Growth in Your Career

Having fun in what you do makes all the difference to growing your business. In my Coaching Tip today I want to talk to you about the importance of growth in your career so that you can become the agent you’re capable of being and charge the fees that you’re worth.

Growth is actually a really simple thing. It’s all about understanding how to measure the numbers that count. For most agents the most important number is the amount of income you earn. I’ll show you how to use that number to think about what growth looks like to you, how to figure your annual growth rate, and how often you can expect your business to double.

As your business gets bigger you’ll need to consistently improve your level of customer service. How you serve the customer directly involves thinking about your product and service mix plus the type of staff you need onboard. You simply can’t achieve significant business growth by yourself.

The way I measure my business growth is by measuring this month this year versus last month this year. I also compare this quarter with the same quarter last year, each half year, each financial year, etc. What I’m doing is tracking those numbers and then coming up with ways to get the numbers exactly where they need to be.

There’s never a year on my watch that I let my business go backwards. Every year I want it to be bigger and bolder, I want to always do more things and I serve more customers. That’s because I love what I do. There should be no difference in the way you treat growth in your career.

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

Ep 105 – Extending the Team Environment

This High-Performance Podcast for Real Estate Agents Josh Phegan and Alexander Phillips discuss extending the team environment. Alex describes the basics of team building based on what you need as a new or established agent. Josh tells how a new assistant shows you where your systems are lacking so you can improve, and suggests where and how to find new talent. They discuss recruiting the right people and looking outside the industry for people with the skills you need.

They talk about the things that make real estate a great career and taking an unconventional approach to finding the best talent for your team. Josh closes with looking at people you already know who could be the best people to hire.

The Constant Upgrade

In order to build your business right, you can’t settle for second best when you hire new talent. With this month’s Growth, Leadership and Management Tip I want you to start thinking about how to achieve the constant upgrade in quality of the people in your team.

Just like managing a sports team, you’ve got to get the best people on the ground in pivotal roles. Who are your star players right now? Who should you be looking at to sign in the next 5 years? Who’s in your development squad coming up in the ranks? And who should you be looking at to trade out?

This is not about having a revolving door around recruitment. This is about your training and development plan for growing your people into all they’re capable of becoming. It’s knowing when to give them the opportunity to play full forward and run with the ball. Have a look at every single person inside of your business and grade them as to where they belong, or whether they need to go.

In your leadership role you need to think about what you must do to realign your business and get back to having all the stars you need. Also consider whether you’re actually wasting the star talent you have by not doing anything about talent development. The constant upgrade is necessary for growing the skill base of your people and getting better people on board. And that’s a quality conversation you’ll never be done with.

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

Basic Negotiation

I see a lot of agents who don’t have a real understanding of what it takes to bring a deal together. My Coaching Tip today is all about basic negotiation, and I’m going to give you some tips that will surprise you.

It’s the simple things that make all the difference in negotiation. The most basic reality is that the buyer buys a property based on the feeling that you sell them. There’s a difference between a home that feels beautiful to live in and on that feels beautiful to buy. The customer experience you create is the first step in successful negotiation. The customer should feel like this is a simple step into a home they can live in. You want to get that feeling right.

Once the mood is set you can discuss terms. Remember there are lots of things to consider apart from just price, like the entity, the solicitor, deposit amount, settlement timeline, and conditions of the offer. You can quickly put yourself in the best position from the client’s perspective by taking care of things like pest and building inspections ahead of time. That way the process becomes easier for them.

One thing I find really effective is to have a bit of fun with the customer. You might find this to be unusual advice, but a little well-placed humor with the right customer can smooth negotiations, especially around settling the dollar amounts on offers. I’ll give you a few examples to work with in the video.

Also start to think about closing the deal in percentages rather than dollars. This is one of our favorite basic negotiation techniques because looking at percentage points bypasses any dollar amounts the client may have embedded in their mind. Give them that perspective on value so they can justify making the decision to purchase the property at that particular price.

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

Ep 104 – The Team Advantage

In this High-Performance Podcast for Real Estate Agents, Josh Phegan and Alexander Phillips talk about the difference between a lone agent vs. the team advantage. Alex lists limitations of what you can do alone, then shows the advantages of working with a team for you and your clients. Josh offers perspective by comparing agents and teams in real estate with operations in other industries. They discuss the nature of competition between the “one man band” and a team and note that team members are specialists and not just assistants.

Josh notes how each team member brings diversity and new clients with them. Alex describes how severely working without a team would limit his productivity. Josh ends on how a team helps you build better systems and a long-term sustainable business.

Marketing With Only $100

You may not realise it, but your best marketing tool is already at your fingertips. In my Coaching Tip today I’ll tell you how I would do marketing with $100 by simply getting on the phone and speaking to people.

When you think of low-budget marketing your first ideas are probably to buy ads on Facebook or Instagram, to implement a new email template, or to print out lots of letters to put into letterboxes. But really, the phone is where you’re naturally going to be your best at an influence level.

Now, I know a lot of you don’t want to jump on the phones because you think you don’t know what to do or who to call. Even after you make a phone list you don’t want to call all of the people on the list. Then you let yourself get distracted instead of making the calls. But you have to use the phone if you’re going to build a great business.

I’ve never met anyone who’s earned $1 million in fees without booking a minimum of three appointments a day. Those appointments can be market appraisals, listing appointments, or buyer appointments, but phone calls are the best way to get there.

The real challenge is to make those phone sessions count by being super relevant to the customer. That’s why I’ll demonstrate some phone scripts for you that you can use right now to get started with open for inspection call-backs, and just listed/just sold calls.

Practice these scripts and you’ll always deliver simple, clean dialogue that’s relevant to the customer today. It’s the most potent marketing for $100, or even thousands of dollars, that you can do and it’s already in your hands.

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

Ep 103 – Committed Listings Three Months Ahead

This High-Performance Podcast for Real Estate Agents features Josh Phegan and Alexander Phillips on committed listings 3 months ahead. Alex offers tips and tricks to get that early commitment from owners, and what that actually does for your business. Josh explains why you should always prospect ahead of the curve and demonstrates his dialogue for that. Alex tells what agents should be concentrating on to get that commitment from the owner.

Josh tells why you must always be looking up to 90 days ahead of the curve to avoid being needy and desperate for listings. He tells how customers get lost in your database and Alex describes how to progress the people in your pipeline into the market.

The Customer Experience

Your customer isn’t just buying a property; they’re buying an experience. In my Coaching Tip today I’m talking about the customer experience and where you want to set your standard. You can deliver a two-star experience or a six-star experience. The question is, would you rather get a two-star fee or a six-star fee?

Providing a level of experience that matters determines your position in the experience economy. A great customer experience is going to change your customer’s experience curve. This defines their expectations for a normal, above normal, or below normal experience. It’s a delicate balance and everything you do affects it. So you need to be clear on the level of service you want to deliver and maintain that standard as the normal experience for your brand.

If you believe you’re a six-star agent then you’d better deliver a six-star service. Don’t deliver a different standard than your brand is known for. If you pitch as The Reject Shop, deliver The Reject Shop. But if you pitch as a Louis Vuitton-type service, then deliver a Louis Vuitton level experience. Understand the standard you’re pitching and deliver on it.

I believe the way you leave the customer on settlement day determines whether they’ll become a future customer.

For example, some of the best agents send in a cleaner after the current owner moves out, and before the new owner moves in. They’re setting a higher experience curve by making the customer experience a lot better. This is how you rate as a six-star service and negotiate that six-star fee, because your two-star competition will only deliver a two-star experience.

Remember, it’s your role to set that customer experience journey, and that’s what will keep your customers coming back.

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

Ep 102 – What to Do When Momentum Happens

In this High-Performance Podcast for Real Estate Agents, Josh Phegan and Alexander Phillips discuss what to do when the momentum happens. First, Josh stresses that you don’t drop the prospecting and Alex notes some ways to deal with momentum as it’s happening while maintaining consistency. Josh reminds us that the momentum isn’t forever, so stay mindful of tasks, priorities, and the work that’s critically important. He also cautions not to be a hire behind. Alex elaborates on the importance of putting on the people and systems that allow you to get that scaleable growth.

Alex tells why you need a clear career path in place for your people, and Josh explores unmet needs and why they are great motivators. He tells why helping people is more important than profit and ends with making each growth spurt your new minimum.

What Is Not As Good As It Could Be?

If you have a reoccurring problem, and you don’t have a solution to it, then you’ll have more of the same recurring problem. In my Coaching Tip this week I’m asking you to look inside of your business and your life to discover what is not as good as it could be.

The systems that got you here are not the systems that will take you where you want to go. We need to look at rebuilding those systems for incremental growth. Look for opportunities for improvement and start thinking differently about what you do as an agent.

I use a system called WWW EBI. That stands for What’s Worked Well and Even Better If. First, think of what’s going well for you inside of your business. Then consider the things that, if you just did them, would make for an even better outcome. And if someone has already done what you’re planning to do you can learn from their mistakes.

That recurring problem of yours is actually an opportunity for growth. The key is to get clear about where your weaknesses are, what isn’t going right, and what’s creating friction. Identify those problems, challenge yourself around what’s worked well, move toward what would be even better if, and you’ll make that incremental progress.

Once you know these things you can give feedback to your team members to help them make improvements to the things they already do well. Defining what is not as good as it could be will allow you to drive that incremental growth. That’s what will set you apart from your competitors and take markets by storm.

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