Price Quality Time Triangle

If you’re going to deliver quality service with a quick turnaround time, you have to charge the right price for that service. In my Coaching Tip today I’ll tell you why it is with price vs. quality vs. time, you will always have to sacrifice one of those three.

We’ve seen a lot of fee discounters coming into the Australian marketplace, whilst at the same time in New Zealand almost everyone charges a set 3.95% fee. They can command that fee because they understand their value.

Too many agents don’t understand that lowering their price means they also have to lower their quality or speed. You simply cannot deliver all three at the same time.

You can’t be quick, high quality, and cheap on price because you need additional people or additional resources in order to deliver high quality and speed. Those people and resources aren’t free, so you have to decide what it is you really want to do. Are you going to negotiate based on your pricing, or on the high quality of service and speed of transaction you provide?

It really comes down to the types of systems you have in place, the quality of your marketing, usability of your database, and the quality of the training base you provide for your team. Think price vs. quality vs. time, and make sure you know exactly where you’re positioning yourself. Know what it is that you deliver to the marketplace so you can be deliberate around your pricing.

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

How Your Brand Positions the Fee

If you want to be the Louis Vuitton of your market, you can’t get away with performing like a reject shop. My Coaching Tip today is all about how your brand positions the fee, and making sure you’re providing the level of service that you charge for.

The brand experience you provide to your customers determines where you can set your fee. From the marketing materials you give out at the listing presentation to the way you run the open for inspection, everything you can do to make the process easier and anticipate needs before the client even knows they have them is important.

Customers aren’t impressed when they go to a store in one location, and then have a different experience at the same store in a different location. You want your brand experience to be consistent with what you do. Consistency makes a massive difference in the way you’re perceived in the marketplace and thus where you set your fee.

You probably have competition from some fixed fee agencies that offer a cheaper price, but they’re also cutting back on quality and services. Think of how you want to be seen and make sure you’re providing a high level of service in your customer experience journey. Make sure everything you do at a marketing level sets you up for success in the customer’s’ eyes.

The touch points that determine how your brand positions the fee include basic things like proper forms, visuals, and dialogue. These create a much better experience through presenting information in a compelling way. Keeping everything simple for the customer will encourage them to make a decision in your favour.

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

Ep 94 — How to Lift People Up Inside of Your Team

In this High Performance Podcast for Real Estate Agents Josh Phegan and Alexander Phillips talk about how to lift people up inside of your team. It’s about handing over control to other people. Josh notes two key ways to do that and Alex tells how he does it with his team. Josh warns against losing trust and killing confidence by doing it wrong. Alex outlines some key skills for your people to learn for success as their career progresses, and Josh explains how to deal with objections and resistance. Alex then talks about when and how your people should learn to do a listing presentation.

Josh details specific points people need to learn, and Alex estimates how long it should take for a new agent to eventually write a million dollars. Josh wraps up with mentorship that focuses on taking time and having the patience to build a quality team.

All About Systems

The key to providing a consistent brand experience is all about systems. In today’s Coaching Tip I’ll explain the simple systems you need to identify, put in place, and teach your team so everything gets done properly.

A system is a way of doing things that produce consistent results and minimises your margin of error. With good systems in place, everyone always knows what they’re doing in the way they work. There are 4 simple systems you should be using: checklist, form, dialogue, and visual aid.

There are 2 versions of a checklist: Read and review is a general list of things to have in place before performing a task. Read and do is an ordered list of steps you actively take to accomplish that task. The order of steps can be critical so be clear about the sequence.

Some people confuse the form with the checklist, but the form is a capture tool to record important information you need, such as customer information during a market appraisal. You should use a form during your prospecting calls, and it’s helpful if there are prompts on the form to help choose the right dialogue.

Great dialogue determines whether you get the commitment, book the appointment, and generally get the customer to agree to whatever you’re proposing. Visual aids help support your dialogue and clarify your message. Visuals can include headings, brochures and case studies to make your presentation even more influential.

Thinking about what you can do to make a better form, a better checklist, a better dialogue, or a better visual aid is all about systems. Putting those systems in place and using them every day will make it easier for your customers to decide in your favour, and ultimately lead to better fees.

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

Ep 93 – What To Do In the 48hrs After the Listing Presentation

In this High Performance Podcast for Real Estate Agents Josh Phegan and Alexander Phillips talk about what you should be doing during the 48hrs after your listing presentation. Alex tells what his agency does, and how your customer is thinking about your actions post-appointment. Josh details ways to close the presentation with follow-up actions, and Alex tells how to look keen without looking desperate. Josh notes the effectiveness of assumptive close questions for progressing the client without being pushy.

Alex talks about how to handle losing the listing and still win referrals or future business, and Josh reinforces to be gracious in defeat as that is still a career-building moment.

Your Role As a Leader

Most people in leadership roles are focused on managing the change that happens to them. Your role as a leader should be to create the change you want to see. In my Growth, Leadership and Management Tip this month I’ll coach you on removing the fear inside of your organisation and building your people to confidence.

By using change leadership rather than change management you build confidence in your people through training them in the specific skills they require to get better at what they do. Perform a skill gap analysis to determine which new systems you need to put in place. Getting those systems right will change the way people operate and give them more confidence in what they’re doing.

One of the best ways I’ve found to provide guidance to my people is to meet with them one-on-one as needed to offer praise or guidance. Set up a learning development plan to teach the best ways to perform even simple procedures like how to take an offer, what to do in a multiple office scenario, how to negotiate post-auction, or how to book an appointment during an open for inspection callback. Offer them clear methodologies around asking the right questions to get the information they need.

Just telling someone that what they’re doing is wrong doesn’t help them. That approach builds fear inside of your organisation. Your role as a leader is to build confidence and clarity for your people. You do this by providing training for new skills and capabilities and helping them learn by going through processes. The more mistakes people are allowed to experience, the quicker they learn to achieve success because that’s how we all come to really understand what it is that we do.

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

Building Your Profile

Who are you? What do you do? How do you help the customer? The answers to these three questions are the foundation to building your profile. You have to make it clear to consumers why they should choose you as their agent.

There’s no better profile builder than getting signs up with sold stickers, getting listings online, and getting those properties sold. Consumers want agents who are successful in the marketplace. No amount of deals in their letterboxes is going to make that difference in the way your profile is seen. Think about what you must do to put yourself where the customer is before they need you.

To build profile inside of a particular marketplace you can use geotargeting to display your ads and video content specifically to people where they spend their personal time – through their social media. Not only can you email ads and video content to your client base, you can also SMS it, post it to YouTube, and become visible wherever they are online. Get the message right and really connect with your consumer.

Building your profile is about positioning your brand based on who you are, what you do, and how you’re going to work with the customer. You want to make yourself clearly visible and memorable in the marketplace so that people understand what it is that you do. To do this you need to be in all the positions where consumers will be looking for agents. That means getting visible on Google and YouTube by getting a Google Review and producing great video content that clearly shows consumers why they should choose you, from their point of view.

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

Ep 92 — Agent vs. Agency Marketing

In this High Performance Podcast for Real Estate Agents Josh Phegan and Alexander Phillips reveal the difference between agent vs. agency marketing. Alex makes important points around marketing property rather than yourself as an agent. Josh advises positioning yourself in the marketplace with quality, and Alex tells how to balance your focus between new clients and those you already know. Josh reminds that branding and positioning must be digitally and socially visible and relevant, and Alex talks about the importance of his community involvement.

Josh stresses consistency in marketing and positioning your brand based on quality of execution. He advises knowing where your clients hang out before they need you and living where you work as a contributing member of the community.

How to Charge What You’re Worth

The difference between a fee discounter and an agent who earns a full fee is about what you do for the customer. In this Coaching Tip, I’ll tell you how to charge what you’re worth and be worth what you charge.

It’s important that you deliver high-quality service and customer experience. It all begins with your first contact with a new customer and continues through every step they take with you thereafter. Your task is to minimise the variance in your delivery of service so they always have the same great experience with you and your agency.

You achieve consistency of service through systems built on standards that deliver the best possible customer experience. Determine the most effective questions for every process and ask each client those questions.

When you arrive for the listing presentation make sure you are fully informed of the current local marketplace, pricing, recent sales and listings, so you can help this client make their best decisions through the course of the process.

Use retargeting through social media to serve up ads and video to clients you’ve met with. Offer information on services you can provide to them and ways you can maximise their sale price if they sign on with you. Establish a clearly defined path that sets a minimum level of service for your brand experience. Determine what you’re known for in your marketplace by creating a high-quality brand based on your core values.

This is how to charge what you’re worth and be worthy of your full fee. Get clear about what you’re ready to deliver to your customers and provide them with consistently high-quality service.

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

Ep 91 — Being a Person First and an Agent Second

This High-Performance Podcast for Real Estate Agents features Josh Phegan and Alexander Phillips on being a person first and an agent second. Alex opens with a reminder that your client chooses you to work with as a person, not the agency. They’ll be looking for a hard worker with good ethics. Josh stresses the necessity for dialogue that sounds natural. Alex continues on building and maintaining the client relationship and being a trusted advisor. Josh adds the necessity of being relevant and how to use your database to achieve that, and Alex also states the need to be genuinely interested in your clients.

Josh notes that the key to great dialogue is asking better questions and offers examples. He gives examples of how making some of your private life public lends a human element, and Alex adds the importance of showing you’re a real person that clients can relate to.