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Words of a Champion

Dirk Zeller
CEO

Studies have shown that most people will do almost anything for recognition; that, for most people, being recognized or getting your ego stroked is more important than making income.

I have told hundreds of thousands of agents this truth, "You can build your business for income or build it for your ego, but you can't do both at the same time." You must choose which is most important for you. You must choose which is going to be your driving factor for you to play at the Champion level in your business.

Consciously or unconsciously, we are choosing one of those paths of ego or income every time we invest in marketing, select clients to work with, invest in our business, invest our time, expand our lead generation, and change our sales or presentation process.

Does your ego drive you and your business, or is it your desire for a certain income level or net profit level? Which one of those controls your thinking, actions, and decision making for a greater percentage of the time? This question will really determine your net profit, personal time invested in the business, and quality of life for you and your family. Most agents never come to grips with this challenge and can't move beyond it to be a Champion.

To Your Success,

Dirk Zeller, CEO
RealEstateChampions.com

Business Plan

The business plan is a foreign tool to most real estate agents. After studying, observing, interviewing, and coaching hundreds 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.

How much do I want to earn in gross commission?
Where does my business come from?
What is my average commission check?
What is my average cost per transaction?
How many days am I going to work this year?
How many hours per day am I going to work?
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.

A business plan can be the backbone of your successful business. The backbone will weaken if not checked on a regular basis. You must review your business plan daily for the first few months; then you will need to review it regularly after that. Do not make the mistake of writing a fantastic business plan and then never look at it again. That mistake would be almost as bad as if you had never written it in the first place.

Creating Your Championship Performance

I will share with you a few short keys to help you move your way up to being a high producing rainmaker in your business. The pathway to excellence is not easy. It's one of the key reasons most people never achieve it. They aren't willing to apply themselves with enough focus, force, and consistency to overcome the challenges and hurdles that litter the small, narrow, rocky pathway to super success!

A number of years ago, I started to plan out what I wanted to teach my son, Wesley. What were the tools, skills, characteristics, knowledge, and attitudes I wanted to instill in him? He is, in effect, "on loan" to Joan and I for 18 years. I want the loan to be at full maturity when it comes due in 13 more years.

Once I had completed my plan, I asked myself a question. If I could only ensure he got one of these because my life was cut short, which one would I select? It took me a few minutes to decide which one. My decision was discipline. Now, you might have selected something else from the list for your child. The reason I selected discipline was because, if he got that, he could acquire any of the others in my plan when he needed it. If he really needed something later in life, his discipline would give him the basic building block to achieve it. I also recognized at that moment that, if he learned and acted in a disciplined way, his success was guaranteed. It doesn't mean he won't have hardships and challenges; it means he would have the primary skill necessary to work through them. A Champion Listing Agent is no different. To really be at that Champion level, they have to acquire discipline.

Discipline is the most fundamental building block for successful people in life. Nothing of significance can be accomplished in life without first developing and then mastering the skill of discipline in a key area. It enables you to capture your motion and wisdom and translate them into action. Discipline is the bridge between thought and accomplishment – between inspiration and achievement – between necessity and productivity. Most of us align the word discipline with negative emotions, such as fear and guilt.

Here is our challenge in life: You must do things you don't want to do ... so you can have the things in life you want to have. It is the process of purposeful delayed gratification. An immediate reward for lack of discipline is a Friday at the golf course. A future reward of discipline is owning the golf course. It's not a matter of "if" but of "when." If it is later, the price is greater. You will pay a greater price for your success if you put off doing disciplined action to achieve that success.

Discipline is action: an act of will and self-management aligned with your priorities. Real discipline is having total control over the yes's and no's of life

"Life is a series of problems. Discipline is a basic set of tools that are required to solve life's problems."
~ M. Scott Peck

As a Champion, I define discipline as:

"A personal system of skills and personal techniques, developed by an individual, that are used to correct questionable behaviors and promote positive growth, personal development, integrity, and a strong character."

Success is not something you pursue; success is something you attract by the person you become. Our mandate is to develop disciplines of success first in ourselves and then help others on the team acquire those disciplines, as well.

Success finds you when you are:

Disciplined
Diligent
Consistent
Mentally strong
Have impeccable skills in sales and time management
Striving for greater knowledge

Most people create a large list of undisciplined habits that they posses. We all know the things that we do that lead to our demise. We resolve over and over again to wipe out those undisciplined habits from our lexicon in life. We resolve to quit smoking, quit eating certain foods or too much food. We try to attack and wipe out the negative in our lives.

For most of us, we can't focus too much on what we aren't doing in a disciplined manner. That can lead to disappointment, lack of motivation, and in extreme cases, hopelessness. Too much focus on the "have not's" rather than the new "haves" is really the wrong approach to a disciplined life. The correct approach is to focus on something new, to establish a new habit or discipline. We need to feel the good feelings and good rewards of starting and keeping with something that is beneficial to us and something new. We need to gain an advantage over the bad habits by establishing new, good ones.

Focus on walking around the block, making a couple of calls daily to your past clients, practicing your scripts and dialogues daily. These will all enable you to establish more discipline and success in your life.

Tuning Into the Prospect

My definition of volunteer information is what a prospect says after they have made the initial response to your question. What they say after the initial "off the cuff" response is more valuable than the "off the cuff" response itself. This is especially true when their response is simply "yes" or "no."

People have a tendency to explain themselves further because they want to stay connected. My wife, Joan, does this constantly. She will transfer information to others to justify why she is doing what she is doing. The other day, we were boarding an airplane, and she asked the flight attendant for two pillows and a blanket. She proceeded to explain why she needed two pillows, not just one, and the certain way she was going to prop them. She later ordered tomato juice and explained to the flight attendant why she loves tomato juice but only drinks it when we fly. She volunteered far more information to this unsuspecting flight attendant than she needed; certainly, more than simply asking for the two pillows and some tomato juice.

I question whether the flight attendant needed or wanted the story behind the pillows and tomato juice, but a salesperson can use that type of information to create a win-win for the client and themselves. Most of us volunteer information regularly without even knowing it. A good example is the person at the checkout stand who tells the checker that they are buying pickled herring because Great Aunt Gertrude is coming next week for a visit, and she hasn't been here in ten years.

If a prospect tells you that they made a decision to go another way, your response is a pause and a short "Oh" or "I see". Then they go on for five minutes trying to soften the fact that they are not purchasing through you. Let me relay a conversation that one of our salespeople had with a prospect recently.

Prospect: We made a decision to go another way.

Sales Rep: (pause) Oh?

Prospect: Well, not completely another way. Orders have come down from above to hold off and analyze a little further before we finalize training budgets for next year.

Sales Rep: I see. (pause)

Prospect: When we are released by the upper management in thirty days, you have a good opportunity to be part of next year's budget. Between you and me, you have a high probability of being a preferred trainer, but you will need to wait this out before we can discuss details.

As salespeople, if we wait, we will often get volunteer information. In this case, we learned that what seemed like a no was really just a delay. We went from "a decision to go another direction" to "preferred trainer" status in a few minutes. All the salesperson did was keep the dialogue going by not talking much. The prospect did the rest because they wanted to share more. Too many salespeople like to listen . . . to themselves. That disease doesn't give you volunteered information.

There are times when the pause and muted responses like "oh", "I see", "interesting", "how so", and "really" don't spur information. When that occurs, you will need to read between the lines. Ask yourself these questions:

Was my presentation off?
Did I miss a need they expressed?
Is the timing off?

You will have to evaluate quickly because you want to be able to understand the next step without losing the sales conversation. To get between the lines if they are blurry, ask these questions:

Bob, what did I miss?
How do you feel about that?
Is there anything that can be done to reverse your decision?
Where do we go from here?

Some of the skill of reading between the lines is developed over time. It's almost a sixth sense that is acquired through selling a specific product or service over a period of time. There is no substitute for that sixth sense in sales. If you increase your prospecting numbers, you will acquire it faster.

You can pick up non-verbal buying signals, rejection signals, and boredom signals over the phone. You have to be tuned into your listening skills at all times to pick up on these because they aren't blatantly obvious.

Most of them are contained in the background noise. The pause is the best time to hear the background noise. The hardest time to pick them up is when you are talking, which is another reason not to talk as much. You might pick up the background noise of another person in the room talking with them or their hand cupping the phone or the squeak of their chair as they reach for something or lean back in a relaxed position.

As you are sharing numbers in your proposal such as the value of your service or how it will benefit them or save them money, you might hear them on their 10-key calculating numbers, so they will have their own version. This would be a buying signal. The non-verbal signals can give you an indication as to how you are doing and where you are in the sales process.

Listening is the glue in any prospect or client relationship. The only way to know and serve the prospect or client better is through listening. There is an interesting bonus that salespeople who are effective listeners receive. As you flex the muscle of listening, the prospect or client gets to know you, as well. They begin to develop a clear picture of you and your company and what you stand for. Most of them will conclude that you are caring, trustworthy, professional, and reliable. You have opened the door to a quality, long-term service relationship!