Fix The Leakage

One of your biggest mistakes right now is that you’re not doing enough with your existing strengths. In my Coaching Tip this week I’ll tell you how to fix the leakage around all of the leads you’re losing by not seeing what you already have.

The first thing I look for when I walk into a business is whether they’re working with their opportunities, or doing other things that won’t get results. What you need to do is print a list of all the people who have bought from you and contact them.

Those past clients are good customers. If you already have a set of known leads like that, why wouldn’t you call them? These are clients who have a problem they want to solve, and they’ve contacted you to help them do that. And it’s actually more expensive to find a new client than to work with an existing one.

A lot of your hesitation is about fear and capabilities you need to build, so I’ll give you some simple dialogue to help you ask the right questions and book appraisals. Some people you call are going to say no, but the ones who say yes are the ones you can build a relationship with. They’ll also give you good referrals.

So call all of your past clients, do the annual checkups, do the market appraisals, and fix the leakage by using the leads you already have sitting inside of your database. Call every buyer who ever inquired about a property and talk with them. Find your strengths and start working to them, and you’ll change the momentum in your business.

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

Ep 172 – Maintaining the Right Levels of Energy

In this High Performance Podcast for Real Estate Agents,  Josh Phegan and Alexander Phillips discuss the need for maintaining the right levels of energy. They begin a discussion around dealing with the negativity agents encounter from clients, the media, and other sources. Alex tells how your mental headspace and viewpoint on the market affect your energy. He also recommends dropping clients who sap your energy and focusing on dealing with the people who actually want to deal with you. Josh notes the benefits of asking the client “Why now?” to find out their reasons for selling or buying.

Alex tells how he recovers from a “No” phone call to approach the next call with better energy towards getting a “Yes”, Josh notes that when the customer is in pain is when they need you most to ask great questions and help them make better decisions.

What You Do And Why You Do It

What’s your secret recipe for what does and doesn’t happen inside of your business? In my Coaching Tip this week we’re going to get really clear around what you do and why you do it, and how to actually think about that.

Your secret recipe might be about how to sell properties in under 28 days, being great on video, meeting with more customers, or prospecting and generating leads. It includes things like vendor and buyer communication, preparing for auction day, and speeding up the ETA for the customer.

The problem is that not enough businesses have clarity around what their recipe for success is. It’s about building relationships, taking the right actions, marketing, and getting in front of the consumer. Once you work it out you just do it over and over with consistency.

For your secret recipe the core is the core, the rest is just flavour. Maintaining single-minded focus and real clarity around what you do and why you do it is energising. This is why it works and how you stay with it. And once you know the formula you then teach it to everyone inside of your business.

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

Ep 171 – Pricing

This High Performance Podcast for Real Estate Agents features Josh Phegan and Alexander Phillips on pricing, and what happens when the floor on pricing becomes the ceiling. Alex weighs in on advising clients around what properties are selling for right now, not what the last property sold for. Josh notes how buyer urgency can affect the sale more than the price and Alex validates with ways that can happen. They also discuss the impact buyer financing has on completing the sale, and the necessity for pushing the customer to get their financing approved before even looking at properties.

Alex advises having that conversation about terms and pricing percentages in the list to sell meeting in preparation for negotiations, and Josh emphasises the importance of pricing, positioning and marketing appropriately from day one.

Booking Appointments

Your number one job as an agent is to book buyer appointments, market appraisals and listing appointments. My Coaching Tip this week is all about booking appointments, because the more of those you can do, the better off you’ll be.

One of your challenges is around buyers and sellers who want to wait for the market to change before they commit. What you want to do is work with people who are ready to do the deal and are prepared to do what it takes.

You’ll need some new techniques and fresh, simple dialogue to drive your appointment numbers. I’ll give you dialogue that works to get past those apathetic clients and qualify the ones who are actually motivated.

The key is to get people to come back after an open to see the property again. If they’re willing to meet you at the property on a Monday or Tuesday night after the weekend open for inspection, then they’re likely to actually do something.

So your focus must be on booking appointments every single day and getting in front of customers. If you’ve got a buyer who actually wants to buy, don’t wait for auction day or the next open for inspection. Close out the deal and make the sale.

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

Ep 170 – How to Set Goals

In this High Performance Podcast for Real Estate Agents Josh Phegan and Alexander Phillips discuss how to set goals, beginning with tips from Alex for both new and seasoned agents. He talks about setting a variety of goals and writing them down to keep them in front of you. Josh comments on achieving a better result by forming a deeper understanding of what your personal goals are, and using discipline and routine to achieve them. They also discuss getting clear and intentional around average sale price, volume and fee.

Alex notes the importance of mentoring to keep you in the right mindframe, and Josh relates how to know you’re on or off track by knowing what your numbers should be, and that consistent actions result in the successful outcomes you desire.

Building your Talent Bench

You need the best people in the best positions at all times. In this month’s Growth, Leadership and Management Tip I’m talking about building your talent bench, because the reality is that people will always be coming and going on the inside of your organisation.

So how do you build a talent bench? Start with getting clear around the positions you need to fill and who you want playing them. Think about new roles, new skillsets, and how your organisation’s needs are going to change as it grows.

Too many agencies approach recruitment from a sudden requirement to fill an immediate need. Instead, you should be continually building your talent bench, and I’ll give you some examples of fresh approaches to lead generation.

The key is to start thinking differently about major lead sources. Consider where you might find people looking for employment. Think about people who already have training that you can amplify as they learn about the real estate industry with your organisation.

Start reviewing people you want on your talent bench now so they can become a new hire in the future. It can take years of progressing, interacting, and building a relationship with the right person to hire before you can finally bring them on board.

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

Growth in a Declining Market

Most agents grow their income when the market grows, but what happens when the market goes into decline?

Market cycles see you progress from the peak to the start of the decline, a declining market, to nearing the bottom, to being at the bottom, the beginning of the recovery, into growth, nearing the peak, until you hit the peak again.

The distance between the peaks in any market is somewhere between 7-12 years, and the great news is it’s getting faster. Since the rapid uptake of mobile devices, everything is getting faster.

You need to be intentional about your numbers if you want to grow your income in a declining market. In most markets across the Eastern States (bar mining towns), we’ve seen a 6% decline in average sale prices, with further to go, combined with bouncy volume (some months up and some months down) and a 5-year run which saw declining fee’s masked by a good market.

So if you add it up, say a 10% decline in average sale price, 10% less volume and 25% reduction in fees in city markets (i.e. 2% to 1.5%), that’s a 39% decline overall.

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The only way to beat a growth stall is to:

1. Decrease your cost of lead acquisition through customer experience. One customer served well leads you to your next customer. This is critical so that you control the overall margin – the difference between what it costs you to provide the service, and what you charge the customer.

2. Reduce churn – sell your property management properties to your current investors first to keep them in the ecosystems and check your past client program is keeping your past clients not losing them to the competition. The theory is that past clients pay more which increases your average fee.

3. Grow into new markets – not just geographically, but also property type, apartments versus houses, low end versus high end.

4. Focus on agent productivity – by getting more face to face appointments booked.

5. Reducing the ETA for the customer – keeping days on the market short so that you can keep your volume high.

6. Increasing the spend of the customer by raising fees and marketing.

Pricing of your services (better known as the fee you charge), is the fastest way to profit and the quickest way to bankruptcy. The industry is fascinated with competitor pricing; I hope the competitor you’re following has priced their services correctly to allow for profit, so you can reinvest to reinvent what you do for the customer. The only way to compete is to make it easier for the customer.

It’s critical you focus on the numbers if you want to achieve your goals. You need to make the small changes to get the significant results, and if you fail to pay attention, you’ll fall well short of last years numbers.

This article first appeared on Elite Agent: https://eliteagent.com/growth-in-a-declining-market/

William Phillips

Welcome to The Black & White Interviews, a Josh Phegan initiative to showcase the top agents we work within Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the USA. Our next Black & White interview series will feature William Phillips, Director of BresicWhitney.

  • Started in real estate in 2005
  • Core market Redfern, Surry Hills, Darlinghurst and Potts Point
  • Joined BresicWhitney for work experience before moving into leasing then sales before becoming a Director
  • REB #1 Agent Under 30 in Australia
  • REB #13 Top 100 Agents Australia
  • Speaker at List Sell Negotiate event on November 11, 2016
  • 50% of properties currently make it to Auction (the rest sell before auction date)
  • Best piece of advice? It’s simple: prospect, prospect, prospect. I try and make at least 100 calls a day and have about 30 conversations, or ‘connects’ as we call them.

We wanted the opportunity to showcase the top agents we get to work with and share their secrets and insights of how they have become exceptional agents in their marketplace and made their way to the top. Each month we will feature a new agent. The full-length version of these interviews will be available exclusively to Josh Phegan Members, giving you a great opportunity to learn and grow from the top agents and their strategies for becoming million dollar agents.

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Tristan Tomasino

Welcome to The Black & White Interviews, a Josh Phegan initiative to showcase the top agents we work within Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the USA. Our next Black & White interview series will feature Tristan Tomasino, Director from Biggin & Scott Yarraville.

  • Director from Biggin & Scott Yarraville
  • Started in Property Management in 2004, but moved into sales in 2008
  • Focusing in Melbourne Inner-West, core suburbs in Spotswood, Yarraville, Seddon, Kingsville, Footscray and West Footscray
  • 64 transactions last calendar year
  • 93% Auction
  • Average days on market is 32
  • Won the 2015 Josh Phegan Changed Agent Award, 2015 Auctioneer of the Year for Biggin Scott Network, Placed 24 in Real Estate Business Young Guns Under 30
  • Advice for new agents: Always stay hungry, even when you don’t feel it, look at your goals and know what your purpose is. Learn scripts as quickly as possible and make them sound like you, then prospect, build your database, form relationships and do the work.
  • Overcoming challenges: Have a strong circle of influence. Be all in and emotionally connected to what you do, it’s the only way you can continue to push on instead of giving up and looking at plan B.

We wanted the opportunity to showcase the top agents we get to work with and share their secrets and insights of how they have become exceptional agents in their marketplace and made their way to the top. Each month we will feature a new agent. The full-length version of these interviews will be available exclusively to Josh Phegan Members, giving you a great opportunity to learn and grow from the top agents and their strategies for becoming million dollar agents.

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