think they’re doing great sending out birthday cards and greetings on the anniversary of the sale of the home, but that is not enough. The only thing that really matters is getting face to face with your clients, whether they are new prospects or people you already know. Even a voice on the phone is more personal than a card in the post.

One more thing to remember for the future: When you are finally ready to retire, hand off your client list to a new agent. Make sure that agent understands the importance of establishing and maintaining those relationships going forward. Introduce the new agent to those clients in person. Not only does this give the new agent a step up, but you will receive annuity income from referral fees any time a past client of yours lists and sells a property you originally handled for them.

Anybody can hire a real estate agent, but a friend in the business is priceless. Be that friend that your past clients want and you’ll be amazed with the results.

As you progress in your business, make sure you look into our Josh Phegan Company membership, training events and coaching opportunities.

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

RFM Analysis

Getting face to face with your clients is the way you get listings, but to book those appointments your prospecting calls must produce results. The best way to encourage people to meet with you is to make that meeting relevant to them by knowing your client and their situation. Some of your best prospects are open for inspections attendees, and a lot of those are people you already know.

The first step is to get the data from your opens into your database and categorised quickly. Efficiency is key, because the people you see on Saturday need to hear from you promptly on Monday morning if not sooner. But if you are personally setting up and then gathering data at multiple open for inspections, there is no way you can get that data processed quickly. This is why successful agents often hire an assistant specifically for Saturday opens and data processing.

In addition, implementing RFM analysis yields results that will make your prospecting far more productive. Here is what you need to know:

• Recency: How recently did you meet this prospect?

• Frequency: How often have you met with this prospect?

• Monetisation: Is this prospect likely to spend money with you?

A client you have seen several times recently who has made an offer or bid on a previous property is going to score high on your RFM analysis. That client is likely to buy sooner than a prospect with a lower RFM score. Who do you think you should call first?

What you want is a structured callback list on your desk by 4pm on Sunday afternoon, ready for your Monday morning call sessions. That list will be categorised into buyers, sellers, market appraisals, landlords and tenants, which of them you know already, and what your last contact with them was about.

RFM analysis coupled with categorisation improves your prospecting by making each call relevant to that client’s situation. You will book more appointments if your approach is personalised and meaningful. Relevancy also allows you to set higher fees that customers are willing to pay. By making the decision to hire someone to produce a superior callback list for you, your productivity and profits will be through the roof.

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

Performance Management

No one enjoys doing performance management, but it’s the only way to identify and handle issues with your people that affect your business. In order to take some of the pressure and pain out of this process, today I’m going to share with you some very effective methods for staying on top of performance management in a way that is positive and supportive for everyone.

Your goal is to help your people reach their potential without hitting them too hard with their shortcomings. You have to talk about listings, sales and income – that requires hard people management skills. It’s developing your soft people management skills that will make discussing those numbers more productive and less challenging.

Your business should be based on a simple set of values, and everyone who works for you needs to know them. In our business those values include:

• We believe in people and their dreams
• We renew our energy
• We innovate and constantly improve
• We work for your time and space

Each week we ask our people to rate themselves on a scale of 1 to 10 on their performance at each of these values. We then review why our values are important, discuss why some of their ratings are lower than they should be, and propose ways that they can get back on track.

We also use more traditional tools, like SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats), each month during team meetings. We use these evaluations to help our people make the most of their strengths and opportunities rather than placing emphasis on weaknesses and threats, and to review their numbers so we can help them stay on course before they get too far off.

Numbers of listings is, of course, the most important number for measuring results, but it helps to also look at their numbers of appointments and market appraisals. We use a system of acronyms – LAP, MAP and BAP – to post these numbers to every calendar appointment we book in order to quickly evaluate numbers of listings, appointments and market appraisals we have done during the month, and identify where improvements need to be made.

These are simple systems that can help you keep track of performance so you can guide your people to stay consistent, see and address problems they may be having, and coach them on improving their success rates.

As you progress in your business, make sure you look into our Josh Phegan Company membership, training events and coaching opportunities.

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

Getting Efficiency On Your Saturdays

Saturday is a big day for your business, but if you’re not making the most of it then you’re losing the game. In this Coaching Tip I’m going to tell you how to get the efficiency you need to do more open homes, gather more data, and target your prospecting for better results.

The key is to manage your time more effectively, especially on Saturdays. If you are going to each home, opening up, putting out signboards, turning on lights and setting everything up yourself, then you are wasting your time and expertise as a professional agent. These are tasks you should have assistants doing for you. Think how many more open for inspections you could do on a Saturday if you didn’t have to include that setup time in your schedule, as well as closing the homes and entering all the data on the clients who come through.

You should be wrapped up for the day by 4pm, with all data entered and reports generated on who came through, how many new clients you met and how many were people you already know. By 4pm on Saturday you should be ready to start your call sessions Monday morning with all the information you need to capitalise on your time.

You cannot do this by yourself – you need to hire assistants. That’s how the best agents become the best. They don’t waste their valuable time on menial tasks. If you think hiring assistants is too expensive, then think a little further. How many more listings will you get by doing more open for inspections every Saturday? And how much more profit will your business realise from those extra listings?

To do your job as a professional real estate agent you need quality data and reporting, and a list of the top people you need to prospect with. You will get a lot more of your own work done if you don’t have to enter that data, produce reports and compile call lists yourself. You can focus on prospecting and doing the work that’s most important.

Get smart about how you run your Saturdays. Streamline your operations, focus on doing what you do best, and you will become a much more successful agent.

As you progress in your business, make sure you look into our Josh Phegan Membership, training events and coaching opportunities.

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