Ep 117 – The Right Advice

In this High-Performance Podcast for Real Estate Agents, Josh Phegan and Alexander Phillips discuss the importance of giving the right advice to both sellers and buyers. Alex talks about understanding why you’re sitting with that client and how to advise them around what they’re looking for and why. Josh makes the distinction between being the client’s “friend” and being a trusted advisor. Alex describes having the right conversations at the right times and also talks about advising around offers. They discuss specific aspects of advising buyers.

Alex offers advice on delivery and presentation, especially face to face, and Josh notes the importance of how you make the client feel, and giving the right advice at the right time.

The Missing Millions

Once you understand the size of your missed opportunity, the pain of change will be worth the results. In my Coaching Tip today I’ll show you the missing millions you’re not seeing right in front of you, and you’ll discover more leads than you know you have.

If you’ve got properties under management then you have a variety of opportunities represented by those properties. Each property has a landlord, and every one of those landlords lives somewhere. Each is also an investment property with a potential to sell. If 8% to 9% of all property managements sell properties each year, and people move out every 10 years, then at least 10% of those landlords are selling, upgrading or downgrading every year.

Are you letting your landlords know about properties you’re selling where they live or own investment properties? All those potential transactions could be under your control. You do have to be careful and aware of some politics in relation to prospecting and property management teams, but there are ways to avoid those conflicts.

One innovative idea is to have full-time salespeople assigned specifically to looking after your landlords and their investment properties. This allows your people to build relationships with those landlords so they can offer one landlord’s sale property to your other landlords first. If one of them buys it, you’ll then keep the property under your management.

You can change the entire course of the game by playing to your strengths, and that means working with your existing customers. There are millions of dollars worth of mortgage loans alone you could be refinancing, not to mention the valuable leads you can offer to utility connections and insurance companies. Start thinking bigger and serving the customers you already have, and you’ll discover the missing millions of leads you need sitting right 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 116 – Getting Intentional with Your Business

In this High Performance Podcast for Real Estate Agents Josh Phegan and Alexander Phillips talk about getting intentional in your business beginning with Alex on having the right mindset on what you want to create. Josh talks about how to discover where your best leads come from, and they discuss the importance of spending your time and energy intentionally where you’ll get the most results. Josh notes the necessity for an assistant, and Alex adds the intent of being ahead of the curve. They discuss having clarity, structure and focus to get growth inside of your business.

Alex talks about challenging himself to always be doing more and getting better. Josh relates intent to what must be done to achieve your vision, and Alex describes the body language of an agent with intention.

The #1 Thing is Consistency

There are cycles in the marketplace around seasons and holidays, and the great real estate agents know to stay ahead of those cycles. In my Coaching Tip today I’ll tell you why the number one thing is consistency, and why all the great agents rely on a marketing calendar.

As real estate agents we’ve always got a ton of stuff coming at us, so as soon as we find ourselves in a position where we’ve got a lot of stock and the pressure is off, we stop marketing until market stops moving. But you need to be marketing all the time, and a marketing calendar keeps you rolling even when you’re busy.

Most marketplace cycles are no surprise because seasons, holidays and major events happen at the same time every year. You can plan ahead for email campaigns, topics for phone conversations, and direct mail content. In my business, we use a marketing calendar to consistently deliver our weekly videos every Saturday morning. We’ve done this for 8 years without fail.

You need to do the same thing inside of your business. Know what kinds of marketing campaigns you’ll be doing. Allow lead times for production. Target database categories with specific marketing messages such as buyer alerts, current market conditions, and monthly sales for specific areas and client categories. And use templates for visual consistency in branding, especially for mobile viewing.

The number one thing is consistency because it really wins inside of your business. It’s that professional presentation, relevancy, and regularity that will underpin customer confidence in making that decision to buy or sell with you.

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

Ep 115 – How the Standard of Marketing Pitches Your Brand

This High-Performance Podcast for Real Estate Agents features Josh Phegan and Alexander Phillips on how the standard of marketing pitches your brand. Alex talks about the importance of projecting a consistent image and message so customers feel comfortable dealing with you. Josh suggests targeting your marketing through finding out where the customer is actually looking vs. where and how you’re pitching. Alex adds how all this impacts the fee you can command, and Josh adds that where you set your fee also impacts the perception of your brand. Alex stresses the importance of consistency in marketing quality to keep your brand perception high.

Alex talks about different standards of marketing and how to determine what’s best vs. what’s familiar. Josh directs attention to the quality of materials and presentation in point of sale marketing, and how the little things add up to the total brand experience.

The Greatest Challenge in Your Business

You know, I see established businesses that have been around for years playing the game as though it’s their first year in the industry. In my Coaching Tip today I’ll show you that the greatest challenge in your business is realizing where your opportunities are sitting and how they can play for you. And it’s all so basic that you don’t even see it.

Too many agents don’t seem to know the most basic philosophies of creating a great real estate business. They’re not leveraging their relationships.

They’re not thinking about past clients and market appraisals, or where their landlords live. They’re not following up and working with possibly 20 years worth of prospects already sitting inside of their database. And they’re not prepared when an opportunity pops up at them.

Your business’s philosophy has a massive bearing on your potential for success. How do you generate leads? What simple disciplines do you follow? It’s all about how you actually work with customers. It’s about making lists and following up with those people, getting back face-to-face with them regularly, and staying relevant even when there’s no transaction happening.

This is what keeps your business moving. You’ll never run out of people to call on, to follow-up with, and to meet with every day. Forget about what your competitors are doing – worry about what it is you’re doing to serve your customers. This is the greatest challenge in your business: Three appointments per day, every day, to get in front of your customers. Do this consistently and the trades, the transactions – the magic – will happen.

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

Teach, Train, Test

To ensure that your people are operating at the highest standard to get conversions from the work that you do, my Growth, Leadership, and Management Tip this month is about the teach, train, test philosophy. This helps everyone understand how your business generates leads, what type of work your people do, and what they don’t do.

It comes down to playing to your strengths. Most businesses I work with generate leads through their personal network, open for inspections, past clients, and landlords. Just extracting from those leads alone changes everything that happens in your business. But those leads can produce much more than most agencies manage to get out of them.

For example, out of 3,000 visitors, one business may see come through their open for inspections in a month, 1,000 of those people own property in that area. But if they only get the residential addresses from 100 of those people it really impacts how relevant you can be to most clients in the quality of your communication with buyers who are also potential sellers.

When someone new comes into our organization, I feel it’s as important to explain what we don’t do as what we do. Letterbox drops, door knocks, and cold calls don’t make sense if you haven’t first worked with the people you already know. Really, how much time do people spend at the letterbox vs. time they spend online? Your people would generate more leads just following up on yearly check-ins with past clients.

You want to make sure your business and your people are visible wherever your customers’ eyeballs are. Teach, train, test is about making sure your team members understand your strategy and know the specifics around what it is that you do. Teach them your philosophies for generating leads, train them to use your dialogues to book appointments, and then test their proficiencies with those things. I’m a big believer in doing less, but doing whatever you do so well that it works consistently and reliably.

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

Ep 114 – Owner’s Pricing, Agent’s Pricing and Market pricing

In this High-Performance Podcast for Real Estate Agents, Josh Phegan and Alexander Phillips discuss differences in owner’s pricing, agent’s pricing and market pricing. Alex explains how he handles the hard conversation with the client in explaining those pricing variations and expectations. Josh introduces several scenarios including the competitor who challenges your price, working with client expectations that have no bearing on actual market value, and how to deal with setting a lower price on an expired offer when the client wants to maintain the original price, and how to offset the influence of an agent who is a chronic overpricer.

Alex advises using fee structure and case studies to defend your proposals and being direct when explaining owner’s pricing, agent’s pricing and market pricing. Josh covers questions he asks to determine how clients set expectations, and how he then advises them.

Assumptions Never Win

You don’t want to make that phone call because you assume that client doesn’t want to sell their house. In my Coaching Tip today I’m telling you that assumptions never win, and you don’t know what that person wants to do until you talk with them. They may actually need your help to decide what’s best for them.

A big part of your business is about understanding how to serve people by helping them make change happen. The number one influence toward change is FOMO – the Fear Of Missing Out. With the rise of social media there’s more FOMO than ever. People see others they know making exciting changes as it happens. That creates anxiety and motivation to make those changes themselves.

Use FOMO to drive that change for your customers. Before you put that signboard in a yard, call up the people you know in that market area and tell them about it. Give them that insider information and they’ll start thinking. Then when you do put up the signboard and the open for inspections start to happen, people in the neighborhood will look at their own homes differently. Discussions will happen in those households about selling and moving up to something better.

This is your opportunity to make those appraisal appointments and ask the right questions. Find their areas of dissatisfaction with the home they’re in. A great real estate agent is a master at working people into a frenzy to make change happen by helping them see what they really hate about where they are and create a compelling vision for the move upward.

If you’re hesitant to call a potential seller because you don’t think they’ll want to sell, remember assumptions never win. It’s your job as an agent to care enough about your clients to help them do what it takes to improve their quality of life for the future. Be there for them before they know they need you, identify their dissatisfactions, and offer them solutions.

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

Ep 113 – The Role of the Pre-List Kit

In this High-Performance Podcast for Real Estate Agents, Josh Phegan and Alexander Phillips talk about the role of the pre-list kit. Alex describes how this tool has evolved over the years and why it’s still relevant today. Josh advises around the power of simplicity in delivering the message, and Alex lists elements he likes to see in a pre-list kit. They discuss how to determine the ideal total read time, who should receive the kit. Alex outlines what goes into his kit, and they weigh in on digital format vs. delivering a printed kit to the customer.

Alex notes his kits are specific to the property but the same for each customer, and defines the role of the pre-list kit in the listing presentation, especially in demonstrating why you’re the agent the customer wants to hire to sell their house.