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Words of a Champion

Life gives you many opportunities to ponder, to evaluate your progress and see the results of your labor.  This is one of those moments, with the mid-year point just past, to evaluate, ponder, or replay the tape.
           
I was recently reflecting on the question, “What is the one characteristic that makes someone successful?”    It was one of those moments that you struggle to boil all of your knowledge down into one distilled thought; to remove all the dross of your thoughts to one true nugget of incredible value to all who come in contact with it.  My mind zeroed in on the concept of how our effort dictates our reward in life, our effort being our work or what we do.  In life we create our reward, whether it is financial or relational, by what we do.  It’s not based on intent or what we plan to do but, ultimately, what we actually do.

While pondering, I realized that we do many things, and that some of the things we do have more value than others.  We can often select the wrong thing to do and complete, thereby creating a lot of effort with very little result.  Ultimately, results are the name of the game.  We can easily get faked out with regard to what has the most important value.  The key characteristic of successful people is the skill and ability to focus intensely on their most important task and do it to completion with excellence before moving on to the next task.  If you work at mastering this one skill, or ability, it will transform your life.  This skill will also transform your relationships in your life.  Your business will explode to new heights.  There will be no limits to the exceptional life that you can create.

There is an ancient saying, “Don’t put all of your eggs into one basket.”  My mother would use that old axiom quite a bit when I was growing up.  She would also say to me, “You must keep your options open.”  Today I realize that these sayings are dated and inappropriate to one who seeks success.  You must put your focus and effort into the “one basket.”  To zero in on the one task, or most important task, that must be done right now.  To single-mindedly do what will have the biggest impact and take it to completion is essential to success.  What is the one basket that you need to work on right now?  What is the one thing every day that will create the biggest impact on your business?  Only then, when it is done, can you look for another “basket” to work on.

Too often we have ten to fifteen baskets open with our hands, efforts, and focus going into all of them at once.  We can often move them along but never get them done and completed and then moved off our agenda.  The skill to select the most important task right now and take it to completion is the difference between massive success and failure.

So, I ask again, what is your one basket right now?  What is the one task or activity that you need laser-minded focus on to complete?  What must be done and completed today?  What can’t wait and will bring you the biggest return?  Set some time aside to do it now.  Then, before you leave today, select the one thing to focus on for tomorrow.  Prepare your day for tomorrow before you leave today.  Create the order of how tomorrow will unfold in the calmness of today.  Select the one thing you will focus on right now.  Then, resolve to not quit until it’s done!

This one skill will enable you to craft the life that you desire.  Don’t wait to start learning the skill, start today!

 

To Your Achievement of GREATER success,

Dirk Zeller, CEO
RealEstateChampions.com

 

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Advancing or Accepting a Buyer's Low Offer

When representing Sellers, I always requested that offers be faxed rather than the Buyers Agent personally presenting the offer to my clients. I was one of the first Agents in the country to take this approach nearly 15 years ago. Today it is commonplace. It allows the Agent and the Seller time to consider the offer before responding to it.

When representing Buyers, I preferred to present the offer personally. I wanted to deliver and clearly express my Buyers’ intentions rather than have them relayed through the Seller’s Agent. By presenting personally, I could gauge the response of the Sellers by watching facial expressions. I could express my view of the property value. Also, I could share information about the prospective Buyers in an effort to build the human connection that so often sways the Sellers’ acceptance decision.

Presenting a Buyer’s low offer

When you extend an offer that is under the asking price, be prepared to present offsetting benefits in an effort to make the offer attractive and valuable to the Sellers. Alternate redeeming qualities include: 

• Solid earnest money
• Buyers with impeccable credit
• Buyers with good, solid employment history
• Buyers with ample funds and a low loan-to-value ratio
• Buyers with the flexibility to close quickly or to wait as long as 90 days

When presenting the offer:

• Discuss the overall offer before revealing the price. First work through and find common ground on the other stipulations in the offer. Then work on the price after you have agreed to or adjusted the other items that aren’t related to price.

• When discussing price, identify the difference between the asking and offered prices and focus the discussion only on that number.  Ask the Sellers, “If the Buyers had come in here with cash and closing was in a couple of weeks, would the offer have been acceptable?” Take that number and subtract it from the asking price.  Don’t deal with the big numbers like a $350,000 asking price and a $335,000 offer.  Break it down to a comparison between the $345,000 they would take now if a Buyer walked in with cash and the $335,000 offer.  The real difference is $10,000.  Talk and plan in terms of a $10,000 difference between the Seller and Buyer.

• Break the cost of the difference down to a daily rate. The effect of this technique is to reduce the difference to a ridiculously small amount. Say the difference is $10,000. Ask the Sellers to consider the actual impact of the difference. The majority of Sellers end up as Buyers, so what you’re really asking them to consider is the cost of borrowing $10,000 more for their next house. In fact, the cost of that $10,000 is about $750 a year or $62.50 a month or $2.08 a day. With this information in hand, you can ask: Is it worth $2.08 a day to know that your home is sold and that you have the freedom to move into your next home? This same technique works well to raise the offer on the Buyer’s side, or even to reach a mid-point agreement. Maybe each party can pay $1.04 a day to create a win/win outcome for the Buyer and Seller.

• Explain how the Buyers arrived at their offer price. Show current comps to validate their thinking. The property may have been listed months ago and in the meantime the market environment may have changed considerably. Presenting a current market analysis can help justify and win acceptance of the offer.

• If appropriate, explain that the Buyers have another home in mind, saying something like, “They wanted to try to work with you first.”

• If the offer is the highest one the Buyers can make, then express that fact, saying something like, “The Buyers would really love the home, but they understand if there is not an opportunity for a win for everyone.” This kind of statement defuses emotions before they arise.

Above all, when presenting a low price convey that the offer is based on a realistic assessment of the market environment or the Buyer’s capability, not a personal reaction to the Sellers or their home.     

Receiving a Buyer’s low offer

If you did your job way back at the conclusion of the listing presentation your Sellers will be well aware of the likelihood of a low offer. When one comes in, here’s what to do:

• Call the Buyers’ Agent to learn more about the Buyers Ask whether they have the funds to close, whether they’ve selected a lending institution, and where they are in regards to securing a loan. Learn whether they’re just starting and haven’t even met with a lender yet, or whether they have loan approval and are just working to find the right house.

• If the Buyers have already initiated the loan process ask the Agent what loan amount the Buyers have been approved for.

• You may learn that the Buyers can obtain a loan higher than the amount shown on their offer contract. This alerts you to the fact that they are qualified to pay more but are choosing not to. Your job then is to demonstrate that the home has a higher value than the price offered.

• If you learn that the Buyers have been approved for exactly the loan amount listed on the contract, ask, “Is this the maximum they qualify for?” If they qualify for more, you want to know that fact.

• If the Agent can’t provide the loan answers you need, present the same questions to the mortgage originators the Buyers are working with. An upcoming section in this chapter gives advice for working with lending and other partners in the transaction.

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Approach Your Referral Sources

Marketing for referrals with mailers, calendars, recipe cards, and other outreach and appreciation efforts is nowhere near as effective as prospecting for referrals by making personal calls and requests.

The hard truth is that most consumers stand a far better chance of finding a poor agent than a great one. Once you can personally convince them that you’re among the best in the field, referrals will follow.

When cultivating referral sources, realize that most people who send referrals your way do so for a variety of reasons, but above all, they recommend you for the following two reasons:

• Friendships and trust. People like to help people they like and believe in. Take time to get to know those in the platinum and gold levels of your database and to let them get to know you. Share the vision you hold for your business. Let them catch your enthusiasm and buy into your dream. The result will be a vested interest in your success and the desire to help you achieve your goal.

• People want to be champions. Each time you deliver superb service and an excellent outcome you create clients who are willing to champion your business. What’s more, based on your exemplary performance, you create clients who know firsthand that by recommending you to others they’ll become champions in the minds of their friends and family members.

It’s never too early to begin building referral relationships. You can start during the first meeting or phone call with any prospect, using a script such as this:

“Fred, I build my business primarily based on referrals from clients.  The benefit to you is: my focus will always be to give you the best service possible. The reason is: I want to earn the honor to talk with you in the future about who you know that would benefit from my service.  The only way I deserve to have that conversation is based on the job I do for you.  I know that if you are delighted with my service, you will want to help me and your friends out.”

When approaching referral sources, keep a couple of important rules in mind:

• Rule #1: Respect the referral process. When you’re asking for referrals, you’re entering the hallowed territory of another person’s treasured relationships. In ancient times, people would go through extensive purification ceremonies before stepping onto holy ground. Asking for referrals is almost that special.

  Don’t ask for referrals by simply adding a throwaway line onto the end of another conversation by saying, basically, “Oh, by the way” before you ask for a business referral. That tactic minimizes the importance of the referral, rather than raising it to the high level of honor and respect it deserves.

  A quality referral request should take at least five minutes; ten may be even better.

  My friend Bill Cates, the “Referral Coach” and author of the book Ultimate Referrals, advises that you advance your referral request with the statement, “I have an important question to ask you.” This will force a pause, build anticipation, and set the tone for a meaningful conversation.

• Rule #2: Ask for help. If you’re soliciting referrals you are, in fact, asking for help. So say so. The trouble is that egos get in the way and won’t let the words out of most agents’ mouths.  “I need your help” or “I value your help” are powerful keys for opening the referral floodgate.

• Rule #3: Ask permission. In particular, ask permission to explore your client’s contact database ­– not by rifling through computer files but by learning of and gaining access to associates you might be able to serve. When asking for permission, use a script like this one:

  “I’m delighted that I’ve been able to serve you. I was wondering about others you might know in your life that would also benefit from my service. Could we explore for a few moments who else we might be able to serve?”

  The final question in the script is an important one. Too many agents ask for referrals and then leave all the burden of thinking up names on the shoulders of their clients. The truth is your referral sources don’t want to work that hard.  They’ll work that hard with you, but not alone.

• Rule #4: Get specific. Don’t just make a general request for referrals and leave it at that. Saying, “Do you have anyone you might like to refer to my business” is sort of like a department store clerk who asks, “May I help you?” The automatic response, 90% of the time or more, is “No, just looking.”

  Sharpen the focus of your request by leading clients into areas or niches in their lives where they have day-to-day relationships. Ask them about potential referrals among the families in their church, people they know through their children’s soccer team, prospects they’ve met through school affiliations. If you they are members of association or groups, pull out the member roster and spend a few minutes talking about the names on the list.

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Creating Sales and Sales Volume Comparisons

Evaluating your performance against the statistics of other agents or companies in your market segment is a great starting point, but it is rarely enough to uncover your unique edge or point of difference.

When you compare your numbers to MLS stats for the number of units sold, number of listings taken, number of listings sold, and total sales volume in your market area you arrive at a picture of how you did compared to the market at large. However, chances are good that your business is focused on certain segments of the total market – likely you specialize in certain neighborhoods, certain price ranges, and even certain types of residences. To uncover your edge, you need to segment, or what I call slice and dice, the market-wide numbers. For example:

• You might shrink the geographic area down to a concise neighborhood or region in order to compare your own performance with market performance in that niche region.
• You might expand the geographic area to include several neighborhoods or even towns in which you operate.
• You might want to analyze real estate activity only in a certain price range.
• You might choose to focus only on a segment that includes a particular property type.

I caution you that you must be ethical and fair when you segment the numbers. You need to create true comparisons and honest evaluations of the sales numbers and sales volume in each category you create. So long as you disclose the approach you took and define the segment you analyzed, I personally feel that focusing your analysis on a specific market segment is a fair way to define and present your strong competitive position.

Using statistics ethically and to your advantage

When you compare your sales performance with that of other agents, sometimes you will want to show how well you rank in terms of all sales in your entire market area, and sometimes you’ll want to focus on your dominant position in a specific segment of the market. You can expand or contract the portion of the market you focus on, so long as you’re drawing a valid conclusion that you explain clearly to your client.

For example, consider an agent who is making a listing presentation to sellers in a specific development. She knows that if she presents her track record solely in the seller’s home area she will rank squarely in the middle of the agent pack. Hardly a winning position.

However, if she expands the market area to include the seller’s development and the development called Arrowwood, her ranking will shoot strait up to the top of the list, since she outsells her nearest competitor two-to-one in the Arrowwood area. She decides to show her sales performance based upon market activity in both developments. When presenting her findings – and her dominant market position – she explains to the sellers that she expanded her market study to include transactions in Arrowwood as well as in the sellers’ development, because most buyers consider both the developments when selecting a home of the type the sellers’ will be listing.

Her approach put her in a strong position. But it was also ethical, clearly explained, and the basis for a valid comparison that was useful to her and to the sellers.

Calculating per agent productivity

Often, the largest company in a market will account for the largest sales volume and sales numbers, creating a strong market presence that eclipses the performance of small companies and individual agents. If you face a David and Goliath situation, reach down and pick up the stone of per agent productivity to put in your slingshot.

Calculate per agent productivity by dividing a company’s total performance by the number of agents working at the firm.  You can use this calculation to bring listings taken, listings sold, total unit volume, sales volume, or buyer-represented sales down to a per agent basis. Suddenly, Goliath won’t look quite so dominant.

Using market-area statistics to set your goals

Always know the average agent success numbers for your marketplace. These are the numbers you want to eclipse by the end of your first six months in the business – at least.

Know the Big Three statistics and know exactly how your own performance stacks up against market averages. I tell agents: Know thyself and know thy competition is the first rule to follow when you want to acquire a competitive advantage.

Then, once the numbers are in front of you, compare your performance to the market area average. Ask:

• What doesn’t look good at first glance?
• Where are you falling behind?
• If you broaden or shrink the criteria, does your positioning improve?
• How can you craft a position from which to sell if you’re stuck with these stats?

Use the first two questions to set improvement goals. Use the third question to determine a segment in which you excel. Use the fourth question to package the facts, whatever they are, into a position that you can present with confidence.

 

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