Taking it to the Next Level

Mediocre; it’s a word most people hate and for real estate agents it’s a time, a phase in their career, they want to quickly skip past. So how do you leapfrog past the point in your career where things are moving along okay but not setting the world on fire?

What do you need to do to turn an average number of listings, which sell for an average price, in an average time frame, into mammoth listings that sell for record prices in quick succession? In short, how do you take things to the next level and list more and sell more, for more?

You need to have a goal. You need to want to shift gears and go from being a good agent to being a great agent. Without a goal, and a plan to reach that goal, you have nothing to strive for and nothing to motivate you towards success. Once you have a goal it’s time to set your mantra.

I always recommend to the agents I coach that they commit to doing one thing really well – serving the customer. It doesn’t matter whether you work in a prestige market or blue-collar suburbs, if you serve your clients well, success will follow. There are three key areas you need to improve to propel yourself from being a good agent to being a great agent.

Prospecting
It’s vitally important to get your marketing in order so that you can ship specific content to specific customers and maximise your database value. You need to be relevant, frequent and consistent when prospecting. Rather than send each client the same pamphlet or email, you need to tailor your marketing. A vendor or new homeowner may not care that a property 10 suburbs away has sold, but they will be interested to know that the house around the corner sold for a record price.

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The key is to be hyper-local and inform clients about what’s happening on their street, their neighbourhood and their suburb. Relevant marketing and prospecting naturally flows on to frequent prospecting. Prospecting isn’t a ‘sometimes thing’ it’s an ‘all the time thing’. I urge my agents to use the one day, one week, one month, one year approach to frequent marketing and prospecting.
That means hop on the phone and have a chat with your client at each of these intervals. Any longer and it may have been too long between drinks. You also need to be consistent in your marketing so set a standard you want to achieve and stick to it. It often helps to set up a marketing calendar to determine what material goes out and when.

Listing
A listing presentation is your chance to sell yourself and your skills and win the listing. But where a lot of agents go wrong is approaching the listing with one-dimensional glasses on and only talking about themselves and their successes. While it’s good to let potential vendors know you’ve set the record price for their suburb, it’s even more important to explain what this means for them.
You need to know how to identify the needs of the customer and pitch specifically to those needs. It’s also critical to know how to use powerful visuals to sell your key concepts, which set you apart from your competition. So instead of using an auction photo where you had two bidders, use the photo where six bidders were spread among a crowd of 60 interested onlookers. It’s also important to present the right mix of urgency and empathy when dealing with your clients.

Of course, you want to quickly win the listing and get the property to market but don’t run roughshod over your clients, because you’ll never win. Instead, temper the sense of urgency with an understanding of your clients’ thought processes, concerns, questions and emotions. Meeting their needs will ultimately meet your needs.

Clearance
Achieving more listings generally translates to more sales. But it’s hard to get more and more listings when you’re still working on achieving sales on properties that have been languishing on the market.
Great agents know how to reduce the days on market, which not only helps achieve the very best sale price, it improves stock turnover and allows you to meet more people more often. Meeting more people, more often means more listings, more often.

So put yourself in a position where more people can see you and meet you. Go to open homes and follow up on every phone and internet enquiry. As your popularity grows, so will the number of people wanting to use your services. Another tactic to sell more properties for more money is to create pre-market demand. Source buyers who have missed out on previous properties and draw their interest to one of your new properties. Buyers want to buy what others want.

Once you’ve moved from being a good agent to the top of your field the key is to stay there. Remember you need to be humble and hungry.

This article first appeared on Elite Agent:https://eliteagent.com/stay-humble-stay-hungry/

Power of the Past

Forget the adage the past will come back to haunt you, real estate agents should strive to ensure the past comes back to help them. The trouble is, many agents don’t look at the big picture or view their career as a long-term journey.

Instead of viewing every customer as a lifetime client, they have a narrow view of the sales process. Too often agents view a sale, and therefore the client, as valuable for only a single transaction. They see it as a deal to be done and dusted and very little, if any, thought is given to what role the client could play in future transactions. What many agents fail to realise is that if you build a long-term relationship with every client, the power of the past will turn full circle and come back to aid their career again and again.

If you build your relationships and become a trusted friend in the industry then each client will not only deliver word-of-mouth referrals but will return as a client when they’re next ready to sell or buy. Before you let out a groan anticipating the extra workload building these relationships will entail, let me assure you there’s a simple yet effective philosophy you can follow. To harness the power of the past you need to learn to be relevant, frequent and consistent in your marketing.

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Relevant
Rather than sending each client the same pamphlet or email you should ensure your marketing is tailored and relevant. A vendor or new homeowner doesn’t care that a property 10 suburbs away has sold but they will be interested in listings and sales close to them. The key is to be hyper-local and to inform them about what’s happening in their street, their neighbourhood and their suburb.

The price the house across the road sold for is relevant to them as is the fact the median sale price for the suburb has risen $50,000 in the past quarter. Use your ever-evolving market knowledge to target your marketing to each client.

Frequent
So how often do you contact your clients with this information? If you ring them once a year you’ll most likely find that it has been too long between drinks and the relationship is stale and awkward. Your aim is to become their friend in the real estate industry and I urge the agents I coach to use the one day, one week, one month, one year approach.

One day after the client has moved into their new property you should call them to check and see if there’s anything they need or whether they have any questions. One week later phone them with some friendly advice such as where the late night chemist is or the fact the restaurant around the corner is renowned for its steaks. One month later phone again and assure them that while you won’t be calling all the time, you will keep in touch whenever there is a listing or sale that’s relevant to them. One year later call your client to let them know that you’ve been looking through their file and given some recent prices achieved in their neighbourhood it would be good for you to take a walk through their property and give them an update on its value.

Consistent
When a client is ready to sell you want it to be your name that is top of mind. While your sales processes and marketing will never force a customer to sell, they can ensure you’re the agent they turn to when they’re ready. Examples of consistent marketing could be a weekly video where you discuss what’s happening in the market in a particular suburb or a quick email with a daily tip on preparing your home for sale.

The key to marketing is to do it all the time and not just when things aren’t going well. That way you will hopefully avoid the need to implement crisis marketing. The secret to using the power of the past is to never underestimate the influence someone you meet today could have in the future.

This article first appeared on Elite Agent:https://eliteagent.com/the-power-of-the-past/

Leading Change

Change is never easy. But it’s not changing at all that is the downfall of many once great real estate agents. I explain how you can avoid the pitfalls and set yourself up for success. For many of us in real estate, change is the only constant.

People handle it in different ways and many see change in a negative light. They’re the ones recounting the glory days of old while resisting the new, usually with an ‘if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it’ general worldview. So why is it that when the winds of change sweep through our industry that some build walls, while others create windmills that power remarkable growth?

The key is getting clear about your goals, ambition and being in a position to define what is important to you now and having a plan for the future. Not just 12 months down the track but a longer-term view. And how will you get there, step by step.

You should look 25 years ahead. When you are that age, 25 years on, where do you want to be in your life?

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It’s only once you envision this that you can fully start to build a framework to take you there. It becomes less about what you want in life and more about what’s really important to you. Having a clear purpose will help form a platform for you to stand on when the ground is shaky for others. It will ground you with solid values about important areas of your life, such as:

Health: Your diet, exercise and sleep

Relationships: A significant other, your family and friends.

Creativity and Community: Your interests in music, art, design and sport.

Spiritual: Your belief and connection.

Financial: What passive and active income goals you have.

Professional: Your career aspirations.

Adventure: Your plans to renew with fun and recreation.

Legacy: How you will be remembered.

Character: How you behave and are perceived.

Material: What you want to possess.

Once you refine your philosophy around these core areas, you will have a roadmap to guide you through the changing landscape to where you want to be in your life. Change renews and refreshes. It keeps you young and allows you to adapt to all the challenges you will face. Often it’s the little things such as dealing with new database software or a new process or procedure. Sometimes it’s change outside of your control such as elections or government policy changes or major moves on the international stage, such as Brexit.

It’s important to remember that ultimately when things change it is a great opportunity for you to step up. Leading change in difficult times will position you as a go-to person in the minds of your customers. Once you have a vision that captures the essence of what you really want to achieve in your lifetime you will start to be guided by purpose and direction.

It is then that you can decide for yourself: Are you going to drive change or will change drive you?

This article first appeared on Elite Agent: https://eliteagent.com/dealing-with-change/

Fee Cutters

Deciding what you should be paid for selling someone’s property is tricky business, especially when someone undercuts you. I will examine how to beat the fee cutters.

Fee cutters are a fact of life in real estate. You will never be able to escape them, but there are ways to overcome them. I’m sure most, if not every, agent has cut their fee at some point only to have the competition score the listing anyway. It’s a gutting feeling.

But the fact is, if you don’t offer a better experience for your higher fee then there’s no reason for a client to select you as their agent over any other at any fee.
Differentiation is the key. In the absence of differentiation, the customer will always shop on price. From a customer’s point of view, skill and experience are less compelling than confidence and energy.

You will win business by selling yourself better than all the other agents and to do this you need to listen to your customer and relate your value to their needs. The most important component of the listing presentation is identifying need. If you can identify the client’s needs then you can sell the features and benefits that specifically relate to the client and where they are at in the sales process.

Find out:
• What they are looking for in an agent.
• What they don’t want in an agent.
• How they will select their agent.
• What they already know about your company and yourself and why they called you in.

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Asking these types of questions allow you to build a case for what you’re worth. One of my clients hit a major problem when potential vendors would hang up the phone if they mentioned a fee higher than 1 percent. By highlighting that fees “started at 1 percent” they were able to get in the door more often. The next step is to build the fee up with tasks like open homes charged at an extra .5 percent. That’s not being tricky or deceitful, it’s simply understanding there are multiple fee levels. They also started having agency agreements pre-written at 2.5 percent including GST and since then they’ve achieved that fee every time.

If you’re not confident in your ability you can’t expect others to be. You have to set what you’re worth in the marketplace. I also get a lot of requests for fee defence scripts. The reality is, if you think you’re going to win on fee because you have a great fee defence then you’re in trouble. Rather than defending your fee I recommend being proactive from the beginning.

Fee approximation close.
Start your listing presentation highlighting that agents charge fees anywhere from 3 percent down to 1.5 percent, and while you’re not the dearest or the cheapest you are known for having the best value. By starting with the larger fee you’ve used that as a base platform from which to jump. Later in the presentation and in summary mention your actual fee and then switch to another topic. That way the customer doesn’t really get a chance to jump in.

Dollar difference.
This is another of my favourite techniques and it’s so simple. Estimate fee dollar difference between yourself and your competitors and suggest the difference is added to the reserve price. You still attract the fee you’re worth but the vendors also feel they’re not paying too much out of their own pocket.

Cheap versus quality.
It’s also important to remind potential clients that in life you often get what you pay for and real estate agents are no different. Ask them “have you ever bought the cheap version of something only to have to go back and buy the more expensive version to ensure the job was done correctly? Don’t make that same mistake with your agent.”

This article first appeared on Elite Agent: https://eliteagent.com/real-estate-commission-fees-advice/

The Real Estate Rollercoasters

Do you like riding the real estate rollercoasters? Going up and down with listings and sales each and every month is a pretty awful position to be in. So today my Coaching Tip is about watching early indicators and getting clarity of intention so you know what approaching success needs to look like for your business.

When you watch Olympic swimmers you might see a little yellow line on the screen. If the swimmer is in front of that line, it means they’re about to break a world record. You need a little yellow line to show you where you are in your race.

There’s one simple thing you can do to stay ahead inside of your business. Consistent listing leads to consistent selling. If you set target goals for listings per month, then set weekly goals to reach that monthly number, you’ll then start successfully bringing in those signed agency agreements.

But what if you get off track? When you see you have no listings at the end of the week, change your approach. If you’re going to be a great agent you need to understand the things that lead you to a successful outcome. The one thing that gets me in front of more people more often is booking appointments.

Book at least 3 appointments per day, every day. It’s that consistency most people have trouble with because most people are too emotional. That’s right, being emotional leads you into doing activities that won’t help you achieve what you want inside of your business. You have to stay off those rollercoasters by making sure you consistently list. Stay focused, hit those quarterly marks during the course of each month, and you’ll hit listing success.

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

Old versus New

Bob Dylan sung that the times were changing and it’s an adage that rings true in today’s real estate world. That’s not to say that everything old is now worthless but it’s equally as true that everything old is not new again. Instead, there are new, modern ways to approach age-old processes to ensure you, as an agent, are performing at your peak.

From your marketing to your database to your inspections, there are now better, more effective ways to get things done to make sure you’re as productive, consistent, effective and efficient as possible. Here are just a few old techniques and the new and improved methods that have superseded them.

Old – Once upon a time letterbox drops regarding just listed and just sold properties were the bees’ knees.

New – Now prospecting takes a more refined, more detailed approach. The new way to ‘canvas’ for new listings is to call everyone you know in the area every time your agency lists or sells a property of a similar type first. Phoning means you know exactly how many times you connect with a potential buyer or seller, whereas before it was impossible to know whether your brochures just quickly ended up in the rubbish. It’s also a much more personal approach and helps keep your name top of mind.

Old – Previously agents would leave a long, detailed voicemail for their potential clients, including the reason for their call. The problem with this is it immediately tells your client what you want and gives them the chance to ‘opt-out’ before you’ve even spoken to them. If they’re not interested they simply won’t call you back.

New – The fresh approach is to call leaving your name and number only. This intrigues the client and prompts them to call back to find out what you are after. The agents I coach find they have far greater success with this approach. Once you have the client on the phone you’re also able to address any concerns they may have and, most importantly, work towards booking an appointment.

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Old – In times past it was common to wait until Monday to enter in all of your open home attendees into your database.

New – Now agents employee a Saturday assistant to enter all of their open home attendees into the database immediately. It’s even a good idea to photograph the written log and email it to your assistant after each open home. This keeps your database as real-time as possible and that way when you’re doing your callbacks you already know who has been to previous opens, who’s a past client or a landlord.

Old – Previously agents would only have one potential buyer at a private appointment time. This is inefficient in two main ways; it’s not the most productive use of your time and it does little to engage multiple buyers simultaneously.

New – Now compression selling is used far more often and is incredibly effective. Having multiple buyers at the one private inspection really helps in creating competition. Agent’s I coach have reported receiving more offers prior to auction, more bidders at auction and quicker private treaty sales.

Old – In the old days, you spent a little time, at odd times, whenever you had it to put out your newsletter. The trouble with this approach is consistency. More often than not the ‘monthly’ newsletter would stretch out to five or six weeks.

New – Work from a template where all you have to do is update the numbers each month and refresh the text with current market conditions. This helps get your newsletter out at the same time each month. Consistent marketing is key.

There are also a number of areas where change is creeping in. Databases are moving online to allow more automated marketing and marketing based on each category in the database rather than just chasing individuals. Agents are also starting to market more consistently and strategically rather than just when they are in trouble. A marketing calendar allows you to know what you’ve sent, when you sent it and what it looks like.

Another emerging trend is for agents to focus their marketing on current market conditions rather than only covering transactional marketing. This way they can become the trusted advisor for the customer.

This article first appeared on Elite Agent: https://eliteagent.com/oldvsnew/

Ep 121 – Simplifying Your Business

This High-Performance Podcast for Real Estate Agents features Josh Phegan and Alexander Phillips on simplifying your business. Josh lists things he does, and also notes things he doesn’t do. Alex elaborates on ways you can really understand what you do so you can more effectively simplify those processes. Josh tells how a lot of activities agents perform don’t even relate to generating their business, and how to choose your best lead sources. Alex tells which numbers he tracks on to get the results he wants.

Josh observes the importance of working with everyone in your database before searching for new clients. Alex talks about building social proof, and Josh wraps up with simplifying life for your clients and driving momentum that breeds success.

Principles

In his book, Principles, Ray Dalio talks specifically about the importance of having some basic rules that set you off for success, not only in your work but also in your life. In my Coaching Tip today I’m going to give you some basic principles that will help you become a successful real estate agent.

Let’s start with 4 principles that allow you to sell a home. Negotiate for vendor-paid marketing, speak with your vendor every single business day, write weekly vendor reports on next actions and recommendations, and make sure every property you have on the market receives an offer within 10 days.

If you fail to follow these four principles, you’ll have problems in your sales campaigns. The same holds true for principles that apply to other areas of work and life. Be clear about what you want and don’t want, and then consider the principles that will lead you to success.

For prospecting, commit to a 45-minute call session every day, don’t go home until you’ve booked 3 appointments, and make sure you’re face to face with consumers every day. If you don’t have great energy, get yourself tuned up quickly. One of the best principles for that is to simply smile because you’re here to serve the customer and they won’t want to deal with your negativity.

Some of my own classic principles for managing energy to perform at my best include making sure I get proper sleep, diet and exercise. I also know it’s critically important to create an environment that feels successful to maintain a mindset geared for success.

It all comes down to building up either a system or a person. Your business is a machine you need to tune to ensure you get the results you deserve. Get these principles in play and they will lead you to success.

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

Leading Agent

Real estate is a competitive and, at times, merciless industry. Every day, at every agency, every agent is competing for appointments, listings and ultimately sales. It’s a world where the highs can be dizzying, the lows desperately depressing and the difference between success and failure can be fickle.

Climbing to the top of the ladder takes courage, hard work and resilience. Staying there can take even more work.

The cycle of supply and demand means the more agents there are competing for listings, the smaller the chunk of pie they’re fighting for. A recent survey I conducted with my clients revealed 17 per cent felt dealing with competitors was the biggest challenge facing their business. In a battle for listings, agents usually compete in three main areas: price, marketing and fees. In the absence of differentiation, sellers will always shop on agent and marketing fees and my clients said they often face competitors who are undercutting.

“Business is great and the market is excellent but unfortunately this is allowing many agents to cut fees,” one agent said. “They are not necessarily small offices with unprofessional agents, I am seeing my strongest competitors doing it too.” So how do you stay ahead of your competition and do it in a honourable way?

Regardless of the fee you charge you want sellers to want you as their agent. This means to become the leading agent in your market you need to stand out. The key is to focus on the customer, their needs and meeting those needs as effectively and efficiently as possible. If you focus on your competition you never win.

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Rather than trying to take out your competition, work on yourself, your skills and strive to be a role model. Work your database and back up your promises with third-party endorsements. When you focus on the customer you create more word of mouth recommendations more often. If you’re a new agent trying to climb the ladder it’s vitally important that you study the market you want to overtake.

You need to know every new listing, every sale and become an absolute specialist when it comes to pricing. As you move towards the top of the ladder it’s important to generate and convert lots of leads. Make more and more calls to get in more doors and use your past clients as a great source for getting new face-to-face appointments. Once you’ve reached the top of the hill and are the leading agent in your market you have to work hard to stay there.

The key to success in this regard is to monitor the market, continually prospect and never become complacent.

5 Top Tips for becoming the leading agents in your market

1) Know the size of the pie.
You need to make sure you’re working in a big enough market. Markets change over time and you need to ensure there’s enough turnover to meet your desired income.

2) Know the market.
You need to be able to counteract your competition so make sure you know every listing, every sale and are an expert on price. Good quality market knowledge allows you to separate yourself from the pack.

3) Know why you pitch differently to your competition.
You need to stand out from the crowd. Focus on the customer, their needs and desires and show how you can meet them faster, better and cheaper. Cheaper doesn’t mean cutting your fee or marketing, it’s about the speed of sale. The faster you sell a property the less of a discount it usually sells for.

4) List it well, sell it well.
Don’t rush a property to market if you haven’t finalised price, presentation and marketing. People buy a perceived lifestyle and will pay more for a property when it is complete, rather than one they have to renovate.

5) Know when to build a team.
Know when the time is right to employ an assistant so you can focus on what really counts. Choose people that aspire to really be something, have a strong family business background, who are hungry to learn and who can be coached.

Career Progression

Starting out and progressing your career can be tricky if you don’t know where you’re going. Time may heal all wounds but it doesn’t necessarily equate to success in the real estate field. Just because you’ve been an agent for 20 years doesn’t mean you are at the top of your field.

Rather, hunger, desire, skill, mentoring and environment contribute much more to a successful career path than years on the clock. So how do you ensure your career is progressing along the right path?

Most importantly it is vital that you have a vision for the future of your career and your business.

If you have no idea where you want to go how are you going to get there? Know what you want to achieve, set short-term goals to move you forward and your business will grow and prosper. Decide your vision based on your purpose, mission and values and think about the numbers and measurements you need to meet in order to reach your goals. Your basic tools for growth include increasing your fees, selling more properties and boosting your average sale price. To reach your true potential I recommend thinking five to 10 years ahead. Ask yourself what you want your business to become, how many offices you’d like to have and how many agents you’d like working for you.

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Key Career Progression Tips

Have a plan and a mentor
Every business needs a business plan. Plan your strategy for success and plot the numbers that will measure your success. A mentor can also guide your through the stages of your career so look for someone whose work you respect and admire. Ask yourself what is holding you back from progressing in your career. Is it skill level, time or the number of transactions you are achieving?

Ask yourself the ‘what’ question
What books, skills and attributes or lack of are holding you back? Identify your weaknesses and work hard to overcome them.

Mimic others
Spend time with other agents who are far more successful than you are. Pepper them with questions, watch their style and mimic their systems.

Starting out
If you’re new to real estate the first stage of progressing along the ultimate career path starts with building your database. The sooner that grows the sooner your business grows. Market your database and learn what to send to which category. Start with buyer work because there are plenty of them and remember that the only difference between a buyer and a seller is time. Set benchmarks you want to achieve and work diligently towards them. It’s also vital that you learn how to list properties well. If you can list it will teach you to prospect and that’s your bread and butter.

After 5 years
If you were new to the business five years ago you should now be at the point of already being or close to becoming your own agent. If you come with a little more life experience you should be focused on securing more transactions and higher fees. Level 1 agents will complete about 30 transactions a year and write about $300,000 in fees. Level 2 agents will secure up to 60 transactions a year and write about $600,000 in fees. Level 3 agents will sell more than 100 properties a year and work as a multi-million dollar fee-producing agent.

If you haven’t already, a main goal after five years should be to build a solid team around yourself and to build a business that is sustainable. It’s also vital that the amount of word-of-mouth referrals and the number of repeat customers are continually rising.

After 10 years
After a decade you should have a great team around you and could have progressed into partnership, directorship in your existing firm or even have started your own agency. Your goal after a decade should be to continually write more in fees year-on-year. Referrals and past clients should make up a substantial amount of your transactions. Once you’ve made your goals and started ticking them off, it’s time to reassess, make new commitments and move forward again.

Career progression and business growth is a lifetime thing and I urge my clients to review their goals daily. In terms of taking a hard look at where you’re at and what’s happening with your business plan, I recommend checks at the end of the calendar year and the end of the financial year. If you do this twice a year you can ensure you’re always in a growth phase and not sliding backwards. Start by reviewing your numbers over the past year – listings, sales and income generated. You need to review each month in detail and look for patterns. Which months were slower? Which were successful?

You need to understand what is and isn’t working for you and why.

If and when your plans and goals go astray, set a new goal and strive to reach it.

Progressing down the ultimate career path and growing your business doesn’t happen by luck but because you plan for it, adjust the plan when necessary and follow through on that plan.