In This Issue...

• Words from the President
• Realizing Your Client’s Lifetime Value - Residual ROI
• Overcoming Call Reluctance - Like a True Champion
• Five Reasons Most Agents Want to Build a Team - The Right Way

Words from the President

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

The three areas that we'll focus our time on today are Realizing Your Client’s Lifetime Value, Overcoming Call Reluctance, and the Five Reasons Most Agents Want to Build a Team. Any of these articles could help you change your life in 2007 if you'll read, absorb, and use the information.

Before you get started, I'd like to take a moment and highlight one small change to Coaches Corner™ that we've made. This will likely carry on through out this year. We're increasing our article content by 33% by adding another article to the newsletter.

Why the change?...you might ask.

Well, there's been a lot of buzz in the industry over the last several weeks about Real Estate Teams. One thing you may not be aware of is that we here at Real Estate Champions, Inc have been coaching clients to build Real Estate Teams since 1998.

We've coached them on how to build them (sometimes from scratch), grow them, sell them, and how to use them as a path to retirement. So, we've got more than enough experience in this area to be called an authority on real estate teams.

Also, I've recently contracted with McGraw-Hill to publish a new book, "The Champion Real Estate Team" (due out Fall 2007). I'm actually wrapping it up right now and will be submitting it to the editor shortly.

In an effort to help meet the need for information regarding building a Real Estate Team, I've instructed my team to 1) assemble a pre-release version of a chapter out of my new book as the "The Champion Real Estate Team Guide" and 2) begin releasing article excerpts from the book here in Coaches Corner™. You can get an instant download of the guide here.

I hope that you'll invest a few minutes of your life with me today and that the information you gain from Coaches Corner™ proves to be a blessing to you and your career.

To your achievement of success in life,


Dirk Zeller
CEO
Real Estate Champions, Inc

"Swanepoel Real Estate
Trends Report"

During the past year, the real estate industry has experienced unprecedented change and significant innovation. You’ve no doubt experienced it first hand.

The key to being successful in real estate, or any other career for that matter, is staying apprised of the trends in your industry. If you can see where things are heading, you can utilize new opportunities before your competition.

• Beating your competition to the next wave of opportunities
• Avoiding fads that could set your business back years
• Gaining valuable insights about revealing strategies you can use right now

Learn More Here

Realizing Your Client’s Lifetime Value - Residual ROI

Every businessperson wants to win clients for life – and for a good reason. It costs energy, time, and money to gain a prospect’s awareness, win his attention, convince him of your benefits, and bring him into your business circle through an initial sale. If that first sale is the only sale you ever make to the prospect, then your sales investment has only a one-time payoff. But if that client keeps buying from you on a repeated basis – and refers others to you as well – then your investment is amortized over numerous transactions and money-making opportunities.

The key to winning clients for life is to avoid suffering defections. When a customer decides to buy or sell with another agent, you have a defection.  When a client doesn’t join your referral team, that’s a defection, as well.

Some businesses have an easier time keeping clients in their business circles simply because they have more opportunities to see and serve their customers. For instance, a car dealership sells a car and then, even if the buyer doesn’t purchase another car for a decade, the dealership has the opportunity to see the customer face-to-face every time the vehicle is due for service, oil changes, or tire rotations.

A real estate agent also makes big sales on an infrequent basis to clients. The difference is, in real estate, after-the-sale service isn’t automatic. You have to create strategies to keep in contact with your clients and to and continually remind them of the value you deliver

It’s one thing to have a service delivery plan. It’s another thing to implement your plan on a never-fail basis. I’ve seen marketing packages from countless agents. Most include 15-point, 21-point, or 30-point service action plans provided by the national franchise or large company the agent works for. I always ask, “Do you really do all of these things?” The sheepish response from most agents is that they implement and do fewer than 30% of the service tasks listed on their marketing plans.

The truth is most agents don’t follow through for two reasons: They over-promise, and they lose track of what they said they’d to do because they lack a system to follow.

My advice is this: Go through the multi-point action plan you currently provide to sellers and separate out the highest-value activities that you know you can perform with total consistency. Then commit to perform those tasks and be ready to execute flawlessly on your commitment.

Be ready to under-promise and over-deliver. The separation between marginal performance and stellar performance doesn’t come from an abundance of magical extras. It’s the result of keeping your commitments. For the vast majority of consumers, a professional who keeps commitments is a rarity.

Great agents know that their job isn’t over when the transaction closes. After you’ve achieved the sale, closed the deal, cashed the commission check, and spent the money, it’s time to start to fortify your client relationship. Sure you need to get on to the next income-producing activity. But as you cultivate your next deal, don’t make the mistake of turning your back on the clients you just served.

In fact, your clients could need you more after their closing than at any previous point in your relationship for any of the following reasons:

• After moving into their new home, they may have discovered repair issues that need attention. They might need the name of someone who can fix their roof, or they might need names of service providers that are honest, trustworthy, fair, and do quality repair work.

• Their home taxes may have shot up substantially, and they might need you to evaluate the marketplace, research comparable properties, and complete a report of your findings that they can use as they contest the increase in their property’s taxable value.

• Your clients’ home purchase may have sparked their thoughts about building wealth through real estate investments. They may be thinking about how to secure their retirement or how to create a nest egg for their children’s college educations. If your clients view real estate as a piece in their wealth puzzle, they may seek your advice about how to acquire and retain properties as a key step toward wealth creation.

• Your clients may simply be interested in how the market around them is doing. When you call them to chat, you’re likely to get the question, “What’s happening in the marketplace?” Now that they’re homeowners, your clients are vested in the local real estate marketplace. Become their resource and you’ll be first in line when they’re ready to make the next physical or investment move.

After reading the above list, you might wonder why an agent needs to be told that the closing must be viewed as the first step toward a long client relationship and countless service opportunities. The reason is that research shows this is an area of agent deficiency.

The National Association of Realtors completed a study over a series of years to gauge the public’s perception of real estate agents. They found:

• 69% of consumers rate the service they received from their agent as satisfactory or better. This is not an outstanding number but it indicates that, as a whole, real estate agents are doing an okay job during the course of the transaction.

• 24% of clients used the same agent that they used on their previous transaction on an upcoming deal. The fact that fewer than one out of four clients went back to use the same agent, even though the majority felt that their previous transaction was handled satisfactorily, is a shocking testimony to the fact that agents aren’t developing long-term relationships. And from here, the figures get even worse.

• In 2004 the total number of real estate transactions hit an all-time high, resulting in 6.8 million sales in a single year. Of those sales, 21%, or approximately 1.4 million deals, involved experienced buyers and sellers conducting investment or second homes transactions. When asked if they used an agent they had worked with previously, only 13% (or 884,000) of these experienced clients said yes. A full 87% ­– 5.9 million sales – were handled by an agent the consumer had never used before.

If you'd like more help with after-the-sale strategies see my new book "The Champion Real Estate Agent™"... check it out here.

The Champion
Real Estate Agent - Book

Now on the Shelves

A proven plan for peak sales performance—and a better life!

In The Champion Real Estate Agent, renowned sales trainer Dirk Zeller shows you how to dramatically boost sales and achieve all your professional goals. But there’s much more to being a champion Agent than just selling. Zeller’s proven program not only turns you into a top sales performer, it gives you all the tools to build your real estate business and guaranteed to create a secure and prosperous future for yourself.

Full of insider tips, expert advice, and real-world examples from Zeller’s many years as a champion Agent and trainer, this comprehensive career guide presents a complete system for managing your business and time—so you can earn more money and enjoy more of life.

Don’t just get into the real estate game; become an all-star when you learn how to:

• Supercharge your sales and commissions
• Use Zeller’s unique referral strategy to turn effort into income
• Develop trust and credibility with customers
• Design a custom business plan that fits your life and goals
• Generate multiple streams of income

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Overcoming Call Reluctance - Like a True Champion

We are all faced with call reluctance at one time or another in our sales careers.  We all know that we need to prospect and make calls daily to generate new business.  However, knowing and doing can be two entirely different things.  The fear of calling can be a career ender for many sales people.

Let’s take a look at what most Agents do when call reluctance hits.  Most Agents take the worst possible action…they avoid the calls.  Are you avoiding the calls when call reluctance hits?  The problem with that plan of action is that avoiding something out of fear only teaches you to fear it more.

Taking this plan of action only makes the challenge larger and harder.  Your call avoidance only intensifies your anxiety, which leads to greater reluctance and greater avoidance.  We have all lived this pattern, leading us farther down the slippery slope of call reluctance.  How do you break this pattern of destruction?  There is a five-step strategy to overcome call reluctance:

Strategy #1:  Take Stock of Yourself and Your Skills

Most people who are chronic call reluctance sufferers are their own worst enemies.  They are experts in all of their own faults and shortcomings.  They see only their weaknesses, not their strengths.  To be successful at prospecting over the phone, we have to have a clear sense of what we can provide to the prospect.  Until we have a clear understanding of our value, we will never achieve comfort in prospecting over the phone.

The overcoming step is to evaluate what you have to offer the prospect. Take inventory of your skills and abilities.  Understand your track record of results. Review your list of satisfied clients and the reasons why they’re satisfied.

• List the things you can do for the prospects.
• List the qualities that make you the person they should work with.
• List the specific benefits of your services.

Always have these lists ready by the phone. This way you can easily review them before you begin to call.  You will also be able to use them during your call to convince the prospect to work with you.

Many of us are challenged because we see making a call to a prospect or even a cold opportunity as an unwanted interruption.  By using this list, you can change your mindset to see that you are giving the prospect a valuable opportunity to be served by you.  We need a new perspective of opportunity.

We can easily get ahead of ourselves.  By setting a daily goal that is realistic, we can create momentum.  People who are challenged with call reluctance often believe that they need to make 20, 50, or even 100 calls a day to make a difference.  Since they can’t do that, they avoid even starting.  Start with a small number you can commit to daily.  We have seen Agents double their businesses in a year by making 5-10 contacts a day.  A little goes a long way.  Prospecting is like Brill Cream: a little dab will do you.  It just has to be used every day.

Set manageable goals for each week, and then break them down into goals for each day.  If you are struggling to hit the daily goal, break it down to each part of the day or even each hour if necessary. 

Make it into a game.  How many calls can I make before lunch or before my next appointment at 10:00 am?  Make the target achievable.  You want to achieve the feeling of accomplishment.  When you achieve the goal, reward yourself.  We call it celebrating the victory.  Part of being effective in calling is learning to reward yourself along the way.  The mouse wouldn’t work as hard to get to the end of the maze if the cheese wasn’t there.  The reality is that we are no different.  You have to create small rewards along the way.

Strategy #3:  Control Negative Self-Talk

We all have an internal voice.  Sometimes, that voice is our biggest fan and encourager.  Other times, it feels like that little voice is chaining us to a cement block and pushing us into a deep river.  That internal voice can challenge us for good or bad; it can criticize and chastise us, as well.

For those of you who are challenged by call reluctance regularly, this negative self-talk can be particularly aggressive.  It can become almost hyperactive when you are preparing for a sales call.  When you go to pick up the phone, the negative self-talk turns up the volume and intensity.

 “They are going to reject you.”
 “Why would they use you instead of these other Agents?”
 “Maybe there is another way to do this.”
 “I should really be handling the problem transaction.”
 “I need to do more research before I make this call.”

Meet the challenge of the negative self-talk head on.  If you do, the voice will get quieter, and after a few dials, it will go away completely.

If you are really struggling, write down what the negative self-talk is saying.  By having it down on paper, you can refute what is being said in your mind.  The only way to repel the voice is to create the responses that defuse the arguments.  It’s the difference between your thoughts controlling you, or you controlling your thoughts.  You are in charge here.

The difference between you and the mouse is that you can change.  The mouse will go back forever and look for the cheese.  You know better than that.  Take the steps to go a different direction for a newer, better opportunity.

We often begin each call by envisioning rejection.  We begin each call with the thought process, “I hope they’re not home.”  Mentally, we are poorly prepared.  Even if they are present, we may not be.  Do you visualize them hanging up the phone in disgust, or is there a voice telling you they are happy to hear from you?  We often have a horrible movie playing in our head.  Those negative images are making the calls more difficult to execute.

We can create the outcome before we ever pick up the phone.  Those negative visions create self-fulfilling prophecies.  We get caught going through the motions without the results we desire.  There are two key reasons we end up short of the outcome we planned for:

1. The “negative visions” generate stress, and the mental stress blocks performance.  We are preoccupied with the stress.  We are waiting for the other shoe to drop, so we can be right.  Henry Ford said, “If you think you can or think you can’t, either way you are right.”  You will create the outcome you visualize.


2. The “negative visions” are a rehearsal.  The more you run the negative through mentally, the greater the probability of reproducing it in reality.  Remember, practice doesn’t make perfect…only perfect practice makes perfect.  All practice does is make it permanent.  The mouse practiced going for the cheese even when the cheese was taken away.

We must visualize ourselves talking on the phone with confidence.  We must have a “bring it on” attitude.  We must visualize ourselves handling the objections efficiently and effectively, and we must visualize ourselves setting an appointment.

Strategy #5:  The One-Call or Ten-Minute Strategy

It’s really easy when you are in call reluctance to envision hours of calling and toiling on the phone.  You believe that you are going to have to bear hours of rejection to generate one measly lead.  Then you figure you might as well give yourself the day off, and you can make it up tomorrow.

Resolve, before you give up for the day, to make 10 minutes worth of calls.  The truth is any of us can make the calls for just 10 minutes.  When you have completed 10 minutes or a certain number of contacts, like two or three, you are free to quit guilt-free.  You have “bought” your freedom for the day. 

You have taken a big step to breaking through call reluctance.  Do the 10 minutes and know you are progressing out of call reluctance.

The other thing you will discover is that the hardest part is behind you.  You can tap into the momentum you have just created.  I guarantee that the next dial will be easier and not feel or look so intimidating.  You have started to control the negative self-talk.  You can choose to continue on.  This is the best commitment you could make and keep for yourself.

If you'd like more help with beating sales call reluctance and would like to learn to dial for dollars like a Champion Real Estate Agent see my new book "The Champion Real Estate Agent™"... check it out here.

Five Reasons Most Agents Want to Build a Team - The Right Way

The most important questions in life begin with “why”.  Too many people get caught up in the how of reaching the goal.  They spend little time focusing on the clarity of the why.  Why we want something is clearly the power source.  If the why is large enough, the how becomes easy.  We often focus on the wrong end of the equation.  Why do you want to be financially independent?  Why do you want to build a real estate sales business to a large scale?  Why do you want a team?  Why does a team connect with your life goals?  What will a team provide for you?

I don’t think there are hundreds of whys in our life.  I think we have a handful of whys that interconnect our goals and dreams.  This small handful of whys creates the power source in our life to become a Champion Lead Agent, Champion Parent, or Champion Spouse and creates a Champion Legacy for our life.

Your individual reasons for wanting to build a team might not fall into these top five.  These are the reasons that I hear from agents frequently as to why they want to build a team.  I have not listed them in order or frequency.  I merely selected the top five responses.

1. To increase their income

   This increase of income is determined through gross revenue.  Many lead agents who are trying to build a team for the first time increase their gross revenue, but they often don’t increase their net revenue.  Agents want to expand their team to increase the dollars in their pocket, but most who are in the early stages only increase their gross revenue.  I personally have coached hundreds of agents who started to build a team before I began coaching them.  When we looked at the costs, revenues, time invested, and net profit of their first attempt at building a team, they netted less per month than when they were a singular agent on their own.

2. Quality of life

   The desire to move away from being an agent in demand to an agent in command is a great objective.  Having a practice that allows you to control your schedule, so you have more normal business hours is a wonderful goal.  Being an agent in demand who is at the beck and call of your clients and prospects doesn’t make for a very good quality of life.  Having to return calls and meet clients at night and on the weekends will lead to burnout and family resentment for the career you have chosen.

   An agent in command of their schedule, lead generation, client service systems, and accessibility is more easily achieved through the team format.  That is provided you have the skills, abilities, and systems at a reasonable level when building your singular agent’s practice.

   As the lead agent, you will also need to train your other agents to command their value, schedule, servicing, and client interaction.  The truth is if the agents on your team already possessed those skills, they would not be interested in joining your team.  They would be successful on their own.

3. Stability of income

   Agents will often build teams to try to help smooth out the swings in income that happen in the real estate business.  They feel that if they had a few buyer’s agents, their income would be more consistent from month to month.  One of the battles for most agents is the feast or famine nature of their practice.  They have a couple of stellar income months followed by a couple of months of low income and/or no income.  These income cycles make it difficult for most agents to control their cash flow, spending, and savings.  It causes agents to over spend in the good months and have limited funds left for the bad months.

4. Leverage

   Having people working with you for a common goal or common sales production creates leverage.  The ability for sales to be made without your personal effort creates leverage.

   I remember my father, who was a dentist, always working to balance his time off with his practice needs and income needs.  When we went to Hawaii as a family every Christmas for a week to ten days, he didn’t make any money.  In fact, he lost money.  There wasn’t any drilling, filling, or billing taking place while he was gone.  The fixed costs of his mortgage on his office building still needed to be paid, however.  His staff still received their salaries even when new revenue wasn’t created.  Most singular agents still have overhead and expenses (both business and personal) to cover while they are away.  A team will soften the net loss blow or even allow you to turn a small profit while you are resting and relaxing.

5. Ability to do only what they want to do

   This reason takes a number of different forms.  The most prevalent is the “I don’t have to prospect anymore” philosophy.  Many lead agents want to build a team, so they don’t ever have to prospect again.  Too often, the things they want to delegate to others are the activities that they, quite frankly, need to continue to do.

   Too often, these lead agents who are trying to build a team view the role of a team leader or owner of a company as the person who gets to put their feet up on the desk.  My experience is that the owner of a well-run company is probably the hardest working person in the company.  If your desire is to put your feet up, I would encourage you to re-think your philosophy.  You might be able to pull back when you have refined your team to the Champion’s edge.  Until you arrive there, however, you will be the hardest worker if your desire is to build a Champion Team.

If you'd like more information on how you can build your own real estate team, get your free copy of "The Champion Real Estate Team Guide"... here.

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