In This Issue...

• Words From a Champion
• Customer Service
• Developing the Skill of Qualifying
• The Hiring Process of an Assistant

Words From a Champion

We are being bombarded daily with how the Internet and new technology is going to make us as REALTORS® obsolete.  I think the opposite trend is happening.

John Naisbitt’s great book, Mega Trends, introduced the principle of high tech/high touch.  I think his principles are coming true.  John’s theory was that the more technology creates automation in life, which includes sales opportunities and customer service opportunities.  The more people will desire the human touch in their relationships with professionals.  The more they will crave personal attention in their business transactions.  The bottom line is people will want someone in their transactions that care about them and have a desire to help them.

The more techno we get the more people will appreciate the personal touch of a great salesperson.  The technology will allow us to see more people and provide more consistent service.  In the end it’s your personal touch that will set you apart.

Focus today on making the personal touch with your clients special.  Make sure that you take the extra moment to call them by name.  Take the time to thank them for doing business with you.  We certainly need to appreciate our clients.

Focus on success today,

Dirk Zeller
CEO
Real Estate Champions, Inc

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Customer Service

Giving great customer service is difficult because each person you are dealing with has his or her own definition of what great customer service entails.  Mark McCormack, in his book on selling, describes great customer service this way, “You can be doing the best job in the world for your client, but if there’s something missing, if the client is unhappy, then all your opinions about your performance are worthless.  Great service is a matter of perception.  Great service is what the client thinks it is.” 

The first step to providing great customer service is to find out what it is to the customers you are working with now.  On the listing appointment you could ask the sellers this question: “Because I desire to provide the highest level of customer service, what are your specific expectations of me?  What are your expectations regarding my communication with you?  What other services can I provide for you?”  When you go through those questions, you will have a very clear picture of their definition of customer service.  This knowledge will enable you to exceed their expectations and provide exceptional service to them as clients. 

The second step is to create the systems and procedures that will enable you to provide exceptional customer service.  Set up procedures of communication.  If you agreed to call them once a week to update them, then do it every week without fail.  Pre-schedule the calls in your contact manager.  This reminder will ensure that you make the call.  If you agreed to do a written report monthly, then block out a few hours once a month to complete all the written reports to your clients.  The more automated you become, the more consistently you will be able to provide exceptional service every time.  Most consumers equate consistency of communication with customer service. 

Lack of communication is the largest complaint consumers have against REALTORS®.  Resolve today to start a weekly or bi-weekly communication vehicle for your clients.  Even if you have nothing to report, you need to check in.  The clients will appreciate that you held up on your commitment to contact them.  They will respect you for your integrity of purpose.  The only way that you will be able to do that is through your contact manager i.e. On Line Agent, ACT!, Top Producer, Goldmine, etc., etc.  The contact with your clients must be preprogrammed.  All additional needs of your customers must be noted and created, so you can ensure the timely completion.  Don’t leave to chance your ability to create clients for life.  You may get busy and drop the ball mentally.  It’s very easy to overlook your commitments when your life and business are in chaos.  Systematize your mailing, phone contacts, and correspondence.  It’s the only way to ensure the result you and your clients are looking to achieve. 

Make sure you clearly know the standard they have for customer service.  All clients desire to have that standard met.  If you can’t meet it, refer them to someone who can before you enter into the relationship.  Then move on and find other clients.

Developing the Skill of Qualifying

The most important skill in sales is qualifying.  It is the ability to separate the non-motivated buyers and sellers from the motivated ones who want to do something now.  Top-producing Agents know how to do this quickly and efficiently.  They have a specific step-by-step series of questions that remove the unmotivated people from their lives.  We are going to delve into the skill of qualifying buyers.

We must develop a series of questions that will ferret out motivation.  The focus is to find out their time frame and level of passion to move.  One question that tests motivation is, “How long have you been looking for a home?”   The longer the time the buyer has been looking, the lower the motivation.  We have to wonder why a buyer has not been able to find a home in six months.  Are they looking for something that doesn’t exist?  Are their expectations too high for the marketplace?  Do they just enjoy the process of kicking foundations?  When someone said to me that they had been looking for more than 90 days, I wanted to know what they were looking for and the reasons why they hadn’t found it yet.

Another question is, “Do you need to sell your current home before you can buy?”  The follow-up question is, “Are you currently on the market?”  Most people need to sell their home before they can buy.  A great percentage of them want to find a house before they put theirs on the market.  This approach seems to be backwards.  Most sellers truly can’t buy anything since they have to sell first.  They often want us to invest a large percentage of our time finding them the perfect home prior to listing theirs.

One of our rules when I was an Agent was that buyers had to list their property now for us to work with them.  We did not want to work without the opportunity of getting paid.  Since the buyers have to list their home sometime, why not now?  Why delay the inevitable if they truly want to sell?  If their plans changed, we would withdraw the listing. 

Another critical question is to ask, “Are you working with another Agent?”  Too often, we rush out to show one of our listings only to find out that they are working with another Agent.  We just spent 30 minutes of our time and never got compensated.

In my career, I got some unbelievable responses from prospects on the phone regarding why they hadn’t contacted their Agent about showing them the property.  Responses ranged from “My Agent is out of town” to “I did not want to bother him.”  They wanted to bother me and then get their Agent to write the sales agreement if they decided to purchase it.  Our policy was, if buyers are working with another Agent, he can show them the home.  That is what their Agent is getting paid to do.

Another question is, “Have you met with a lender yet?”  This question will start the process of determining their ability to purchase.  Truly motivated purchasers meet with lenders.  If they have not and they have been looking for six months, are they motivated buyers?

Next determine if they have been pre-qualified or pre-approved.  There is a world of difference in these terms and the buyers don’t know the difference.  The focus needs to be to get them to meet with your lender.  If they meet with your loan officer, you will have solidified your position with them.

Once you have determined that they are motivated to buy, and they aren’t working with another Agent, you need to find out their real estate needs.  These questions identify the property and area that they are looking for.

1. What type of home are you looking for?
2. What size of home are you looking for?
3. What price range?
4. What areas are you considering?

Then the big question is, “If we could find the home in the area that you desire are you prepared to purchase it now?”  If you get a favorable response, set an appointment with them to help them find their new home.

Top-producers have a specific set of questions that they ask.  Their success is not based on chance; it is based on a well-designed system.  Develop your system today.

If you'd like a complete step-by-step Buyer Conversion System check out "Convert & Commit the Buyer Every Time!™" go here.

The Hiring Process of an Assistant

Once you have made the commitment to hire an assistant, you will begin the process of hiring someone for the job.

Do not be in a hurry to fill your available positions.  Staff turnover is a major money-loser for your business.  The lost productivity and time in rehiring and retraining is astounding.  Make it your goal to hire the right person the first time.  It is better to invest more time up front to get the right person than to hire a person who will then have to adapt to the situation.  The effort to make the person fit the job rarely yields good results.  Again, the old adage of hire slow and fire fast is true!

Prior to beginning the interview process, clearly define the compensation package.  Determine your policies on compensation, sick time, vacation time, insurance, and retirement plan.  To some people, these areas of compensation are at least as important as the hourly wage.  My advice on compensation is keeping it simple.  I find that most agents use these complex systems of compensation with hourly wages, bonus systems, and pay-per-transaction bonuses like $100 per closing.  There are a number of problems with these kooky models.  The first is we usually design the model to create incentive for performance.  That’s how we think as salespeople, not how a good administrative assistant thinks.  They want to be able to have the security of knowing what they are going to get paid.  They want to be able to budget and control their money.  This is especially true if you hire a high S/C behavioral style.  They want security, and the monthly salary or hourly pay is that security.

By giving them a percentage of the gross or pay based on a pre-determined amount per closing, you are setting them and yourself up for failure in two areas.  The areas are extreme success or failure.  Failure in a month or two of low closing numbers can change their attitude, stress level, and performance.

Say, for example, you are compensating this assistant with $100 per closing.  Things are going fine for a number of months.  You are closing six transactions a month, so she is getting her $600.  In her mind, she has $600 a month in compensation monthly, so she goes out and buys a new car on payments and a few other items she has been putting off.  Then, you hit a rough patch in production.  Those six closings a month drops to two for two months in a row.  She is down $400 a month for two months.  She can’t pay for her new car now, and it’s your fault (in her mind).  It is your fault, not because of the production drop, but because you created a losing compensation plan. 

Pay your assistant the going rate in the marketplace without these transaction incentives.  If you have a good quarter, give her a bonus for helping, based on how you feel she did.  Don’t create any kind of bonus system where they can begin to project what they might earn.  That will get you into trouble.  They begin to expect it and live on it.  A bonus should be unexpected, not planned for by the receiver.  The frequency should be determined by the amount you can afford.  I wouldn’t pay a bonus monthly as some agents do.  Why just give someone a couple hundred dollars a month?  That amount is too little.  Save that money up and give them $500 at the end of the quarter or $1,000 at the sixth month mark.  Give them an amount they can use to get something that they will have longer than a dinner out.  A bonus should allow them to buy that new TV, I-POD, couch, or a memorable trip.  It should allow them to take a long weekend away with their significant other.  In the monthly approach, the amount is probably not big enough.

We also can run into trouble when things go really well.  We hire an assistant on a straight percentage of gross sales.  They get 10%, 15%, or even 20% of your gross.  You make $200,000 a year and have for the last few years.  You find someone who is willing to ride the ups and downs with you for 15% of the gross.  I can guarantee they won’t be a high S/C behavioral style.  That is not their definition of security.  The assistant is doing a great job, and your production grows to $350,000 the first year.  The assistant is really happy; she was expecting about $30,000 and made $52,000.  That’s a 75% increase in her pay over what she expected.  The next year is another great year; you are now at $500,000 in gross, and she is paid $75,000.  That’s a 150% increase in two years!

I had a client who started working with me with exactly this structure.  I begged her to change it because, based on her talent, she was going to explode her business.  She didn’t listen, and after the second year of explosive business growth, she paid her assistant (only administrative) about $150,000.  She had to go back and try to re-negotiate the compensation plan down and lost a good assistant.  The truth is she could have had three really top-notch people for the same $150,000.  There is no way one person can do the same volume of work as three people in administration.  Keep your comp plan simple!

The first step is to determine what qualifications you are looking for in an assistant.  Write down five to ten qualifications you want this person to have.  Qualifications may include computer background and a minimum amount of experience.  Determining what you are looking for will make it much easier to find the right person.

The next step is to submit an ad to the local newspaper or find an Internet job-listing site.  Most job hunters look in the Sunday paper or on the Internet for employment.  It is important to have an ad that will draw qualified candidates to apply for the position.  You may want to run the ad one or two weeks, depending on the response you receive.  Following is an ad that could be used for an administrative assistant position.  The bolded items need to be changed to reflect your information.

If you are set up with Internet service, you could also have your e-mail address listed as another way for job applicants to submit their resumes.

After the ad has been published, you will start to receive resumes for the position from candidates.  The next step is to go through the resumes to determine which applicants meet your qualifications and whom you want to interview for the position.  Using a three pile system of “Yes”, “No”, and “Maybe” will help you narrow it down fast. 

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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