Increasing The Value Of Your Database

Your contact network represents your net worth, but that value is lost if you cannot effectively use that information to build your business. Your database requires structure and organization to be useful. Establishing categories is the best way to manage the high volume of contacts you collect every week.

Every contact you add to your database belongs in a category. Some are relevant to 2 or 3 categories. Those categories include:

Buyers
Potential sellers
Market appraisals
Past buyers
Past sellers
Key referrers
Landlords

It is important to have a central database with all your contacts sorted and accessible. It’s easy to end up with bits of contact information in your phone, on bits of paper, in printed lists, and random other places. Choose one system that can be automated and accessed easily.

Once all of your contacts are sorted into their proper categories you can begin to target your marketing efforts to key categories. Individuals belong in categories because they have specific interests, focus, timelines and positions. You will save time and effort by targeting your marketing efforts to those people through their category.

Contacts come to you primarily through online inquiries through major real estate websites, and through open for inspections each weekend. You may have hundreds of new contacts in a single weekend and they all need to go into your database. There are a few ways to accomplish this task, some more efficient than others.

You may enter all your new contacts into your office computer, or have an assistant do it. Or you could be entering it on-site at an open for inspection on a laptop, tablet or phone that is connected directly to your main database. You could also have an assistant whose primary purpose is to collect and enter contact information as people enter the open property. And of course, it all needs to be appropriately categorized as it is entered. Always be evaluating how you can best move these clients through the sales cycle. How many new contacts are you making in a weekend? How many are potential sellers, market appraisals, past clients and key referrers?

The next step in this process is to automate your marketing campaigns for timely information to be sent to clients in specific categories so that the right message gets to the right people at the right time. Automate whatever tasks you can so that you can address the tasks that cannot be automated more effectively. Then you can work on how best to manage tasks that cannot be automated.

Finally, you need to identify any barriers – or “choke points” – you may be experiencing against getting these tasks done. You may discover key information you are not gathering, or obstacles to getting all the data into the database quickly and correctly. Maybe you are trying to do too much yourself and it’s time to hire an assistant. Be smart about how best to get your necessary tasks done and you will build your business with consistency and integrity.

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

Managing Client Expectations

One of your tasks as an exceptional real estate agent is managing client expectations. This is true for buyers and sellers alike. You are responsible for presenting realistic sales and pricing figures for a given market as opposed to what your clients may be seeing in the media. Your best information will be based on the indicators of interest you are seeing firsthand in your marketplace.

Indicators of interest are simple yet powerful signals for measuring how well a property is going to do in the marketplace. Your evaluation begins with numbers of inquiries you receive by phone and then how many people come to open for inspections. From there you can count how many come back for a second inspection. The private second inspection is, of course, a strong indicator of buyer interest. These are the people you want to interview further.

The next step for an interested buyer is the contract request, or request for legal documentation. You will want to monitor which interested parties actually pursue this documentation and are willing to pay a solicitor or conveyancer for legal advice. From there you will see who finally makes an offer and what kind of offer they are willing to present. Of course, sharing this information with your clients as events occur will help prepare them for actually entering the market.

There are six simple, key elements to an offer once it is made:

What is the name of the person or entity who will be making the purchase?
Who is the solicitor or conveyancer?
What is their timeline for settlement?
Will they want to do inspections on the property?
What price are they offering?
How much of a deposit are they willing to make?

Once you have answers to all or most of those questions then you will know with certainty if you have a qualified buyer, and you can now set realistic expectations for all parties involved.

I really hope you’ve enjoyed today’s Coaching Tip, and I hope to see you here again next week. Thanks for watching.

Tips For Qualifying Buyers Quickly

You can’t sell if your client can’t buy, so one of your most important steps in any transaction is buyer qualification. This needs to happen early in the game so you don’t waste time and resources on a dead-end pursuit. If you’re driven, you may meet 300+ potential buyers in a weekend of open for inspections, but how many of those people are actually ready to buy?

Frankly, only 2 or 3 of those potential buyers per weekend are important for you to meet your yearly sales goals. What you need now is a simple, reliable system for qualifying buyers and sellers as soon as they enter an open for inspection.

There are nine basic questions you will ask from the moment you meet each potential buyer.

1. Why are they moving?
2. What is their timeline?
3. What areas are they considering for relocation?
4. Have they been to any other opens yet?
5. Have they bid on any other properties or made an offer?
6. Are they paying cash or using a bank?
7. Have they made arrangements with a bank yet?
8. Is this their first, second or third purchase in the area?
9. Can you come by and see their current property?

This set of questions will tell you everything you need to know to qualify a buyer. You will know why they are selling a home and/or buying a new one, and when they need to be moved in. You will know if they are location specific, or more lifestyle oriented, so you know which features you can help them find. You will know how far along they are in the purchasing process, whether they are active in the marketplace, and what steps they still need to take. You can also quickly identify any blockages, questions or objections that need to be addressed to allow them to move forward.

Verifying financial capacity is vital, and you may need to refer them to a bank or broker before anything else can be done. Learning if this is a first purchase, or if they have bought and sold before, will tell you if a buyer is also selling, or may even be a property manager. And getting in to see their current property will help you better evaluate preferences they may have for their next purchase.

You can see how these nine simple questions will give you a well-rounded view of each client and help you to qualify potential buyers quickly. It will also help you to assist each client at their current stage of the process, wherever that may be, so that even if they don’t qualify yet they are likely to come to you when they are eventually ready to buy or sell property.

Thank you for watching today’s Coaching Tip. I look forward to seeing you here again next week.

How to Make Your Sales Meetings Really Work

I believe it is essential to your business to have your whole sales team moving ahead together so you can build momentum and motivation, beyond how you physically bring them together.

Most offices require the team to gather together on a weekly basis in what we call the sales meeting. Having worked with thousands of salespeople around the country and internationally, I can tell you the number one complaint is how long the sales meeting goes and whether or not it actually covers the right content to make it a really powerful meeting.

A key challenge is to decide the best timing to ensure it is effective. This depends on the type of culture within your organisation. If lots of salespeople don’t have dependents and can be there early, then you might like to run your sales meeting before the business day starts, at 7:30am or 8am. If, however, several people must drop children off at school, then consider running your sales meeting later in the morning at around 9 or 10am.

Here’s a great idea for you. The most critical thing is that your salespeople are actually making sales. And the number one sale opportunity every day is for them to be booking appointments. To create success you want your people prospecting more often. So what about spending the first 45 minutes of your meeting getting every sales agent on the phone prospecting together? From experience, this is a terrific activity to amp it up.

You can just bring everyone into the boardroom with their mobile phones and a simple printout of the potential sellers, market appraisals or buyers they are following up to convert them to listing opportunities.The magic thing about doing this together is that you get everyone on the phone. You can set a timer on an iPad to count down 45 minutes. Then have each agent measure their total number of calls, connects and appointments at the end. There are two huge benefits – instant results and a shared, team culture around prospecting. You’ll always have some people who feel uncomfortable with this, but I’d say then at least we know that you must build their skill in this area. Ultimately there is nothing like getting it done and getting it done early so that your people can build more confidence more often.

To build a great culture in your business it is critically important that everyone actually understands what you are doing in order to make that sales meeting really effective. So I’d like you to get your salespeople prepared. What are the things that they need to bring to the table to ensure a great sales meeting? I would suggest they bring a list of their existing stock on your stock control sheet, which records key information such as inquiries, inspections, second appointments, contract requests and offers that they’ve received. Have them think about what the owner’s expectations are in relation to the sale price and what is the current market feedback?

Now I’d ask them to give that sheet to you the day before the meeting, so as the sales manager you can review their stock and highlight a few case studies to discuss at the meeting. Ultimately, a sales meeting is exactly meant for that. It’s designed to make sales. So your salespeople need to leave that meeting feeling more energetic and more driven about what matters to them to make sales. So you must think about “How am I going to make my people feel?”

I also like to run the sales meeting to time, so I put a 45-minute timer on and we work to that timeframe. It’s amazing how the energy shifts when everyone knows we have a deadline. We all get more energetic in the meeting and focused on what we could be doing. You must think about it as a training meeting too, where you have the opportunity to help people think more long term and more reflectively about what to spend their time on. When are they taking holidays? What goals are they looking to achieve at the moment? What have they achieved in the last few weeks? What is the number one issue right now that we could help to resolve before next week’s meeting to get them back on track?

At the end of the day, YOU create your business culture and most importantly the energy within it. You do that by engaging with your people and getting them to connect to the values that matter. You must think about how you make your people feel and how can you help them do more of the activities more often that will produce income. I can tell you that in the greatest businesses I get to work with everyone’s making money, but more importantly there’s good energy and focus on what’s critically important – and that comes from helping everyone to achieve their goals and their dreams for their life.

I look forward to connecting with you again soon!

Your Number One Lead Source

Open for inspections are a great way to meet new prospects and keep in touch with current clients. It’s important not to let your presentations falter during the rush of a busy Saturday. One quality showing of a property is far more effective than several poor ones.

When deciding which clients to invite to an open for inspection, remember to include prospects other than your most obvious potential buyers. Naturally you want to contact people you know are looking in your market, but include other people looking at properties up to $50,000 more or less than the list price for this property. You will also advertise in order to attract new potential clients, but stretch your thinking a bit to include market appraisals, past clients, referrers, and area landlords. What you want is a group of people at your open inspection whether they are all interested in buying or not.

Having several people at your open for inspection creates a sense of competition and urgency for anyone who is actually interested in buying a property. It also gives you an opportunity to stay in touch with your other clients and maintain your presence in their minds. Once you have people in attendance, make sure your presentation to them is powerful.

Make a checklist of the things you want to accomplish during your open for inspection. You want to be organized and thorough. Timing is also a factor for an effective presentation: short presentations of around 30 minutes are powerful and increase the sense of urgency for potential buyers. Not only does this allow you to have several people through at the same time, but it also allows you to present more properties to more people in a single Saturday by spending less time at each one.

Make sure you set the open for inspection for the time agreed upon between you and the property owners. You should arrive at the property 10 to 15 minutes early to prepare. Turn on lights, set a comfortable temperature, play music, and generally make sure the property is attractive and ready to show. Use a simple system to register basic contact information for attendees whether you use a digital system or a simple notepad and pen. Have a professional brochure to hand them as they walk in, as well as other handouts available in the house for your other current listings. And wear a name tag or badge so people know immediately that you are the agent.

During your presentation have a cheat sheet handy with details about the property such as when the home was built, when it was renovated, whether it is gas or electric, and even estimated rent per week. Be polished and prepared so potential clients will trust that you can handle their requirements. Also consider the importance of having an assistant to handle basic tasks so that you can focus on clients and the presentation.

Open for inspection is not just about selling the property – it is also about prospecting, so your presentation should be impressive to buyers as well as potential sellers, past market appraisals, past clients, and new people who saw your ad in the paper or online. Be fresh, rested, prepared and healthy. Saturday is your day to sell yourself and your business, so make it work for you.

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

Make Mobile Technology Work for You

Mobile technology has added a whole new dimension to your ability to do business effectively, but it also introduces the problem of distractions. Besides incoming phone calls, we also receive constant alerts for incoming SMS, email, and social media messages.

Within this barrage of messages is important information you need to know, but the distraction of all the random messaging wastes more of your time and energy than you may realize, and it keeps you from doing the work that really matters. Your mobile phone can quickly change from an asset to a liability.

Consider that when you are with a customer in a listing presentation you don’t let the phone interrupt you. You turn it off, or leave it in your car, or otherwise remove the distraction. The fact is, you can choose to remove that distraction for most of the rest of your business day. You can turn off the alerts and check on your incoming calls, emails and text messages at scheduled, appropriate times during your day. You can take control, remove those distractions and restore your focus.

You know that making appointments and meeting with clients is what really drives your business. One effective way to accomplish this is to work in 45 minute sessions. Within 45 minutes of concentrated work you can make your phone calls and meet your appointments, and be completely present for your clients during that time. Then you have 15 minutes each hour to check email, messages, etc. and catch up on those communications. You get your vital work done, and you don’t miss any important incoming information

Most successful agents make a daily task list and follow it. This assures that you stay on track and get all your most important tasks done. A task list also organizes your thoughts so that you don’t try to do too many things at once, or get sidetracked on less important tasks that pop up at you during your day. Also, if you work from a written or printed task list instead of a computer-based list you will avoid the temptation to check your email, your calendar and your social media while you are online.

You can also rely on your assistant to check your email and incoming messages for you and relay the truly important information to you at appropriate intervals. This removes yet another level of distractions from your day and allows you to focus even more on meeting and prospecting clients. In some cases you can save time and make a more powerful impression by answering email by phone and making that direct contact.

Also be aware that your own approach to work will be reflected in the working styles of your assistants and other agents who work for you. If you set a good example they are far more likely to follow suit.

You can take control by making the decision to remove all unnecessary distractions. Make mobile technology work for you by structuring the way you use it instead of letting it interfere with the work that really counts.

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

The Power of Routine

If you really want to be successful in your business, you have to be consistent. And the best way to maintain consistency is to set a routine and follow it. That’s the way the best agents stay on track.

Your routine will be built on an understanding of how your market flows throughout the year, and of the rhythm within your own business. In order to have a great January and February, you have to lay the groundwork for that success in October and November based upon your knowledge of your market’s cycles. For example, open for inspections allow you to meet more people and build your buyer database, so naturally the more people you meet early on, the more open for inspections you can hold each Saturday. If you don’t do enough open for inspections to reach your sales goals you lose traction and fall behind.

Maintaining active campaigns based on the number of sales you need to make each month helps you build a routine by establishing momentum. That positive energy gives buyers more confidence in you than in your competitors. Remember, if you aren’t making calls your competitors are, and that’s how they can beat you. You need to be the one making those calls and converting customers. A routine will ensure you are getting that done.

Routine is actually just scheduling simple tasks to do without fail each day. It’s the time you wake up in the morning, have breakfast, get to the office and start working. Set times for your first call session, for meeting your appointments, for dinner and the gym, and for getting home and going to bed. Everything you do in your day must be scheduled and the schedule must be followed.

Mastering all these simple daily tasks will create a powerful business, and anybody can do this, no matter who you are or what your situation is. Also remember you probably only have to maintain that routine for around 44 weeks per year, because your greater level of success allows you to take more time off. The key to making it work is to build your routine around what is realistic for the demands and requirements of your business and your life. When you wake up and times of day you eat may seem trivial, but those are events that occur every day and must therefore be regimented. Otherwise you get sidetracked and derailed which throws off your whole day, resulting in lost productivity.

A set routine that supports your business and your life allows you to focus on getting things done instead of wasting time and energy deciding what to do next on the fly. Your routine will work best if it is simple and can be the same every day. Focus on scheduling high-value daily activities such as prospecting for times when your energy is high and you feel your best. An exercise regimen is your best form of stress management, too, because it energizes you while allowing time for deep thought and introspection. Use that time to ponder what is happening in your life and how you can be ready to seize opportunities when they come to you.

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

The Big Three and Why They Count

Whether you are a sales manager, principal or you own your business – do you know exactly what the vital numbers are that really drive your business, so that you can grow the way you want to in 2014?

Something interesting I’ve consistently found when coaching people in our industry is that many salespeople are not clear about the targets they must reach to achieve the success they want – whether it’s listings, sales or income. This actually scares me, because if you want your business to thrive and keep growing to new heights then you must have very specific numbers in mind for you and your team to achieve.

Some of the best principals that I get the opportunity to work with regularly meet with all the salespeople within their team to discuss these numbers. Together they specify what they want to be earning this year. From that figure they can identify the numbers to create what we call a group target. Across the group they pinpoint their sales, listing and income targets and therefore can compare their target versus results.

Some of these businesses begin to look a bit like the stock market – they may have big screen TVs in the office that display their core numbers and KPI measurements as they come in, feeding directly from their database or online, automatically updating in real time. It is exciting and it allows their team to track and really think about those numbers. It can become a great team focus too.

There are simple metrics within your business to focus on to achieve growth. I think about listings, sales and income. I look at properties currently under management, property management fees generated, the total amount of fees or income that’s produced between sales and property management, and the number of staff required to deliver results.

I then create what I call a stretch target. If your business is currently doing 200 transactions per year, what would the business need to look like in five years for you to be at 600 transactions? You then must investigate which markets you need to be in for you to achieve these 600 transactions. If you’re in a small market that only does 300 transactions, then you’d need 200% market share, without any competition. So your business plan needs to be built on understanding the marketplace that you’re actually operating in and what the size of the opportunity is.

Then you could examine your property management business. If you have only 100 properties under management, how could you achieve 1,000 properties in five years? One of our clients in Sydney has a great new Business Development Manager that has generated over 120 new managements on a net level over the past 12 months. That effectively means that no matter how many property managements they lost because the owners decide to sell or maybe move, this firm recovered all of those and secured an extra 120 properties under management. Impressive!

Your own numbers can help you think strategically to ensure you are working to the full potential in the marketplace, e.g. if you’re going to be making more sales, you’ll need more salespeople to drive forward.

In his book Mastering the Rockefeller Habits, author Verne Harnish nails down the concept of understanding the ‘Big Three’ inside your business. As a business owner, you must know your ‘Big Three’ and make decisions about what you’re going to do.

What are the ‘Big Three’ for you? Mine are pretty simple; I must make sure that at all times I’m delivering exceptional content and value onstage, plus I need to ensure that we’re growing the Josh Phegan brand in new marketplaces. My third focus is to ensure that I’m giving very clear direction about our business objectives and how our products and services involve all of the people that work in our business.

As a principal, your ‘Big Three’ might include your training aims, retention and recruitment; or perhaps building a business that doesn’t need you to be actively listing and selling. Be clear about what counts to make better decisions around what you’re doing, your people and your plan to achieve your vision. Ultimately it’s your view of the future and then being able to work back to choose your options for creating growth that will transform your business – and your life.

Why You Need to Automate Your Marketing

One of the most important topics for your real estate business is how to utilise the categories in your database for effective automated marketing. This entails targeted, scheduled marketing campaigns to buyers, potential sellers, market appraisals, past clients and key referrers.

No matter what the market is doing, you always need to be marketing. Automating your marketing is the most efficient way to do this. You can get started by making some simple templates to help you visualize the two core functions of this marketing approach:

Social Proof – You have documented evidence that a majority of people are using your services with great results.
Word of Mouth Marketing – You provide a level of service to all your clients that keeps them talking about you to their friends and associates.

A simple template lists all your client categories in a column, with types of marketing you can do in other columns so that you can make a grid of effective marketing approaches for each category. For example, if you target a buyers category for marketing you can use the template to choose and schedule regular buyer email alerts. If you have a cloud-based database you can then integrate all necessary resources and tasks, such as client registration, preferences, follow-ups, etc.

Listing alerts bring buyers out to your open for inspections. Selling alerts offer potential sellers proof of your results and confidence in your pricing levels. And monthly market snapshots reach everyone, including the general population in your marketplace to help bring you new buyers and sellers. A market snapshot can include charts, graphs and photos, and offers simple news and statistics for a given market such as numbers of properties sold, average sale prices, high and low prices, numbers of properties sold or auctioned, and trends over a 12-month period.

Frequency is the next element of automated marketing you will need to consider. In general, active buyer and seller alerts are sent daily as properties are listed and sold. Market snapshots usually go out monthly, as would information like your monthly sales results. Make sure your frequency of delivery is appropriate for the categories you are targeting. For example, monthly mailings might be too much for contacting past clients who are not currently active with you; quarterly updates would likely be better received in this case. The key is that all of these communications are scheduled once and then sent automatically while you focus on immediate daily tasks you need to handle directly.

When you properly structure an automated system you will have relevant bits of information going out to appropriate clients at regular intervals. This creates a rhythm for your business that keeps your brand active in your clients’ minds as a reliable source of current information. One more powerful way you can promote yourself directly is to consistently make videos like this one and send them to specific categories in your database. Video builds a sense of relevance and fosters a personal connection toward establishing those vital client relationships by reinforcing their experience of you and your services.

You can see how important automated marketing and quality of information is to building your business. Establishing and maintaining rapport with your clients through relevance and consistency will quickly take your business to the next level.

Thank you for watching today’s Coaching Tip. I look forward to seeing you here again next week.

The Pitch

What it takes to be a great lister in real estate is the ability to focus on your client’s needs and fears, and to resolve those issues for them. You address these concerns during your listing presentation, and you take as much or as little time as is necessary to do so. Your most important task is to make sure your client is comfortable with you, and with your explanations of the process you will follow together to sell or buy their property.

During your listing presentation you want your clients to feel secure in your ability to see them through this process. You accomplish this sense of security by putting any fears they may have to rest. In order to do that, you have to know what their fears are. Do not assume all clients have the same primary concerns. Interview each client carefully and listen attentively to what they tell you. This is your first and best opportunity to prove that choosing you as their agent is in your clients’ best interest.

You also want your clients to really understand the process of buying and selling, and the best way to do this is through tactical visuals such as open for inspection booklets from past properties similar to the one you will be handling. These visuals will list all the people who inquired about the property, how many came to inspect it, how many returned for a second appointment, and what percentage then followed through with formal inspections, offers and bids. Once you have demonstrated your track record this way, your next move is to show your clients that you already have potential buyers to call in to view their property if they sign with you as their agent.

Another highly effective tactical tool is a list of your last 100 sales detailing property addresses, estimated selling prices that were on the agency agreement, the actual sale prices, and the difference in dollars between those figures. You can also show the marketing budgets for these properties, days on market, and final sale prices to demonstrate the cost and time benefits of quality marketing.

There are six standard concerns buyers tend to have:

Safety
Performance
Appearance
Convenience
Economy
Reliability

You need to find out which of these items are the primary concerns for your clients so you can directly address those specific issues to their satisfaction. Beyond addressing their concerns, you want to know what each client is really attracted to about a property. You will often be working with couples and you want to know what each of them is looking for, and what needs each of them wants to fulfill through this transaction.

By asking your clients quality questions and listening intently to their answers during the listing presentation you will get the vital information you need in order to best handle this property for these clients.

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