Category: Attitude

How To Do It: Step 5 – Staffing

(This is an elaboration of ‘How To Rule The (Real Estate) World In 10 Steps“)

You have taken a lot of listings.  Your Listing market share is growing.  The public is starting to recognize your identifiers and understand your offer.  Your phone is ringing with potential buyers.  You are literally as busy as you can possibly be – there is no time left to do more.  It’s time to hire.

I believe your first hire should be a highly organized assistant.  You want this person to take over everything that does not involve direct buyer and seller interaction (beyond telephone inquiries).  That means working with the MLS, with Help-U-Sell, with all of your websites.   It means getting all of the paperwork done and keeping all of the logs, leads and files organized.  It probably means keeping your schedule and keeping you on track.

A license is essential — this person will be handling buyer and seller inquiries.

Look for someone who has experience managing a mountain of detail and working with customers primarily on the phone.  Mortgage processors are good candidates as are Transaction Coordinators.

Teach this person how you want things set up.  Let them figure out parts you haven’t considered.  Spend serious time role playing buyer and seller inquiries with them.  Bear in mind that at some point you’ll hire more office help and may have each member of the team specialize in something.  This first hire may eventually be your Transaction Coordinator or you Client Coordinator (the person who handles all in-bound calls and manages all of the buyers and sellers).

At the same time, start looking for a Buyer  Agent.  Note:  the assumption here is that you have listings, your phone is ringing and you’re capturing Buyer leads and storing them in a Buyer Pool Book.  The Buyer Pool Book is essential because it gives the great opportunity you have tangible form.  It’s real, it’s physical.  Your potential recruit can see it, touch it, consider what life with it would be like.

You have a great offer for the consumer – that’s why everything’s working so well.  You need to also have a great offer for the agent, one that’s better than what anyone else is offering.  Here are the key ingredients of that offer:

No prospecting for listings.  You will handle all of the FSBOs and Expireds, the door knocking and mailing.

No pressure to get listings.  All you want them to do it take care of the Buyer Leads you’re creating.

No listing management headaches.  No angry seller calls, no withdrawn listings, no pressure to communicate with sellers.

Razor sharp focus on one simple aspect of the business:  taking a buyer lead and converting it to a sale . . . then going back and doing it again and again.

They’ll have no marketing expense, no desk fee, none of the bills traditional agents have to pay.

Yes, you’re going to pay them a lower split than your competitors, but you’re going to eliminate a huge chunk of the job description the other guys will burden them with.  You’re also not going to ask them to go out and drum up business.  That’s the job of your marketing.  They’re going to come in, choose a lead, convert it, and then come back and do it again and again.

You should start practicing today to demonstrate why 50% with you is better than, say,  80% with your competitor.  You do it on paper with a calculator.  Take the average gross commission on a closed side in your area, multiply it by the agent’s anticipated annual production (National average is less than 6 closed sides a year), apply your competitor’s split to the total and then deduct all of the fees and expenses the agent will have to pay.  Now, take your average commission per closed buyer side and multiply it by your minimum standard (which should probably be 2 closed sides a month). Apply the split you’re offering and deduct any expenses they might have with you — they should be minimal but might include E&O on each deal or REALTOR dues.  You should be able to demonstrate a big positive benefit in your favor.  They’ll have a focused, manageable job description, will do more business, will worry less and will  make much more.

When we talk with traditional brokers about Help-U-Sell, one of the things they can’t conceive is how we’re able to charge less and make more.  We have to put a pencil to it and show them how we deliver more dollars to the bottom line on a set fee listing than they do on the same listing at 6%.  You have to do the same thing with a potential agent.  Show them how splitting for less with you will delivers more dollars to their pocket than splitting for more with your competitor.

Then pull out the Buyer Pool book.  Tell the recruit what it is and how it gets filled.  Thumb through it and talk about a couple of the buyer leads that are inside.  Describe how they’ll use it to stay constantly busy.  You have a minimum standard of production, but with leads like this and no worries about the other side of the business, they ought to be able to double that.

Finally, show them Science to Sales.  It’s going to be their blueprint to success.  Truth is, after a couple of weeks in S2S, they’ll know more than 80% of the agents in the marketplace, and knowledge is power.

Hiring agents for Help-U-Sell can be challenging.  You probably won’t be able to get a traditional agent with more than 18 months in the business to hear your message.  Really – something happens after a year of having the traditional model pounded into them.  A tough layer of thick skin forms over the ear drum and they just don’t hear you . . . and they don’t get it.  You may hire this agent but more times than not you’ll learn that they can’t make it in your world.  They’re already spoiled.

You’ll have the greatest success with an energetic new licensee you can raise up in the family.

This does not mean you should not pursue experienced agents . . . just target them carefully.  Look for ones with a year in the business, give or take a few months.  You’re looking for good people who are becoming disillusioned.  It happens around this time.  They came into real estate looking for a dream job and are starting to understand that the traditional business is a bit of a nightmare.  They’ve probably amassed a sizable bill in their time in the biz and have little to show for their efforts but frustration.  This is an experienced agent who can hear you and who can still ‘get it.’

And regardless of time in the business, talk with any co-op agent you think is workable.

Your Buyer Pool Book will dictate when you add another and another buyer agent.  Now that you have an assistant, you should be able to capture more leads and the Book should be growing.  When it’s big enough to support more than one, hire again . . . and again.

An important shift happens when you start to hire.  Up to now your focus has been on taking listings, doing deals, surviving (and getting by on little sleep).  None of that changes.  What changes is your image of the role you have in this company you’re building.  Previously you were a deal-doer.  Now you are a lead generator.  You still do deals, you still do most of what you were doing before.  But now you recognize that the success of your operation depends on your ability to keep leads flowing to the competent buyer agents you have on the team.

One final note about recruiting.  I’ve talked a lot about how to ‘sell’ Help-U-Sell to a potential recruit.  You have to be able to do this.  But remember: the interview is not a selling situation.  It’s not a listing appointment where you want to convince the other person to choose you.  It’s an educational situation.  You’re going to educate your potential recruit about your business  model and if it appeals to them, they will make the decision to join you.  Please don’t do what your traditional counterparts do, which is to beg. In their world the recruit is the ultimate symbol of success.  It’s not about selling real estate for them, it’s about how many people they can convince to come work for them.  You’re different.  You are absolutely about selling real estate and you’re hiring so that you’ll be able to do more.  If the candidate is not obviously right for the job, you’re not going to hire.  If the candidate can’t see the value in your program, that’s ok – and you’ll part as friends.  But you won’t hire.  The recruit isn’t the prize in our business he or she is in the traditional office.  For us, the recruit is help, enabling us to list and sell more real estate.

OK?  Now on to‘How To Rule The (Real Estate) World In 10 Steps

How To Do It: Step 4 – Ace The Buyer Inquiry

(This is an elaboration ofAnd HERE)

This is the arena.  It’s where all of your marketing dollars and hours of business building activity come together to produce either a potential client or a lost opportunity.  It is the pivot point on which your entire business turns.  And yet it gets little more than a passing thought from most brokers.

I’ve sat in lots of real estate offices and listened to many agents handle an incoming call and have generally been sickened, saddened and disgusted by the experience.

‘Brand X Realty,’ says the duty agent, ‘How may I help you?’

‘Of course, just a moment . . . let me look it up.’

‘That home is priced at $189,500 . . . would you like to go see it?’

‘Well there are others a little less expensive I could show you.’

This is the point at which the ‘agent’ holds the receiver out and stares at it for a moment, shakes his or her head and hangs it up — just like the caller did, a moment earlier.

Listen: I know of no better skill to polish than those required to handle a buyer inquiry if your goal is to improve your bottom line.  And if that’s not your goal, you need to get busy getting publicity for your firm because you’ll be the world’s first official non-profit real estate company!  Step 5!E.   And HERE.

This is a pivotal point in your quest to Rule the (real estate) World, too.  You’ve used your wonderful consumer offering to get more than your share of listings and now the listings are creating inquiries.  You have to capture those inquiries and convert them into leads and then into clients to move to the next steps:  staffing, accountability and closed sides.  You’re not ready for the next step – staffing – until you do this because you have nothing to offer a new recruit unless you have a buyer pool book and you get that by effectively handling inquiries.

There is a set of simple telephone techniques that work together to produce favorable results with incoming buyer calls.  Mastery of the techniques — using an ‘interrupt’ to gain control of the call; never answering a question without asking one to keep the conversation going and earn you more information about the caller; taking advantage of opportunities to demonstrate the value you bring to the transaction, and so on — is very important.  But what’s just as important is attitude.

Funny.  I have a really good friend who will turn 78 in a few weeks.  You’d never guess his age because he looks a lot younger and acts even younger than he looks.  I’ve been thinking of buying an ocean Kayak and a few weeks ago, he agreed to rent one with me — a tandem — to see how it performed.  We put it in the bay and had a great time paddling about, playing with the sea lions.  What I didn’t know until later is that he’s terrified of water.  He never learned to swim.  When I heard this, I suggested maybe he ought to go down to the Y and learn . . . and the other day he had his first lesson with his coach.  I think buried in that verbiage is one of the secrets to staying young, but that’s not the point.  The point is what the coach told him.

He said that, while technique and breathing are very important in swimming, what’s most important is your attitude about water.

That’s true with the buyer inquiry, too.  You have to know, without ever having to think about it, that the person on the other end of the line needs you.  They may have amassed an artificial barricade between you and the need, but it’s there.  You also have to believe right down to your marrow that And HERE.  Honestly, that’s what makes you good on the phone.  It makes you purr with confidence and competence.  You become an irresistible force and you own the call.

So, how do you get to that glorious state?  You have to know your stuff.  You can’t fake it.  You have to know what’s on the market — which means previewing regularly.  You have to know all the ways to buy a home today — which means learning about financing and contracts and keeping up on what’s new.  You need to be comfortable getting down to that caller’s wants, needs and financial capabilities and mixing that information with what you know to produce . . . the dream house.

I know of no better way to build this knowledge and confidence than by doing (really doing) the training exercise our great founder, Don Taylor, created, Step 5!.  It is absolutely what a new agent should begin on day one.  If they do they will have tangible business  in 30 days.  But it’s also what you old dogs should do if you’re running out of steam and fire.  Science to Sales is activity based and if you do the activities you can’t help but create new business.  Plus, no matter how much you already know, you will uncover some real gems while working through the program.

Finally, role playing the buyer inquiry should be like brushing your teeth.  You do it so often that you don’t even think about it.  There is no discomfort, no hesitation, no embarrassment.  You create an office culture of constant improvement through the three P’s:  Practice, Practice, Practice.

So set a goal today:  You want to get contact information and earn the right to continue the relationship with 5 out of every 10 buyer inquiries you receive (of course, this means you’re going to have to fastidiously log and track incoming inquiries!).  Then get busy studying and practicing.

On to Step 5!

How To Do It: Step 3 – Build Consumer Awareness

(This is an elaboration of ‘How To Rule The (Real Estate) World In 10 #asy Steps‘)

I see your signs everywhere!

That’s it:  the magic phrase that tells you you’re doing a good job with this task.  What the consumer is really saying is:  ‘I see your LOGO everywhere,’ and there’s a lot behind getting to the point where you’ll hear that phrase.

First there is the Logo itself.  It has to be striking, memorable and it should reference something the consumer already has anchored deep within his or her brain.  I mean:  there’s no mystery why Prudential, when deciding to get into the real estate business, put the Rock of Gibraltar on its sign.  The Help-U-Sell logo has this kind of ‘stickiness,’ simply because it has been around and hasn’t changed in 34 years.  Regardless how many agents, offices or listings we have at any given moment in time, people have seen the logo and when they see it again it is familiar, and it sticks.

Second is the Brand and the niche the company owns in the consumer’s consciousness.  The logo has to stand for something unique and special and that should already be established.  For Help-U-Sell it is savings.  We occupy that niche in the consumer’s mind:  savings.  They see our sign and instantly recognize it as something they’ve seen before and immediately equate it with savings.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to accomplish those two things?  It takes years of careful message management to get to the point that people recognize your logo and know what you stand for.  Most companies never get there and many never have a chance.  Try getting your generic widget company that makes and sells widgets just like every other widget company to occupy a unique niche in consumer consciousness.  It can’t.  It’s just another widget company.

I want to take a minute to acknowledge the design aspects of logo and brand building.  Our founder, Don Taylor, spent serious time, energy and resources choosing the colors for the Help-U-Sell Brand — particularly the red.  Not only at the company’s inception but also 30 years later when the look was overhauled, Don had signs made using various shades of red.  He and others spent time testing the effectiveness of each shade in making the logo ‘Pop’ from as far away as possible.  Today we have a red and a sign and a logo that is recognizable from a great distance.  It is an identifier that is so strong that it isn’t even read by consumers — it’s just recognized.

So, building consumer awareness is about making as many consumer impressions with your logo and company identifiers as possible.  If you’re just starting out (or just restarting), how do you do that?  Here’s a short list:

Get listings.  Each listing is worth a yard sign and a certain number of directional signs (which must include your prominent logo or their just . . . directionals, not awareness builders).

Show your sellers the benefits of seller involvement. Each seller with a set of six open house directional signs (again with your identifiers), putting them out every week multiplies your number of consumer impressions dramatically.  Seller involvement gets even more powerful when many sellers in your target market hold their homes open at the same time, blanketing your area with your identifiers.

Use blitz signs. Cheap and disposable, these little gems can be put up almost anywhere.  Realtors usually have difficulty embracing this idea because they are stuck in a paradigm that says you don’t use a sign unless you have something to sell.  But we’re not worrying about selling here; what we’re concerned with is building consumer awareness, and that’s a function of making as many logo impressions as possible.  Your competitors won’t like it, but in this case that just means you’re on the right track!  If you listen to them . . . well, you might as well just let your competitors design your marketing plan for you!

Get a car wrap.  It’s not a car, it’s a billboard. And yours is blank.  Get a big, bright, simple wrap and the effectiveness of all your marketing will increase.  Wrap a unique, special, fun or cute car and it will be even more powerful (bugs, cubes and classics lead the way).  Sure, you should drive the car, but some of its greatest power will come when you simply park it in a place where thousands of consumers in your area will see it every hour.  A good car wrap can go a long way toward curing a lousy office location with sign restrictions.

Blanket your target market with your identifiers and your message.  For years, direct mail, inserts in super market circulars and Penny Saver ads were an essential part of the Help-U-Sell marketing system.  They still are, but economic considerations have ratcheted them down a notch or two.  When the consumer pulls the mail from the box and sorts the junk from the bills, and your identifier passes by their eyes on the way to the trash can . . . that’s an impression.  And even that’s positive.  If they are thinking of selling, they may even reach down to fish your message from the trash – and that’s golden.  This kind of impression making doesn’t have to be expensive.  Door hangers and postcards under windshield wipers are a great alternative.

Use media.  If you have the budget, consider a set of radio spots or cable tv ads.  Don’t do this unless you have lots of signs and other identifiers in market.  You don’t start building consumer awareness on radio and tv, you enhance the awareness you’ve already established.  What you can do at start-up and beyond is work with the Internet.  Using YouTube, Facebook and other non-traditional platforms to build your local identity is inexpensive and effective — if you know what you’re doing.  Tami Patzer at Help-U-Sell Headquarters in Sarasota can get you started down this path.  She can usually get you on the first page or two of a Google search result in a matter of minutes.  If you’re not intrigued by that possibility, call your doctor, you may be dead.

Find sponsorship opportunities.  Who needs uniforms (that will include your logo)?  What stretch of highway needs adopting?  What charity walk/run event needs sponsors?  Why not invest in a portable canopy in glorious Help-U-Sell red with prominent logos and make it available to anyone doing a bake sale, rummage sale, parking lot promotion?  Remember: it’s about impressions.  Go make some.

Now, you’re three steps in and your phone should be ringing.  This is the point where the brand awareness you’ve created can begin to perpetuate itself.  So you have to get ready to answer the phone!  And that’s whatHow To Rule The (Real Estate) World In 10 #asy Steps is about:  the Buyer Inquiry.  Check in tomorrow for that.

How To Do It: Step 1 – Listing Market Share

(This is an elaboration of here ‘)

You’re starting out from scratch (or starting over from scratch . . . or barely scratching by and wanting to start over) and you want to take that first step:  build listing market share.  What do you do?  You don’t have much money and you may not see much on the horizon among your slim and tenuous pendings. Here’s the formula:

Learning:  The Elevator Speech and the Listing Consultation.  In today’s market you also want to check your knowledge of how to help a homeowner who is upside down or in distress.  Don’t worry about fancy schmancy objections and all the shiny things you can hang on these basic bits of information right now. There will time for that later.  You want to work the Elevator Speech until it flows off your tongue without any hesitation whenever anybody asks ‘What do you do?’  There are thoughts here and Step 2!as well as in the Operations Manual, posted in the Download Library.  You’ll also find the Listing Consultation in the DL Library along with video of John Powell working with a seller.  The whole consultation is important BUT there are two key pieces on which to focus:  The Service Comparison Chart and the Seller Savings Comparison.  They are the heart of the whole conversation.

Prospecting:  Start with people who are begging for your help:  FSBOs and Expireds.  Become obsessed with them and obsessive about contacting and maintaining contact with them.  Select powerful handouts to leave with them that differentiate you from the pack.  The old Help-U-Sell DVD, though a little dated, still works very well and, last time I checked was a bargain at about 40 cents apiece via NBS Printing, but a simple flyer that says who you are, and how you’re different is fine, too.

At the same time, mix in the folks who already know who you are and appreciate what you do:  past customers and clients.  Every day, call a few.  You’re catching up, giving them some market information (an item of value) and keeping your business in the top of their minds.

Marketing:  Choose your handouts for use with FSBOs, Expireds and anyone else you’ll be contacting.  You should have several so that you can go back to people with something new.  Also, doorhangers are important at this stage:  since you’re economizing you’ll want things you can leave on a door knob rather than mailing.  Doorhangers can be good for arounds and have the added benefit of giving you an opportunity to actually meet a neighbor face-to-face (if you deliver them yourself).  Speaking of arounds and brags — this is where to spend your marketing dollars in this first phase.  Your efforts are all about getting listings, so when you get one, pull out all the stops in exploiting the opportunities to market around it.

If you’re starting from scratch (or starting over from scratch), becoming visible is very important.  Make sure you present the benefits of seller involvement in the Listing Consultation.  Seller involvement frees you to do more high payoff activities and, if coached properly, means more directional and open house signs in the neighborhood that you don’t have to manage.  Supplement this growing number of signs with inexpensive Blitz Signs.  Even if you have to put them out on Friday and Pick them up Sunday evening, these little gems instantly make the statement that you are here and can save sellers thousands.  Consider investing in a car wrap.  You’ll spend $1,200 – $2,000 (I’m sure you could spend more) but you’ll have a mobile billboard you can park anywhere you want to make a statement.  If your budget is too tight at the moment, opt for magnetic car signs with the Help-U-Sell logo and use them! (drive nice).

Staffing:  If you’re starting from scratch you probably can’t afford help yet.  However, if you have the ability (rather, when you have the ability, which should be soon if you do what’s outlined here), the first person to hire is a good solid administrator who can take over most of the office activities and free you to be out meeting people.  Yes, a real estate license is a big plus and in today’s economy they are plentiful and available.

Time Management:  If the sun is up, the highest and best use of your time is meeting potential customers and at this point that usually means sellers.  Save learning (which is very important) for after 8 in the evening and before 8 in the morning.  When the sun is up become a people meeting machine.  Create opportunities to tell your story.  If you need some down time, schedule it for 2pm Eastern time on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Use that hour to attend the Help-U-Sell webinars to get fresh ideas and connect with other Help-U-Sell members.  Unless you have very thick skin, one of the things that will wear you down is the feeling of being all alone out there.  You’re not, and the Tuesday and Wednesday calls are an opportunity to tap in and re-energize.

Here is a Great Truth:  there’s no reason you can’t get 20 or more listings this month all by yourself.  Really.  A listing is something you can DO as Floyd Wickman used to say.  You can get out of bed this morning and say, ‘Today I’m going to get at least one new listing,’ and there are things you can DO to make that happen.  You can’t DO a sale — there are too many variables, too many other people involved.  But you really can go out and get a listing today and most every day if you make that your purpose.  I’m not much for fear motivation but really:  if someone held a gun to your head and commanded you to go out and get a listing, you could do it, right? So, if you are on the ‘Build Listing Market Share’ step, why not just decide you’re going to get one every day this month?   There will be days that something will block you, of course, but I bet if you are single-minded in the pursuit you can get 20 in 30 days.

OK?  On to Step 2!

How to Rule the (Real Estate) World in 10 Easy Steps

In chronological order:

  1. Go after Listing market share (Get more than your share of listings,  have more signs out than your competitors)
  2. Get Lisitng market share by offering a better deal than everyone else (it’s the low set fee, remember?)
  3. Use your growing Listing market share to build consumer awareness and interest.  (In other words maximize signage through seller involvement, exploit marketing opportunities for things like ‘arounds.’)
  4. Become expert on capturing buyer inquiries and faithfully track and follow-up with in-bound calls (there is no such thing as a ‘throw-away’ lead).
  5. Hire staff to help you take care of the large number of buyer leads your growing Listing market share is creating.
  6. Hold your staff (and yourself) accountable.  Not everyone is up to performing at the standard you set.  Your job is not to save them but to move them out and find someone who can do it.
  7. Start counting closed sides and comparing your results with the MLS:  your TRUE market share, the one based on closed sides, should be growing.
  8. Become the easiest company in town to work with.  That means know your stuff and play nice.  Just don’t stop being who you are.
  9. Study your bottom line (by the way:  it’s probably irrelevant until you get to this point).  What could you do to create more revenue and minimize expenses?  Where can you be more efficient?
  10. Look for ways to give back to your community.  It has enriched you, now find ways to make it better.

NOW:  Let’s take a closer look at Step 1!

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