Lead Like a Champion
 A
lot of the coaching sessions in the last week have centered on
leadership skills. Your leadership skills will truly
determine how far you go in life. Since most of us cannot
accomplish a truly successful life without others, our ability
to lead and direct people for a common goal or vision is critical
to our success. Are you working on your leadership skills
daily? Are you reading the books that will enable you to
lead yourself, your staff, and your family to victory?
Let me share with you an American success story on leadership. This story clearly illustrates the importance of developing strong leadership skills. Dick and Maurice moved from back east to California in the 1930’s searching for the American dream. In 1937, after a few business opportunities, they opened a small drive-in restaurant in Pasadena. Then they moved the drive-in to San Bernardino and their sales rose to over $200,000. They were splitting over $50,000 in profits per year. Remember, this is in the 1930’s and 1940’s.
In 1948, they streamlined everything, including their menu, and emphasized speed and service. The profits soared. The two men were Dick and Maurice McDonald. They invented the new way Americans would eat fast food!
In 1952, they started to market the McDonald’s concept and open franchise operations. The attempt was a miserable failure for the simple reason that they were not leaders. They could run a restaurant but not a company. They lacked the leadership skills to be successful.
In 1954, they met Ray Kroc. Ray struck a deal with Dick and Maurice to set up a company to sell the McDonald’s system of business. Kroc built one franchise store to help sell the concept to potential purchasers. He built a team and an organization. Between 1955 and 1959, he built and opened 1,000 restaurants. In 1961, for $2.7 million, he bought the exclusive rights from Dick and Maurice. Think about it-- because Ray Kroc had the necessary leadership skills, he paid peanuts for one of the greatest American icons of the 20th century. Because Dick and Maurice lacked the leadership skills, they had to sell for peanuts.
The lack of leadership cost Dick and Maurice
billions of dollars. Leadership skills can be learned,
acquired and developed. Are you developing yours?
What will it cost you if you don’t?
To your achievement of success in life,
Dirk Zeller
CEO
Real Estate Champions, Inc
P.S. The three areas that we'll focus our time on
today are Avoiding Closing Derailment, Challenges for Sales
Professionals, and Listing on Purpose. Any of these articles
could help you change your life in 2007 if you'll read, absorb,
and use the information. I challenge you to take a few minutes
of your time to read this material. If you don't have time now,
print them out and take them with you to read between appointments.
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If you're tired of wasting your time with wishy-washy buyers, and would rather have a system that takes you completely through the entire Buyer Conversion Process so that you maximize your effort and time, you've got to check out...
Convert and Commit
the Buyer... Every Time!™
With the vast majority of agents in North American doing more transactions on the buyer side than the seller side, we need to now make sure that we are converting on every possibility we have in the marketplace. Every viable lead that is created must be converted to íncome producing closed transactions. This program is conservatively worth an extra $100,000 in gross commission income for you! Don’t miss your chance at mastering control and commitment of your buyer’s prospects.
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• Convert the buyer on the first call
• Techniques to drive them to commit
• Build value in the client’s mind for the services you provide
• Effective presentation techniques at a commitment meeting
• Lock them in with you long-term
• Get them to sign an exclusive Represent Agreement now!
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• 4
Audio CDs
• 1
CD-ROM Workbook |
I Want to Learn How to
Convert and Commit the Buyer... Every Time!
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Avoiding Closing Derailment - Totally!
Like a train, a transaction can get derailed at any point on the track. A closing can be hit by a clouded title, a home not appraising for value, a rapid change in interest rates, an undisclosed credit or income issue, or one of countless other unanticipated issues.
Choke points cause delays and delays cause all kinds of problems for buyers, sellers, and agents. Moving plans get thrown into disarray. Interim housing or early-possession requests become necessary. Contingency plans need to be thrown together. Nerves get jangled. The resulting situation can be a nightmare even for the most seasoned agent, and a productivity killer as well.
Eighty percent of the problems in closing transactions fall into three basic areas. Stay on the lookout for these problems and solutions to steer your transactions clear of as much trouble as possible:
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Documentation and verification: Lenders needs to assemble considerable paperwork and complete dozens of documents based on information submitted by the loan applicants. Then they need to verify all information for accuracy by checking the applicant’s employment status, funds on deposit, and income level. The document preparation and information verification process takes time. Counsel your buyers that if they fail to submit the required information on a timely basis, or if they turn it in piecemeal and bit-by-bit, delays are certain to result.
- Repairs, repairs, repairs: This is a chokepoint that good advance planning can avert. When you are representing the seller, state clearly in writing that only lender-required repairs will be done. If you don’t, you leave the sellers open to the risk that the buyer will come back with a laundry list of items.
A lender-required note usually limits repairs to structural, mechanical, or health and safety issues – with not a word about nicks in a walls or non-matching door knobs.
Also consider writing a dollar limit for repairs into the initial contract. The number isn’t etched in stone, but it will help keep a lid on the potential amount for which your seller is responsible. The buyers may still refuse to lift the home inspection contingency until additional lender-required issues are dealt with, but the limit will help most of your sellers most of the time.
- Underwriting of the buyer’s loan: This is the stickiest of all closing choke points because the underwriter has complete power to approve the loan, approve the loan with additional conditions, or suspend the file until certain conditions are met, in which case the borrower starts the underwriting process all over again.
Underwriters check to make sure that the loan meets guidelines for debt ratio, loan-to-value ratio, credit score, employment history, and other qualifications. They also evaluate the loan based on whether it can be bundled with others in a big loan package that can be sold to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, or another entity that buys mortgages.
Very few lending institutions hold their loans to maturity. Most write loans, realize profits through origination fees, document preparation fees, and margins on basis points, and then sell the loans within 30 to 60 days, recouping the loan amount to sell again as part of the next loan deal.
If the underwriter approves a loan that can’t be resold, then the lending institution has to keep the loan in its portfolio. If that situation occurs too often, and too many loans can’t be resold, the lending institution runs out of money to loan, driving it out of business.
Of all the choke points in a transaction, the underwriting process can cause the biggest delays. Expect that there will be times when underwriters slow things down with requests for second appraisals or additional documentation of value, especially if the home is in a high price range. Once you clear the hurdle, the documents can be drawn and sent to closing.
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If you're tired of fighting for every listing and would rather have a system that takes you completely through the entire Listing Process, so that you walk out with the listing contract signed, you've got to check out...
How to Create and Deliver a
Dynamic Listing Presentation™
Get the Listing Every Time
with these Step-By-Step Instructions, Forms, Handouts, and
Scripts.
The difference between getting the listing and
walking out with "We'll think it over and get back to you"
is all in your listing presentation. If you walk in with Dirk’s
time-tested & proven (by 1000's of Agents) listing
presentation, you’ll walk out with the listing.
What would your life be like if you had all
the winning scripts and dialogues to help you nail the listing
presentation every time? Even better than that, what if
you had the right seller handouts and scripts to help you
get the listing presentation appointment?
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• Get Control of the Listing
Appointment from the Start
• Ask the 9 Critical Questions Every Listing
Agent Must Know
• Qualify Like a Master Listing Agent (Save
Tons of Time)
• Use a 5 Step (60 Day) Action Plan for a Perfect
Listing Presentation
• Use the Master Coach's Top-10 Presentation
Evaluation Questions
• Discover the Secrets Hidden in Your Prospect's
Objections that Will End Your Fear of Objections Forever
• Defeat Every Seller Objection in 6 Steps
• Use 10 Questions to Isolate the Seller's Objection
• Find the REAL Reason Behind a Seller's
Objection
• Plus much more, including 60 pages of tools,
handouts (the same ones Dirk uses), scripts, and dialogues
you can use as your own.
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• 4
Audio CDs
• 1
CD-ROM Workbook
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I Want to Learn How to Get The Listing on the First Appointment
Every Time!
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Challenges for Sales Professionals
- That Affect Us All!
The most significant challenge for sales professionals
is their time control. How a sales professional uses their
time determines income. The sales professionals in the top 10%
of their industry control, use, and invest their time more wisely
and effectively than the lower performing sales people.
The Champion Performers are more effective with their time blocking schedule than lower performers. The concept of time blocking is not new. Most of us have been exposed to it but have yet to master it. Through years of study and coaching sales professionals, I have observed some common challenges that most sales people experience when trying to master their time blocking schedule.
- Over access problems: The proper screening of calls by an effective gatekeeper can save hours weekly. Too often, issues, problems, and challenges that could be handled by another penetrate the walls and enter our world. These problems could be minor or major in nature, but granting unfiltered access creates large amounts of lost time for many sales people.
There should be a limit in terms of time and people who have access to you. Successful people have a short list of people who have unfiltered access to them. They do not deviate from this short list of people. These people on the short list can interrupt the schedule any hour of the day based on their importance.
My short list includes my wife, my father, my attorney, and a few key associates. The people on the short list are often extremely important to your personal life. There are very few clients that find their way on truly successful people’s short lists.
There should be times in your schedule when you are uninterrupted. The biggest error that sales people make is getting sucked into the interruption game. They have limited structure for their time, so access to them becomes easy. Access should be granted, not taken. You are the controller of access.
- Location Issues: The nature of your physical office can effect production dramatically. It can effect drastically how you use your time.
There are two issues in regard to location for real estate Agents and teams:
- The size of the practice versus size of the space of your work environment.
- Your personal office must be private.
These two areas often are detrimental to production increases. If you don’t have enough square footage for yourself and your staff, your production is stunted.
I had a client a handful of years ago who did 150 transactions with her and three associates out of 150 square feet of office space. They were tripping over each other. They were constantly searching to find things they needed in their office. It was amazing they did the production they did out of the limited space they had.
When they increased their space to 500 square feet a dramatic production increase happened for them. They had the discipline, talent, and skill to increase production. Their physical space limited the growth opportunities. The issue of space is essential for a growing business.
The other critical issue is private space for the Champion Agent. There are too many focused activities in a day for the Champion Agent to be in the bullpen of activity. If your staff surrounds you, you’re in the wrong place.
A Champion Agent needs their own private office away from distractions and staff. The only way to control their planning and prospecting environment is to make them exclusive to you.
The one way to prospect consistently, and with focus, is to have a private office environment. If you have the buzz of the staff, inbound phone calls, problems, and challenges, even a Champion Agent will be tempted to engage in helping. The tendency is for us to jump back into the issues of servicing at the expense of our new business creation.
- Appointment Issues: Successful professionals operate on an appointment-only basis. Your doctor, dentist, or attorney operates based on appointments that you set with them. Too many agents are willing to meet at all hours of the day and night. The Champion Agent creates appointment slots and drives prospects into those slots. The goal is efficient and effective use of your time; to see production with every minute you invest in your career.
Studies have shown that 80% of your prospects will meet with you in your schedule. The reason they don’t is because we don’t want them to. We allow them to dictate appointment times. We juggle our schedule to reflect their needs. We then justify that because we are in a “service oriented” business. We feel that being available to them is equal to service. Operating as a professional on an appointment-only basis is more valuable than running your business on a referral-only basis.
- Excessive Distractions: We are the most interrupted and distracted professionals on the face of the planet. We experience distractions from phone calls. These phone calls, for most Agents, come on their office, home, and cell phones. Most Agents never get away from the distractions of the phone. We have the distractions of e-mail. More often than not the e-mail is not a lead. It’s the fastest offer for Viagra or another unsolicited e-mail. If it is a lead, the conclusion ratio of Internet leads is less than 1%. Why give in to a 1% conclusion ratio if you are engaged in productive activities currently. Other Agents can be a distraction, as well. They can interrupt your rhythm and flow. They can also tempt you to join their coffee and donut group.
There are two effective techniques to use to control distractions. The first is to plan for them. If you want to socialize with other agents, then plan a set time to do that. Block the time in your schedule in terms of the exact day and time. It’s acceptable to socialize, provided it’s of short duration and you have planned for it.
The second is creating a list of people who are granted instant access. Have your assistant memorize the list. If you don’t have an assistant, then work with your receptionist. Have her memorize and know who is granted unfiltered access. If you create a list larger than five people, then trim it down. The list should be five people or less. My list consists of my wife, my attorney, a financial advisor, and my sales manager. Any one else could get filtered out and scheduled for a call later in the day. Who is on your list?
The real secret to highly productive people is they accomplish more of high value with their time. They control their time rather than letting it control them. They minimize the distractions they face daily.
Lastly, they position themselves, through appointments, to be Agents in command. We all have a choice to be an Agent on demand. This is being at people’s beck and call all hours of the day and night. The other option is an Agent in command, where you dictate, control, and create your business and clients. That is the Champion Agent approach!
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Dirk Zeller
My NEW Book
In Stores Now!
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Customized Coaching Programs
to Fit YOUR Budget
& Production Goals
For
more information on how we can grow your business together
through coaching, fill out the form below:
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List on Purpose - Make Sales by Accident
The focus of the lead agent’s prospecting should be to generate listing prospects. We are not in the business of generating any old lead. As the lead agent of a Champion Team, your focus must be on listings. The buyer’s agents can generate buyer leads in the right system. They will even generate listing leads occasionally. Your time, energy, and focus must be devoted to generating and converting listing prospects.
The best way to ensure your buyer’s agents’ success is a large listing inventory. The buyer’s agents often starve and fail because the lead agent didn’t establish a large enough listing inventory. Listings will always possess unfair power to create exponential business through ad calls, sign calls, open house opportunities, Internet leads, call capture opportunities, and many other passive sources of lead generation. Some of these will happen magically while you and your team are asleep in your beds. You have to list on purpose.
The selling by accident heading is just that – you will sell other homes by accident. You could even sell the home you have listed by accident through another agent, yourself, or your team.
When I am coaching one of my Champion Agent clients, I really focus on the number of listings that need to be taken that month and that quarter. Since we create such a complete business plan for their year, we clearly know the benchmarks for each month and quarter. Even when they fall behind in the number of listings sold, it bothers them more than it bothers me. If they continue to secure the number of new listings per month that their plan requires, and they price them competitively, the sales will come.
Most markets will experience four to five major sales spurts throughout the course of the year. These sales spurts usually cannot be predicted; they just happen. As a lead agent, your objective is to develop a bank of listings that will enable you to take advantage of the spurt while still having some inventory after it is over. You will know you are in a spurt when showings increase rapidly, you start to receive offers, and the urgency of the buyers seems to have increased.
If you only have a handful of listings (for example, fewer than five), you could come out of the spurt with five sales but no inventory of listings to generate leads from in the future. If you are behind in listings sold for the year, don’t panic until you look at your active listing inventory. If you are on track to your goals in listings taken, sometimes all you will need to do is wait. We are assuming that your listings are the best priced (with the best value) inventory in the marketplace. If you don’t have the best price and best value, the upcoming spurt will influence your sales to a lesser degree. You must reposition the properties in terms of pricing to take advantage of the next spurt.
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
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"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! < <
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All for $497...$297
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I Want to Learn More
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Teleseminars
• 7 Keys to building a marketplace-dominating Real Estate Team
- September 13th
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Your 1st Year in Real Estate: Making the Transition
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