In This Issue...
Words of a Champion
Dirk Zeller
CEO
One of the biggest challenges for agents is to objectively look at their real estate business as a business and to evaluate the investment of resources against the return on the investment.
The resources for an agent are obvious: Time, knowledge, and money. How well are you controlling them to increase the return of commission dollars earned? Are you building a business that needs all your time and energy to produce the desired results? The objective as agents should be to create a business that works for us not because of us. That is the mark of a truly exceptional business. A business that generates profits and not merely wages is a healthy business indeed.
The first step to generating profits is to adopt the mindset of a CEO. A CEO has the skill to step back and evaluate the business objectively. They see the problem areas and work toward solutions. A CEO has the ability to work on the business not in the business. An agent working “in” the business faces day-to-day challenges. These challenges include prospecting, taking listings, working on the files, and getting the deals closed. Most agents spend 100% of their time on these challenges every day. A successful CEO allocates time to work “in” the business. They develop strategies to improve efficiency. They practice the skills to be more effective. A successful CEO would work to gain knowledge of sales ratios and trends in the marketplace while looking for ways to add value to the customer base. You are all CEO’s of multimillion-dollar sales companies. If you don’t think of your business that way, you should.
Here is a question. As the owner of a multimillion-dollar sales company, would you hire yourself? Would you hire yourself as the CEO to run the company? If you would, do you need to be re-trained? Is there training or skills that are missing? What are you doing about improving them? Are you close to being fired? Should the owner fire you as CEO because of lack of skill? If you answered yes to the last question, you must act now!!
Resolve to spend at least 30 minutes of “on” time daily working on your business. Take time in the evening after work to study leadership, sales skills and success. There is no time to waste. Start your growth towards CEO today.
To Your Success,
Dirk Zeller, CEO
RealEstateChampions.com
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Behind the Scenes of Success
Most Agents hold top-producing Agents in the highest regard. A top-producing Agent is given a status that is almost God-like. Since I was put on a pedestal for many years during my sales career, let me give you an undeniable truth. Each and every one of us has a top-producing Agent inside of us trying to get out. Each person has the God-given ability to produce at a stratospheric level. Top-producers are ordinary people who happen to be doing extraordinary things. There are three components that enable top-producing Agents to excel in their business.
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They are highly organized in certain facets of their business. Organization is derived from solid systems and procedures. McDonalds’ success is not built by having the best food in town. It is built on two fundamental principles: consistency and systems. You can get a Big Mac in Los Angeles, California; Portland, Oregon; or Paris, France, and they will all be the same. The cost will be different, but the taste and quality will be the same. Why? Because the systems and procedures they use in preparation and cooking are consistent. They do the same thing over and over to prepare a Big Mac.
What if your business were able to run like that? What if, when a lead came in, the steps to process and follow-up were exactly the same each time? Could you eventually develop a business that repeated itself with the same results each time? I know you could.
In order to create a solid, repeatable business, organization is a must. Organization is derived from creating systems for every aspect of one’s business. Creating systems for leads, past clients, offers, listings, listing presentations, prospecting, escrows, and anything else that you do regularly in your business will provide true organization.
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Managing your staff. Top-producers create solid teams. They create a team of specialists at every position. The world has gone the way of specialization. Successful teams have specialists for specific functions. Look at the NFL. Forty years ago players played both offense and defense. Today we have nickel backs, designated pass rushing linemen, run stopping linemen, third down running backs, etc. Most successful teams have specialized players. Creating and managing this menagerie is the key.
The most important key to management is to hire the right people. Make sure your staff has the characteristics and qualities you desire before hiring them. If you expect a strong work ethic from your staff, then you’d better hire someone who has one. You can’t teach, train, or coach your staff into having a strong work ethic.
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Strong prioritizing skills. Most of us don’t get everything accomplished we want to everyday. We only make a dent in our task lists. Prioritizing is critical for us to move forward daily towards success. Prioritize and organize tomorrow before leaving the office today. Make sure you work to complete the high pay-off activities daily. Don’t neglect to do the things that drive your business. Skip making the flyer, and make sure you work to generate new business daily. My highest priority was generating new business daily. If I accomplished nothing else, but I did the daily requirements of generating new business, it was a great day.
To get the priorities of your staff in line with yours, have them make a task list before they leave for the day. Have them put it on your desk, so that you can reprioritize the activities. Often staff members will do priorities five, ten, and eleven before they do one, two, and three. Ensure their production by helping them prioritize. Reduce your frustration of thinking they are not getting anything accomplished by helping them do the high priorities daily.
There is no magic answer to success. There is no magic pill or marketing plan to becoming a top-producer. I realize that there will always be someone trying to sell you the magic answer. It lies in the daily disciplines of a Champion. Success lies in your organization, management, and priorities. That may not be as exciting as looking for the magic answer, but it happens to be the truth. Remember the truth will always set you free.
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Believe in Your Value - Attitude and Expectations
When we give up commission, we end up working harder for less money. Your clients and prospects respect you less. They feel in greater control of the relationship and the transaction. They will usually start to take greater advantage of that control and extract more from you. It’s like the old saying: “Give them an inch, and they take a mile.”
There have been hundreds, even thousands, of studies done over the years about buying trends. In all of these surveys, when people decide on a product or service, the price of the product usually comes in as the 5th or 6th most important factor in their decision. We often treat the price as the #1 factor, not the 5th.
I know what some of you are thinking. Some of you are tapped into the theory of self-exclusion. The theory of self-exclusion says that your marketplace, your competition, your services, and your customers are so different that a full commission arrangement could never happen. That simply is not true. Even in high priced marketplaces, agents are getting full fees.
Believe in your value – attitude and expectations
“Your career success hinges on your conviction and belief of your personal value.”
~Dirk Zeller
You must have the attitude that “I am worth more than the competition . . . ask me why!”
There are two key words that lead to success in life. These words control the successful outcome of your business, marriage, and many other areas of life. Although you may have incredible talent and skill in life, you will fail if you do not master these two words, and vice versa. Even if you have only limited talent and skill, you will win if you live by these two words. These two words determine your future. The two key words are attitude and expectation.
If you have a positive, forward-looking attitude, you will accomplish great things. How is your attitude? Does it need improvement? Are you positive and upbeat? If you have the attitude that every challenge or obstacle leads to new opportunity, success is all but guaranteed. Thomas Edison was said to have worked on creating the electric light bulb because darkness interfered with his ability to conduct further experiments. He wanted to be able to work long into the night. Edison could have moaned about the darkness – though that would not have done any good. He used his attitude and solved a problem of darkness. There are thousands of examples in life of how some people took lemons and, with a great attitude, made lemonade.
Start building your attitude today. Convince yourself that you are the best Agent anyone could hire. You have to be convinced yourself before anyone else will be convinced. The attitude you bring when faced with commission objections will help you handle them and get the contract signed. The attitude that you take when you have a problem transaction will make the difference between a closing and a deal falling out.
The second power word is expectation. If you don’t expect to win, you will not win. If you don’t expect to secure a contract with a certain commission rate, you won’t. Henry Ford said, “If you think you can or think you can’t, either way you are right.” If you go on a listing and expect to take it at your price and commission, you will. If you go expecting a fight on commission and your price, you will receive that also. Make sure to set the positive expectation of success before the appointment with a prospect or client. You also need to set a positive expectation before every call you make. Expectation is the gateway to confidence. The first step to having unshakeable confidence is to believe that you are the Agent for the job; that you are a Champion Agent. If your expectation is strong enough, people will come around to your way of thinking. You just need to be stronger in will and mental focus than your clients, prospects, and other Agents are. A perfect example is Henry Ford.
Many years ago, Ford went to his engineers and told them to build him an eight-cylinder engine. They said it could not be done. Ford plainly told them to go do it and report back in 90 days. When the 90 days were done, they reported back to Ford. They had spent the whole 90 days figuring out why an eight-cylinder engine was impossible. In the meeting with Ford, they spent their time trying to convince him it could not be done; an eight-cylinder engine was impossible and could never be created. Ford’s attitude and expectation of an eight-cylinder engine was stronger than the engineers’ attitude and expectation that it could not be done. We all know who won in the end.
Your expectation will create your reality. You have to expect before you can receive. You need to expect the people and situations that will enable you to create the future you desire. Expectation does not mean you don’t have to work. You will work harder than before to develop the outcome you desire. The expectation takes away the fear of failure.
Set your attitude to positive. Look for the opportunities in every situation. Expect to win…every time.
Vince Lombardi had a famous saying:
“Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all time thing. You don’t have to win once in awhile, you don’t do things right once in awhile, you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit; unfortunately, so is losing.”
Lombardi had the right attitude and the right expectations. He believed they would win…every time. Lombardi would believe that he could take the listing at full commission, as well.
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The Final Quarter - 2010
The final quarter for 2010 is coming up. You have an opportunity now to push hard and lean into the tape at the finish line. If you are 10% behind on your goal, through hard work you can make that up. You still have the opportunity to finish where you desire.
The true function of the last quarter should be to start preparing for 2011. To achieve success in 2011 you need to learn from 2010, and then invest that knowledge in 2011. Most Agents’ lack of success, or achievement of success, is directly relational to the plan they created and carried out throughout the year. Probably most of them do not have a plan, or the plan lacks specificity and power to transport them to supreme success. I am coaching some of the most productive Agents in North America. Many, at the start of coaching, lack the vision or the plan in their life. They are extremely successful, but they could double their business by creating clarity in their lives. You can do it too.
You need to resolve today to focus over the next 60 days to create a clear vision for the future. You need to resolve to make 2011 the best year of your life. You must decide to make plans, set goals, and take action, so you can achieve more in 2011 than ever before. Truly successful people have specific goals and a clear plan to achieve them, which they work on everyday. You need to create a systematic method for setting and achieving goals to be able to accomplish goals at a higher rate.
When planning for the next year you need to create a vision of what it will look like. You need to look at December 31, 2011 and determine where you want to be. You need to visualize gross commissions earned, number of listings sold, buyer-controlled sales numbers, expenses to run the business, and net operating profit. You should also determine the new ideas or systems you want implemented during the course of the year. You might evaluate your current staff or decide if you need to add staff. You should decide how much money you want to have saved by December 31, 2011. Look at it as, “If everything happens perfectly, what will it look like?”
Once you have a clear written vision on these things, you have completed step one. The crucial part is to create the vision and write it down. Studies have shown that there is a direct correlation between writing something down, especially vision and goals, and entering it in the subconscious mind. Napoleon Hill said, “What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” When you write your goals down, your subconscious mind stores the information in belief form and works diligently to create the reality of your goals.
If you wish to become a peak performer, you must project your vision forward to the future. You must see what the future looks and feels like, as if you were standing there right now. From your viewpoint in the future, look back to where you are currently. You will be able to see a series of steps that you need to take to move from where you are to where you want to be. When you create and follow this road map, you will have become a peak performer.
In order to create a vision that develops into a plan, you will need to practice and work at it. Your first attempts will take more time, and maybe a few more turns in your route, up the mountain of success. Your speed and focus will increase as you diligently work everyday on your vision and your life. Increasing the speed and focus makes the difference between traveling up the mountain on a yak or in a Hummer. They both will get you there. The big difference is the comfort, ride, and speed to the top. You may be on the yak awhile at first, but you are still making measurable progress up the mountain. The view a quarter, one-third, or half way up is better than the view from the valley floor below.
Successful people create a vision for 2011 and also a vision for the next few years beyond that date. They create a vision for their entire life span. If you wish to join them, you must focus long-term. You will have to create the vision of the future. Then have the ability to create and do the daily activities that drive you to your vision. You must concentrate and focus single-mindedly on the most important tasks of your present day, knowing how they integrate into the long-term picture.
Japanese electronics companies entered into the television manufacturing industry twenty-five to thirty-five years ago. They had a vision to control and dominate the electronic manufacturing arena and market segment. At the time, American-made televisions were dominating the marketplace. The Japanese realized they would lose tremendous amounts of money for a few years to create their long-term vision of dominance. They have succeeded in their vision because most of the American manufacturers are now out of business. The American manufacturers that are left have no market penetration. The Japanese kept their eye on the long-term vision and succeeded in dominating the marketplace.
You need to determine what you want to earn, then how you are going to earn it: from buyers or sellers. You need to know where, specifically, the money is coming from: referrals, open houses, cold calls, expireds, or FSBO’s. You need to know the percentages of where your business is coming from and number of deals. Here is an example:
Type |
Number of Deals |
Percentage of Business |
Referrals |
14 |
56% |
Open Houses |
7 |
28% |
Expireds |
4 |
16% |
|
|
|
Totals: |
25 |
100% |
You must be able to create a formula to use and then break it down monthly and weekly to the tasks you must accomplish in that time frame. You can then control your business, rather than your business controlling you.
You can have anything you want in life as long as you plan for it. You must, however, create a plan based on your vision and work it back to the daily disciplines you must do in order to achieve the plan. When you follow these steps you will be one of the peak performers.
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