In This Issue...
Words of a Champion
Dirk Zeller
CEO
Consistency is the difference between massive success and a struggle. It is critical to establish the habit of doing the daily disciplines; being consistent in your effort of new business generation leads to big success. Let me share with you an observation I have made. If our goal is to make 10 contacts a day for five days a week, we need to make sure to hit the goal each day. Being off a few days can cause tremendous damage to our income. Let me give you an example:
|
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
Goal |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
Actual |
10 |
03 |
09 |
08 |
04 |
If you looked at this week, you would see it is a typical week for a lot of Agents: a couple of really good days of prospecting, one solid day, and two poor days.
The goal was 50 contacts for the week, but the actual was 35.
The actual is like losing one and a half days of prospecting. If you worked a 50-week year, that’s seventy-five days that had no prospecting. That is almost one quarter of the year. You generally have about three months of zero prospecting. We cannot afford to take a hiatus from new business generation for seventy-five workdays.
Question: Can you afford to be short of your goal in deals and income by one whole quarter?
Can you afford to take one quarter off of prospecting?
This is pretty staggering stuff. It’s about creating a routine and doing it daily. Make the contact effort daily.
To Your Achievement of Greater Success in 2009,
Dirk Zeller, CEO
RealEstateChampions.com
If you’re tired of struggling to keep up with the changes in your marketplace, it’s time that you find out…
Over the past year, I've made it my main goal and have been working extremely hard to give all my faithful Coaches Corner™ subscribers and customers the exact tools they need to thrive in today's down marketplaces, rather than just survive in them.
It's very important to have a clear focus and to implement strategies that have been proven to work in times like these. You don't want to be like the majority of Agents who are simply doing the same things over and over again and expecting better results. When the markets change, you have to change with them!
So today, I'd like to add another important piece to the puzzle with an exciting new Webinar that gives you some of the most critical tools, strategies, and tactics you need to be able to:
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Develop the key mindsets necessary to successfully navigate and thrive in a slow marketplace |
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Identify the Buying and Selling trends in a tough market |
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Acquire and use the tools necessary to attain and sell listing inventory in a slowing marketplace |
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Learn new effective lead generation strategies that you can begin to tap into right away |
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Realize and utilize the many opportunities that you can take advantage of (and that your competition doesn't know about) in a tough marketplace |
Date and Time:
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Wednesday - October 29th , 2008
1:30pm - 3:00pm Eastern
12:30pm - 2:00pm Central
11:30am - 1:00pm Mountain
10:30am - 12:00pm Pacific |
Click Here to Find Out How You Can
Thrive in Your Market Today
Abe Lincoln's Axe
How much time do you spend improving your skills daily or even weekly? The skills of selling real estate include our listing presentation, follow-up systems, prospecting, negotiating, and qualifying, to name a few. It’s your mind, what you say, how you say it. How much time do we actually spend practicing these skills? Do we truly need to practice these skills?
I ran across a quote once that stopped me in my tracks. Abe Lincoln said, “If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend the first four hours sharpening the axe.” He would spend two thirds of his time improving the tools that make him effective at his work. What would your business look like if you spent time sharpening your axe? Your skills in selling real estate are your axe. What if we were to spend even just 30 minutes daily working to become better at selling homes, serving our clients, and running our business? What would the end result be? We would be investing 2.5 hours per week in personal and professional improvement, or 10 hours per month, for a total of 125 hours in a year. That’s three weeks a year of straight work on your skills in selling real estate. Imagine the difference in income for you and the increase of service to your clients with that approach. You won’t miss the 30 minutes at a time that you are investing.
Most of us, when we get to work, do the same thing daily -- we start right in trying to chop down the tree. We don’t evaluate how best to chop down the tree; we just start chopping, and hope that eventually the tree will fall. We keep swinging the axe until the sweat is pouring down, without stopping to consider whether this is the best approach. We expect progress just because we are working so hard, and it is true that by working hard we make good time. But we are often making good time in the opposite direction from our desires in life. The problem is that we don’t know where we are going. Many of us have not clearly defined what we want. We would get much better results from our efforts if we spent the time to sharpen our skills and to think about what we are doing.
Many speakers talk about being efficient. When your efficiency increases, they say, you have won the game. It is true that there is value in increasing your efficiency. Efficiency is great, as long as we are effective as well. But being highly effective is more important than being highly efficient. Let me give you an example. Being efficient is having the skills to drive at 70 mph versus being able to control a car only up to 55 mph. Being effective is taking the most direct route to drive from Denver to Chicago. If you are not focused on effectiveness, you may drive from Denver to Dallas to get to Chicago. The goal is Chicago; even if you can drive at 70 mph the whole way, going to Dallas first wipes out all of your efficiency gains. Take the time to ensure that you are heading directly in the direction you desire; that you are not taking the wrong turn; that you are not stuck on the turnpike of life with no exit for hundreds of miles.
You must spend time to focus on being effective, to “sharpen the axe.” What is your axe in the real estate business? Which tools do you need to spend time sharpening in order to be more effective? Most of us have quite a few things that we need to sharpen in our business. Select one thing that really needs your attention today. Don’t wait until tomorrow -- do it now. Then work, focus, and improve that one area, even if only for 30 minutes a day, to sharpen your axe. You will be amazed at the ease with which you can fell the big trees of life.
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Challenges and Discouragement
We all feel challenges in our lives. These challenges can manifest themselves at work, at home, with our health, in our spiritual life. These challenges are often accompanied by discouragement. Discouragement can often happen when we survey the difficulties that lay before us. We can de-motivate ourselves because of the gap between the reality of where we are and the vision of where we want to be.
The first thing that usually happens when we find ourselves in that place of challenge and discouragement is that we don’t think clearly or rationally. We are often in such a frenzied or frustrated state that we lose all objectivity. This loss of objectivity causes the evaporation of clarity. Often we will not do what would be wise, which is to seek counsel from a trusted advisor. We usually do the opposite, which is to run and hide.
The second thing we do is to separate ourselves from strengthening relationships. We create a distance between the outside world and ourselves. It’s like we go and hide in a cave hoping that things will change. Make sure that you stand your ground with the people who can strengthen you. Stand your ground with your friends, your spouse, and your children. If you have a coach, call him/her immediately to help you move through the challenge and to help hold you accountable to the actions than need to be taken. Most people will tend to want to be alone, and that is the worst thing they can do.
This discouragement can often happen in the backwash of a great victory. Sometimes our most vulnerable moments come after a great victory. We can be vulnerable after a great victory at work or at home. And example would be, you have set a record pace for the first six months. You have earned more money in six months than you did all last year, and then you hit the wall of vulnerability. But now you find yourself in the backwash of a great victory. The great victory only becomes a memory. You have not prepared for this moment, so there is not a counter-assault planned. The energy and emotions that you invested to take the hill are spent, and now you are beginning to slide backward. This backwash can happen in any area of our lives. We could have made great strides with our spouse. We have achieved a mountain top experience in our relationship, and then the backwash hits. You think, “I should be ready for anything,” but then find that you are not. NASA realized this challenge with the astronauts when they came back from the moon. They would have this beyond mountain top experience of personal achievement and then would slide into the abyss of depression. How do you top going to the moon?
The third condition most of us feel, as we face challenges in our lives, is that we become physically exhausted and emotionally spent after we have struggled to reach the pinnacle. As we stretch and strain to achieve greatness, we deplete the tanks of our physical energy and our emotional energy.
The only way to fill them to full again is extended rest and refreshment. If you are pushing empty in both tanks, it will take more than a weekend to complete the re-charge.
There is a Greek saying “You will break the bow if you keep it always bent.” Some of us live under constant stress and tension. The bow never gets unstrung and relaxed. Are you putting yourself under relentless pressure? We will all break under that level of pressure. We must give ourselves time for rest and refreshment. Each person has his/her individual need level for rest and refreshment. I will often tell our clients that it’s essential to learn your “rhythms of work.” Your “rhythms of work” are how long and how hard you can work before burnout hits. When discouragement and frustration overcome you, and you just want to crawl into a ball that is a sure sign that your tanks are too low. We all need to know our “rhythms of work.”
We must also realize that the physical tank will fill up much quicker than the emotional tank. When our emotional tank gets low, it takes longer to fill up again because the filling valve is smaller and slower. However, our body can recharge rather quickly with rest. A solid, restful weekend will usually refill your physical tank. Our emotions and our mind take much longer to recharge. A person might need a week or longer to feel emotionally rested and re-centered in his or her life.
Be sure to protect your emotional tank. Don’t let anyone else control the level of this tank. We often will let our clients take control of these valves. If we turn over the valve controls, we are in for a train wreck.
Lastly, don’t get lost in self-pity. Self-pity can cause you to cultivate a victim mentality. It can say to you that you can’t do any better. Self-pity will lie to you about everything. It will lie that your skills and abilities are not good enough even after your big victory. Self-pity is a pathetic emotion. It is an emotion that will drain your emotional tank rather than fill it. Self-pity is like being face-to-face with a Bengal Tiger. That tiger desires to claw you to shreds. Self-pity wants to get into your mind and do major damage.
Make sure that you stop the challenges and discouragement at your front gate. Don’t separate yourself from your trusted advisors. If you don’t have some trusted advisors seek them out. If you seek you will find. Prepare for the backwash after the victories. It happens to all of us. We have all been blessed with more gifts and talent than we use. Our calling in life is to use them all … daily.
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Assistant Training Checklist
Following is a checklist that can be used for the Assistant’s first day. The checklist includes showing them where the supplies are, phone protocol, and your expectations as the Lead Agent and Business Owner. The checklist is a tool that you can use to help make sure the items are covered in the training process and to help the Assistant become comfortable in the new job.
Assistant Training Checklist
Name: ___________________ Date: _______________
- Office tour (show locations of office equipment, break room, restroom, and time clock).
- Introduction to other team members.
- Explain work hours, lunch hour, and breaks.
- Explain pay periods and pay day. Also, if applicable, explain raises, overtime, vacation pay, and holiday pay.
- If hired under a probationary period, explain when it ends and what could happen if s/he is not fulfilling expectations.
- Provide a job description. Explain that there may be additional tasks that the Assistant will be expected to complete that may not be on the list.
- Have him/her read the Assistant manual and procedural manual.
- Show location of supplies and how to use equipment.
- Explain parking.
- Explain phone protocol and how to handle clients.
- Explain your expectations (being on time, completion of work, etc.)
Date Completed: ___________________
Agent: ___________________
Assistant: ___________________
Dirk Zeller
CEO |
Dear Champion Real Estate Broker,
One of the greatest frustrations for an Agent once they’ve elevated themselves to the Broker/Owner/ Manager position is providing consistent & timely Real Estate Training that gives their sales staff the “knowledge to compete and the skills to win!” Celebrating its fourth year, the Champion Performer Series™ has become a Broker’s favorite for providing LIVE Monthly Training Events to their entire offices.
This series of monthly and semi-annual training programs is designed to deliver timely, time-tested & proven, meat-and-potatoes training that you and the Agents in your office can use right away to grow production numbers and overcome obstacles you may be facing in current market conditions... Learn More.
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