In This Issue...

• You are the Best of the Best!
• Developing a Winning Mindset - A Champion's Mindset
• Business Plan - A New Look At It!
• The Price of Leading a Team - Part 2

You are the Best of the Best!

Because you are the best of the best in agents your challenges are greater.  The better you get at the little challenges; the larger challenges will be attracted to you.

I remember conversation with one of our clients a few years ago.  It was all about the change in the agents in her market place toward her when she started to dominate the market place.  She was taking heat and criticism for no reason.  I remember saying to her the better you get the bigger the target you have on your back.  I certainly learned that from personal experience.  For all of you Real Estate Champions out there, the target is increasing at an alarming rate.

Some of you are struggling with these changes from other agents.  Some of you are struggling with family. You hear them criticize your service or complain that you must be doing something unethical or wrong.  I heard it for years as an agent.  You can’t let it affect your desire to succeed …to win the game.  Dale Carnegie said, “Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain – and most fools do.”  There is an old saying where there is much sun there is much shadow.  Understand that many of you are casting a very big shadow.

The truth is that we are in competition for listings and sales.  Many of you have heard me say there is no second place.  The real breakfast of champions is not Wheaties.  It’s the competition.

We are all here to play to win.  We at Real Estate Champions are focused on preparing you to win.  To be a real winner we need to play to win everyday.  We must also know that winning is only worthwhile when you win with your principles intact.  Knute Rockne, the famous Notre Dame football coach said, “Some people think that the will to win is a bad thing.  In what way is it bad?”  Ultimately in life someone wins and others lose …why not insure you come out on the winning side?  What is the one thing you need to do this week to insure that you win more frequently?  Rockne further said, “Life is competition.  Success in life goes only to the person who competes successfully.  There is nothing wrong with the will to win.”

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 Developing a Winning Mindset, Business Planning, and The Price of Leading Your Team.

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.

"What Would Owning a Master Coach's Blueprint Help Your Team Become?"

The Champion Real Estate Team™

Sequels to movies usually stink! Don't you agree?

They hardly ever live up to the original in the series. Book sequels however, are often better than the original. It seems that authors tend to evolve in their ability to convey their strategies, ideas, and concepts such that the reader tends to benefit more from each book in a series.

"This Book Takes You to the
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Well, today I'm proud to announce The Champion Real Estate Team™. It's the follow-up sequel to my greatest work to-date, The Champion Real Estate Agent™.

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The Champion Real Estate Team™ takes you to the next level in Real Estate Success - the one I believe (as well as many other Real Estate Experts) is the key to a successful future if you're in Real Estate Sales... the Real Estate Team!

This book is really a step-by-step blueprint of how to establish a well run team. It is packed with how-tos, systems, strategies, processes, and ideas for implementation that will transform your business. Having personally established one of the first multi-assistant teams in my region, I have seen the evolution of real estate teams for over fifteen years. My experience in applying these strategies in the initial stages of my business, along with the hundreds of other agents' team practices I have coached in the last nearly ten years, has created this book.

Come Join Me for a
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To your achievement of the next level of success in life,

Dirk Zeller
CEO
Real Estate Champions, Inc

Developing a Winning Mindset - A Champion's Mindset

One of the key characteristics that successful people have is a winning mindset.  They have learned over time to program their mind for success.  That’s what gives them the edge in competitive situations.  This mindset allows them to hit the winning shot at the buzzer, sink the crucial putt on the 18th hole to win the tournament, or get the listing signed . . . even when they are up against the best Agents in town.  The question is why do some people have it and others don’t?  How can you ensure that you acquire the winning mindset?  Let me take you through the development of a winning mindset.

1. Record and replay the tape: Now, I don’t mean that you have to record yourself on a recorder.  You do need to write down on paper (and track) your victories.  We all have a lot of victories daily, weekly, and monthly.  We just have a hard time remembering them.  If we record them, we can review them during the challenges we are facing.  When we lose our self-confidence, we can build it through reviewing our past victories.  A lot of our victories, we will find, come out of a very challenging problem or struggle we are having.  This review will also show us the direct correlation between the challenges we face and the victories we have.  The key is to review them regularly.  Review them, so you can invest them to pay dividends today – and tomorrow.

2. Understand the game you are playing:  The highest peak performers understand the game they are playing – how to score and win.  To master the game of real estate, you must understand that the primary rule in the game of real estate is: There is no second place.  When I was younger, I played racquetball professionally.  I always had a philosophy that if I finished second, it was the same as losing.  I could have won all the other matches to the final, but losing the final was as bad as losing in the first round.  For me, there was no second place.  Real Estate is the same way.  Either you list the home, or you don’t.  Either you sell the buyer a home, or you don’t.  Have you ever gotten paid for coming in second?  When the seller says to you, “It was between you and another Agent to list our home, and we chose the other Agent”, you don’t get paid – they do.  Second place does not make the mortgage payment.  Make sure you are playing to win.  Understand the stark reality of the business that we are in.  Develop the focus that you need to compete at the highest level.

3. The secret edge: Believe in yourself.  The best of the best in life believe in themselves.  Michael Jordan believed to his core that he was the best.  His belief, and his sheer will to win, created the best basketball player ever.  I read an article about a survey in which professional golfers were asked, “If you had one putt to win a major championship, who would you pick to putt it?”  Almost all of them chose Jack Nickalaus.  Why, because he knew he was the best and had the ability to will the ball into the hole.  When I sold real estate, I truly believed I was the best Agent for the job.  That belief extended beyond just my market place.  The question is what do you believe?  When your confidence goes up, your competence goes up at the same time.  Program your mind, through affirmations, that you are the best. Say aloud daily: “I am a great salesperson”, “I am the best Agent someone can hire to do the job”, “I provide exceptional service to my clients”.  You must drive your belief deep.  It truly is the secret weapon for all peak performers. 

We must invest time daily to develop the winning mindset.  Take the time to record your victories.  Review them daily, weekly, and monthly.  Work to improve your belief in yourself.  We all came from the same creator.  He didn’t create any junk.  You have it inside you to be exceptional.  The secret edge is belief.

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Business Plan - A New Look At It!

The business plan is a foreign tool to most REALTORS^®.  After studying, observing, interviewing, and coaching thousands of Agents, I have concluded that very few have taken the time to create a quality business plan.  Fewer still review their business plan on a regular basis.  The few who have good business plans often make them so complicated that they possess little value.  Those Agents create such a complex business plan that they will never carry it out.  What kind of value does this complex business plan have to them? . . .  Zero!

A well-written, concise business plan can provide an exceptional road map to guide your quarter, year, or next five years.  Most well-run companies have well-developed business plans.  You, as an Agent, are the President of your own real estate sales company.  You have to view yourself as the head of a corporation that needs direction, vision, and a well-conceived road map to follow.  The business plan can provide all these tools that lead to success.

To create a quality business plan, you have to know where you are today – right now – in your business.  You have to ask some basic questions about your business.

1. How much do I want to earn in gross commission?
2. Where does my business come from?
3. What is my average commission check?
4. What is my average cost per transaction?
5. How many days am I going to work this year?
6. How many hours per day am I going to work?
7. What things do I need to implement to take my business to the next level?

The best place to start is at the top.  Ask yourself, “How much do I want to earn?”  You can have total control of your income.  You can make as much or as little as you desire.  The only person or thing that determines your income is you.  The market, other Agents, and other outside factors have very little control over your income.  You alone have absolute and complete control.

Once you determine the amount you want to earn, break it down to quarterly, monthly, and weekly amounts.  For example, if you decide to earn $500,000 next year, you need to earn $125,000 per quarter, $41,666 per month, or $9,615 per week.  Secondly, you need to determine where your business comes from.  Figure out the percentage of transactions that are done in every category.  Let’s say you closed seventy-five deals last year.  The break down was thirty from referrals, fifteen from open houses, eighteen from sign calls, and twelve from expireds. 

Here is the breakdown in percentages:

• 40%            Referrals
• 24%            Sign calls
• 20%            Open houses
• 16%             Expireds

You should also know the ratio or percentage of listings sold versus buyer controlled sales.

The next exercise is to determine your average commission check.  Take your gross commission and divide by the number of transactions.  For the purpose of our example, we will use $5,500 as the average commission check.  You want to earn $500,000 next year.  In order to do that, you divide $500,000 by $5,500 which equals 91 transactions.  You will need to close an additional 16 transactions next year to reach your goal.  

Then figure out the number of transactions you need in each category.

• 40% of 91 = 37 transactions from referrals
• 24% of 91 = 22 transactions from sign calls
• 20% of 91 = 18 transactions from open houses
• 15% of 91 = 14 transactions from expireds

You can break these numbers down to a quarterly, monthly, and weekly number of transactions from each category.  This break down will give you a clear path to achieve your income goal.  If you do the number of transactions you need weekly, by year’s end, you will achieve your goal.

Then you need to break down each category of business:  referrals, sign calls, open houses, and expireds.  You need to figure out exactly what you need to do to create the results you desire.  The further you can break your business down, the easier the overall goal is to achieve.  It is easier to achieve your goals if you can break them down to daily activities.  All you have to do is the daily activities to achieve the desired results.

Another important factor is profitability. You determine your profitability by subtracting your gross expenses from your gross commission dollar.  The critical point is to not forget any of your expenses.  Organize all of your expenses into categories such as automobile, staff, mailings, marketing, office supplies, etc.  You are only fooling yourself if you are not accurate.  Take your gross expenses and divide them by the number of transactions.  For example, gross expenses of $95,000 / 75 = $1,267, which is what it costs you to close one transaction in our example.  You can see how profitable you really are in your business if you follow this example.

To answer questions five and six, you need to address your work days and hours.  You need to factor them in against the work that needs to be done.  Then allocate the work that needs to be completed to the number of days worked.  This process will give you a schedule of what needs to be accomplished daily.

The last section of a well-planned business plan is implementing new ideas or systems.  Determine the weaknesses in your business and devise a plan to overcome them.  Do not overdo in this area because, often, when Agents over implement, they slow their business down to a crawl.  Since everyone is different and all staffs are different, a good rule of thumb is:  Do not implement more than two major changes in a month.  Determine what needs to be completed.  Prioritize your list, and then devise a plan to implement changes at specific times.

If you'd like step-by-step help on building your own business plan with a system that will enable you to track (& promote) your progress click here for more information about the Champion Tracker™ Online Success Tool.

The Price of Leading a Team - Part 2

Another investment I have identified as a huge limiting step for most agents and their teams in the real estate business is a barrier to massive success.  Until this step is removed, all the other changes, adjustments, and gyrations will bring about limited results.  This limiting step is sales skills!

Too many agents, even ones who are trying to build teams, have invested little time in their individual sales skills.  The new agents coming out of sales careers where they have received exceptional fundamental sales training earn a large income early in their careers.  There is a direct correlation between sales skills and high gross commission for most agents.  A true Champion Lead Agent has impeccable sales skills.  Now, before you assume that you’re in that category, let’s take an honest evaluation of your real sales skills.

How are you at your scripts and dialogues to generate the lead and drive the lead to an appointment?  Where are your conversion ratios?  How strong is your listing presentation, especially when you are competing against a good agent?  How long is that presentation; are you there over an hour?  Can you get the buyer to come into your office for a consultation?  Do they sign the buyer’s agency contract every time after your consultation?  How are you at responding to objections in sales?  Can you clearly convey the benefits of doing business with you?  Is your thirty-second elevator speech dialed?  Do you really close on the client at the end of every presentation, or do you wait for them to close themselves? 

One of the key investments of your time resource needs to be in the sales skills development area.  I have met too many agents who are somewhat successful or even moderately successful, but their sales skills are atrocious.  You will also need to invest large amounts of time in the sales skills of your team members   This is clearly one segment of the price one must pay to be a Champion Lead Agent who has a Champion Team.

Another price is to prospect consistently.  It doesn’t take a Champion to prospect and look for business when they are broke.  Anyone (even poor performers) does a little prospecting when they are broke and have no listings or sales or good leads that will convert to dollars soon.  The true Champion prospects consistently and pays the price even when they are busy.  They find the time and structure it, rather than make the time each day to generate new leads.  We have to invest our resources of time to create more revenue and success.  A Champion Team Leader mandates that all of their sales assistants prospect consistently, as well.  They monitor and manage those prospecting standards in terms of contacts, leads, appointments, and conversion ratios.

The real question is, are you willing to pay the price?  Deep down inside, we know some of what we need to do.  The question is, are we willing to do it?  Are you willing to invest the time, energy, emotion, and money to become a Champion Lead Agent?  Are your people willing to invest with you side-by-side to become a Champion, as well?

I want to be a Champion parent to my children.  I have to be willing to invest my time, my energy, my emotion, and what seems like a lot of money, to be that Champion parent and raise Champion children.  I have to be willing to win the moments when it’s a battle of wills even when I am dead tired.  I have to somehow and somewhere find that reserve tank and tap into it even when I really don’t want to pay the price today or don’t feel like doing it.  When I am tired of reading Green Eggs and Ham for the thousandth time, I do it anyway.  When it would be easier to switch on the tube than get on the floor, I get on the floor with my kids.  That’s what a Champion Dad would do. 

A Champion is ready and willing to make the sacrifice that is necessary.  The challenge for most people climbing the ladder of success to becoming a Champion Team Leader is knowing when and how much sacrifice is necessary.  The key is making the right sacrifice needed for the situation.  Too often, agents who want to build a team expect to give up too much.  I was speaking with an agent the other day who wanted to be one of the top agents in his marketplace.  Based on his comments, I knew he thought the only path to real estate sales success was being a workaholic.  As we spoke further, he began to understand there were other, better avenues of success other than a 70-hour work week; that he could achieve a large, successful sales practice by putting forth the effort of sacrifice plus a little bit more.

I don’t believe people need to work 70-hour workweeks to achieve success.  It only demonstrates how inefficient one is with the use of their time in activities.  It also speaks to a lack of skills that create revenue.  Conversely, I do not believe people achieve wealth and success by working a typical 40-hour workweek as most workers do.  I know that to achieve success and wealth and quality of life, you have to sacrifice by putting in a little more effort than the next guy.  Once you have increased your skill level to the Champion’s level, you can go well below a 40-hour workweek and still earn a large income.  It’s the climb up the success mountain that too many people either don’t give enough or give too much to.  In terms of work hours, if you are in a growth stage of your business, I believe around 50-hours a week is required.

Too many of us stop short of what is needed and required.  Because we have allocated fewer resources than required, the results are guaranteed to fall short of expectations.  Others sacrifice more than is needed, which is a waste of resources.  You can kill a fly with a bomb, but it’s really more sacrifice, resources, and power than is necessary.  The question is are you currently making the right amount of sacrifice to be a Champion Lead Agent and be prepared to build a Champion Team?

It won’t be as easy as it looks.  Here is my guarantee to you: It will be tougher to build a Champion Team than you imagine.  What even you feel it will take in terms of time, effort, energy, and capital – multiply that by two.  That will bring you closer to a realistic view of your cost to build a Champion Team.  You will make hiring mistakes, management mistakes, system development mistakes, prospecting and lead follow-up mistakes.  You are going to encounter problems and challenges with every step you take.  As long as you accept that mistakes will happen, it will be easier to deal with them when the come.

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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