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Article
Five Disciplines to Guarantee
Annual Increase
Real Estate sales are changing and growing at
an alarming rate. Even with
all the mergers, sales, and consolidations of the industry, there is one
constant. The agents who learn to be better business and sales people
will
be more successful in this industry. Agents who learn the five
disciplines
of increasing production will have a thriving business. The first
discipline is creating a schedule. That schedule should encompass their
whole life. Their personal life must be factored in to create balance.
I have seen far too many agents sacrifice their family to achieve a
production goal or certain amount of commission earned. When they
finally
reach their goal, they have no one to share it with or they realize what
little importance that goal has compared to their family. I have a
friend
who tragically lost a child and now is reflecting on the years of
decisions made for the sake of a few plaques and personal production
goals.
Those plaques or even the money earned are little comfort to her at a
time of great sorrow. What a hollow feeling for that highly successful agent!
The schedule should encompass the "time block" system. By time blocking
I
mean to schedule specific time for each daily activity in real estate.
Schedule time to prospect, qualify buyers and sellers, negotiate
contracts,
return phone calls, listing presentations, and show property. The better
you "time block" the more effective you will be. The more that one
adheres
to the schedule the more success one will have in sales. Remember to
allow
for a little "play time" or "flex time." You will need some time to
relax
and decompress. This relaxation will enable you to stay focused and
sharp
during the "up time." To give yourself 15 minute "flex time" every two
to
three hours should be sufficient to break the tension or catch up so you
stay "time blocked."
The second discipline is to prospect daily. There are as many ways of
prospecting as there are people. The key is you must do something daily
to
bring in the business. You can prospect via the phone or in person. You
can prospect expired, FSBO, cold call, apartments for buyers, investment
properties, your sphere, and out of area owners. The list is truly
endless.
The truth is if we are not spending a minimum of one hour everyday
prospecting for new business we will have difficulty during stretches of
our career. Even calling your past clients and asking for referrals is
an
excellent way to prospect.
Often when agents get busy, prospecting is the first discipline to be
shelved. Their theory is I am busy; I do not need to prospect anymore.
This is the time to pour it on. You have momentum, so keep going. The
analogy I like to use is if a plane is on the runway it takes a
tremendous
amount of energy to climb to 20,000 feet. Once the plane is at 20,000
feet
it can throttle back a little and easily maintain its cruising altitude.
If the plane throttles back completely, it will soon be back down on the
runway. Do not throttle back in your prospecting or you will find
yourself
on the runway quickly. By continuing to prospect, you can then climb
higher or do the same production in less time. Consistency in your
prospecting leads to consistency in your pay days.
The third discipline is qualifying the potential client. This one is
crucial to success. I see more agents make mistakes in this area than in
any other. They are afraid to qualify people to the point of excluding
them out. The whole goal in qualifying is exclusion of the unmotivated.
If
you do not become skilled at excluding out the unmotivated buyer or
seller,
they will waste your time. They will eventually drive you out of the
business, both emotionally and financially.
The most valuable commodity you have in life is your time. We all have a
finite amount of time here on earth. We do not even know the amount of
time we have left. If we choose to work with unqualified, unmotivated,
unloanable, unable to sell people too often, we are out of business. By
properly qualifying all leads, you are saving yourself from putting them
in your car or going to their house to find out they are not a lead at
all. Spending five hours showing property only to find out that they are
working with another agent, unable to buy due to bad credit, have no
money,
or are unrealistic of the value of homes today is a painful experience.
Any one of these people cause us frustration and macaroni and cheese for
dinner. Do not allow these people to control your business. The majority
of the agents in our industry really need to strengthen this discipline
dramatically. They allow their clients to be the CEO of their real
estate
sales company.
To all of us, leads are like security. If we have them we feel secure
and
we do not have to find new ones. The truth is a lead by itself has no
value. What is the true value of your leads? What would someone pay you
for all your leads? Why not make them worth something to you and your
family by qualifying them well, and then setting an appointment
or
throwing them out if they are of no value (which are most of them).
Leads
have little value warehoused in your computer. If you are not
following-up on them, chuck them. You can always create more leads. You
can get more than you can handle. Why not pick only the best ones?
The fourth discipline is understanding your business. By understanding,
I
mean know where it comes from. What are the top three income producing
activities that you do? Where do you spend your time daily? Compare
those
two answers, what are you worth per hour? Take your gross commission and
divide by the number of hours worked. Take that per hour dollar value
and
determine the activities you can do to earn that amount per hour. Then
do
those activities the bulk of your day. I will give you a hint it is not
putting up signs and lock boxes unless you want to make less than $10.00
per hour. You are a business owner of a company that sells millions of
dollars a year in product. You need to know about your business.
The fifth discipline is developing a philosophy. By philosophy, I mean
guidelines for doing business both personally and professionally. If you
understand your value per hour and your average commission check, you
can
determine the type of people you are willing to work with. You may not
be
able to work in a certain price range or with certain types of people.
When a buyer does not give you the exact answers you need, you can refer
him to another agent or drop him because he does not meet your
philosophy.
We were not put on this earth to help everyone. There are people we
cannot help. This does not make them bad people. That also does not make
you a bad person. It just makes you a business person who expects a
reasonable profit for the time invested.
Once I was clear on my philosophy of what was a client and what I
expected
of a client, I did not have to deal with people who did not conform to
my
philosophy. You need to concisely define your world of business. This
definition will enable you to better select the people to work with. We
have all selected the wrong people, bent on our beliefs, spent large
amounts of time and money working with people we should not have and
felt
awful afterwards. Then we never were paid or appreciated for our
efforts.
You will feel much better turning them down before you invest your time,
energy, and money in a losing cause. This understanding of your "core"
philosophy will enable you to seek out the people meet it rather than
finding than those that are not. You will generally find what you are
looking for. You will also be able to quickly dispense with those that
do
not meet your standard operating procedures.
By learning the value of control in your life you will be able to create
a
growing thriving business. You will also be creating a thriving life.
Dirk
Zeller is recognized as the premier coach for the real estate industry.
He is one of the most sought after speakers and authors for high volume
production while attaining life balance in the real estate industry.
Dirk is the President of Real Estate Champions. Real Estate Champions
provides exceptional business and developmental training to real estate
agents and managers through cutting edge coaching programs and seminars
including the “Four Day Work Week System Program™.” You can contact
Real Estate Champions at 1-877-732-4676 or e-mail them at
info@realestatechampions.com or visit their
web site at
http://www.realestatechampions.com.
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