In This Issue...

• Words from the President
• Weighting Your Time to What Matters - Income!
• Three Types of People - Which Type Are You?
• A Big Team Does Not Always Mean Big Money - Or Big Profits!

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 Weighting Your Time to What Matters, The Three Types of People, and Big Teams Do Not Always Mean Big Money. 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,

"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

Weighting Your Time to What Matters - Income!

No real estate agent will argue with the fact that the activities of prospecting, lead follow-up, listing presentations, buyer interview presentations, showing property, and writing and negotiating contracts account for the greatest results in real estate sales.  I call these tasks your direct income-producing activities, or DIPA.

There is simply no question in my mind (or in the mind of any top-producing agent) that if you invest more time in DIPA activities, you’ll dramatically increase your income and probability of success.

I have a coaching client in Eugene, Oregon who doesn’t have a big team of buyers’ agents or administrative staff.  In fact, she works on her own with one key administrative assistant.  Yet, through her small-scale operation, she realizes production growth, income, sales volume, quality of life, and net profit that I’d put against any agent in North America.

In 2004 she increased her income by 119%, and she experienced another 42% increase in 2005 – or an average 80% income increase over just two years. Plus, her success story goes well beyond income figures. Other agents have had similarly large production increases, but the difference with my client is that she works an average of 42 hours a week. She never works weekends; she takes at least one three-day weekend a month; and she takes more than four weeks of vacation a year.

Her secret? She spends 80% of her time in DIPA activities. I know because she tracks and shares her time allocation. It is the #1 reason for her income, quality of life, and wealth. She is a living, breathing testament to the statement, “It’s not how many hours your work but what you do in the hours you work.”

Invest the bulk of your time in direct income-producing activities. Committing your time to tasks that deliver results is the easiest, quickest, and most profitable way to earn big bucks in real estate sales.

In order to achieve success, any newer agent must commit a minimum of 15 hours a week to DIPA, or direct income-producing activities. That means that you need to dedicate 15 hours every single week – three hours every day – to prospecting and lead follow-up. Do that, and you assure your success and income. Fail to do so, and your success is in question.

Don’t cheat by trying to replace DIPA tasks with what I call IIPA, or indirect income-producing activities. IIPA tasks include things like making client-development marketing pieces, producing direct mailings, creating or fiddling with your Web site, optimizing your search engine placement, publishing hardcopy or email newsletters, and a near-endless list of other efforts that agents invest in to indirectly produce income.

The problem is, IIPA activities are difficult to control in terms of the time, effort, energy and dollars they require, and they are almost impossible to measure in terms of outcome. Often, countless hours result in pieces that go straight to the trash bin or are deleted with a single keystroke.

Indirect marketing efforts result in a high quantity of contacts. Direct marketing efforts result in high-quality contacts – and sales success is the result of quality rather than quantity.

Aim to spread your time between DIPA and IIPA tasks on at least a four-to-one ratio: For every hour you spend in IIPA, spend at least four hours in DIPA.  Veer from that ratio, and you’ll risk dramatic income swings rather than consistent revenue growth.

Agents spend an undue amount of time on production-supporting activities, or PSA. These activities include all the steps necessary to support such direct income-producing activities as prospecting, lead follow-up, taking listings, and making sales. You can’t avoid the administrative functions that support your sales and customer service efforts, but you can and should handle them in the absolutely fewest number of hours possible. Here’s how:

• Handle PSA tasks in dedicated blocks of time, so they don’t eat away at your whole day. Errands, MLS searches, MLS input, home flyer creation, filing, copying, faxing, meeting home inspectors or appraisers, getting feedback from showings, and purchasing supplies are only a sampling of the necessary tasks that support your production efforts. Keep a list, block time for all that needs to be done, and tackle the tasks as a consolidated effort rather than constant interruptions to your day. 

• Realize that PSA tasks produce little new revenue, so don’t let them take over your day, or you’ll never get on to income-producing efforts. I know of agents who take a whole day or even a whole week of time to work on the tasks that support their deal. Yes, deal, as in one! This is a superb example of procrastination. Get your support work done quickly, so you can invest the bulk of your time in finding and working the next deal.

The 11:00 a.m. rule goes like this: The world around a real estate agent gears up at 11:00 each morning. The attorneys, title officers, loan officers, other agents, appraisers, home inspectors, repair contractors, and clients will most likely call you after or close to 11:00 a.m.

Because of this, it’s imperative that you come into the office early and complete your prospecting and lead follow-up before the clock strikes the hour. 

If you'd like more help defining DIPA Activities & time-blocking strategies, see my new book "The Champion Real Estate Agent™"... check it out here.

Prospecting is Still the Best Answer

May 31^st, 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

 

I want to learn more about how I can join Dirk to learn his prospecting techniques

Three Types of People - Which Type Are You?

When you evaluate performance and people, you can clearly see there are three types.  Where you fit in is based on your decision to join one of the groups.  The first group is people who make things happen.  These people are not afraid to change things up, to go against the grain of the crowd.  They are working in action areas of their life daily to produce results.

In sales terms, they are focused on doing their prospecting or lead generation daily.  They are engaging daily in lead evaluation, lead qualifying, and working to book appointments either face-to-face or over the phone.  This group is working at perfecting their presentation skills to the highest level.  They are forcing activity and productivity to happen daily, weekly, and monthly in their business and life.  They are fixated on actionable items that make their business and life better.

The second group is those who watch things happen.  They are always watching others and how they do things better than they do.  This group is great at watching, but they often fall short in doing!  Doing is better than watching.  We must all watch to learn.  The most effective way to learn is to model others who are successful.  To watch and to achieve understanding of what they do and how they achieve the results that they achieve is advisable.  Modeling can help us avoid the mistakes and pitfalls that caused challenges for someone else.  Once watching is over, action must follow.  Also, we see people watching and saying, “That will never work for me.”  My response to that is . . . how do you know?  Have you tried it for a reasonable timeframe with passion, intensity, focus, and the right attitude?  This is the only way you will know that it doesn’t work.  You have to try it out to know.  Henry Ford said, “If you think you can or you think you can’t, either way you are right.”

Other watchers say, “That will never work in my marketplace.  That will never work with my type of clients.”  My response is always – Why, are you selling to Martians?  What works in other markets with other products will work for you; your marketplace is not that different.  There usually will be a few adjustments that need to be tried and changed.  These adjustments are not as important as your ability to implement the techniques that work and track the results, so you can make further adjustments or refinements.  Don’t spend all your time watching.  Get in the game and play.  Take action and move into the category of people who make things happen.  Sometimes, we all need to slow down to speed up.  We need the watching and evaluating time, just don’t grow roots while you are doing it.

The last category of people is those who wake up and say, “What happened?”   “What Happened” people are in significant trouble throughout their career.  “What Happened” people can create a living when things are easy.  When the economy is strong or their market segment is strong, they appear to be doing a reasonable job in their performance.  It’s when the going gets tougher that they wake up one morning and say – what happened?  What actually happened or the change that happened didn’t happen last night.  It happened over time; they just did not realize it.  They are like the frog that enjoyed swimming in the kettle while the heat was slowly turned up.  They just forgot to be aware and jump out before they got cooked.

“What Happened” people need to take a look at themselves, their marketplace, what they are selling, and how they are selling it.  They need to get fully engaged in the prospecting and lead follow-up of their sales business daily.  Often, “What Happened” people will exclaim that it’s not fair that things changed.  Too often, “What Happened” people don’t deal with reality as it truly is.  They desire to deal with reality as they wish it to be.  They need a reality check. 

If you'd like more help with making things happen and are available on May 31^st, come join me to learn why "Prospecting Is Still The Best Answer™"... check it out here.

A Big Team Does Not Always Mean Big Money - Or Big Profits!

A number of years ago, I was speaking to a high-powered group of agents in Houston, Texas.  I was sharing with them the seven key numbers in a real estate agent’s practice; the seven key numbers an agent must monitor, watch, evaluate, and, for most, change.  These seven numbers, because I controlled them well, enabled me to sell over 150 homes annually, while only working Monday through Thursday and taking Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off.  I didn’t answer the phone, fax, or e-mail on those days.  I was off with my family.  In fact, for most of those days, I was a three-hour drive away at my vacation home.  It allowed me to build a business of high net profit where I netted well over 60% of the gross revenue I created each year.  You don’t need to gross $2,400,000 in revenue to net over a million dollars in profit, as some experts will try to convince you.  A Champion will cast an evaluated eye to that model.

While I was coaching this group of agents about these seven key numbers, I was sharing with them that most agents have no idea about these numbers.  This is also true for lead agents who are either working to build large teams or already have large teams.  They also have these seven numbers way out of alignment.  The reality is they are so out of alignment that the net profit is poor.  This is especially true for many agents in the “superstar” status in real estate.  They achieve such large gross incomes but low net profit numbers that they often live, spend, and have a lifestyle as if their gross income was their net income.

I was on a “superstar” panel in the 90s where a prominent agent (one of the first to break the million dollar a year gross commission income barrier), who is now a speaker, admitted (after getting off the stage and getting real) that he was broke.  He had nothing to show for his million dollar gross income he earned that year.  I can assure you, he wasn’t projecting the image of being broke on the stage.

As I shared these concepts and stories in Houston that day, a beautiful blonde lady in back stood up.  She was the “perfect Realtor”.  You can easily picture her clean, professional suit and diamonds just dripping off her fingers, wrist, and neck.  She had the brooch as well as the hat.  She graciously raised her hand to make a statement that I will never forget.  She said, “Excuse me, Dirk.  We have a saying for that type of person here in Texas.  We call them ‘Big Hat . . . No Cattle’ .”  She described the truth perfectly for many “superstar” agents or lead agents of large teams.  They are often big hat . . . no cattle.  I want to state emphatically that building a Champion Team is the way to go in the real estate business.  The problem is so few agents who have large teams currently know the steps to take and the order in which to take them.  Too many are left with a business that is worse or marginally better than before.

A Champion Lead Agent recognizes that the truth of your income, earnings, and quality of your business is contained on line 32.  The Champion+’s scorecard isn’t the gross income, the production awards, sales volume, number of assistants, or name recognition.  You can achieve a number of those outcomes, especially the production awards, because you have a larger number of bodies on the team than the next guy.  One of the key measures to see the effectiveness of your team is to divide the units of production by the number of people on the team.  What is the per-staff-member production of the team?  What is the per-sales-team or per-agent average production?  If you are less than twenty units per staff member, your efficiency is pretty low.  If your per agent average is less than thirty units, you are not getting the efficiency of sales out of your salespeople and yourself.  You should be pulling that thirty agent average up with your unit production.  A Champion’s scorecard, when we are talking about money, is focused on line 32 of the 1040 form on your tax return.  To be blunt, line 32 is your adjusted gross income or AGI.  This is the number that you get to live on, save, invest, and spend.  It’s the number that any bank will look at to determine whether to loan you money on the investment property we all want to buy to build our net worth.

Reality is contained on line 32.  Jack Welch, the former CEO of GE, has six famous rules for business success.  The first is face reality as it is, not as you wish it to be.  Too often, we hedge, adjust, evade, and concoct a new reality that is more optimistic than reality is.  A Champion Lead Agent doesn’t concoct a new false reality to make themselves feel better.  They deal with the truth and change the outcome.  There is nothing more based in reality and more black and white, with regard to earned income, than line 32 of a tax return. 

A Champion Lead Agent’s scorecard is far more encompassing than just the money.  The reason I started with the money is that is what we generally recognize in real estate sales circles.  It is also easy to count and see how we are doing.  When evaluating the other areas of life, the counting is more difficult to observe and gauge.

I personally believe that making a lot of money is one of the easiest areas of life to succeed in.  It’s the easiest area of life to master:  creating or earning a large income.  Keeping that income and creating more wealth from that income are far more difficult than generating it in the first place.

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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Teleseminars
• Prospecting is Still The Best Answer

Champion Performer Series
• Determining a Home's Ideal List Price

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