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 Establishing an Ongoing Communication Strategy, Time Mastery, and the How to Ensure Your Success in Building 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
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"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.
So, overcome your fears of change with priceless knowledge that you can glean from this report. It just may be the key to you:
- 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
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Establishing an Ongoing Communication
Strategy (Part 2) - Generate Referrals!
(Continued from last issue)
Picking up the phone
In your effort to stay in touch, add value, and
generate referrals, you’ll want to pick up the phone and
call some of your contacts weekly, some monthly, and maybe
some only one time each year. To organize the effort, create
phone lists that are segmented by the level of connection and
frequency of contact you have with each group.
- Your star clients and closest friends and associates deserve star treatment. These people are sold on you and the service you provide. They want to help you advance your career. They’re happy to hear from you, and they’re likely to send you more referrals than you’ll get from any other portion of your contact list. It’s okay to treat them differently than everyone else. In fact, it’s good business. Call those in this category monthly or at least one time every other month, and weave a referral request into each conversation.
- Past clients and those in your sphere of influence should be called at least once a year. Unless you have an enormous database, anyone you have serviced in your career should hear from you personally and over the phone at least once every 12 months.
Don’t hesitate to pick up the phone and make calls just to thank people for their business, see how they’re doing, and ask if there’s anything you can do for them. Most consumers, when called by a service provider, are delighted and honored by the contact. If you got a friendly call out of the blue from your insurance agent, attorney, accountant, or financial advisor, you’d be both surprised and pleased. The same is likely to be the case when you call your clients.
Showing appreciation
The National Association of REALTORS® now includes more than 1.3 million members. Obviously, your clients have a choice! Do you thank them often enough for choosing you?
I have to admit that I’ve become aware of how little common courtesy is extended in our society as the result of our efforts to instill the “magic” words please and thank you into the conversations of our five-year-old son, Wesley. I’m amazed at the positive responses we receive from waiters, grocery store clerks, bank tellers, and other service providers who heap praise about what a polite little boy he is when he displays courtesies that, it seems, should be standard fare in every-day exchanges.
From watching the reactions to my son, I’m more certain than ever that you can set yourself apart by conveying courtesy and appreciation to your clients on an ongoing basis. Express thanks several times during the transaction and again after the closing. Say “thank you” every time clients sign anything like a listing agreement, buyer agency contract, or an offer or counter offer. Frequently affirm that they’ve made a good decision in working with you or choosing to buy their home. And constantly confirm that you appreciate their business.
The power of a thank you note
I truly believe the most powerful force in the business world is a handwritten thank you note. That may sound terribly “old school” to techno-savvy agents, but it’s exactly what you need to send if you want to set yourself apart.
I remember my mother sitting down with her three boys at the kitchen table each year after Christmas to write thank you notes for the gifts we received. Over our protests, she insisted that, by accepting the gifts, we accepted the responsibility to write a thank you note.
“Back then” writing thank you notes was a standard operating procedure. Today thank you notes arrive rarely, and as a result, they carry far more weight. They convey, in essence, the message that “you matter so much that I took the time to craft a message with my own hand.”
Exceeding expectations
The keys to exceeding expectations are few and pretty obvious: extend courtesy, say thanks, demonstrate appreciation, and always be professional and keep in mind that little gestures go a long way toward building strong relationships.
You don’t have to go overboard. Small gifts like ice cream cone certificates for the children, movie tickets for the adults, or coffee shop coupons make the point that you appreciate working with your contacts and receiving their referrals, whether they result in business or not.
My only caution is to be sure that every gesture you make further enhances your professional reputation. A few years back, the Wall Street Journal featured a profile on the service styles of three real estate agents. One bought groceries for out of town clients before they arrived to enjoy their vacation home. Another would personally mow the lawns of out-of-area sellers. A third reduced his fees to accommodate client requests. Each exceeded expectations in a way that lowered the professionalism and status of the real estate agent community. One is a personal shopper, one is a lawn boy, and the last is a discounter. I can’t think of a doctor, dentist, attorney, or accountant that would provide these types of services to exceed expectations.
Keep your efforts in line with your professional image. Getting groceries for out-of-town clients is thoughtful but inappropriate for a professional; helping arrange for a personal shopper is thoughtful and professional. Mowing the lawn is thoughtful but unprofessional; arranging for a professional yard crew is thoughtful and professional.
If you'd like more help with
after-the-sale strategies see my new book "The Champion
Real Estate Agent™"... check it out here.
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"If
you feel like the LIFE is draining out of your
Real Estate Business, join us to learn why…"
Prospecting
is Still the Best Answer
May 31st, 2007
A
proven prospecting strategies for peak sales performance!
Prospecting
is one of the easiest but most misunderstood concepts in the
field of sales.
Every
day, sales trainers try to sell their "prospecting-free systems"
on worldwide speaking circuits saying, basically, "You will
never have to prospect again if you use my system." And because
salespeople secretly don't like prospecting, they readily
buy into the too-good-to-be-true no-prospecting philosophy.
Join
me for an easy-to-integrate-into-anyone's-schedule 60 minute
Teleseminar where we'll dispell the myths about Prospecting
for Real Estate Sales.
Don't
end up chasing false promises and endangering your livelihood
like the Agents who are buying into the prospecting-free sales
systems.
| Date
and Time: |
|
•
Thursday - May 31st, 2007
•
10:00am
- 11:30am Pacific
•
11:00am - 12:30am Mountain
•
12:00am
- 1:30am Central
• 1:00pm
- 2:30pm Eastern |
| How
You'll Learn : |
|
•
Dial-in Tele-seminar
•
Accompanied
by a PowerPoint Presentation via Internet
•
Prospecting is Still the Best Answer Workbook (tools
& tactics)
•
Professionally-recorded
audio CD sent ~30 days after seminar
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Time Mastery - The
Most Important Skill !
When I was working in real estate, there was one characteristic or skill that was most important in helping me achieve high production in sales while working a four-day workweek. This one skill allowed me the opportunity to develop the others that were necessary for success in sales. You are probably what that one characteristic is that is above all others – it is Time Mastery. If we learn to master our time, and understand the value of time, we can change the outcome of our life.
Time is truly our most precious resource. The famous writer, Jean-Louis Servan-Schreiber, wrote, “Unlike other resources, time cannot be bought or sold, borrowed or stolen, stocked up or saved, manufactured, reproduced, or modified. All we can do is make use of it. And whether we use it or not, it nevertheless slips away.” It truly is how we use it to our advantage that makes the difference. How effectively are you using the time you are given? Are you performing the high payoff activities in your day?
Many people may be asking, “What are the high payoff activities in real estate?” These are the activities that pay you exceedingly well per hour. They also happen to be the activities that only you can do. Your assistants will never be as good as you in all these activities. Because of your skill and ability, you’re the one who has to do them. If your staff were as skilled as you…they would not be working for you. They would be Agents on their own.
In real estate there are about a half dozen things that are high payoff activities. They are lead follow-up, prospecting, listing appointments, showing property, and writing and negotiating contracts. How much of your day is spent in these activities? The truth is no one will do these activities better than you. If you have staff, once they get markedly better than you in these activities, they will often leave you and go on their own. The highest pay per hour is contained in those half dozen things. Low payoff items have a tendency to push out the high payoff activities. They try to fake us out that they are important. Have you ever had a day where you left the office and felt like nothing got done? You just spent the day in low payoff activities. The low payoff day is like being in the twilight zone all day. You were present in body, but nothing got done.
To ensure you do high payoff activities daily, block them into your schedule. Create a specific time slot for prospecting daily. Make a time for lead follow-up daily. Schedule them both in and be militant with keeping other low payoff activities out of those slots. Turn your cell phone and pager off during those time slots, and then you can focus with intensity on prospecting and lead follow-up. If you just spend one hour a day prospecting and a half an hour to one hour doing lead follow-up daily, that will solve any production problems you have in your business, and you will gain quality time with your family. Find those times and block them in today.
The next step to time mastery is learning to do first things first. Too often, we spend time on the wrong tasks. Before you leave for the day, make a list of tasks that you need to do. To be highly effective, we must set up tomorrow before it comes. You will save ten minutes of execution for every one minute of planning you do. Then take the list and prioritize from most important to least important. I will give you a hint…the hardest thing that needs to be done is most important. When you walk in the office in the morning, start with #1. Work on #1 until you have it completely done. Then you can move on to #2. We often lack the vision to prioritize. We work on ten things at once, never completing anything. This causes frustration and low work output. Focus on the most important task. Focus always comes before success.
It is very easy to get distracted by clients,
prospects, or other Agents. You must win the game of distraction.
We all have distractions daily. It’s what we do with
the distractions that come our way that matters. The difference
between a time waster and a time master is the length of time it
takes for that person to get back on track. For a time waster,
it could be hours, or even days, to get back on track. For a time
master, it will be minutes before he is back on track. People
who control time earn more money. Time was designed to serve
us…not be served by us. Many people feel that time
is money. Israel Davidson said it well when he was quoted,
“Time is infinitely more precious than money, and there is
nothing in common between them. You cannot accumulate time;
you cannot borrow time; you can never tell how much time you have
left in the Book of Life. Time is life…”
Use it well. If you'd like more help with
Time Mastery and would like to learn some advanced Time-Blocking
Strategies see my book "Success as a Real Estate Agent
for Dummies®"... check it out here.
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Dirk Zeller
My NEW Book
In Stores Now!
|
Team
Coaching Program
For
more information on how we can grow your business together
through team coaching, fill out the form below:
|
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How to Ensure Your Success in Building a Team - The
Right Way!
There are as many models, trainers, and philosophies
of how to be successful in real estate as there are people.
Each one of these people, including myself, has strong beliefs
on the path one must take to be successful. The truth
is there isn’t just one pathway to achieving success in
real estate sales. There isn’t one way to build
a team. There are a number of ways to prosper in the business.
That is one of the exciting aspects of real estate sales.
If anyone (agent, trainer, manager, or sales guru) tells you their
way is the only way, run the other direction.
The real question is what will be your way? There is a right model or right pathway for you to build your team based on your experience, database size, market, commitment level, behavioral style, sales skills, and competitive nature. The way to ensure your success is to evaluate your unique factors and build your business and team in a complementary way.
For example, for the last eight years, we have been
the leader in behavior assessments in the real estate industry.
Through working with thousands of agents and benchmarking their
behavioral style, we have discovered patterns in how
the different behavior styles can build a business that is effective
and comfortable for them. Not everyone should call FSBOs
and expireds as some trainers profess. In fact, there are
a few behavioral styles that the success rate in prospecting to
those sources is so dismal that it would be counter-productive.
There are other behavioral styles that are so competitive and
focused that they struggle to create referral-based relationships
even when they go to numerous seminars to learn referral techniques.
Some agents sell more effectively by using facts and figures,
while others use emotional connection and emotional techniques.
Being able to build your business around your natural gifts
and natural skills that were given to you at birth and that you
have spent years perfecting is the mark of a Champion. Using
behavioral analysis to select, manage, train, structure, coach,
and position team members will strengthen any team.
The way to ensure your success is to find YOUR
system, strategy, tactics, and lead generation and conversion
sources. Too many lead agents and teams are looking
for an off-the-rack solution in a tailor-fit world. We need
to be willing to pause, evaluate, research, and design the right
long-term solution. We need to design the right team.
Anyone can do what they find incongruent with their behavioral
style for a short period of time, especially if they are broke.
You can find staff members to do jobs that are incongruent with
their behavioral skills for that short time frame. However,
if expected to completely transform themselves, they will eventually
leave or be asked to leave. The problem is that it’s
not sustainable. When we have made enough money or feel
comfortable, we stop doing activities we don’t want to.
The search for your system and the perfection of that will ensure your success. It still means you need to attend seminars and training, listen to CDs, read books, and participate in coaching. If you work with a coaching company that is focused on helping you uncover your system, rather than forcing you into theirs, you have a higher probability of long-term success once coaching is completed. There is not one system or way to be successful in the real estate sales business.
The second step to ensure your success happens once
you have made the best decision on how you are going to generate
leads. For example: past clients; sphere of influence;
strategic alliances with other professionals like accountants,
financial planners, family law attorneys; community involvement;
FSBOs; Expireds; REO properties. There are unlimited sources
to choose from. Once you have finalized, stick with your
decision. A Champion Lead Agent tests the new strategies
for a long enough period of time to modify the strategy a few
times and test and monitor all of the results. A huge
error I see most agents make is the error of impatience.
They change strategies and tactics so quickly that they never
get past the steepest part of the learning curve. They are
moving from one ice mountain to the next, trying to find the secret
path to the top. The secret path isn’t there; you
have to climb to the top.
Most agents try a farm for three to four months, don’t get any business, and scrap the farm. They will try a new newsletter to their past clients and sphere for three to four months and decide that doesn’t work. They will call FSBOs or expireds for a few weeks, not achieve the result level they want, and stop that practice. In order for you to know if something new you are trying works, you have to try it for at least six months. It takes that long to gauge the return on investment. It takes that long to tweak and perfect it. You won’t get all the facts to make an informed decision if the strategy works or not before a six month period of time.
Ensure your success in building a team by following these
two steps. There isn’t an off-the-rack system.
You have to tailor build it by finding your system, strategy, tactics,
and lead generation and conversion sources. Then make the
best decision on generating leads. With those two steps in
place, you have a system to bring the right people into your team
to help you on your way to achieving the Championship Level.
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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Dirk Zeller
|
"
The Champion Real Estate Team™ Guide"
To
get instant access to your FREE Real Estate Team
Building Guide "The Champion Real Estate Team™
Guide" [$49.00 Value],
and your FREE Team Coaching Session [$250.00
Value], visit the link below:
>
> Get My FREE Team Building Guide Now! < <
|
Help Your Friends
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have friends and colleagues who would enjoy the
Coaches Corner™
please forward it and invite them to subscribe.
We appreciate your help since your recommendation
is how we grow.
Real Estate
Champions is committed to partner with you to create
abundance in your business and life.
REALTOR® is a Registered Trademark of National Association of Realtors, Inc.
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- [ Training Spotlight ] -
The
Success Trio
NEW
- Special Bonus Offer
Includes:
12 newly recorded audio CD's, 3 CD-ROM Workbooks, and Dirk's
Complete Digital Training Library
|
 Learn More Here
|
|
Teleseminars
•
Prospecting is Still The Best Answer
Champion
Performer Series
•
Determining a Home's Ideal List Price
|
|
Success As a Real Estate Agent For Dummies® Dummies Now In-Stock!
Your 1st Year in Real Estate: Making the Transition
from Total Novice to Successful Professional
