In This Issue...
Words of a Champion
Dirk Zeller
CEO
We just completed the “How to Use Proven and Powerful Scripts & Dialogues to Increase Your Income in Today’s Market” Webinar and what an event it was! It was exciting to watch the attendees learn about tools, scripts, and strategies to help them convert prospects at a much higher level, convince Sellers to price their homes competitively to get more of their inventory SOLD, and build urgency in Buyers so they will make a decision and act NOW!
Even though the “How to Use Proven and Powerful Scripts & Dialogues to Increase Your Income in Today’s Market” Webinar is over, if you missed it there is still an opportunity for you to gain the same knowledge and insight shared with the attendees. This Webinar was based off of my new product “Mastering Powerful Scripts and Dialogues in a Changing Marketplace”. This product includes all the scripts and dialogues covered in the Webinar and countless more! Don’t miss your opportunity to gain the edge over your competition by learning the scripts and dialogues you should be having with your prospects in TODAY’S market. Get your copy today by going to http://www.realestatechampions.com/MSD/.
I will continue to strive to bring relevant, current information, and tools for you to be successful no matter the condition of the market.
To Your Achievement of GREATER success,
Dirk Zeller, CEO
RealEstateChampions.com
P.S. To help you resolve to stay in touch with leads, clients, and referrals you will want to check out our free webinar on the SendOutCards system. This FREE webinar will cover exactly how you can build long-lasting relationships with your clients and cultivate solid referrals with the powerful SOC system. You’ll never forget a birthday, anniversary, or holiday again, and you’ll have the ability to follow up with your clients for 4+ years with just a few clicks! Make sure to reserve your FREE spot today by clicking here.
|
To
get FREE, instant access to
YOUR copy of the Video Training & Bonus Tools Dirk
mentioned,
Please type your first name and
e-mail address below.
* PRIVACY POLICY: We respect your privacy and promise to never share your e-mail address.
Checking Your Prospect's DNA
Based on your qualifying efforts, determine the likelihood that your prospect will convert into a good client for your business by conducting a DNA analysis. This involves measuring the prospect’s level of desire, need to take action, and ability and authority to make a purchase or selling decision.
D for Desire
Desire or motivation is the strongest indicator of a successful business outcome. A prospect’s burning desire can overcome all other deficiencies, including a lack of financial capacity or purchase ability.
The summer before my junior year in college, I painted houses to earn money for my tuition, books, and room and board. When I started work on the last house of the summer, I learned that the owner was selling a 1976 BMW 2002. I wanted that car, even though buying it would take all my summer earnings and college savings. My parents tried to counsel me away from this foolish idea. My ability to buy was limited due to money, but my desire was greater than my lack of ability. I ended up borrowing the money for the car and still covered my college costs. This creative ingenuity didn’t please my parents at all. Looking back, it wasn’t one of the smarter decisions I have made in the last 25 years. But it did teach me a lesson about the power of desire or motivation to compensate for all other shortcomings.
Let me give you one caution: Desire is not the same as interest. Anyone can have interest. Interest doesn’t reflect intent, and it doesn’t indicate a high probability of action. If a prospect says, “I have an interest in selling,” probe deeper to see if there is real desire to sell, or just interest.
I have found that many “interested” shoppers are looking for something that doesn’t exist. Truly, I’ve heard interested prospects say, basically, “If you can get me $50,000 above market value for my house, and you can find one I can buy at $75,000 below market value, I’ll list my home with you.”
Get real! The truth is, if I could find a property for $75,000 below market I wouldn’t sell it to him; I’d buy it myself, and so should you!
N for Need
A need is a specific and identifiable problem that your service can help a prospect overcome.
Many prospects’ needs stem from lifestyle changes that prompt environment changes. A family expecting another child needs a larger home. Empty nesters tired of yard work and home upkeep want to move to a maintenance-free condo. A divorce requires one household to become two households, forcing a home sale and several purchases in the aftermath. The need to buy or sell based on environmental changes such as these prompt the majority of real estate transactions each year.
One of the reasons I worked expired listings was because the owners’ level of need was so apparent. After sitting with an unsold home for months or longer, the sellers’ need to find an agent who could solve the problem was pretty clear. My job was merely to convince them that, by working with me, their problem would be solved; that I would deliver a different and positive outcome.
A for Ability and Authority
Clients need both ability and authority to conduct a real estate transaction.
Ability relates to the financial capacity of your prospects. Do they have the financial wherewithal to sell their current home and buy the one of their dreams? Do they have enough equity in their current home? If not, can they borrow a larger sum to buy the one they want, or do they have access to additional funds to achieve their goal?
Authority means the prospect has the power to make the decision; to say yes or no to the deal. Find out: Are you working with the ultimate decision-maker or decision-makers, or is someone else also involved? Will the prospects decide autonomously, or will they seek the guidance or advice of others as they make their decision?
I think agents make a huge mistake when they make listing presentations without both spouses or significant others in attendance. Whether or not both names are on the title matters little. In our family, we own properties that show only my wife’s name on the title, and others that show only mine. This is purely an estate-planning move on our part. If we decided to sell, I guarantee that our input would be equal in decisions about pricing and who should represent our interest in the sale.
By using this DNA analysis of measuring one’s level of desire, needs, and ability and authority you will have an accurate basis for determining the probability of your prospect converting to a good client for your business.
??? Need Help ???
Get FREE Expert Advice from
One of our Professional Real Estate Coaches Today
...Or simply call 1-877-832-9831
Effective Price Verses Value Counseling
We have seen many marketplaces shift nationally in recent years. The skill of price value counseling is a more essential tool than others in the last five years. My contention is most Agents are ineffective or out of practice in this discussion.
The fundamental mistake that most Agents are guilty of is using the wrong terminology. The buzzword most Agents use is price or price of the home. This word is incorrect because it’s not about price; it’s about value. The first step in effective price value discussion is beginning to use the word value instead of price. We need to focus the client on what the value of the home is today, in today’s marketplace and market conditions.
When we look at price and the influence of price, it’s really fundamentally connected to marketing. The raising or lowering of the price of something creates a layer or smaller pool of potential purchasers, based on how the potential purchasers perceive the value. We all make our buying decisions based on value. Our job as Champion Agents is to position the property relatively close to the value to widen the pool of prospective purchasers. Price is clearly a function of marketing, not value.
As an example, a ten-year-old BMW 7 Series car has a certain value. You can price it at $100,000, but the real value of the car is substantially less than that. In fact, the Kelly Blue Book value is right around $15,000. What are the odds (pricing this car at $100,000; $50,000; or even $25,000) that you would receive even close to those figures? As they say in Texas, slim to none, and slim just left town.
To demonstrate our value and why we should be hired, we need to separate price from a value discussion. We must secure agreement on the value of the property before we proceed to a strategic marketing or price discussion. In the end, the value of the home is what we are trying to reflect through our CMA.
Too many Agents still believe that price and value are interchangeable, but they are not. Value relates to what something is really worth; what one could expect to receive in money in the free market. It doesn’t matter what the value was last year, last month, or even last week. Value is determined by the conditions and influences of the marketplace. Too often, sellers get hung up on that fact when the marketplace shifts against them so to speak. They don’t want to view the reality that their home was worth $750,000 a year ago and today, based on supply and demand, is only worth $680,000. Value is extended by the scarcity of something and the ease of replacement with similar, equal, or better products or service. In essence, this all reconnects with the law of supply and demand.
Here are a couple scripts to help you have a price value discussion:
-
“Mr. Smith, many Agents are more concerned with seeing the listing rather than having a real conversation about the value of your property. They will talk in terms of price, not value. They will get you all worked up about the price and set you up for the big surprise. The question is, do you want the truth now or later?”
-
“Mr. Smith, let’s agree to talk in terms of value – what your house is worth. Once we agree on that, we can talk about price, which is really a marketing strategy. Is that agreeable with you?”
"Find Out How to Become One of Only 20 People in an Exclusive Group That Dirk Zeller Will Be Personally Coaching to Dramatically Increase Your Lead
Volume and the Conversion Rate
of
Your Leads in Only 8 Weeks..."
Click Here to Learn More
Weighting Your Time To What Matters
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 power of the 11:00 a.m. rule
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.
I even suggest the extreme approach of not answering your phone until 11:00 in order to minimize the chance of being distracted during your most important production hours.
Help Your Friends
If you have friends and colleagues who would enjoy the
Coaches Corner™ please forward it and invite them to subscribe.
We appreciate your help since your recommendation is how we grow.
Real Estate Champions is committed to partner with you to create
abundance in your business and life.
Learn More Here
