Effort Is Not the Same as Impact

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You’ve got some great people inside of your business right now who are putting in a lot of effort but getting nowhere with their careers. In my Growth, Leadership, and Management tip this month I’ll help you see how effort is not the same as impact, and help you coach, mentor, inspire, and lead more effectively.

There are a lot of things you can do in real estate, but knowing which efforts you actually should make requires that you understand where and how you create impact. I like to work with each agent to trace and identify their success points and major lead sources. Those can include open for inspections, past market appraisals, past clients, or existing landlords. Once you know where you’re creating the greatest impact you can align your efforts to be there.

Help your agents to feel really confident around their phone skills. You want every call they make to contribute to an overall result of booking at least three appointments every day. Focusing on that goal will radically shift their careers and change everything that goes on inside of your business.

As a leader you need to see that effort is not the same as impact. Then you can clearly identify areas to strengthen, tasks to stop doing, and key numbers to watch as you help your employees grow their careers.

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

Ep 88 — Improving Your Knowledge as an Agent

This High-Performance Podcast for Real Estate Agents features Josh Phegan and Alexander Phillips on improving your knowledge as an agent. It’s important to know the reasons a buyer is buying a property, and Alexander begins with why that’s important to making the sale. Josh continues with insights on evaluating property values, the depreciation factor, yield/rental return, and capital growth. Alexander explains how those considerations affect buyer decisions, especially for investment properties. They also discuss handling renovation properties.

They continue around types of buyers they’re seeing in the marketplace currently and what their advantages are. They also discuss what makes a property attractive, and list attributes those specific buyers are most likely to be willing to pay more for.

Why most Assistants fail

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Putting on a new person is a real test of your existing business systems, processes and skill sets. Today my Coaching Tip will show you how to grow people who can help you scale your business for the next 10, 15 or 20 years.

As soon as you put someone on you must teach them the core skills you need them to have. To do that you need a career development plan based on what those skills actually are. Start by writing down the 10 key skills required for an assistant to come into your team. Things like file preparation, open for inspection processes, vendor communication, and running a photography session.

Put those skills in the right order to start making the new hire useful right away. Schedule 15-minute training sessions for every day of every week until training is complete. Then each Friday assess their progress on the skill for that week, give them some appropriate feedback, and either deem them fully competent around that skill and move on to the next skill set, or give them areas to improve on for the next week.

Evaluating skill sets you require is an ongoing process. If you really want to be a much better agent you’ll regularly review the systematisation of your business and think of ways you can significantly increase the skill base of all the individuals within it, including you. Now you’re becoming consciously competent about checklists and forms that you need, systems you want everyone to follow, and a structured learning program for the people working inside of your business.

It’s up to you to decide what type of agent you want to become and what type of business you want to lead. If you’re going to be an agent for 10, 15 or 20 years you’re going to train 5, 10 or 15 assistants over the life of your career. The sooner you learn how to grow people, the sooner you can increase profitability, ease off of the stress, and ensure all of your people are productive members of your team.

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

Ep 87 — Call Reluctance and Procrastination

In this High-Performance Podcast for Real Estate Agents, Josh Phegan and Alexander Phillips talk about overcoming call reluctance and procrastination. Alexander notes some reasons it happens and tells how he avoids it. Josh cites the effectiveness of starting the morning with intensity and clarity, and Alexander offers tips on getting the first few calls out at the start of the day. Josh notes the most important measurement is your number of appointments and gives tips on dialogue and delivery. They discuss high energy maintenance and Josh tells how to make and use a high-quality hit list.

Alexander stresses having a structure and process to create your lists. They discuss the role of your assistant in helping you stay on task, and Josh tells how to calculate all your numbers and use your database to build your call lists.

Working your Pipeline

Mastering your pipeline will make a massive difference in your business growth. My Coaching Tip today is all about building and working a pipeline, and how your resulting campaigns will make you a better agent.

Agents who are actually successful always know a good number of qualified clients who are coming to the market. They’re building a good quality pipeline by knowing and working their best lead sources like open for inspections, past market appraisals, past clients, and landlords.

First, identify which of your leads will be selling and when. The best way to do this is to maintain a fit, functional database with searchable categories. If you prefer a manual system you could make a wall calendar with movable sticky notes. However, you do it the point is to have the best system possible so you’ll know your potential sellers, know where they are in relation to the market, and be ready to bring them into the market when they’re ready.

You’ll work your pipeline through marketing campaigns. To be truly successful you need to run more than one campaign at a time. For example, every time you list a property search your database for all the people who own a similar property. Call those people, invite them to the open home, send them a just listed letter and a brochure, and schedule an SMS reminder for them. Then follow up and show them how the sale result affects the value of their home. The goal is to book an appointment with them, but either way, you’ll send them a summary letter.

Most agents fail to follow through. They don’t remember who their clients or leads are, they don’t make the phone calls, and they don’t have just listed and just sold campaigns running concurrently. These are the crucial steps to building and working your pipeline to really put yourself ahead.

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

Ep 86 — Procrastination and Distractions

This High-Performance Podcast for Real Estate Agents features Josh Phegan and Alexander Phillips on procrastination and distractions, and how to stop technology from pulling you away from the game and work for you like it should. Alexander lists some common distractions and tells how they affect your productivity. Josh demonstrates why you should remove social media icons and silence notifications on your phone. Alexander outlines activities you should focus on to increase productivity, and Josh reinforces the necessity to stay in the moment.

When the goal is clear there are no distractions. Josh stresses that you must be clear on your goals, and Alexander tells why you should start with small goals and build up over time as you gain confidence. Is what you’re doing today taking you where you want to go?

Being Present

It’s critically important in building a great business to stay focused on the critical work you need to do. My Coaching Tip today is about being present. I’ll tell you how to remove distractions and stop procrastinating so you can make every minute of your workday count.

Being present means being in the moment, but that’s become hard to do with social media and phone notifications taking your attention away from the work at hand. The best agents have rid themselves of all their distractions and procrastination, and have learned to focus in short, sharp sessions that’s make a massive difference to the way they work.

One of the first things you can do is turn off all the notifications on your phone. The only notifications you should keep are your SMS and calendar prompts so that you get on the phone, do the calls and get in front of clients. It’s all about taking those actions that will substantially build your business.

Procrastination and distraction happen when you’re not confident about the work you’re doing and don’t have clarity on your goals.

Every minute you spend that’s not with an A grade customer is a minute you don’t get to spend doing other things in life that you want to do. Get rid of the things that aren’t helping you get where you want to go, and focus on things that get the results that pay.

One of the best ways to improve your focus is to work inside of 45-minute sessions. Use the timer you get with your Josh Phegan Membership. Then you can easily measure the number of calls, the number of connections, and also the number of appointments that you’re booking. You can also clear all of your email, get your filing done, or any other task in short sessions. Being present is key to doing one task at a time and doing it well the first time.

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

Ep 85 – Employee Mindset vs. Owner Mindset

In this High-Performance Podcast for Real Estate Agents, Josh Phegan and Alexander Phillips explain the difference between the employee mindset and the owner mindset and how your thinking affects your drive to succeed. Alexander talks about your vision for the kind of structure and culture you want your agency to have. Josh notes ways employees and owners visualise success, and how a commitment to becoming an agent long-term changes the way you think. Alexander reinforces the need for long-term thinking and willingness to learn.

They discuss details of employee thinking as self-based vs. owner thinking, which focuses on success for the agency as a whole. Josh ends on going all in on your agency’s systems and procedures, building relationships, and avoiding individual power pyramids.

Vendor Work and Reporting

As your vendor’s agent, your job is to take control, help them make the right decisions and get their properties sold. In my Coaching Tip today I’m talking about the vendor work and vendor reporting that will help you get the best results for your owners.

Understand that this is probably the first time your vendor has been on market for some time. This may even be the first time they’ve sold a property. Your simple, reliable communication and recommendations will make a massive difference with them during the offer and acceptance process. You’ll set expectations during the listing presentation, but you must be willing to go back in to reposition the property if necessary.

Advise and educate your clients around current properties on the market, sale prices and buyer expectations. Advocate for the best method of sale to maximise the sale price for your client, whether auction, for sale or off-market. Speak to every single one of your owners every business day. Avoid long days on market by positioning properties to be seen as the best value in their price range. And don’t lose enthusiasm or make excuses if it doesn’t sell quickly. Your client needs you to really work with them – stay present and consistent with communication and advice.

I can’t stress enough the importance of good quality vendor work and vendor reporting. What’s really important is that you’re clear about your specific recommendations for marketing, sale method, pricing, timing, and approach to working with buyers. Be firm in getting them to make a decision when it has to be done in order to get their properties sold.

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

Opportunity Gaps

If you’re really honest about the status of your business you’re going to see room for improvement. Today my Growth, Leadership and Management tip is about finding your opportunity gaps and planning to grow past them.

The most fundamental area of growth that too many businesses overlook is around recruitment. Just like a sports team, you must always be bringing in fresh talent. Every year that your company grows you must evaluate team members, renew contracts or trade players, and keep upgrading the quality of your talent.

Recruitment also prevents stagnation. You may have the perfect team today, but the profile changes as people retire or look to move on. Often an owner simply loses the drive to continue building their team.

Do you have the right people in the right roles to meet current changing conditions? Are you transitioning those roles, adding new ones, and remaining adaptive to those changes? Does your administration allow a smooth, efficient process for doing business?

It’s easy to get so focused on listings and sales that we become tactically excellent but strategically negligent. It’s critical to find your opportunity gaps and plan for growth if you’re going to build a great business. Just address 3 things every 90 days and you’ll have 12 projects nailed for the year to rapidly reshape your business and increase your earning capability.

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