Josh Phegan – Real Estate Training For High Performance Agents

You might be thinking that January and February can be slower months for your business because of the holidays and business will pick up after that, but this is actually the best time to set the pace for the rest of the year. If you look at what is actually happening in the marketplace, January, February and March are the months you should be writing higher numbers.

Australia Day is the 26th of January and most agents will be waiting to start working in earnest around mid-February, but if you want to have an exceptional year you need to start building momentum before they do. You should have your OFI campaigns set and ready for February openings on the 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th. If you don’t start early you will have an average year, because what you do now sets the pace for your business going forward. Remember that we have Easter holidays from the 27th of March until the 20th of April in NSW and VIC, and then Anzac Day, which falls on a Saturday meaning you might not be able to do OFIs that day. You will need to have established momentum before you hit those holidays.

Remember the importance of social proof, and that comes from meeting people and establishing relationships. OFIs are vital for making yourself that friend in the business for all your clients from the start. Every person who walks into an open home should be treated as a four-dimensional customer – any one of them could be a buyer, a landlord, a seller and a potential tenant. Make sure you are fully servicing each of those potential clients by doing significant numbers of OFIs beginning in January and continuing through February onward.

You might think the market really isn’t active yet, but when you look at the numbers from November and December you’ll find that a significant number of properties went to auction during those months. Many of the people who sold those properties would have been looking to buy as well in December and January. Traditionally there are not many listings at that time, but you could be selling properties to those people right through January. This is why you want to always be building your buyers hit list and meeting private appointments. You can also have properties pre-listed for February before that month’s campaigns begin. This way you can meet people, generate buyer activity, and drive momentum in the market early.

The best agents take their holiday time earlier in December and return to work earlier as well, and are already campaigning at the start of January with the mindset that January and February are the true beginning of the business season.

As you begin your year, 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.

There’s no question that call sessions are the most significant technique for building momentum and driving your business to success. So why do so many agents avoid prospecting by phone? The truth is, whether you make those calls enthusiastically or hardly make them at all begins with how you think about the process, and that mindset is completely within your control.

The first thing to understand and accept is that prospecting by phone is absolutely necessary. Motivate yourself with the knowledge that in January and February most of your competition is still in holiday mode and they aren’t making those calls yet, so this is an exceptionally opportune time for you to be prospecting. Also take advantage of the New Year as a time when people are thinking about making changes and initiating progress in their lives, so they are more open to discussing the possible sale of a home or other property. This is a great time to contact all the people in your database and maintain those vital relationships.

Keeping your call sessions to 45 minutes at a time will help you stay energized and prevent burnout. It’s also easier to track your numbers and limit your time per call if you are working within a shorter time frame per session. The Josh Phegan Membership has a 45 minute timer you can use to structure your call sessions and track your results. You can even make a game of prospecting using this app to see how many calls you can make and appointments you can book within each session. It’s a great way to evaluate and increase your performance.

Set a goal of 16 to 24 calls per session with an ideal connect rate of 50%. Your numbers will improve with the relationships you establish because those people will want to take your calls and will be more willing to meet with you. Of course, nothing happens in business until the sale is made, so making and meeting appointments is crucial. The more you do this the easier it gets as your communication skills increase with practice. Eventually your call sessions will evolve into simply being on the phone all the time as part of doing business every day. By the time you are writing $400,000 to $700,000 in fees you will have established momentum and will be the successful agent you now aspire to become.

Now, you might be thinking that you simply don’t want to do call sessions and there must be another way to succeed in your real estate business. The fact is, that kind of thinking will bury you. The phone is your most basic tool as an agent and you will never succeed if you don’t use it. Right now your focus has to be on making those prospecting calls, tracking your numbers, following your scripts and building that momentum one phone call at a time. This is simply what it takes to be a great agent.

Remember to keep those calls short, too — no more than 2 or 3 minutes, just enough time to book an appointment. Once you are face to face with the client, then you can discuss things with them in more detail. And making that connection is crucial – you need to get away from what you want and approach your clients from their viewpoint. What you give to them individually will establish the relationships that maintain your business, produce conversions and generate referrals. Keep in mind that people will buy your services only when they are ready, but it’s your approach to them that gets them there.

To be a great agent you must do the work that matters every day, and that is all about doing prospecting call sessions in the morning and meeting appointments the rest of the day. It’s that simple, and it works.

And while you are planning your year, 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.

Today let’s get a new perspective on the way you do business by thinking about what it’s like to be your customer. You already know how you go about your daily routine and what that’s like for you. How does your average client experience your brand?

Your marketing approach represents you, and determines how your customers perceive your brand. This is usually the first impression a new customer will have of you. Will you be connecting with your clients in a personal, emotional way? Or will your message be just another advertising mailer in their letterbox? Make sure you are delivering dynamic, quality marketing that lets you stand out from your competition.

One of the ways you make and keep connections within your marketplace is to be consistent with your communications. Establish a schedule of regular messaging and follow through without fail. This can be email or print, text or video, but it has to be personalized and it has to be delivered consistently. You must also be available for questions, consultations and appraisals. And make sure your marketing reflects the kind of business you want to build as if you were already at that level.

Some examples of effective marketing campaigns include a monthly video sent to potential sellers, market appraisals and past clients. Tactical mailers sent out at pivotal times of the year can help you establish relationships, too. Timing your communications for events like Easter, the financial year end, Christmas and the beginning of the school year puts you in position for the times people tend to make changes in their lives that involve turning over properties. Once you establish your marketing strategy and determine what works, you can simply update your messages each year instead of creating a whole new campaign.

As you develop your marketing approach it is helpful to have a particular customer in mind that you want to connect with. We call this idealized customer an avatar, and we use this avatar to build targeted marketing that communicates effectively. Imagine where this person lives, what level of income they make, what kind of car they drive, whether they have kids and if so, where do they go to school and what are their ages? Most importantly, what do they want to achieve with a sale or purchase of property? What might be holding them back? Using an avatar this way makes your marketing approach far more relevant and personal to the people in your marketplace.

The main thing you want to avoid is doing the same things in the same ways that the rest of the industry is doing. Avoid using the same tools and tactics as your competitors. You want to set yourself apart and above the rest. Think beyond what you see other agencies doing and find new ways to connect with customers. Create different kinds of promotions. Work more with video and mobile technologies. Be the first to meet and welcome new businesses to the area and establish relationships with them. And the greatest skill you can develop is to be able to design your marketing from the customer’s point of view.

Of course, your foundation for success is still maintained by making those phone calls, meeting appointments every day, and keeping relationships fresh with past clients and other people you already know. Dynamic marketing and consistency in doing business is the way you grow.

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

Many agents feel that the people they know in their personal life should not be integrated into their business life. If you also think that is true then it’s time for a different perspective, because everybody you know needs to be in your database.

If you think about it, all of the people you know through patronising their businesses – hairdressers, butchers, tailors – have your name and information in their databases. Why aren’t they in yours? Imagine how many more networked connections you would have if all the people you know were in your database and receiving your marketing messages. How many people might they refer to your brand as a result of one of your mailings? And they would refer to you because they know you personally.

Another point to ponder is, if your marketing looks, sounds and feels like marketing, then your approach lacks authenticity. If you don’t feel right about sharing your real estate news with the people in your personal life, then your delivery is not personalised enough and it needs to change. Your business must be built on a foundation of solid relationships. If you aren’t connecting on a personal, emotional level then you are not delivering real value to your clients.

To build a great business you must have a great database. Every person you know needs to be in it, and they need to be properly entered into the nine categories we work with. Each of those people will match a category – or several. Wherever they fit, as buyers, potential sellers, landlords, past clients, past market appraisals, potential sellers, or key referrers, they all deserve to benefit from the valuable information your targeted marketing program delivers. And don’t forget to include all of the local businesses in your marketplace.

If you have not set up those basic nine categories in your database and categorized all of your clients into them, then it is crucial that you do so. You must be able to deliver relevant information to the right people and measure your progress by evaluating your numbers regularly. One of your vital measurements is how much your database grows every month, because if it’s not growing then your business isn’t growing.

Starting now, consider 2015 to be your year of intention. Focus on building a dynamic database, knowing your numbers, marketing effectively, building relationships and setting goals for growth.

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

Click here to watch on YouTube.

If your approach to prospecting is not yielding the results you require then you may need to expand your focus.

There are two kinds of prospecting in real estate. Geographic-based prospecting is also known as prospecting farm areas. You basically draw a circle on a map and market to all the residents within that zone. The concept of dividing a large marketplace into farm areas and assigning those areas to individual agents is attractive, but in reality it may not be the most effective approach.

In relationship-based prospecting you focus on leveraging customer relationships. You may have a thousand people in your farm area, but no listings. That might be because you lack market share: Your farm area is too small to yield enough turnover for the income you need. It is likely you need to grow your market into a larger area, and you will best accomplish this through maintaining and building upon great client relationships.

Which of your team members would be best to convert your existing relationships in play? Should you send out a new rep to build new relationships, or a seasoned agent who already has some established relationships in the area? That answer may depend on the quality of existing client relationships and whether they have been properly maintained. For example, if you are still marketing to your past clients as though they are new clients, then you are not being relevant, frequent and consistent in your relationship with them.

Another question might be how large your farm area should be. Size could be important, but the actual turnover rate of properties in the area, plus your market share percentage, is what truly determines your possible number of listings and level of income for that area.

Traditionally the best farm areas are assigned to existing agents who are already established in those areas. That’s fine, but then new reps are assigned to new areas and expected to build market share there before they really know how to accomplish that. A more progressive approach involves the entire business working a core market area whilst individual agents work to develop secondary markets outside of that core. Then we measure growth to make sure agents are maintaining market share in their given areas.

The strategy most successful real estate agents use is to prospect both geographically and through relationships. They also work in several farm areas instead of concentrating on just one. Every person they meet goes into the database where they are placed into all categories that apply. This way automated target marketing by categories is relevant to each individual inside those categories.

Whether you focus on geographic or relationship based prospecting, it is vital that you have a system and follow it. You need a consistent marketing program that will reach your target markets with information that is meaningful to them. You must also build and expand your social proof, primarily with large numbers of your brand’s For Sale signs being visible throughout your marketplace, preferably with SOLD stickers on them. Build a strategy for getting more listings more often and follow it consistently, and you will see growth inside of your business.

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