In This Issue...

• Words From the President
• Business Clarity - Get Some!!!
• Determining When Prospects Become Clients - Qualification

Words From the President

Thanks for joining me today on the journey toward your success as a Real Estate Agent.

Before we enter into the "Golden Nuggets of Real Estate Wisdom" (as one of my readers called them last week), I'd like to ask a favor of you.

It's not a personal favor you have to do for me. I'd like you to do me favor but actually do it for yourself (if that makes sense).

Take the next minute of your life and celebrate victory. Celebrate & give thanks for a victory that you've had in your life this week. Any victory will do.

Did you close a tough deal this week? Did you get a listing on the books? Did you commit to exercising again and made it to the gym? Any victory, business or personal, will do... just pick one.

Now take a deep breath, close your eyes, and allow yourself to enjoy this victory. Think about all that it took for you to accomplish this victory and the joy you are feeling right now because you did it. Enjoy this celebration for a minute or two...

I'd like you to try to remember to celebrate your personal victories along your way through life. We all (me included) forget to, and it could be a detriment to our lives.

Trust me on this, as I'm reading this with you this morning, I am also celebrating a recent victory (the release of my new book) with you.

To your enjoyment of your personal victories,

Dirk Zeller
CEO
Real Estate Champions, Inc

P.S. For more information on my new book, the one with all my advanced tactics, click here.

Business Clarity - Get Some!!!

One of the most difficult tasks in life is defining your purpose.  The pay off of clarity of purpose is enormous.  In working with some of the top Agents across North America, I have found that clarity is a big concern.  There is a direct correlation between clarity of purpose and success.  The more clarity you have in your business, the more profit you will make, and the time spent in business mode will be reduced.  The people with clarity achieve more with less time worked.

The most successful people spend time thinking, evaluating, and re-evaluating their progress.  You need to spend a minimum of half an hour planning and evaluating daily.  Agents should evaluate where their business is coming from and the trends in their market.  Why not know the trends in the market, so your labor will be fruitful?

Far too often, I see the market adjusting, and Agents not adjusting with it.  If the high end is not selling, why list lots of homes in the high end?  Always move the bulk of your listing to where the market is most active.  This will provide you an opportunity to move the product quickly and effectively with little time, money, and energy invested.  You want to have inventory in all price ranges and all areas, but you want the bulk of your inventory in the hot selling pocket.  Having inventory in all price ranges enables you to track the market better and react quickly to changes.  You do not want too many listings in a market segment that is not moving.  Spending time planning and evaluating is critical to success and growth in this industry.

To create clarity in your business of real estate sales, you need to determine your area of competitive advantage or expertise.  Is it buyers or sellers?  Is it expireds, FSBO’s, investment property, or new construction?  What is your area of excellence? If you do not have an area of excellence, I would suggest you work on one or two areas in real estate that you enjoy.  You need an area or two that you do better than most of your competitors.  You need to develop something that will differentiate you from the competition.

Once you have decided, you need to determine the one or two skills that will translate into success in that particular discipline.  As an example, in my career I worked expireds very heavily.  I did 60% to 70% of my business from expireds.  The areas of discipline I needed for success in expireds were a strong command of scripts and dialogues (sales skills) and solid evaluating and qualifying skills.  These sales skills enabled me to set a few appointments daily with people who needed my services.  The evaluating and qualifying allowed me to cancel the unmotivated, overpriced, and overly confrontational people before I invested the time to do a presentation with them.  What are the skills you need to achieve massive success in real estate?  Once you identify them, dedicate yourself daily to becoming highly skilled in those areas.  Set specific goals to improve those disciplines.

When you are in your daily planning block, you need to evaluate your skills and determine where you can improve.  If you have a staff, evaluate them.  What are the skills they need for you to increase your business by 20%?  Sometimes the difference in how we handle and coach our staff can increase our business dramatically.  Clearly define their roles, so you both know how they are going to help you achieve success.  Too often, we throw them into the firestorm without clear direction and the guidance to improve and prosper.

One of the most crucial functions of the planning time is future forecasting.  Spend time viewing the future of your life and your business.  In my coaching sessions with clients, we spend a lot of time initially looking down the road three to five years.  Most of my clients had never looked further than this year, if at all, prior to working with Real Estate Champions.  It is hard to achieve clarity when you first view things on a daily, weekly, or even yearly basis.  You have to view long term then work backwards.  You must work to craft the vision for your life and your business.

It is critical to decide what your business or life will look like in the future.  If you do not make that decision, you are just making it up as you go along.  Success does not follow people who make it up as they go.  Success looks at your long-term plan.  Then it says, “That looks good; I will follow you.”

For more information on how to get the listing on the 1^st appointment... Click Here

"Getting the Listing on
the First Appointment"

Tele-Seminar -


Thursday, November 30^th
10:00am PT • 11:00am MT • 12:00noon CT • 1:00pm ET

Run Time: 90 min, including LIVE Q&A with Dirk Zeller

Seating is limited to only 250. Reserve your place NOW while we still have room.

“We are already putting into action a number of the ideas we learned from the seminar. In my three years in the upper-end real estate industry, my sales have doubled each year.

Last year, my transactions totaled $13 mil. Utilizing Dirk's system, we anticipate (and are counting on!) an increase of at least 50% this year over last year.

Thank you in advance for your part in our success!”

– Elaine Bierstock, Lyon Real Estate, Sacramento, CA


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Determining When Prospects Become Clients - Qualification

How do you determine whether a prospect should become a client?  What are the criteria of becoming a client?  Have you created a series of questions to help you minimize the time invested, to determine if a prospect will meet your standard?

You need to create a systemized approach to determine if a prospect measures up to your specific criteria.  This approach needs to be applied each and every time you come in contact with a prospect.  I believe it doesn’t matter where the prospect comes from; he needs to be evaluated based on a standard.  Even if the prospect is a referral from a “Raving Fan”, he still needs to meet the standard.  If the prospect does not meet the standard, I would encourage you to gracefully decline the potential business.

There are eight questions that I used during my career in real estate to determine if a client would meet my standards.  I will go through each question and explain why this question was important in making the decision of who to have as a client and who to pass on.

• When is this prospect going to buy or sell?  When is the prospect ready to move?  The further out the move date, the lower the motivation of the prospect.  You will have to follow-up more with the prospect, and you will have to invest more time to achieve a sale, if the moving date is far in the future.  It is difficult to make a decent income chasing prospects that may buy or sell in the distant future.

• Does the prospect have the ability to buy?  Does the prospect have the cash down payment and is he able to be approved for financing?  There are many Agents who show property to prospects for a week or two, only to find out they cannot buy.  My suggestion is to find out if they are able to buy a home, before you even put them in your car.  Require them to meet with your lender, or provide proof of being pre-approved from another lender, before you invest your time, effort, and energy in the prospects.

• Does the client have reasonable expectations?  This question is two-fold.  Is the “wish list” of what the client thinks he can afford, and what he can actually afford, the same?  Often buyers are not in the real world in regards to what they can afford to purchase.  If you are chasing a prospect that is not in reality, you are truly wasting your time.  In this situation you are going to either be the bad guy by telling him what he can really afford, or the client dumps you because you do not believe in his crusade.  Either way, it is a difficult road to success and eventually leads to no commission.

The second part of this question is directed to the clients who try to beat the market.  I always tried to avoid the seller who wanted more than fair market value for his property, and the buyer who wanted to steal the property.  They both can be wastes of time for Agents.  The odds are heavily weighted against this buyer and seller. You often will invest a tremendous amount of additional time to earn the same income.  Not to mention, that often these people have the desire for an “I win - you lose” type of transaction.  In my experience, those are the least enjoyable transactions to enter into, when one of the parties is only concerned about himself winning.

• Does this prospect respect my time and me?  Our time is our most precious commodity.  Once it is gone we do not get it back.  A prospect that does not value your time, by not keeping appointments and by showing up late, is clearly telling you that he does not value your service, or your time.

Often buyers and sellers will try to tell Agents what to do and how to do their jobs.  They need to understand they are paying for your knowledge, advice, and professionalism.  When they do not take your guidance, you need to decide if you want to continue to work with them.  In my career, I chose not to do business with people who disregarded my guidance.  If you acquiesce during the listing agreement period, once the listing expires you will still wear the black hat.  The seller will still talk disparagingly about you and your service.  How many times has this happened to all of us?  I truly believe, if you are a professional REALTOR®, your clients should regard your guidance, as they do that of their doctor, attorney, or accountant.  I would not question my attorney or accountant’s guidance.  It is rather presumptuous for me to think I know more than they do in their area of expertise.  My best advice to Agents is to run away from this type of prospect quickly!

• Am I being asked to compromise morally, or ethically, from my beliefs to make a sale?  If we have to deviate from our business philosophy, we need to reevaluate this business relationship.  Being able to stand tall and live with your decisions is better than any sale you might make.  If a prospect requests you do something that would fall into a gray area, you should carefully evaluate it.  What if the deal blows up, or the gray turns pitch black?  Remember most buyers and sellers will immediately point the finger towards the Agents involved.

• Can I create a satisfied client?  Is this prospect the type of person who will never be satisfied?  Do you want to be the next Agent he is complaining about?  These are people who will never be satisfied, no matter what you do, or what level of service you provide.  Remember people tend to know, enjoy, and develop friendships with people who are similar to themselves.  Do you want more referrals like the current prospect?  I urge you to carefully evaluate this question when you are determining who you want your current clients and future prospects to be.

• Is the client willing to tell me the truth so I can help him?  Sometimes people view us as the enemy, or as a necessary evil.  Prospects can sometimes play “hide the ball” with an Agent.  I think that open and truthful communication between the Agent and the client leads to a successful relationship and transaction.  In the end it will lead to successful referrals.  If a prospect can’t be honest with you, you should probably pass on him.

• Is the commission that you will earn worth the trouble?  Some Agents may be offended by this question.  But the truth is, we are in this business to provide a service and to turn a profit.  This is a question that must be asked every time.  Are the dollars earned adequate for the time and effort you will be expending to put this transaction together and close?  Maybe you would be better to invest the time to find a higher quality prospect or client.  It is your time, so you are entitled to select in whom you invest your time.

It is all right to decide to go ahead and work with someone, even though you know the amount that you will earn may not be as high as compared to other transactions.  In my career I entered into a handful of deals annually to help people.  The key was, I accepted the fact that I would not be compensated for my time at my usual hourly rate, before I entered into the client relationship.  I think that it is easier to accept when you understand it going into the relationship, rather than invest all your time, and then find out.  It is easier when the choice is yours.

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