by Dirk Zeller

If controlling time and gaining discipline to invest hours in better, higher-value activities were easy, everyone would be making big money in real estate sales. Facts prove otherwise. On average, newer agents make less than $20,000 a year. Almost certainly, the low-income statistics correlate with poor time-allocation choices.

To allocate larger amounts of time to success-generating actions, follow what I call the four Ds:

1. Decide that your time management skills, habits, and activities are going to change.

This is a challenging first step for most people. That’s because changing behavior isn’t easy, and time usage is a behavior. To avoid change, people search around for solutions that will allow them to keep doing what they’ve always done. In doing so, they waste yet more time by vacillating between the change they know they must face and the hope that they won’t have to face it.

I believe that the biggest waste of time occurs from the moment you know you need to do something and when you actually set out to do it. That’s why it’s so important to make an immediate commitment to change your time management patterns and habits. Make the decision to change today!

2. Define what needs to change. This step involves two phases. First you have to determine the specific activities that are causing you to waste time or sacrifice productivity. Then you have to figure out how you can remedy the situation.

For example, do you need to get to your office earlier each day? Does that mean you need to go to sleep earlier each night? Do you need more prospecting time or more time for lead follow-up? Does that mean that you need to turn off your cell phone to minimize distractions when you’re trying to undertake these activities?

What is barring your success?

I worked with a client a few years ago who had difficulty getting into the office early enough to begin his day. We tracked it back to the fact that he was going to bed too late to be able to reach his office consistently by 8 a.m. when he needed his day to start.

We further determined that he needed a certain amount of time in the evening to have dinner as a family, play with his children, put them to bed, and then have time with his wife before their bedtime. He needed to be home from work by a certain hour for all of this to happen efficiently and consistently for him.

Once he made the necessary changes, by coming in earlier and leaving the office on time, his income shot up dramatically. The quality of life with his children and wife skyrocketed as well — all the result of defining the problem, designing a solution, and managing time accordingly.

3. Design a time management plan. Get proactive rather than reactive. Typical day planners, Day-Timers, Franklin planners, and Palm or Blackberry devices are reactionary time management tools. They allow you to schedule time for client needs, appointments, and limited activities, but they don’t help you take control of time for your own priorities and purposes. You need to do that part on your own.

To master your time, you need to adopt a time-blocking system that dedicates predetermined periods of time to your most valuable activities. The key point is that you can’t leave your days vulnerable to the time needs of others. You must block out periods of time for your own priority activities. Otherwise, you’ll risk giving your days away to the appointment or time requests of clients and colleagues, leaving yourself no time for your own needs. No wonder so many agents feel burned out and as if are being pulled like taffy by others.

4. Just Do it! Growing up in Portland, Oregon and graduating from Beaverton High School, I lived my early life down the street from a famous company’s world headquarters and within constant earshot of the marketing slogan “Just Do It!”. Nike urged the world to take action now. I interpret their three words as a life success slogan.

Don’t wait to analyze every aspect of every problem, to design the absolutely perfect solution, and then and only then to take action. Waiting promises only unrealized income, unfulfilled potential, and limited wealth. Instead, decide what to change, define how to change, design a time management plan that allows for change, and then just do it.

by Bob Corcoran

Have you ever thought of using a satisfaction questionnaire to keep in touch with your clients? According to Businesstown.com, most unhappy customers will not complain directly to the business they are unhappy with. Instead, they will complain to everyone they know while taking their business to a competitor. To counteract this possibility, businesses are increasingly making follow-up calls or sending out satisfaction questionnaires after a sale is made. If you go to Walgreen’s, Red Lobster, or JC Penney’s, you will find a number on the receipt to call to complete a customer satisfaction survey.

You might consider sending out a survey to clients who have completed a transaction or even to prospects who have received a few months of your emails. Your questionnaire can be very simple and straightforward, and if done right, the survey can convey that you care about your service and want to improve it. This means that you may ask customers questions that can be answered by checking choices like “Very satisfied,” “Somewhat satisfied,” or “Not satisfied,” but you also offer them a chance to voice an opinion about why they made the choice.

The responses to open ended questions can offer insights about what you do right and what needs improvement. It may spotlight employees who did a great job. If you follow up on your negative or lukewarm responses, you can pave the way for repeat business or at least soften the anger of a customer who feels he was mistreated. Often, even a customer who was unsatisfied with aspects of a transaction can be pacified with a call that attempts to make things right or at least offers an apology.

Make sure you are prepared to act on negative responses. Nothing turns a customer sour faster than to complete a questionnaire voicing dissatisfaction, only to never be contacted by that company again. On the other hand, businesses who promptly follow-up and resolve customer complaints quickly are finding that those customers are more likely to do repeat business than the average customer who does not have a complaint.

by Joe Stumpf

You’re a real estate or lending professional, and as a professional, of course you thank your current or past client when they give you a referral. As you know, recognizing and reinforcing their positive behavior encourages them to repeat that behavior.

So you meet with this referral — her name is Kathryn — and she chooses you to help her buy, sell or borrow. You then call Rob, that current or past client who referred you to Kathryn, and you say…

“Rob, thank you for referring Kathryn to me. I met with her and she’s chosen to work with me. I’ll make sure Kathryn is delighted that you introduced me. And I’ll keep you posted on our progress.”

A very satisfactory conversation all around.

But, let’s say that Rob was also referred to you. What if you took things a step further, and also thanked the person who referred Rob to you? I’ll call that person Jason. Because Jason introduced you to Rob, and Rob introduced you to Kathryn, you’re actually going to call Jason to say thank you — for Kathryn:

“Jason, I just met with Kathryn and she chose to work with me. The reason I’m telling you this is because Rob introduced Kathryn to me. Thank you for introducing Rob to me, because without him, I would never have met Kathryn.”

When you receive a referral, and that referral turns into a client, and then that client refers another client, I call it a “referral chain.” And what I’m encouraging you to do is not just thank people who give you referrals, but to link your referral chain with telephone calls going back as far as the chain reaches, whether it’s one, two, five links, or even more.

Craig LaMar, a Realtor in Huntsville, Alabama, is one of many By Referral Only members who calls people in his referral chain, and he shared some recent results:

“I received an introduction from one of my past clients to a family relocating here. I previewed properties with the family, and when I got back to the office I called the referrer to thank them. Then I connected the links in my referral chain and called the person who had referred me to that past client.

“That person is looking for acreage to build (a $3,750 commission), plus he gave me the name of family member who is moving this year. I then called the next person in the referral chain, and they want me to do a CMA for their home. They said, ‘If the numbers are right, we want to make a move and take advantage of the $6,500 tax credit.’ That will be a $10,500 commission.

“So now,” says Craig (facetiously), “I have to do all this work!”

Wouldn’t you like to be doing “all this work” a well?

People refer because it makes the referring person feel good. Not to boost the business of the restaurant or movie theater or book store or whatever they’ve referred: No.

When you recommend that book or restaurant to someone and then they come back to you and rave about your recommendation, you feel good.

So, when you link your referral chains and call each person in the chain to thank them, think of it as giving them another opportunity to feel good.

And then to feel even better by giving you another referral.

by Denise Lones

Today I’d like to introduce you to a marketing guru who is a master of his craft. I myself have learned a lot from him. I’d like to share with you some of the incredible insights I have learned from this branding genius.

He is a master of attracting attention, developing a strong brand, and delivering consistent results. He is a leader, an innovator, and an example for us all.

Who is he? His name is Rudolph. Perhaps you’ve heard of him. In fact, I’m willing to bet you have. You may even know a famous song that was written about him.

Rudolph?! Denise, you’re not going to tell me youre talking about the red-nosed reindeer, are you?

Yes I am! That is precisely the Rudolph to whom I refer.

Think about it. When someone mentions Santa’s reindeer, who do you think of first? Yes, there’s Donner and Blitzen. And Comet and Vixen. And a couple of others–I can’t always remember their names.

But I ALWAYS remember Rudolph’s name. Why? Because he knows how to STAND OUT.

What does all of this have to do with real estate?

A lot.

You may not be the biggest producing agent on the block and you may not be the biggest real estate company on the block. But neither is Rudolph. In fact, he’s the smallest reindeer. But if there’s one thing the little guy understands it’s branding. EVERYBODY knows who he is.

First, he understands how to stand out visually. In a world of sameness, the only way to get noticed in a crowd is to look different. Rudolph accomplishes this with his bright red nose that lights up. Everybody sees him coming, don’t they? All the other reindeer–while maybe very good at reindeer games–all look the same. You can’t tell one from another.

But ask a kid, “Which one is Rudolph?” and a little finger picks him out immediately.

That’s the power of strong visual branding.

What are YOU doing in your business to stand out? What makes you different from everybody else? Are you just running with the pack or are you doing something that gets people to point at you and say, “Wow! That’s the person I want to call!”

Branding all starts with looking at what everybody else is doing–and then crafting your brand and your message on what is different and unique.

Take a look at some of the agents for whom we’ve created marketing materials. Each one is carefully designed to highlight what makes that agent different from everybody else. When people see those images, they are much more inclined to call–because they get a sense of WHO that person is.

Visual branding isn’t all of Rudolph’s expertise, though. The little guy is also a master of COMMUNICATION. He takes full advantage of his celebrity status. Everybody knows who he is, so he plays it up to maximum effect.

The power of branding and marketing can create a pseudo-celebrity effect for you as well. In your community, I’m willing to bet that there is no real estate agent who is known as The Vacation Home Consultant.

Picture it. Sally, “The Vacation Home Consultant”, writes articles about vacation homes–full of solid information and stunning pictures–and sends them to high-income prospects who are most likely to think about buying one. Whenever anyone mentions Sally, everybody knows what she does. She’s the local “celebrity” agent who is known for vacation homes.

What are YOU known for? When someone mentions your name in your community, does everybody recognize it and what you do?

If you communicate like Rudolph, they will.

You don’t have to have the most spectacular presence, either. You don’t need to be a runway model. You don’t need a thundering baritone voice. Little and scrawny Rudolph, with his squeaky voice–which also stands out among the voices of all the other reindeer–speaks and we listen. Heads turn.

The final lesson we can all learn from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is CONSISTENCY. He was faced with a tough choice. He could have run away from all the insults and the teasing and the “misfit” label that had been thrust on him.

But no.

To Rudolph, the mission was too important. Christmas had to be saved. Santa had to deliver the presents to all the deserving boys and girls around the world. It was time to put aside personal problems and truly dedicate himself to the task at hand.

Now, every year like clockwork, Rudolph is there leading the other reindeer as they travel the world with Santa shouting, “Ho! Ho! Ho!” He is CONSISTENT. He does what he says he’s going to do–and he keeps on doing it.

Consistency breeds trust. If you’re the agent who declares that you’re the first-time homebuyer expert but then a few months later you’re just another ordinary agent without a specialty, then how can anyone trust you? You came out to the world announcing one thing and then you weren’t consistent with it.

Successful agents, like Rudolph, are consistent in what they do every day, every month, and every year.

So, I hope you enjoyed the lessons of this master marketer. Every time you hear the classic song this holiday season, I want you to ask yourself, “Am I marketing like Rudolph?”

If you do, you will stand out–and you will lead your business to success.

by Maya Bailey

Now more than any other time in our recent history is as important that we find ways to stay positive no matter what. Your success depends on your mindset, not on the economy or on the marketplace. How do I know this to be a fact? I’ve interviewed hundreds of top producing sales people all over the USA and Canada, and when I asked them the secret to their success, unquestionably and without a doubt and independent of each other, they all said the same thing, “My mindset.”

These are top producing sales people that have been in the business for 10, 20, or even 30 years. They’ve been through up times, down times, and all kinds of different markets, and they said without a doubt it was their mindset .When times get tough, people start to look outside of themselves for answers and what they really need to do is look inside themselves and ask themselves the question, “How can I stay positive, how can I stay hopeful, how can I stay optimistic?” And this article will provide you with some tools to make it easier to be in a positive mindset no matter what.

The first tool is to really stop watching, or listening, or reading the news. The news is based on negativity. The news amplifies fear and negativity in order to capture more listeners, more readers, and more viewers. The media is a business like anything else and there’s a saying called, “If it bleeds, it reads.” So the more scared they can make people, the more people will buy more newspapers to find out what’s going to happen, or turn on the TV more, or in some way stay fixated because they’re in fear, they stay fixated on what the media is telling them.

The second tool is stop being around negative people. Your colleagues are going to want to constantly come up and talk to you and tell you how bad it is. Maybe your clients or prospective clients are going say to you on the phone how bad it is, and even friends will do the same thing. You will go through a day and everybody will want to tell you how negative it is. Here are my suggestions. First, avoid those kinds of people that are negative and second, if you’re stuck with them in an elevator or your car, I suggest you do what a former client of mine does. When the other person is talking negatively, my client just tunes them out and just says, “Well that may be true for you, but that’s not true for me.” It’s like an inner mantra “It may be true for you, but it’s not true for me.” You’re creating your own inner environment.

The third tool is a technique that I’ve used with my clients this past 12 years as a successful business coach. It’s a very powerful tool called The Stop Technique, and there are 3 steps to it. The first step is just called Stop. The way it works is that if you start to notice your mind going in a negative direction such as, “Oh I can’t succeed in today’s economy. Oh I just don’t have what it takes to be successful or to make money. I have to work really hard and struggle and sacrifice.” Any of those negative thoughts that will bring your energy down, your job is simply to catch those as early as you can in the beginning and say, “Stop.” Take a deep breath, and then put in a positive new thought.

You can put in your choice of however many positive new thoughts you have ready in your arsenal. If some of your negative statements are about yourself like, “I’m not good enough, or I’m not smart enough, or I’m not experienced enough,” or whatever those kind of disproving thoughts, I would say a really good generic thought to put in, an empowered belief to put in is, “I love and approve of myself unconditionally.” That takes care of those self-judgmental statements. Another kind of self-limiting belief is something that you continually tell yourself, “Oh well, to succeed I’m going to have to really struggle, and sacrifice, and stress out, and work hard, and then I won’t have a life.” If that’s been your primary belief then you put a stop on that when you hear it coming, and in inside you’re saying to yourself, “I’m not going there. I’m not going there.” You take a deep breath and positive new thought could be, “I’m committed to working smarter, not harder.”

One of the things that are great about this technique is that it really forces you to become aware of what you’re thinking from moment to moment, and it’s what you’re thinking from moment to moment that will create a negative or positive mindset. If you’re continually thinking negative thoughts either about yourself, or the market, or about money, or any of that, then guess what, you’re going real fast into a negative mindset. Then what happens is what you believe tends to come true, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. For example if you tell yourself, “I don’t have what it takes to succeed in today’s market,” and you tell yourself that over, and over, and over again, your thoughts will create your reality and then you’ll find that you don’t have what it takes.

Henry Ford said, “Whether you believe you can or you can’t, either way you’re right.” The way to create a positive mindset is to continue to bring your thoughts back to, “I can do it.” You need to have unwavering faith in your ability to be successful. The way you do that is to retrain your mind. The stop technique is the most powerful technique for retraining your mind, but you may have to use it a few hundred times a day at the beginning. Your mind has been going down that negative track in an undisciplined way for a long time and like wild horses that have been all over the place, you now have to reign them in and that is going to require a lot of vigilance at the beginning.

by Joe Stumpf

Here’s an interesting statistic: 50% of all real estate leads are never followed up. That means people are asking for things and they never hear back from anyone.

How about you? Are you generating real estate leads from your Web site and/or expensive print ads, but then following up gets pushed down your to-do list because of your crazy schedule, and then further down, and further down, until those leads end up languishing under a stack of paperwork? Then the stack gets moved from your desk…to a chair…and then maybe filed on the floor. By the time you get around to resurrecting the leads they’ve gone way cold. No point in contacting any of them now, right?

Wrong.

About six weeks ago I was talking to Diane Cardano, a Realtor in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She and her team of six buyer specialists are great at generating leads, and consistent about following up with their email drip campaign. Unfortunately, this tried-and-true strategy that had worked well in the past wasn’t working so well anymore. As Diane put it, “Things were really slowing down. We had all these leads, but nobody was committing to come into the office.”

I gave Diane an easy follow-up strategy that we’ve tested and proven to work regardless of whether the lead is cold or fairly recent. I call it the “Nine-Word Email.” Here it is:

• Email subject line: Lead’s First Name
• Email message: Are you still looking for a home in ___________?

That’s it — nine words.

Diane and her team got the city or area from the information their leads had put in their search parameters. Then they started sending the emails, and in just two weeks this strategy brought them five new buyers. Plus, they heard from additional people who said they’d be looking a few months down the road, and to please keep in touch.

Now, it’s OK if you’re skeptical — Diane was, too. When she called me to share her results, she confessed that she’d thought, “Of course this can’t work — it’s way too easy.”

Diane also ‘fessed up that putting just the lead’s first name in the subject line was contrary to everything she believed an email should be; that is, putting your whole life story in the subject line and then your whole life story again in the email.

That’s that tried-and-true strategy I mentioned earlier.

So, here it is again: The formula that brought Diane and her team five buyers in just two weeks:

• Email subject line: Lead’s First Name
• Email message: Are you still looking for a home in ___________?

That’s it — nine words.

Include your contact information, of course.

And of course, don’t send your emails unless you’re committed to following through and ready to meet prospective buyers now, and add future buyers to your pipeline.

And no more floor filing, OK?

by Joe Stumpf

I read a fascinating article in Scientific American that dealt with the “secrets of expert minds.” It started me thinking about the relationship between an entrepreneur and his client. Basically, clients are in search of someone with expertise. They need your expertise in consulting, they need your expertise in negotiating, and they need your expertise in overseeing all the transactional details. So if people seek expertise, then your primary goal should be to become a true expert in your profession.

The article discussed the Grand Master’s strategy in the game of chess. To achieve Grand Master status, a chess player must become one of the finest in the world. When chess players begin playing, however, they all start out at the same level, and it takes about five years of constant playing to develop the mental acumen to play the game comfortably on an automatic level of expertise.

At that point, things change. Players begin developing a new skill, one of learning something new every day. They gain a new perspective, a new insight. This lasts for another five to eight years, so after 10 or more years of constant effort, they’ve built a repertoire of over 100,000 possibilities.

At this level of expertise, the Grand Master can simply glance at any chess game in progress and almost automatically identify the best next moves.

Most agents in their early years in the real estate industry are learning the basic moves. You learned how to handle some common objections and you developed a discipline to handle basic problems. You did many things for the first time, and each of these added to the breadth of your experience. After five years, you begin to get the feeling that you’ve seen it all, done it all, and you begin to feel comfortable and secure in your profession; you consider yourself a true expert. That’s a critical point in your business: You either stop learning and go stagnant, or you take the next step toward becoming a Grand Master.

The best in the business don’t stop. They develop a new mindset, and that mindset is “I’m just getting started.” And from there, the expert mind begins developing those 100,000 possibilities for looking at any situation, automatically. Each day begins with the affirmation, “I commit to learning a new move today.” And at the end of each day, a Grand Master reviews that new learning, lodging it firmly in memory so the experience is ready for use the next day.

Imagine sitting down with clients and listening to their unique circumstances. As you listen, their scenario unfolds as if it’s on a game board with pieces you’ve played hundreds of times. As you listen, you see all the moves, the counter moves, and the counter-counter moves instantly, and you can give your clients the best advice immediately. You can do this because you have a wealth of learning that’s contributed to your expertise.

And the secret is, after five years, you are just getting started. So each and every day, commit to learning something new in your expertise area, keeping in mind that even something subtle can be significant. It’s important to recognize that only a handful of people are willing to make the commitment to becoming Grand Masters at consulting, negotiating, and overseeing transactional details. If you’re now at that point in your career, now is the time to start learning the things you don’t know that you don’t know.

Two ways to begin are to start reading, and to start studying successful people. What you gain from reading is obvious — textbook knowledge from expert practitioners and leaders in their fields. You don’t need to focus on an author in your field; many people write books about skills that transfer easily from profession to profession. Here are my Top Three suggested books for Grand Masters:

• Value-Based Selling by Bill Bachrach
• The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber
• Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

And, by studying and internalizing the successful habits of others, you can take yourself and your business to the next level.

The true experts in our industry are continuing to have their best year ever, despite the challenges in the market. And they’re doing this because they’ve committed themselves to learning something new every single day so they have 100,000 possibilities for anything they encounter. Those with less expertise are struggling to weather the storm.

Now is the time to concentrate on becoming a Grand Master in this market. Start reading. Start studying successful individuals in all walks of life. Learn, adjust, and adapt.

by James Crumbaugh III

The Perfect Storm descended upon our industry a little over 3 years ago, and still continues to rage, although to a lesser degree. The waters are still turbulent.

However at Allison James Estates and Homes we have the storm jib deployed, the jack lines secured, our foul weather gear on and we’re sailing through the storm.

This is what every Realtor and every brokerage that has survived for the past three years has done. They’ve battened down the hatches and plowed through those turbulent waters. There are times when you have to sail into the wind. My wife and I had to sail into the wind one night in 1996, 100 miles off the coast of Baja Mexico in 35 knot winds. Those are the times in life that you man up and survive, or give up.

I’m seeing a lot of people give up right now. Not just in our industry but in spirit and with their goals. Some of these people surprise me that they have given up. At one point they were confident, strong and successful people, and they have been reduced to frail, whining shadows of their former selves. I feel for them, but they have to stand on their own two feet.

With that said I’ll address what these individuals in our industry need to do to get back on their feet, regain their confidence and survive the storm.

First: Quit blaming everyone else. This includes the government, the industry, the banks not lending, everyone. You can’t change those things. What you can change is yourself. If I can give some overly simplistic advice, go buy the book “Think And Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill and read it. Recently I had a good friend ask me if I had ever read it. I shared with that friend that not only had I read it, but I carried it in my briefcase for probably 20 years and read it almost daily till it finally just fell apart. I implemented those teachings into my life and to this day I am a very strong goal setter. Every day I look at my goals; several times a day. I have pictures of my goals, my passwords reflect my goals. If nothing else try this. Confirm to yourself several times a day that you are successful and you will achieve your goals.

Two: Get back to the basics. As many of you know I’m a big Social Media guy but Social Media is just another tool. It won’t change your life without the basics. The basics in our industry have always been to go out and secure listings. Go out in your neighborhood like we used to. Bring that smile you get from reading “Think And Grow Rich” to every door. I think everyone in the country right now has a sour attitude. What a pleasant surprise you’ll be to your neighbors when they find a hopeful and positive Realtor.

Three: Make 10 WHO DO calls a day to your sphere of influence. A WHO DO call is when you speak to someone about Real Estate you ask WHO DO YOU KNOW that may want to buy or sell Real Estate. As I taught my Realtors over the years, 10 WHO DO’s a day will make you successful, 20 WHO DO’s a day will make you wealthy.

I know these ideas will be laughed at by many, because we are so much more sophisticated today. But you know what? We do these things at the corporate office of Allison James Estates and Homes every day and in the last 2 ½ years since we opened our doors we have grown from just myself to a presence in 11 states with two new states about to open, and have recruited over 400 Realtors while most other companies have shrunk or disappeared.

Positive and simple has made us successful.

by Mike Brooks

 I’m big on the 80/20 rule in sales. I see it in every company and industry I work in, and, as many of you know, I’ve dedicated myself to helping sales reps and companies elevate their skills and techniques, so they can start producing sales and income like the top 20% of sales reps do. Often I get asked just what the top 20% make in actual income, and today I can tell you…

The Associated Press, quoting figures released from the recent Census Bureau report, published an article last week revealing what the top-earning 20% of Americans make in income. They found that the top 20% of all Americans earn over $100,000 in income. While that’s interesting in and of itself, what even more important is that the top 20% are also receiving over 50% of all the income earned in the country.

Now that’s BIG. Obviously, what this means is that the other 80% of income earners are splitting up the remaining 50%. That’s a big disparity and it tells us that the top 20% not only make most of the money in the country, but that they have a much bigger piece of the pie to split up.

While being a top 20% producer and income earner is obviously a nice place to be, the next question I get is, “How do I get there?” The answer to that question might surprise you. Most sales reps I ask about this usually point to all the wrong things. They point to outside things like:

• If the leads were better, or
• If the economy was better, or
• If I had a better product, or price, or company or training….

Here’s the real truth – the only thing that is holding you back, or will ever hold you back, is your own belief in what you think you deserve. In other words, your consciousness or comfort zone. The real cause of your income, your health, your outside anything, is the image or picture you hold of them in your consciousness.

The universal truth is that: What you hold in your mind’s eye is always manifested out. One of my favorite authors, Dr. Robert Anthony puts it perfectly in his book, “The Advanced Formula for Total Success”:

“Your ability to accept (financial success) is determined by your consciousness. We all know people who have more money than they know what to do with, and we all know many people who never have enough. Why the difference? If a person who has virtually nothing is given a large sum of money, within a very short time that person will have nothing again. If we divided all the money in the world equally, in a short time the rich would be rich again, and the poor would be poor.

Many people think that if they could just get their hands on a large sum of money, they would be set for the rest of their lives. This is absolutely not true. Surveys have shown that people who receive large sums of money without working for them — those who won lotteries, or inherited wealth, for example — almost always find themselves back to their original financial level within two years of their windfall. They think that if they had money, they would pay their bills, get out of debt and start anew. But that very seldom happens. Over ninety percent of the people who win large sums of money eventually end up with no more money than they had before their winnings. Their standard of life does not increase and it is in many cases lowered because of their excess spending. The point here is that if you have a poverty consciousness or a consciousness of lack and limitation, you will literally spend yourself into poverty. If you find yourself with too much money, you will spend whenever you have in order to get back to your comfort zone.

Take all the money away from a person, who is a millionaire — one who has the consciousness of the millionaire today — and within a short time he or she will be a millionaire again. Riches start from the mind, not your pocketbook, bank account or investment. The bank account and investments are the effects, not the cause. The cause is always an idea or belief. A person is not rich because they have money. They have money because they are rich in consciousness. They believe that they are rich. Again, this is the reason that the rich will always get richer and the poor will always stay poor until they change their consciousness.”

So if you would like to become one of the top 20% earners in America, then you don’t need to change jobs, careers, or anything else “outside” of you. You just have to change the image you have of yourself and become rich in your consciousness first. That is the real secret to your success.

by Sean Carpenter

“Doctor, Make Me Feel Better….Just Don’t Do It Too Quickly”

Can you imagine ever saying this to someone in the medical profession as you’re writhing in pain on the gurney in the ER?

Would you ever tell your attorney, “take your time getting me out of jail and proving my innocence? I want the District Attorney to come to that conclusion on his own and come down here and let me out personally.”?

I am guessing that you are shaking your head, right?

I heard a disturbing story from one of our associates yesterday. Let me know if you’ve heard this before or had it happen to you.

Please Tell Me You’re Making This Up

A Seller had recently received an offer on their new listing. It wasn’t a full priced offer but in today’s market, it was a very good offer. It was a border-line “acceptable with no counter offer” kind of offer.

Sadly, the Seller felt that the house must be underpriced and decided to not reply to the offer. It seems that the Seller felt that any offer coming in that quickly after placing the home on the market should have been at full price or perhaps even higher. The Seller feels that they will certainly get higher offers.

When (and if) this home finally sells, I wonder if the Seller will be upset if the future buyers don’t leave them a tip on the table after the closing too? You know, for all the hard work and kindness they showed.

Is Your Best Offer Your First Offer?

Many agents have said this to their clients, especially when negotiating an offer. I don’t think there is anything that can definitively prove this is true but experience tells us that offers usually don’t get higher the longer a home stays on the market, right?

The longer a home is listed, the more potential buyers will begin to question it’s perception of value. The lower the perception of value, the lower the demand for that home. Add to that an increasing supply of inventory and that’s not a good recipe for the market value of that specific home ever going up in value.

Three Questions from Buyers

• When a home hits the market, has great curb appeal, shows well and is positioned properly on the pricing scale, the buyers that walk through the door (having seen all the other competing homes on the market) will most likely ask themselves or their Realtor, “What’s it going to take to get this house?” That is the kind of reaction every Seller should be aiming from the day they put their house on the market.
• After a house has been on the market for a month or two, the slowly dying stream of buyers begin to ask, “I wonder how much the Sellers would come down from their asking price?” There doesn’t seem to be urgency on either side of the table with the Buyers not encouraged to submit a “test” offer and the Sellers are just standing their ground.
• Once a home has been on the market for more than three months (sometimes less depending on the local markets) the main question out of their mouths will be “what do you think is wrong with it?”

Address It Up Front

Here’s a quick and easy way to avoid the issue that came up with the unfortunate Realtor and his unrealistic Seller from the top of this post. Ask the Sellers during your initial marketing presentation or interview, “If I was able to sell your home in 30 days or less, would that pose a problem for you?” You’re not saying you guarantee it will be sold and you’re not even saying it will be sold at all. You’re just trying to find out if that would pose a problem to the Sellers.

Most Sellers would say “No, that would be great,” or “Wow! Do you really think we could have an offer that quickly?” And while it’s true that some might say “I would think that meant that we underpriced it, right?” at least you would have a chance to educate them on the customs of your local market, current statistics (such as list/sale ratio vs. days on the market) and their options when negotiating offers.

You could even address the three “questions” Buyers will be asking during the Selling process. Ask them if they went through those phases when they purchased the house they are now selling.

You Can’t Answer Someone’s Prayers Until You Know What They Are Praying For

Under the same logic, it’s hard to exceed your clients expectations when you don’t even know what they expect. Use the pre-listing process to set expectations of the market, how it functions and what everyone’s role will be – before the home hits the market, during the listing period, after a successful contract has been negotiated and all the way through the successful management and closing of the transaction.

Let me ask you, if you were able to work with Sellers who were better prepared for all the scenarios that could occur, “Would that pose a problem for you?”

by Mike Brooks

 Ever had a client or prospect never get back to you?

Because you’re in sales, then I know it’s happened to you (or is happening with several of your clients or prospects right now!).

If you ever find yourself in a place where you’ve qualified a prospect, sent them information, then find that they just won’t return your calls or emails, then I’ve got a guaranteed email that will get you a response.

In fact, don’t take my word for it. Check out this word for word email I received a couple of weeks from one of my readers who used this technique himself:

“Mike, just wanted to drop you a note and say thanks. Just one tip I took from you about your ‘guaranteed email’ worked so well I needed to say thanks.

‘Should I stay or should I go’

I had a 30% response from a group of prospects I could not get on the phone a second time and did not want to chase. It worked like a charm and of the 42 responses I picked up 2 sales I would not have gotten otherwise. I also made several people smile that day.

Thanks again for the technique! – Eric K.”

You’re welcome, Eric!

OK, so if you’re ready to learn and use this technique, here it is:

(Note: this email technique was one I learned last summer when I spoke at the L.A. Chapter of the AA-ISP. One of the participants shared it with us and I’ve been passing it along ever since!)

Subject of your email: “Should I stay or Should I go?”

“_________ While I’ve tried to reach you, I haven’t heard back from you and that tells me one of three things:

1) You’ve already chosen another company for this and if that’s the case please let me know so can I stop bothering you,

2) You’re still interested but haven’t had the time to get back to me yet

3) You’ve fallen and can’t get up and in that case please let me know and I’ll call 911 for you…

Please let me know which one it is because I’m starting to worry…

Thanks in advance and I look forward to hearing back from you.”

Is that great or what??

This works on so many levels including using a “Clash” song everyone can relate to in the subject line, to giving them options and an out in case they’ve decided not to work with you.

And, of course, you give people a reason to smile and that always relieves the pressure from the sales situation.

Use it this week and see for yourself how it works to get your prospects to get back with you and how it gets you deals.

by Paul Pastore

 “Don’t wait for a life-changing event to change your life” – Michael Maher

• Go from ‘relationships to referrals’ by asking clients to lunch & asking: What is your biggest challenge right now? What have you tried so far? What are you going to do next?
• Evolve from the ‘ego era’(biggest wallet) to the ‘generosity generation(biggest heart).
• Clients today need ‘help & hope’.
• Ask clients: “What are you most worried about”?
• Client interview question: “What is your favorite form of communication”?
• You website offers ‘social proof’ & may be your first interview. Make sure it has IDX.
• RMC litmus test: If prospects don’t ‘return my calls’, they are simply suspects.
• Delegate any non ‘dollar productive activities’(prospect,list,sell,negotiate).
• Create a PR program(price reductions) & discuss it frequently with sellers.
• Selling strategy for desperate times: bury life size statues of St. Joseph(lol).
• Script:Q: “Will you reduce your fee”? A: “No, but thanks for testing my negotiation skills”.
• A 1% rate increase will cut a buyers qualifying power by 10%.
• You can’t retire on income. You need assets.
• Your values are your true brand.
• Compile the entire short sale package before putting property in MLS.
• Script: “Did you ever see The Price Is Right? The player loses if he guess too much”.
• Script: “Discount brokers get discount prices”.
• Quicken is easy to learn & best for a service based business. QuickBooks is complex & best for a product based business with employees.
• Have monthly online contests for you sphere of influence.

by Jim Gainer

 Are You the Invisible Super Secret Agent? You better check…

The other day I had another conversation with a friend who has a friend who is totally fed up with their agent. They say their agent doesn’t do anything, they never show the house, they never call, they don’t do advertising, etc., etc., etc…

Ever heard that? I know you Brokers and Managers have. Can that be said about you? Are you sure?

This is a discussion about transparency (not invisibility), the way that you make sure the things you do can be seen by the public and especially your clients. Your business processes ought to be transparent so that any customer or client knows exactly what you are doing.

Here are a few small simple examples.

• When you send out Just Listed postcards, do you send one to the Seller?
• When you send out Open House postcards, do you send one to the Seller?
• When you get the newspaper ad to proof, do you send it to the Seller?
• When you get a flyer ready to print, do you send it to the seller?
• When you send out emails to agents about an Open House or a price reduction, do you send one to the Seller?
• Do you send the Seller a copy of the showing report, and website hit count each week?
• Do you call the Seller each week?

Take a good long look at your Marketing Plan and all the activities in it. How many of them get done and the Seller never sees it and they don’t know about it. This isn’t bragging or even ‘tooting your own horn’ this is doing the work you promised to do and being transparent in the process.

The Sellers expect one simple thing from us; they want us to bring them a Buyer for their home. Are you doing that? What are you doing to get that done? And the most important question to me is: Why doesn’t the Seller know what you are doing to help them?

I actually did have a conversation with a Seller not too long ago and they told me that their agent was really working hard for them and they understood the market is getting tougher. That’s not the normal feeling of most Sellers today; they blame their agent for a lack of showings, and they blame their agent for the lack of offers. And if they don’t see their agent doing anything for them that’s exactly what they should think; they hired this person and they’re not doing anything.

The market is what ever it is wherever you are, and it will have a direct impact on how happy the Seller will be. Slow declining markets make Sellers very unhappy, fast rising markets make Sellers very happy, in between markets make Sellers anxious and jumpy; it’s you job to give them some sense of action in the face of uncertain times. You have to do more than just do what you promised you would do, you have to show your work and prove your plan. Just like your High School math teacher taught you…

Sometimes you can get credit for showing your work, even when the solution isn’t exactly what we all had hoped.

by Denise Lones

Think about the last time you made a major change in your life or your business.

What was it that compelled you to make such a big life decision? What was the motivation behind it? What was it that made you say “I have to make a change”? Was it an outside event that pushed you to make that change?

More often than not, it’s the pain and pressure of something outside our control that forces us to make changes. And yet there are some of us who prepare for such coming change by regularly stepping out of our comfort zones and performing the difficult tasks that stave off the pain and pressure–or prevent them altogether.

The way I look at life, there are three zones:

1. The Comfort Zone.

This is where most of us live our lives. Life is good in the comfort zone. We’re not pushed, or stressed. Each of us has our own comfort zone. We know where it is. We feel it. We’re relaxed and happy when we’re in it.

But from time to time, we must visit …

2. The Stress Zone.

This is an uncomfortable place. We don’t like it. It’s full of unpleasantness.

Whenever we find ourselves in the stress zone, we want to get out of it as quickly as possible. We leap back into the comfort zone. Ahhhh, that’s better. We feel warm and safe again.

But that’s exactly the problem. In order to be successful, we need to stop feeling warm and safe. We need to do things we don’t necessarily feel like doing.

Let’s look at an example. Let’s say your income isn’t where you want it to be. One day, you decide to work expired listings.

You pick up the phone to call an expired listing. Bam! You’re in the stress zone when the person on the other end of the phone is rude or abrupt to you. Suddenly, you’re way outside your comfort zone. Your stomach churns. Your palms sweat. Your fingers tremble.

Or let’s imagine that not only is your income not where you want it to be, but you’re drowning in debt. The collectors are calling. You’re getting nasty certified letters in the mail informing you of a pending lawsuit.

Guess what? You just entered:

3. The Pain and Pressure Zone.

This is the disastrous land beyond the stress zone. This is a territory of true misery–and you’re being forced into it. You can’t ignore it anymore!

Here’s what is so ironic about this: part is that the reason you’re now in the pain and pressure zone is because you spent too much time in the comfort zone, not doing the work in the stress zone that would have saved you from entering the pain and pressure zone.

Does that encourage you to get on the phone and call a few more expired listings? Will you endure some little visits to the stress zone rather than eventually being forced to live in the pain and pressure zone?

The unfortunate fact is that most people make big life changes only when they suddenly find themselves in the pain and pressure zone. But you don’t have to wait until that awful zone comes knocking on your door. You can take active steps to avoid misery.

Smoking is a great example of this. A man who has smoked all his life goes to the doctor about a bad cough. He finds out he has a spot on his lung.

Suddenly, this man is in the pain and pressure zone. He has no choice. He’s being forced into it. Perhaps he could have avoided it by stepping out of his comfort zone years ago by quitting smoking. Yes, he would have placed himself in the stress zone for a while. But it may have been a lot better than the situation he finds himself in now.

We all get there eventually. We all have that breaking point. We all realize that we have to put our comfort aside and do the difficult work that it takes to dig ourselves out of our troubles.

If you’re not willing to experience a little stress in the accomplishment of your goals, then you cannot be a success in real estate. If you stay in your comfort zone, you will never make the income you need to sustain your life.

Many self-help authors and speakers promote the idea of loving what you do every minute of every day. That’s fine, but the truth of life is that there are a lot of business tasks you’re not going to love.

Sorry, but that’s just reality. Income does not come from warm and fuzzy feelings. Income comes from hard work and struggling against difficult odds.

Remember, it only takes a moment to be thrust into the pain and pressure zone. None of us know when that moment is going to arrive. We must always be prepared for it. We must get out of our comfort zones and hop into stress zones to get done the things we need to get done.

Seriously, do something stressful today. Call an expired listing. Prepare for an open house. Get your follow-up in order. Put together your mailers. Get your tools up to date. Organize your office.

The great thing about putting some consistent work in the stress zone is that you will be rewarded for it. There is nothing like the feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment that comes from tackling difficult work.

Now go pick something stressful that you’ve been putting off. Get it done right now! Hurry! Go!

by Dirk Zeller

Let’s start with the bottom line first: The whole purpose of a prospect presentation is to establish your competitive advantage. In the least time possible you want to communicate what makes you different from the more than 1.2 million other licensed Realtors in the United States. You want your prospects to see exactly why they should hire you, what’s in it for them, and why they should proceed with confidence to sign your listing agreement.

Most agents spend the presentation explaining what they will do for the client rather than focusing on the results the client can expect the agent to deliver. Newspaper ads, website pages, home magazines, dazzling flyers, and a lineup of other marketing items are tactics that, in truth, nearly all agents use in the normal course of business. They are not competitive advantages. In fact, you must assume before a listing presentation that every agent will promise a near-identical marketing plan.

So why will they hire you over the others? They’ll hire you because they see what’s in it for them. And what’s in it for them is the set of benefits they will receive as a result of your proven competitive position.

Defining your unique competitive position
To differentiate yourself in the field of real estate sales you need to create, define, and consistently convey a competitive position that positively distinguishes you from your competition.

By knowing and exploiting the difference between your products and services and those of your competitors you will attract more prospects, win more clients, grow your market share, increase your revenue, expand your profits, and, eventually, weaken your competitors.

To pinpoint your unique competitive position, answer these questions:

* Are there key statistics that set you apart from your competitors and provide you with a clear point of difference?
* Do any of your Big Three statistics create a unique competitive position?
1. Average list price to sale price
2. Days on the market
3. Listings sold versus listings taken
* What benefits or values do consumers receive only when they deal with you?
* Do you have dominant or strong market share in a geographic region?
* Do you specialize in a particular property type, such as small plexes or a certain style of home?
* Is your market share success tied to a particular price point?
* When representing sellers, do you achieve quantifiably higher sale prices?
* When representing buyers, do you achieve quantifiable savings in sales price, down payment, monthly payment, or interest rate?

Your answers don’t need to lead to 20 unique competitive positions. You only need half a dozen reasons why the consumer — whether you’re presenting to a buyer or a seller — should choose over everyone else. Focus only on advantages that will matter to your prospect. Keep in mind the old sales adage: “It’s easier to sell someone what they want to buy than what you have to sell them.

Proving your excellence: You don’t get paid for second place
A Fortune 500 CEO who doesn’t increase revenue will watch the stock price plummet. A quarterback who throws for lots of yards but doesn’t win games will be benched or traded. A Realtor who doesn’t get listings sold or find and secure the right home for buyers will leave the business.

In the real estate world, results are the name of the game. Anyone can make money in a marketplace where everyone wants to buy and sell, but only the excellent agents will thrive in a competitive marketplace.

by Loren Keim

“Are we there yet?” is a question my children often ask when we’re driving on vacation or to relative’s homes. It’s the same question our realtors ask about the real estate market. When will the market begin to recover? When will buyers decide it’s finally a good time to buy? The answer is always the same — “We’re not there yet, but we’ll be there soon!”

Pastor Scott of New Life Church in New Tripoli, Pennsylvania opened his sermon this week with a joke. “A man walked in to see his doctor, upset because he believed he was shrinking. The doctor promptly responded, ‘Don’t worry, you’ll just have to be a little patient.’”

I realize that, for many Realtors, it’s hard to be patient in this market when your mortgage is overdue and someone is outside repossessing your car. As a rule, we’re not the most patient group. Successful salespeople are headstrong, impulsive, determined, and stubborn.

Sadly, we don’t control the marketplace or the economy, but we do have some control over our careers. When the market collapses, like it has over the past two years, many Realtors shut down and give up. Agents come to work a little later, go home a little earlier and perhaps spend more time watching television, commiserating with others about the market, or griping about the news or blaming poor marketing and spend less time building our careers.

However, there are still homes selling, even in the current market. There are people selling because of divorce, job relocation, and job loss. There are people buying because their leases are up and the interest rates are fantastic. There are buyers moving to the area for jobs and buyers purchasing because they’re having children and need a larger home. Really there are!

When others are working less is the time you can gain a competitive advantage by doing more and by working smarter. Additionally, there are so many methods to build business that cost little or no money. For example, when was the last time you went back through you list of past clients and called a few to reconnect with them? When was the last time you wrote a quick ‘Just-A-Note’ card to a friend, relative or past client?

Here are a few quick things you can do to try to generate business:
- Post your listings for free to Craigslist — We generate a number of buyers each month from our ads on Craigslist.
- Enter your listings for free into Postlets.com and syndicate your listings to other sites from there — It takes 10 minutes to add a listing and it’s syndicated to Trulia, Vast, Google Base, Oodle, Hotpads and others.
- Post a note about your latest listing on Facebook.
- Send out a free e-card from egreetings.com to several of your past clients.
- Send out an e-newsletter to your past clients.
- Pick up the phone and call anyone you know.
- Jot a handwritten note to someone you haven’t seen in a while.

The more action you take, the more likely you are to run into those who really need to buy or sell, which will help you to build your individual business. Sadly, when I suggest proactively seeking buyers and sellers, the immediate reaction is either “I tried that and it doesn’t work” or “I just don’t have the time to do all that stuff.”

I know each of these ideas work because they have each personally brought me buyers and sellers. And regarding the excuse that e-greetings, postlets and craigslist take too much time. Right now, you have plenty of time to work on building your business and none of them take more than ten minutes. So set time aside each day, perhaps in the morning with a cup of coffee, and build your business.

Waiting for the phone to ring and the market to return is not the way to build a long-term successful career. Don’t focus on what you can’t control. Focus on what you can control and get back to work. Buyers and sellers are waiting!

by Calvin Curry

Most real estate listing presentations are boring, ineffective, or even worse horrible at converting prospects into listings. Here are 5 tips that you can use to create an effective listing presentation that will get you listings…

1. Keep your sales presentation fast paced and interesting. This will help keep your prospects’ attention and avoid them getting bored. If your prospect is not focused or listening to what you have to say, you most likely won’t get the listing, right? You must keep their attention.

2. Make your presentation easy to follow and understand. Remember your listing presentation is there to help you. It’s NOT supposed to be your sales presentation. Keep the slides to the point and don’t clutter them up with every word you want to say.

A good rule of thumb that has worked for me is to have one new bullet point come up every 15-20 seconds and try to put only 3-4 bullet points on each slide. This way your prospects don’t skip ahead of you and you can keep them focused and interested in what you are saying.

3. Use lots of pictures to illustrate your points throughout your listing presentation. The reason for this is because people remember only 20% of what they hear or 30% of what they see. But they remember 50% when they both see and hear what you’re presenting. Do your best to have a picture that helps tell your story on every slide of your real estate listing presentation.

4. Build in stories that help prove your points. Everyone loves a good story. Plus it’s one of the best ways to engage your prospects in what you are saying. I use stories to help overcome objections, prove my point, or demonstrate why the prospect should do something I feel is better than what the majority of the competition may be telling them.

For example I use a few sales analogies to get sellers to pay a higher commission by building a story around “what home would you be the most motivated to sell if you where a Realtor and one listing offered a 6% commission and another one offered a 7% commission?”

5. Make your real estate listing presentation about your prospect and NOT about you. Remember you are there to help your prospect sell their home. Showing them how you can help them, rather than just being another agent who beats their chest and explains how great you are, will really help you separate yourself from the competition. Plus it will prove that you are looking out for the best interest of your seller and not yourself.

by Calvin Curry

Want to get more listings? One of the best ways to increase your listings is to increase your closing ratio. Of course you could just go on more listing appointments and leave your closing ratio where it’s at but that’s a lot harder than just closing more of the appointments you go on.

Here are 5 ways to increase your closing ratio when conducting a listing presentation.

1. Don’t “Wing” It But Rather Use A Proven Real Estate Listing Presentation

Most Realtors use a CMA as their listing presentation. They compete over price to get a listing. It’s not unusual for a Realtor to name a higher price than they feel the home will sell for just to get the listing. That’s why I hate competing over price and basing my listing presentation around a CMA.

What has always worked best for me is to evaluate the seller’s motivation before going on a listing appointment and then using a proven listing presentation to get the listing.

The listing presentation that I like the best is one that presents a big problem like the housing market is still going down (at least it is where I am at in Florida); then solve that problem by showing how you sell homes in a rough housing market, make an offer and ask for the listing.

2. Be Passionate And Confident

Most people have a very short attention span. People get bored easily. If you are not excited or passionate about what you’re saying then your prospect won’t be either. Even if you are not passionate about your listing presentation, act as if you are and you will eventually become passionate about it.

People want to do business with someone whom they feel can get the job done. You must act confident and speak with authority to put confidence into your prospect. You can sell their home just as well as anyone else if not better, right? So act like it and your prospects will feel it and want to do business with you.

3. Watch For The Buying Signals

Every good salesperson should look for the signals that tell you the other person has been “sold” and that the time has come to ask for the signature. When you see the buying signal don’t fail to ask for the listing. Otherwise if you keep selling you could sell yourself right out of the listing.

Here are some buying signals to watch for during your listing presentation:

When the prospects ask you about…

- what commission you charge.

- how long your listing contract is.

- questions about how you promote your listings.

Or when the prospect says something like…

- “How quickly will agents start calling to show the home?”

- “How soon do I need to have my home in showing condition?”

- “Another agent said they would list my home for 5%.”

- “Another agent said they would take a 90 day listing.”

- “I’ll list with you if ________”

- “When will you put my home on the MLS?”

- “Will you do open houses?”

When the buying signal comes, get out your pen and listing contract and go for the close. Don’t continue talking about the sale or what you will do to sell the home. Talk about the listing terms, such as the listing price, length of the listing agreement, and commission.

4. Ask For The Listing

If you stumble around when the time comes to close you can easily lose the listing. You shouldn’t wait for the prospect to decide they want to list before you decide to close.

Here are some statements you can use to lead into the close or ask for the listing outright:

“When can I start?”

“When can I start promoting your home to my buyer list?”

“When can I tell my buyers and the other agents in my office about your home?”

“Can I take pictures of your home today?”

“Would it be okay if I start advertising your home today or should I wait until Monday?”

“Don’t you agree that my marketing plan will get your home sold fast for the best price?”

“Don’t you agree that with everything I’ve showed you about the housing market,  the sooner I sell your home the more money you’ll get for it?”

5. Don’t Give Up When The Prospect Says “I have to think about it”

In most cases objections are a good thing. It means your prospect is interested in listing with you. One of the most common objections agents get hung up on during a listing presentation is “I want to think about it”.

If you have already answered most of your prospects’ questions and they just seem to be stalling then get them to commit. Find out what their main objection or concern is by saying something like “Is there anything else holding you back from making this important decision?”

If they tell you there’s nothing else holding them back, then ask them “why?” they have to think about it? You could say something like “Joe, most of the time when a home seller tells me they have to think about it there’s something I have failed to explain well enough in order for them to make a decision. So what did I miss and what is it that you have to think more about?” Once you have said this wait for their answer. Do NOT talk until they have come up with a reason why they have to think about it…even if there is a silence for thirty seconds or more.

Do your best to overcome all of their objections for waiting and thinking more about the decision. If they come up with a lame excuse to stall like “I never make big decisions like this until I have slept on it” then tell them that you respect that and say something like “I respect that. Don’t you feel that I can sell your home?” when they answer yes then go for the close again and say something like “then put me to work today and let me start marketing your home immediately”.

While you say this put the listing contract in front of your prospect and put your pen in their hand while you look them confidently in the eyes. I know this may sound like high pressure sales or even a bit cheesy but you don’t get paid just to visit their home, right? You get paid to close.

by Mike Brooks

by Josh Schoenly

In this short article I’m going to outline a 6 step process you can follow to consistently list more for sale by owners (FSBO’s). The purpose of this process is to start a conversation with FSBO’s in your market and position yourself as their go to person when they are ready to list.  As we all know (or should know) 90% of all FSBO’s end up listing their home at some point with an agent. Follow these steps and you’ll be the one that 90% is listing with when they are ready!

Step 1:

Set a recurring appointment with yourself every morning. I know this seems simple and is really but if you don’t actually make the appointment it’ll never become a habit and it becomes easy to ignore or skip over.  I can tell you from personal experience and from reading hundreds of business books, businesses and sales people who take CONSISTENT action on activities that are profit producing are the ones that last and become extremely profitable! You can set the appointment by simply writing it your planner or you can use Google Calendar and set it to be recurring, whatever you choose just do it.

Step 2:

Each morning during your “appointment” time go to Craigslist, choose your city or the one closest to you, then choose real estate for sale and then finally filter the listings to real estate by owner (you can do this at the top of the screen after you choose real estate for sale).

Step 3:

Now go through all the previous days’ listings and “cherry pick” 5-10 for you to target.  You may want to target them because they are in a neighborhood or area you work or they may be an area that you’d like to working in doesn’t really matter just choose 5-10 (no less than 3 at a minimum!).

Step 4:

Now simply send an email making an offer to each of the listings.  IMPORTANT: keep your message short and sweet and make it about the FSBO. I see too many realtors & agents who make their marketing messages all about them and not about the potential client.  This is a huge mistake and will cost you TONS of business.  An example offer you could make is simply: If I had a qualified buyer for your home would you be willing to pay our company a commission? Notice it’s short, sweet, and to the point.  You may be able to come up with something better but just make sure it’s not some long winded message about why you are the best thing since sliced bread and they’d be crazy not to list with you. Remember we’re just looking to start a conversation.

OPTIONAL: Actually pick up the phone and make the same offer to them (of course you need to scrub their number against the DNC list).  Now here’s what to do when they say yes, and a high % of them are going to say yes…

Step 5:

Schedule a time to go and preview their home.  Notice this isn’t a listing appointment you are simply going to go and preview their home in order to build rapport and establish a relationship.  It’s a great idea to bring a market snap shot with you and/or anything else you bring to provide value to the seller. By providing value to them you are going to go a long way toward building rapport and you know what even if they do sell their home themselves they’re going to be more likely to recommend you to others who can’t or don’t want to.

Step 6:

Follow up, follow up, follow up.  I love that the bookends to these 6 steps are consistency and follow up because in any business activity will be the difference between failure and success.  You’ve got to regularly follow up with those FSBO’s who you’ve communicated.  You should be doing this every week or every other week at the most and it can and should be as simple as this: “Hi this is so and so and I was just reaching out to find out if you’ve sold your home yet and if there is anything else I can do to help you with the sale?”

by Mark Leader

Anywhere, at any time, the real estate market is what you see it to be.

If you believe you can succeed in the market, then you can. If you believe that the market is a disaster for everyone, then you cannot.

If you think nothing else will happen today — then nothing will happen.

You can go to all the real estate classes you want and employ self-motivation to work harder, but if you do not believe in your own ability to succeed, it won’t happen.

Of course, real estate professionals have to be realistic about the market in which they work. You can’t constantly have 20% price increases along with 2% wage increases. That kind of market had to come to an end.

Real estate brokers and agents must face the truth of the current market. They must believe in their own abilities to manage and to sell homes in this market.

Everything else is teachable, but believing in yourself has to come first.

I’ve developed 16 basic principles that allow a sales professional to have not just a good year, but an extraordinary year, regardless of the real estate market.

1. Aim
You need to have a definite aim in life, not just a vague sense of what you’d like to be doing in a few years. This aim is what defines your days.

2. Self-confidence
Every sales professional needs to develop a strong sense of confidence in his ability to do anything. Success is impossible without self-confidence.

3. Initiative
If you don’t take a chance, you don’t stand a chance. Sales professionals are by nature risk-takers.

4. Imagination
Every successful sales professional needs to be creative in developing solutions to the problems that occur in every transaction and in finding new ways to attract new business.

5. Action
In order to be successful, you need to be active, not passive, particularly in a slow market.

6. Enthusiasm
Enthusiasm builds confidence in you and in your clients. No one wants to work with an agent who lacks passion about real estate.

7. Self-control
Times are tough, and agents, along with everyone else, can get frustrated. But expressing that frustration is one of the fastest ways to lose a client or a deal.

8. Perform more work and better work than you are paid to perform
The greatest gift a REALTOR® can give is great customer service, not an expensive closing gift.

9. Develop an attractive personality
Everyone in the sales community needs to recognize the traits that make others comfortable and pleasant to be around, and develop these traits themselves.

10. Accurate thought
Would you want to work with a scatterbrain while making the largest investment of your lifetime?

11. Concentration
Clients need focused, thoughtful support more than ever.

12. Persistency
There is not one giant step that does everything. It’s a lot of little steps.

13. Failures
Learn to look at your failures as lessons to be learned, and they will have a positive impact on your life and career.

14. Tolerance and sympathy
If someone hurts you, learn to forgive them, and try to be understanding. Success is the greatest revenge.

15. Work ethic
Develop the good work habits that earn you a reputation as one of the hardest-working agents in your market.

16. The Golden Rule
Ultimately, in real estate as in life, you reap what you sow.

by Maya Bailey

Have you often avoided making those “dreaded cold calls?”

Do you dream of how much better your business could be but just can’t bring yourself to pick up the phone?

You’re not alone. In the 12+ years that I have specialized in coaching real estate agents, I have noticed the same avoidant patterns in each of my clients. This article gives you 5 tips to make it easier.

Tip 1: Change the name

I’m not kidding. Do the words “cold calls” send a chill up your spine? It’s no wonder . Whoever created that term didn’t know what they were doing. So, change the term, because it’s inaccurate. First of all, many of the people you’ll be calling are leads. Second, why would you think cold? Are you cold? Is the receiver of the call cold? Not likely if you’re living in a human body.

So maybe I’m exaggerating a bit, but the point is, call it something different, call it what it is, “direct response calls”.

My clients do much better when they realize they are making direct response calls.

Tip 2: Be in the right mindset

Are you calling to sell something? If so, put down the phone and start again. No, you are actually calling to give something and that is your time and expertise. Would you be scared if you had a gift you wanted to give someone? Unlikely. In the same way, be in the mindset that you have a gift and you are it.

Why is this so? Well, think about the fact that you have something to offer. You know much more about real estate than Ms. Jane Doe. So if you call to let her know what properties have sold in her area, that is valuable information. Likewise, if you want to offer her a Free Comparative Market Analysis. That’s a gift of your time, energy and expertise. You should be proud to offer that . Guess what? If you are proud to offer that, she’ll most likely feel appreciative of the offer. Our energy and mindset is transferred to our prospective clients.

Tip 3: Use a permission based approach

For example, when I do direct response calls, the conversation goes something like this, “My name is Maya Bailey and I work with real estate agents who want to double their income. If you’d like to take 30 seconds , I’ll be happy to tell you what I do.” Notice that I didn’t barrel my way through. I said as little as possible until I got their permission to continue.

Use this script as a template to make your own direct response calls. For example,” My name is ____________ and I’m your local real estate consultant . I have some news about the value of properties in our neighborhood. If you’d like to take 30 seconds, I’ll be happy to…..” Is this getting more clear? The latest trend in marketing is permission based marketing.

Tip 4: Get excited about the relationships you’ll make

If you approach this in a permission based way, people will be much more open and friendly to you. Instead of focusing on the occasional rude person at the other end of the line, focus instead on what you want.

Most likely what you want is to make some connections with a person , in which you can follow up , convert them in prospective clients and then convert them into transactions. Let yourself feel how good it’s going to feel to close those deals. Pat yourself on the back because it all started with the courage it took to make direct response calls.

Tip 5: Remember to reframe a “no” into a “yes”

What do I mean? First of all a “no” does not mean that you are being rejected. Neither does it mean that your service is being rejected. What it means is “No, not now.”

Secondly, do you realize that every “no” brings you one step closer to your “yes”? It’s a numbers game and you need a certain number of “no’s” to get a “yes”. Just remember to have thick skin and not take it personally.

My experience as a coach to real estate agents has shown me that it’s all about attitude. If you are sold on yourself and your service and you convey that with pride and enthusiasm , the other person will be glad you called. They may even become a client. It pays to know that you are valuable and what you have to offer is equally valuable.

by Loren Keim

About a dozen years ago, I knew a real estate agent who, when he wrote an offer on a property, gave the buyers a huge horse pill in a clear plastic bag. The bag was labeled ‘Buyer Remorse Pill.’ It was a joke, but it would also open up a conversation with the buyer about the subject of buyer’s remorse.

One of the major challenges that we, as Realtors and home sellers, have in the current environment is that far too many buyers believe prices may continue to fall and are hesitant to make an offer on a property unless they negotiate some spectacular deal.

One of my functions in life is to assess the real estate market at Lehigh University each year and project the most likely direction for sales trends. I personally believe we’re going to start seeing some upward slope, although it will take many years to completely recover, but that’s a conversation for another article. Buyers, however, are lured by articles in their local press and on Yahoo which announce how bad things are and how much worse they’re likely to get.

In order to properly represent home sellers, realtors must dispel some of that fear, and help those buyers to see that real estate is a great investment over time. This particular agent’s approach was to alleviate that fear by explaining that buyer’s remorse is a natural part of the home buying process.

“Mr. and Mrs. Reed, after writing this offer, you will head home, and one of you will look at the other and say ‘What did we just do?’ You’ll start worrying that you made an offer on the wrong house in the wrong neighborhood. Your furniture won’t fit. You paid too much. You should have waited until the interest rates came down. You can’t afford this mortgage payment and so on. If you get home and start feeling that way, don’t worry. This is a common reaction called ‘Buyer’s Remorse.’ Call me and we’ll discuss it. I wouldn’t let you do something that I didn’t think was in your best interests.”

The two primary keys for home sellers in dealing with buyer’s remorse are, of course, to hire a good skilled real estate agent, and to require a significant deposit so the buyer cannot easily walk away from the purchase. If the worst does happen, the owner and their agent will have to work through the problem and try to keep the buyer’s fears at bay. Unfortunately, since the listing agent often isn’t the person working directly with the buyer, you will have to rely somewhat on the buyer’s agent to do his or her job correctly.

We train our agents to pull out all the statistics showing that even though property values have declined in most parts of the country over the past few years, these corrections are historical and they do reverse themselves. Recent sales are also a way to justify the price the buyer is paying on the property. We show trends and why buying a home versus throwing money away in rental payments is a good investment over time. We go back over the mortgage payments and rates and the buyer’s qualifications. We have even put together some cartoons to help lighten the situation.

Ultimately, there is no single answer for how to handle buyer’s remorse when it appears. Just be aware of the potential for a buyer to panic. If it happens, the buyer may try to withdraw from the agreement, or he or she may begin nitpicking the home because he or she is frustrated. Do not become emotional. If you are representing the buyer, simply respond the best you can and if you’re representing the seller, you may have to use the deposit as leverage to keep the buyer from withdrawing from the purchase.

by Rich Levin

The year is ending. You can decide to coast through December or take a few simple actions that ensure a strong start and continued success throughout 2011.

The Actions:

A. Complete a simple business plan. It is very important that it is both simple and completed quickly. You will see how below.
B. Take immediate action on the first workday of 2011 to ensure that you begin your plan within the first week of the New Year.
C. Begin to embed the actions of your 2011 plan as habits that ensure you stick with your plan for the entire year.

A. Your Simple Business Plan: Time Required -Approximately 1 Hour.

As you begin this plan it may seem familiar. As you get to the last steps and beyond you will see why it is likely to be the plan that actually makes your goals happen.

Important: Complete these steps quickly. Do not dwell on or labor over them.

1. Your Motivation and Attitude: Write down why you want to sell Real Estate in 2011; and what you want your Real Estate results to do for your life and your loved ones in 2011.
2. Write down the minimum amount of income or sales production that would make you feel that you are achieving those things for you and your loved ones. Review your past three year’s income or production so that your goal is based on facts.
3. Write down (or type on a document) the 12 months of the year one under the other. Write down a production by contract date for each month. Example: Jan: $300,000 under contract. This is the total sale price of the homes you will put under contract in January. (Note: contract not closing month)
4. Determine how many sales for the year that will require. Simply divide the annual goal by a conservative estimate of your average price. Example: Annual Goal is $3,000,000. Divided by Average Price of $150,000. Total sales are 20.
5. Determine how many new Clients you will need for the year to achieve this. Double the number of sales. Example: 20 sales require 40 new Clients. (We have proven this statistic with thousands of Agents coast to coast.)
6. Determine how many new Clients you need each week. Divide by 40. We use 40 instead of 52 weeks for the year to be conservative and realistic. Example: 40 new Clients needed divided by 40 weeks is 1 new Client per week.
7. Decide what 2 or 3 activities are most likely to get you that small number of appointments per week. Base this on where your past business has come from. Actually list where your sales have come from for the past one or two years so you are completely accurate about sources. The most common activities are: Follow up on current and past leads, Internet leads, ad and sign calls, open houses, calling or networking with your Past Clients and Spheres of Influence, personal marketing, hyperlocal marketing (farming), and if necessary expireds.

B. Take Action Immediately in 2011 to Begin Your Plan
Print the simple seven step business plan above. Right now, put an hour on your calendar to back through it and actually take each step. Then do this step (B.) and put the last step (C.) into your calendar for January. You will increase your chances of success next year by tenfold. In fact, it will guarantee your success in 2011.

Using the 2 or 3 activities you chose in number 7 above make a list of what actions will you take on January 3rd through 7, 2010 (Monday through Friday) to put your simple plan into motion?

These actions may include making calls, reconnecting with all or last year’s leads, web site work, e-mail blasts, preparing and sending your Sphere of Influence mailing, previewing homes in your farm, preparing and sending your farm mailing, communicating with your pending Clients and listed Sellers.

C. Begin to Embed The Actions as Habits
Embedding a habit turns single or random actions into consistent and dependable systems. A habit is an action that you take at the same time, on the same day, in the same place, and in the same way every day or every week. As you perform the action consistently day after day or week after week you become better at it. You learn how to continually improve it.

Following is the most effective way to turn your plans into results by creating the habits for those activities that ensure consistent results all year.

Choose one type of activity for each day of the week. And first thing in the morning before you open your e-mail (same time), on the same day of week, in the same place, schedule just a half hour to do each of the following. (You can expand the time later. A half hour helps establish the habit.)

Monday — Call Leads and Make Initial Appointments
Tuesday — Advance Your Technology
Wednesday — Traditional Sphere of Influence and Hyperlocal Marketing
Thursday — Communications with Pending Clients and Listed Sellers
Also Thursday: Rehearse and Improve Presentations
Friday: Strategize by looking at results for the past week and plans for the following week.

Important: As you begin each day review and remind yourself of A1 above, your motivation and reasons for succeeding with your Real Estate career in 2011.
There are many other activities in an Agent’s business that are hard or impossible to turn into daily habits; for examples, showings, writing offers, listing presentations, and negotiating,. You will always find time for these because they demand your time.

Reaching your goals in 2011 depends on your commitment to make those “Daily Habits” a part of your business. Your success or disappointment in 2011 depend on it.

It’s that simple; not easy but simple. The key to a strong start to 2011 and guaranteeing your success throughout 2011 is dependent on the simple planning and habits you establish as this year ends and the New Year begins.

by Rich Levin

What Separates the Winners From the Others?

Your success does not depend on how you respond to the good days. Your success depends on how you respond to the bad days. Winners fail. In fact, winners fail more often than others. That’s how they become winners. They learn and grow from their failures. What separates the winners from the others is how they respond to their failures and setbacks.

Everyone suffers when they fail. After the failure do you get emotional and dwell on it? Of course, we all do that. The key is how long you dwell on it and what you do next to get past it.

Winners suffer deeply but they get objective and refocus quickly. They quickly consider what there is to learn from the failure or setback. They look for patterns and connections to see if there is a systemic problem that can be corrected and lead to a significant improvement. Then they get back into action. They take action on the correction if there is such action to take. Then, quickly, they get on with what has to be done next to move their business forward with little or no residual “drag or delay” from the failure or setback.

Consider Failures and Setbacks as Breakdowns
People have far more control over some breakdowns than others. A Real Estate Agent works hard to put a deal together and the Buyer is unexpectedly laid off from their job. You have less control over that than if the Agent had never asked about the Buyer’s employment and there was a problem that could have and should have been identified earlier. Either way, it’s a breakdown.

Some setbacks are much harder to get past than others. My elderly neighbor’s teenage granddaughter was visiting. When the teenager got up at night to use the bathroom she turned out all the lights, not knowing her grandma always left one on so she could see. The grandma fell down the stairs and will be recovering and rehabilitating from her injuries for many months. Think of the grandma in recovery; the granddaughter’s guilt, and her parents struggle to help the young woman get past it. Some setbacks are much harder to get past.

Creating Breakthrough Out of Breakdown
Like all successful strategies this is a system. It is a simple system. Do not confuse simple with easy. It is difficult to put into practice. It is difficult to practice consistently. However, once it is mastered it becomes a path to a life of greater courage, filled with breakthroughs and less fear of breakdowns. When you have setback, a failure, a breakdown there is a five step process that turns that breakdown into breakthrough.

1. Acknowledge the error. Simply recognize and admit that, yes this happened or is happening. This may mean also recognizing and admitting the (sometimes dire) consequences of the error.

2. Take responsibility for it. This means that you accept that you caused it. You do this even if it is unreasonable; even if it seems completely inaccurate. You do not have to tell anyone else that you take responsibility. You take this step for the purpose of taking control of your life and seeking the breakthrough.

3. Forgive yourself and/or anyone else for the error. Forgiveness is an act and a sign of strength and confidence. In this system it communicates that sense of strength and confidence to you. It builds and expands your self esteem.

4. Recommit to the goal… or not. In whatever endeavor the error occurred. Recommit to the effort. Or choose to end the effort. But, if the latter, make it a conscious choice. If you choose to recommit and in most cases you will, then if it is a lost Real Estate deal, recommit to your goals and career. If it is a habit or addiction recommit to your health and vision. As earlier if it is a tragedy, recommit to love and a life of purpose. As part of your re-commitment choose a deadline, a new deadline or timeframe.

5. Get immediately back into action. You may get immediately into action toward the goal. Follow the famous advice, “Never leave the site of setting a goal without first taking some form of positive action toward its attainment.” And once you have taken that action toward your goal get back into action in your life, whatever there is to do next.

The Real Estate business is one that can cause several areas of breakdown sometimes daily. A truly successful Agent can get past these opportunities for breakdown and learn from them to minimize the effect next time.

Print This Now
Print his article, now. Highlight or circle the parts that you want to remember. Stick it on a wall or somewhere that you can find it so that when you have your next breakdown and you know it is inevitable. You can see whether there is a way to turn that difficult moment into the path to your next breakthrough.