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.

Curveballs

Just as baseball’s Sandy Koufax was known for his devastating curveball, many a vendor has been known to throw tricky situation after testing question at real estate agents. For the unprepared agent, a listing presentation can quickly become a minefield of ‘should haves’ and ‘would haves’ when vendors take a cut-throat approach to selecting their selling agent.

But to succeed at the listing presentation agents need to be armed with a heavy bat in order to knock those curveballs out of the field. Over the years the agents I coach have consistently come to me for solutions to the top curveballs vendors pitch at them.

Here’s a list of those tricky hurdles and how to jump them.

Pricing.
For the large majority of vendors, the price is their top concern when looking to sell their property and who they sell it through. No one wants to undersell, everyone wants the best price possible. Inevitably vendors will quiz their would-be agent on what they think they can sell the property for.

The trouble is, vendors, agents and buyers often have very different price expectations. The key to jumping the price point hurdle is to explain to your potential vendors how each party determines the ‘right’ price. Sellers manifestly work to a cost, spend, need equation where they analyse what they paid for the property, add on what they have spent in terms of renovations and then consider what price they need in order to achieve their next property goal. Buyers on the other hand inescapably want to secure a property for the lowest possible price.

They form their view on what a property is worth based on their attendance at other open homes, recent sales in the area and the perceived competition for the house they’re interested in. Yes, it’s the agent’s job to mediate the selling price but before they can do that they need vendors to select them to be their agent. Agents decide price based on their market knowledge and in order to convince the seller they are the right agent they need to be able to back up their market knowledge with social proof. Agents should come armed with price evidence such as three properties similar to the vendor’s that are currently on the market and three recent sales.

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Marketing
Everyone is economically driven and no vendor wants to pay more for marketing than they have to. It’s the agent’s job to show what kind of marketing would be ideal for their vendor’s property and why. But rather than taking the hard sell approach my agents have found it best to lead the horse to the dam to drink.

The best way to do this is to sell large, medium and small marketing packages, explaining what each one contains and why it works. It’s also important to link specific marketing pieces with specific buyers to show that marketing really does work.

Fee.
In the absence of differentiation everyone shops on price. If you don’t stand out and stick in a vendor’s mind for the qualities you bring to the sale, they will line you up against other agents and pick the winner based on price. Some people see good value in a Kia, while others prefer a Ferrari. You’ve got to show why the Ferrari is going to cross the finish line first every time.

Show vendors that you’re a safer option than your competitors, that you have a strong performance record, that you can sell either off-market or with your prestigious brand, that you can ease the pressure on them with a tailored campaign and that serving their needs is your top priority.

Why you.
The truth is all agents look the same unless they know how to pitch to their vendors’ needs and desires. The pitch should be all about the vendor, not just about you. Winning agents know how to differentiate themselves from their competitors in a way the customer cares about. The key is to go tactical and show them competition for a recently sold property through the bidding record or prove buyer interest through open home attendee lists.

Sale method.
Vendors consistently worry about the different sale methods current success rates. Rather than pushing a particular sale method onto a vendor listen to what they feel comfortable with.
Take a softer, more negotiation style of approach and try to lead the vendor to the best sale method rather than drag them kicking and screaming. Ask them if they have a preference of auction or private treaty? The key is to get the listing exclusively and at the right fee and not lose a listing based on how you approach the method of sale.

This article first appeared on Elite Agent: https://eliteagent.com/hitting-a-homerun/

Ep 120 – Handling Stress

In this High-Performance Podcast for Real Estate Agents, Josh Phegan and Alexander Phillips discuss handling stress, whether things are really busy, or things just aren’t working out for you. Alex notes that busy times occur throughout your career and gives examples of how top agents deal with stress on a regular basis. Josh advises that you know the signs of stress and suggests ways you can manage it early on. Both then discuss ways to spot and manage stress in your team.

They talk about staying focused on the end of the year even as you prepare for the new year and note some quick ways to recharge your batteries and keep going. Josh ends with his personal stress management and the importance of being present for your clients.

Focusing on the last 50 Listings

You want to make sure you’re putting your time, effort and energy into lead sources that will actually get listings. In my Coaching Tip today I’m going to tell you why your last 50 listings tell you more about your business than anything else.

Look at your lead sources for your last 50 listings. A lot of agents will say that their database is their lead source, but that’s just where you store those leads. Lead sources include open for inspections, buyer inquiries, past clients, market appraisals, your existing personal network, or results from marketing campaigns.

What you want to do is learn to play to your strengths. If you know your key lead sources you can attune your diary to working them. For example, if you have several thousand properties under management, that’s a significant lead source. Those landlords own investment properties as well as their own home, and 8% to 9% of them will change their investment mix each year. If you already have that kind of lead source, why would you focus on cold calling to try to get market appraisals?

The 3 major lead sources are open for inspections, past clients, and your personal network. Just working those leads will make a huge difference to your business. A lot depends on how you first came into the real estate industry. If you started in leasing and moved up into sales you already know people who own property that they bought through an estate agent. That agent has a loyalty program with those people and that’s already an incredible relationship.

If you already know people who trust your brand, then it’s up to you to call them up, make the appointment, and go do an annual checkup on their home. The last 50 listings you’ve won will show you your strengths. Make the decision to get strategic about how your business generates leads, and stop wasting resources on activities that don’t work.

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

Ep 119 – Breaking the Million Dollar Barrier

In this High Performance Podcast for Real Estate Agents Josh Phegan and Alexander Phillips talk about breaking the million dollar barrier in your mindset. Alex begins with reasons why there’s a psychological barrier, why it’s not an unattainable goal and how to make it happen. Josh poses the difference between ego and service, and Alex explains how to break down your numbers to set goals. Josh notes the necessity for training to gain skills you must have to write that million in sales, and Alex describes how it feels to write your first million.

They agree on the best next step whenever you reach a milestone, and then talk about ways the first million in sales boosts your business through referrals and reputation. Josh ends on raising your aspirations and taking the actions you need to achieve that goal.

Getting Back to Basics

Taking control of your diary will actually set you free. In today’s Coaching Tip I’ll tell you how getting back to basics will simplify your life, increase your energy and improve your business.

How you manage your diary is how you manage your life. You need to run to the routine beginning with what time you wake up every morning. Set a time to have breakfast and a time to get to the office, then a time to make that first phone call. You’ll have a set time for having lunch, then times for your appointments. Be home on time for dinner, and go to bed at the right time every night.

Putting hard line appointments into your diary makes it easy to book other appointments around them. It also schedules other people according to your timeline. You see, an amateur will take business whenever it happens, but a professional knows that maintaining control of your diary helps you bring your very best energy to every client you meet with. It’s great energy that wins the business and gets results.

Scheduling private appointments is a classic example of getting better momentum from things you’re already doing. It’s a way to get more people through the home and create a sense of competition for compression selling. Also, if you invite someone to an open for inspection they have no real commitment to turn up. A private appointment changes that level of commitment.

Getting back to basics is vital, right down to setting that lunch hour every single day to make sure you have high energy for your appointments. Hard line appointments should be set a year ahead so you can consistently work to that routine. Plus, other people will know how to work with you and live with you. It’s not just good for the people you work with, it’s also easier for friends and loved ones to know when they’ll be seeing you. Using your diary will make life simpler and your business more successful for you.

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

Developing the Talent Bench

We recently opened a new position inside of the Josh Phegan Company. In my Growth, Leadership, and Management Tip this month we’re going to explore what I discovered about developing the talent bench of all the people you know who would be great working on the inside of your business.

I saw this position opening as an opportunity to test some theories and better understand how our business works. First, I wrote a list of people who’ve worked for our company and identified how we located them. It wasn’t major networking or social sites like Seek, LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook that connected us to our best talent. It was people I had met in my life and built a relationship with over time.

Looking at that I decided to go through my social lists and contacts list, then went to my key influencers who referred me to even more people who could be great on the inside of my business. In just one hour I had a list of 17 highly qualified candidates who would be outstanding in the new role inside of the firm.

Recruiting is an opportunity to establish a phenomenal brand by attracting the best talent. With that idea, we recorded a quality recruiting video to clearly articulate the position along with our company’s purpose, vision, and values. We then requested that candidates record a short video about who they are and why they should work for us to see who would jump barriers and follow instructions. As a result, we got a great list of potential talent.

What does your website’s career section look like? Why should amazing people choose to work with you? If you can’t articulate that, then those top people won’t join your business. So it’s critically important that you do this right. Identify your major lead sources, make your business attractive to great prospects, and get clear about developing the talent bench well before you need it.

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

Ep 118 – Market Dynamics

This High-Performance Podcast for Real Estate Agents features Josh Phegan and Alexander Phillips on market dynamics. Alex explains why market dynamics covers more than just basic market knowledge. Josh lists the numbers you want to measure, and they discuss several ways to predict dynamics before they occur. Josh offers some signs of a potential buyer to watch for, and Alex talks about share markets, interest rates, and the Australian dollar.
Josh then lists several areas of customer needs and desires that will be changing and tells how these will influence what and how they’ll be buying in coming months.

Josh predicts there will be counterintuitive dynamics within dynamics that will influence the market, and encourages agents to listen, read, and be open to fresh input from a variety of sources in order to stay ahead of the curve.

Auction Success

If you’re worried about what’s going to happen on auction day then you’re already in trouble. My Coaching Tip today is about how to set up for auction success with your sellers and buyers.

Everything you do from the moment you list a property determines what will happen on the day it’s selling. The first thing to do as soon as you list the property is hold a set up to sell meeting with your clients. In that meeting, you’ll prepare them for what to expect from inquiries, inspections, second appointments, contract requests, and how long it takes to get the first offers.

You will find that consumers have become impatient over the past 10 years. Many of them don’t want to wait three or four weeks to get to auction day. They may be impatient for a number of reasons, but these buyers are the ones you really want to work with. Get them excited about the home, let them see their competition at the open for inspection, and be ready for their early offers.

You’ll need to work with your sellers every business day around the importance of early offers and how those can change the campaign or the quote. They must also be aware that the market may be performing at a different level by the day of the auction then it is now. It’s your market knowledge that will indicate to them exactly where to set the reserve in order to sell on auction day.

You’re also going to do buyer meetings leading up to the auction. Explain their rights, responsibilities, and roles so they’ll know exactly what to do on auction day. Ask them some simple questions that are pivotal in setting up for auction success through clear communication. To gauge their level of commitment, find out if they intend to be at the auction, register, bid, or bid to buy. And finally, ask the buyers what you can tell the homeowner about their intentions.

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