In This Issue...

• Opportunity Time! - Get Out Of Bed & Answer It
• Which Does Better? - Listing or Buyer's Agent
• The Most Profitable, Inexpensive Way - Grow Your Real Estate Business

Opportunity Time! - Get Out Of Bed & Answer It

We are coaching Agents across North America and are starting to see a slowing of the market.  I think that, with the rising interest rates and stock market volatility, we are seeing a change.  This is normal in most real estate markets.  This is opportunity time!!!  As my friend Zig Ziglar says, “The opportunity clock is ringing . . . get out of bed and answer it!!” 

Most markets will fluctuate or wax and wane over time.  The upward turns are great if you have listing inventory going in, but you have to be prepared.  In a strong market, you will get a flurry of activity on the listings sold side of your business.  You will also get more sign and ad calls because of the increased buyer activity.  The key is going into the spurt with inventory to sell.  That's why the here and now is critical.  There will be another spurt in your market.  If you prepare by working to get your inventory up in the meantime, you will set yourself up for wonderful growth in your business. 

Here are a few steps to implement to increase your inventory.

• Call all your listing leads in the next few weeks, even if they are long-term leads.  Inform them of the market trends.  Share with them the advantage they will have by already being listed when the next spurt comes.  Then close for an appointment.  Even if you do not get an appointment, you are providing value to this client.

• Call all your past clients and ask for referrals.  Don't give them the standard REALTOR® line of "Who do you know that is...”.  Focus on them and a specific area of their life.  Ask them about their neighbors, people at work in their department, people at church, or Bobby's T-ball team.  Don't be like the retail clerk who says, “May I help you?”  That's exactly what we are doing when we give them the “Who do you know” line.  You will get the same reflex that clerk gets, “No thank you; I’m just looking.”

To your Success,

Dirk Zeller
CEO
Real Estate Champions, Inc

P.S. For more help with listings & seller prospects, click here.

Which Does Better? - Listing or Buyer's Agent

When we analyze an Agent’s business, we have to look at the break down of their listing transactions versus buyer transactions.  Better than 90% of Agents do far more on the buyer side of the business than the listing side. Once we understand and accept that fact, the question is why.

I have met few Agents who wouldn’t like to dramatically increase their inventory of listings.  Most Agents really want to close more business on the listings side.  When you compare the listing side versus the buyer side, a couple of questions come to mind.  Which one is really tougher?  Is it easier to find a listing prospect or a buyer prospect?

For me the choice is obvious.  It is far more challenging to find a listing prospect than a buyer prospect.  Buyer prospects are relatively easy to find.  That is why most Agents work with more buyers than sellers.  They often take the leads that are presented to them, and what are presented at a higher rate are buyers.

Who makes the most money in your marketplace:  a great listing Agent or a great buyer’s Agent?  Who has more time off with their family?  I know that the answer in both cases, when done well, is the listing Agent. 

In the final analysis, it’s harder to become a great listing Agent because it takes more skill.  There are, in fact, a series of skills that must be mastered or perfected to become a great listing Agent.

1. Discipline:

To be a great listing Agent takes more discipline.  Nothing of consequence is ever accomplished without first developing and mastering the skill of discipline.  Too many Agents view discipline in a negative mindset.  Discipline is really a positive skill and attribute.

Webster’s defines discipline in a number of ways, but here are a few of my favorites:  “an activity, exercise, or regimen that develops or improves skill”, “behavior in accord with rules of conduct”, “to bring to a state of order and obedience by training and control”.  All of these describe discipline as a behavior, act of will, or action.  That is exactly what discipline is in sales.

To be successful as a listing Agent, we must be more disciplined in our prospecting, lead follow-up, sales process, and sales skills.  There will be many days that you won’t feel like doing what is necessary to create the listings you want.  It will be easier to give yourself a pass for the day.  Discipline is the mindset and skill that will not allow that to happen.

2. Mastery of Scripts and Dialogues:

Being able to deliver compelling arguments and reasons for a prospect’s need to meet with you or list with you separates the marginal performers from the Champion Performers.  You must know what to say exactly in all situations.  You also need to have the correct delivery, pauses, inflections in your voice, and persistence.

When your skills are at the Champion level, it will increase your focus.  It will increase your intensity in the moment of competition.  Mastery skills will lead you to better preparation and, ultimately, a better attitude.  With a stronger attitude of your expected success, you will be more prepared to weather the rejection that will come your way.

3. Control of Your Schedule:

Maintaining your pre-determined schedule leads to more business.  The prospecting and lead follow-up segment of your business is challenging enough for most Agents.  The vast majority of Agents are trying to work those activities somewhere in their schedule only to find that, at the end of the day, they haven’t completed them; and now they are too tired to do them regularly.  The only way to consistently secure listings is to prospect consistently.  The only way prospecting can be done consistently is through time management and effective scheduling.  There is no other way, so stop trying to find it or invent it.

4. Hard Work:

I will be the first to clearly state that becoming a great listing Agent is harder work than going along with your buyer business.  I have never been one to suggest that the easy path is the right path. Too often, we select the easy path hoping we can avoid the harder trails of success.  You will know you are on the road to success when things become more difficult.  The road to success is uphill, not down hill.  Beware of the men trying to sell you the road to success he has found that is down hill all the way.

Too often, we don’t use that little voice inside us that says, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true.”  Expect to work harder to become a great listing Agent than a buyer’s Agent.  The real question is is it worth the effort? 

As an Agent who ran his business both ways, I will say there is no question that being a great listing Agent is worth all the investment of time, effort, energy, practice, and skill development.

In the end, the time to change is now.  What is your first step?  What do you need to do now?  How are you going to attack this problem?  Focus on the areas that really matter: your discipline, sales skills, schedule, and hard work.  Put forth the effort for 90 days.  You will be amazed at the fruit you will produce.

For more information on listing presentations... Click Here

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The Most Profitable, Inexpensive Way - Grow Your Real Estate Business

Prospecting seems to be almost a dirty word in the real estate sales arena, but prospecting is an integral part of the sales process.  Before a sale can be made, some type of prospecting must be done.  Realistic Agents know that there is no way to avoid the necessity of prospecting; successful Agents wouldn’t avoid it if they could.  Prospecting is not only essential; it is one of the most profitable, inexpensive ways to increase your business, and there are many different ways to go about it.  Prospecting doesn’t always have to be done over the phone or in person.  It doesn’t have to be cold calling, expireds, FSBOs, or knocking on doors.  But I have found no path to success in sales that doesn’t involve some form of prospecting.

I have seen everything available to Agents today, and I know that there are a lot of speakers and trainers trying to sell the “magic system” that will be prospecting-free.  Unfortunately, there is no “magic system” – no place on earth where success in sales precedes the work of prospecting.  There is an old saying:  “The only place where success is found before work is in the dictionary.”  Zig Ziglar said, “Life is like a cafeteria line – first you pay, then you get to eat.”  Zig is exactly right.  We all have to pay the price of hard work before we receive the reward.  Any one of us who assumes that we get to enjoy the cafeteria line of life without payment is mistaken.  To think that there can be selling without prospecting is pure folly.

The good news is that prospecting (although it is hard work) does not have to be a nightmare . . . even for Agents who have struggled with it in the past. There are ways to improve your success in prospecting.  The secret is to find the techniques and systems that work best for you.  There are more and less confrontational ways to prospect; some methods require a higher tolerance for rejection than others.  Not everyone should pick up the phone and call expireds or FSBOs, but we should all be calling and training our past clients to work for us in generating new business.  We should all prospect our past clients (with whom we already have positive relationships) for friends, neighbors, and co-workers that we can help. 

Just as you have to train yourself to put the necessary time and effort into prospecting, you must train your past clients in order to generate referrals from them.  Sending out mailers monthly will put you in front of your past clients; only clients who are thinking of you can send other business to you.  To really drive referrals your way, pick up the phone and call your past clients.  Maintain your relationship with people you have helped, and tell them where to look for more people you can help. Focus them in on one of the spheres of people they know.  You can’t give them the whole world as search parameters; they will be overwhelmed and unable to think of anyone in particular.  Instead, zero them in on one area, such as their church, their neighbors, their family, their co-workers, their friends, or their kids’ soccer teams.  When you do this, they will actually think of people instead of saying, “I don’t know of anyone.”  Over time, you can train your past clients to keep their antennae up for you and your services.

Working with your past clients is one method of prospecting that does not require nerves of steel.  But, like any method, it does require the discipline to do it and do it regularly; and a new discipline, in turn, requires motivation.  Agents sometimes don’t prospect even past clients because they don’t see how the time spent prospecting will pay off for their businesses.  The perceived pain of prospecting then becomes far greater than its rewards.  Since they cannot see the benefit, they think, why even attempt the perceived pain?  This is the same reason the American public is overweight and eats a high-fat diet.  Most people see little benefit at 30, 40, even 50 to eating right and exercising regularly.  Unfortunately, in their late 50s and early 60s, they pay the price for their lack of self-control.  People need to see the benefit in order to be motivated to make the change.

The biggest benefit an Agent receives from prospecting is the ability to select the client.  If an Agent prospects enough, he can qualify – or rather, disqualify – the marginal client.  The marginal clients for me were always the ones who: weren’t interested enough; wanted too much attention; would never be satisfied; were unrealistic about themselves, their homes, the value of their homes, or what my job was; saw no value in a REALTOR®; or thought they knew more than I did about sales.  I found that it was not in anyone’s best interest for me to try to work with these clients.  These types of people were automatically excluded from my life and business.  My staff also didn’t have to deal with these people, which was a blessing for them.  I could exclude them because I was able to choose from many better clients through extensive prospecting.

Now I want to be perfectly clear: The fact that I excluded these people did not mean that they were bad people.  It just meant that I couldn’t help them without dramatically compromising my philosophy.  When you prospect with regularity and produce enough leads to disqualify people, you can focus on those whom you can help and be true to your other clients and your belief system.

For more information on listing presentations... Click Here

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