their manager

Yet, what if your manager isn’t the type to catch you at the right time, say all the right things, and provide specifically what you need?

Look Elsewhere to Assure You Get that Motivation

There are two ways to get that motivation, that appreciation, that support you need. Many people think someone else should be in charge of their atittude. But, there’s another method. That’s the method so few of us use:

Going inside.

We shy away from acknowledging our own efforts. Why? Perhaps your mom (as mine did) told us not to brag. It was unseemly to be immodest. 

Not about Bragging

Acknowledging yourself is not bragging. It is not only positive, it is absolutely critical to do if we are to be effective salespeople. We must use all the methods as our disposal to keep ourselves ‘up’, so we can be models for our clients–and those agents who look up to us. 

Going inside. Someone you can always count on.

When I was in college, I remember going sailing with a group of people. It was a gorgeous day. We sailed around the large lake, enjoying moderate winds. Then, about 6 o’clock, we decided to sail back to the dock. Problem. No wind. We had no choice but to wait for that wind to bring us back. (or use the little outboard motor, which the purest ‘captain’ was loathe to use.)

Frequently, we count on others to ‘sail us back to the dock of positive attitude’ when we’re down. Like the wind, though, they may not be there when we need them!

Draw a Different Conclusion

Actually, though, we have our own outboard motor onboard–our own minds. We have the ability to change our minds about things (especially we women, men say…). We have the ability inside us to re-draw a conclusion about an event. For instance, we managers get ‘down’ when the agent we thought we were going to hire went to another agency. We can look at it as a loss, or as an opportunity to learn from the experience. If we’re good at managing our attitude, we’ll call that agent to find out what attracted that agent to the other company–and learn from the experience.

See Up and Running in 30 Days and The On Track to Success in 30 Days System for Experienced Agents for many motivational strategies.

Who gets you ‘up’ when you’re down? What ‘tricks of the trade’ do you use to keep your attitude on an even keel?

1. Do the work.
2. Don’t argue.
3. Don’t make excuses for not doing your start-up plan.
4. Don’t tell the manager you’ve been in the business two weeks and you have a better way.
5. Do thank your manager frequently.
6. Do tell other agents that you appreciate your manager’s efforts.
7. Do tell other new agents you meet in other companies that you have a great manager.
8. Don’t bug other people in the office to find another answer because you didn’t like your manager’s answer.
9. Don’t change the Up and Running plan because you “don’t like it”. (You just don’t like lead generating, do you?)10. Don’t miss a coaching appointment!

I’d love to hear what you think of my ‘ten commandments.’ Are there others you think are important?

Managers: Why not make your own ten commandments and discuss them in your interview process. Then, turn the tables and ask the agent about his expectations of you and the office.

Agents: Before you hire on, get in writing exactly what your manager is going to do to assure your success, so you won’t have disappointments later. Getting agreement on what we both expect before we decide to work together is key to a happy partnership. The only surprises I want you and your agent to have after you start working together are good ones!

Side note: Managers: My belief is that you owe it to your agents to coach each one, regularly and professionally, in starting his or her business. That shows your 100% commitment to each person’s success.

“If nothing else works, I’ll pick up the phone.” 

So, their lead generating efforts are too little, too late—and done without much skill. In fact, they spend too much time and energy negating various methods of lead generation. They say things like,

“It won’t work for me in my area.”

“I tried that once. It doesn’t work.”

“Isn’t there something new?”

“I’ll wait for people to come to me.”

“I am going to company that provides leads.”

“I’ll join a team and they will provide me as many golden leads as I want.” 

In your dreams.

Don’t Listen to the ‘Seasoned’ Agents…. 

If you’re a newer agent, you’ve probably heard some of those quotes above. You may have even gotten that kind of advice. Don’t listen! Why? Because this isn’t the era of the ‘given lead’. That era was over about 3 years ago! Yet, many agents are still waiting for those ‘good times’ to come back–and they will continue to wait a long time!

Instead of spending countless hours, energy, and money trying to avoid lead generating, you’ll want to make lead generating the cornerstone of your business, not the exception to the rule.

Stay in the Busness Cycle to Get Results

 The business cycle, as explained in Up and Running in 30 Days, is: 

It all starts with lead generation (prospecting).

How Much Lead Generation to Get a Sale or Listing? 

I just got a question from a trainer, wanting to know: 

“How much prospecting will one have to do, to generate one sale? Is there a formula? Is there an average?”

I wish I could give you a tight, proven formula. Yet, there are variables that make specific formulas difficult to pin down.

On numbers: I set the goals for the Up and Running in 30 Days program based on my experience on the number of contacts it takes to get a lead, then a sale. But, it also depends on several variables, as explained in Up and Running:

1. Type of contact–how warm or cold is it? How much trust has been established?

2. The agent’s sales skill, competency, and tenacity

3. The market–buyers and sellers are more hesitant to ‘turn themselves in’ today

How can you tell the numbers it takes? Track your numbers for each target market and track your and conversion rates. Now you know the specific work it takes for you to generate a lead, create an interview, work with buyers and sellers, and get sales results.

The problem: Most agents work way too few lead generation numbers and sources. In fact, they have so few, it’s impossible to extrapolate ratios. That’s why Up and Running and On Track To Success in 30 Days System have such big numbers–it’s an insurance plan.

What are your lead generating ‘conversion’ numbers? If you don’t know, find out now, so you can either increase your lead generation or sharpen your skills to reach your goals.

New agents need to be focused on business development—not training

Another stunning finding from the research was that 62% of the new agents expected to get a check in their first sixty days in the business!  They expect to hit the ground running.

To do this, the new agent’s focus needs to be on business development, not on training. Normally, companies put the new agent into a ‘curriculum based’ program to tell them everything they’ll ever need to know about real estate. Unfortunately, the new agent thinks that all that knowledge equals success in real estate. That’s wrong.

Creating Success, not Useless Knowledge

New agents create early success when they focus on a business start-up plan that contained heavy business-producing activities. If you’re a new agent, you have to develop the mental toughness to ignore information that’s not critical to your business production. If you don’t, your money will run out before you learn everything! (Give it up; you’ll never know everything!)

Your expectations may vary from your manager’s expectations of you.

If the new agent expects high earnings fast, what did his manager expect from him?  71% of the new agent respondents from the survey didn’t know.  They hadn’t asked, and the manager, in the interview, had not volunteered to share any management expectations.

No News is Good News?

71% of the respondents didn’t know even the minimum expectations of their managers–the minimum production standards they would have to meet to have their contracts renewed the second year (or  to be retained during any start-up period). To assure that the new agent and manager see ‘eye to eye’, both parties need to agree on mutual expectations in writing prior to hiring on.

Not only getting the ‘what’ in writing, but the ‘how’. Even agreeing on minimum activity and production standards doesn’t assure that the new agent will meet his goals with the full support of his/her manager. The new agent needs to see the ‘how’—exactly how that manager will coach the new agent to quick success. If you’re a new agent, you need to see the exact business activity plan* that you will be coached to. You also need proof that the plan has worked with others in the past to deliver the results you expect of yourself your first month, quarter, and year in the business.

Matching expectations assures no surprises and gets planned results. Take the wishing out of business expectations. Both new agent and manager need to get expectations in writing, agree on a business start-up plan, and start working together with mutual accountability to partner in great results. Your manager must be accountable to coaching you on a regular basis with a proven business start-up plan. You, the new agent, must be accountable to do the activities in the plan. Together, you will achieve your mutual goals.

Do YOU have a start-up plan?

If you’re under 2 years in the business, I’ll bet you don’t have a business start-up plan. Yet, you need one! Check out Up and Running in 30 Days. I promise you’ll get your business on track to exceptional success, as have thousands of other new agents who follow the plan.

 I just did a series of complimentary coaching calls for those people in the Up and Running in 30 Days coaching program. First, let me congratulate one of the agents in the program, Carlena, for attaining 108 lead generating contacts in a week! I wanted to have a little fun and competition in the call, so I set up a friendly contest: Which caller on the line made the most lead generating contacts in a week? Callers could pick any week of their Up and Running program. 

Note: Look on this blog for interviews with Carlena and Emily, both doing a great job in generating many, many leads with the start-up plan as their guide. 

You Need Confidence to Succeed in Sales

To help the agents on the call get much more confidence, I did an exercise with them I call Bringing your Skills and Talents to Real Estate Clients. Why is this important? When we’re new agents, we think we know nothing. We’re constantly humiliated with our lack of knowledge, and inability to handle objections. We get so tired of ‘nos’ that sometimes we forget that we are capable, honest, caring, responsible humans. We actually come into real estate with a whole adult experience of widely developed skills, qualities, and natural talents. These are much more useful to us than we give ourselves credit for.

 How is Music Helpful to Real Estate? 

Let me give you an example. As many of you know, I was (and am) a musician since age four. But, when I went into real estate, I felt like I knew nothing! And, it is true I didn’t know anything about selling real estate. But, I carried with me many great skills into the business that in turn carried me to success fast. Can you guess what some of those skills were—and are? 

Had to practice piano 2-4 hours                  Tenacity

Put off mastery for years                              Persistence

Followed direction of a coach                     Coach ability

 Application

How could I show one of these, tenacity? I actually presented an offer and got 10 counteroffers! I just never gave up, because I felt it was in the best interest of both parties to buy and sell from each other. I could show that marked-up purchase and sale agreement. Where could I share that quality? I could show testimonials from my clients in social medial, and in my Professional Portfolio.   

The Exercise 

Draw three columns. Name the first ‘skills and talents’. Name the second ‘benefits to clients’. Name the third ‘how/where to show clients’. 

Now, list at least three skills and talents from your former business life. What about these skills/talents are benefits to clients? How would you show this? Where would you show this? 

Enlist a Partner

If you’re having some ‘mind blocks’ on how and where to show these benefits to clients, enlist a partner to brain storm the possibilities with you. Once you start crafting these, you’ll get much more excited about your ability to help people—along with that confidence to expand your leads and help more people.

What skills and qualities did you ‘attach’ as benefits to clients? How did that raise your confidence?

I know. You were interviewed and sold on the company’s training program. You thought that was the main criteria for your success. But, if it were true that the training program guaranteed success, all those agents who went through it would be selling up a storm. They’re not. So, here are facts and fallacies about what a company training program can do for you.

Because my start-up business plan, Up and Running in 30 Days, has been a best-seller, the editors there asked me to update it again with a fourth edition Since real estate is changing so dramatically, I wanted to update the potential or newer agent (or even you experienced agents), with the major trends agents need to recognize. This excerpt explores the important trend of company training.

Three Major Concerns with Most Company Training Programs

As a National Association of Realtors Educator of the Year, I certainly support training. However, my observation is that few company training programs today fill the bill of what I judge to be valuable training. There are three problems with company training programs:

1. They aren’t taught as ‘training’. They are taught as ‘education’ (someone tells you all he/she knows, so you know what the teacher knows).

How you’ll know: If the instructor spent almost all the time talking, and you spent little or no time in role playing or in action plans, it really wasn’t training to prepare you to sell real estate. You know a lot, but, what can you DO?

2. They aren’t centered on sales. They’re centered on the technical aspects of our business (new agents conclude that memorizing laws and filling in blanks in forms are most important to their success)

How you’ll know: Look at your training manual. Which is the largest part?

3. They aren’t driven by a business-producing start-up plan (and new agents need order and priorities to decide how to put that training to work every day)

How you’ll know: Were you given a prioritized lead generating, business-developing plan to put to work in your office every day? Did you have to make a daily and weekly schedule and analyze and evaluate it?

Bottom line: What were you taught, what experiences did you have, and what models were you given that prepared you for the day-to-day job of managing your real estate career?

Question: What did you wish would have happened during that training that would have helped you succeed much faster? Let me know. I’m right in the middle of doing my fourth edition of Up and Running in 30 Days!

 How Long Does your Tenacity Have to Last?

 Staying motivated means staying tenacious—holding onto the goal. On this call, we discussed the quality of ‘tenacity’. In interviewing hundreds (at least) of would-be agents, I never once heard one of them say they weren’t tenacious. In fact, most of them tried to convince me of their abnormal strength of tenacity! However, once they got into the business of selling real estate, that tenacity vanished like smoke into the atmosphere. Why? Because everyone thinks they are tenacious and determined when there are no challenges. Yet, when challenges appear (like handling objections, making sales calls, getting repeated ‘nos’), that tenacity disappears. 

How’s your ‘compass’ set for attaining a sale? In my survey of hundreds of agents under three months in the business, I asked when they expected a sale. The majority said in the first month! But, we know that the majority of new agents don’t get a sale  in month one. Most don’t even get a sale by month three (and Up and Running tells you why someone is successful fast, and why someone isn’t successful, so there is no mystery).

 So, how long do you think it is until the agent is de-motivated? You’re right:  About 32 days.

 The Secret to Staying Motivated

 Who is in charge of motivating you? Many agents will say ‘my manager.’ It is true that managers and coaches can encourage. They can be positive. They can pick out areas to celebrate. But, the real person in charge of your motivation is YOU. Why? Because you are in charge of your own attitude. No one is inside your head and heart except you. If you don’t feel you’re going at managing your attitude, you have a task: Create that skill. In fact, there are many chapters on attitude and motivation and how to do it in Up and Running, because it is truly a skill that can be developed.

 Big idea: Instead of looking to a sale as the only ‘win’, choose small ‘wins’ all along the way. Up and Running has the numbers in black and white. You know what you need to do to keep on that sales path and ultimately sell a home. So, figure out how to reward yourself in small increments. That keeps your motivation high and protects that tenacity you need to ultimately succeed.

Develop the skill of self-motivation and you will ultimately be successful. Remember, you are on no one’s timeline except yours. If you’re doing the Up and Running activities, you will be successful. Believe it. Act like it. Get help. Get coaching. Be honest with yourself about your skills and needs. Then, you will succeed.

Questions: What do you do to stay motivated through all those challenges? Why do you think agents become de-motivated? Share your insights and advice to help other agents succeed. 

About those bonus tele-conferences: As my ‘thank you’ for purchasing Up and Running in 30 Days, and the coaches’ companion resource, I’m providing coaching tele-conferences in October, both for agents and their managers. I will be offering them three times, also, in 2012. So, if you’re thinking about purchasing Up and Running yourself or as a manager for your agents, you’ll be able to take part in these bonus coaching calls, where I personally coach you in using the program most successfully.

I just did my first tele-conference (of 2) for purchasers of Up and Running in 30 Days (past 2 months). On this tele-conference, I helped them bash the barriers they were getting in their way to a sale in 30 days. Here were the top three:

Keeping focus

Time management

Staying motivated

Interesting, yes? So, in the blogs this week, I’m going to share some of the tips I gave the attendees for ‘moving the mountain’—bashing the barriers to getting that sale.

Keeping Focus

It sounds so easy, doesn’t it? Just do the activities in Up and Running weekly and you’ll get a sale in 30 days. But, then life gets in the way. One of the most common ways people get bogged down is that they slow down their lead generation to ‘learn stuff’. What category is ‘learn stuff’ in?

Business supporting.

You know, from doing Up and Running, that the more business supporting work you do, the less business producing work you tend to do. That principle is so important, I’m going to put it in quotes:

The more business supporting work you do, the  less business producing work you tend to do.

Tip: Do your weekly schedule from Up and Running each week, and analyze your balance of business-supporting vs. business-producing work.

Coach’s note: I teach agents how to analyze their daily schedules–a very important time management tool that each agent should grab in their own ‘personal management’ game bag.

Engaging your Coach

Get together with your coach, and go over your analysis. What’s getting in your way of doing lead generation? What do you feel you need to know before you get started? Why are you putting off getting started? What’s scaring you? What can your coach do for and with you to help you get past those barriers and start lead generating ‘with a vengeance’?

Big idea: The business starts when you start lead generating. Why not start now and guarantee a great career in our business?

About those bonus tele-conferences: As my ‘thank you’ for purchasing Up and Running in 30 Days, and the coaches’ resource, I’m providing coaching tele-conferences in October. I will be offering them three times, also, in 2012. So, if you’re thinking about purchasing Up and Running for your agents, you’ll be able to take part in these bonus coaching calls, where I personally coach you in using the program most successfully.

If It’s Not Knowing Lots of Stuff, What Is It?

Practice and performance. So, what in the world can a pianist teach you about getting higher performance? A lot, I think.  Why? Because pianists play better by learning new skills–not learning about how the piano is tuned…….

Without new skills, we just keeping working harder, not smarter. The really bad thing about continuing to beat your head against that ceiling, is that it hurts more and more. You spend more energy just trying to accomplish the same thing.

 Too Much Energy, Too Little Results

 Worse yet, we bounce off that ceiling and hit a new low every thing we get up the energy to try to break through it. Not only that, the last few years have been discouraging for many in real estate. Don’t give up on yourself! You do have the talent, the skill, and the determination to succeed at a much higher level again.

 All Performers Hit ‘Ceilings of Achievement’

 As a long-time performing pianist and flutist (I spent the first thirty years of my life playing and teaching music), I had to learn how to constantly change up my playing for the better. In these next few blogs, I’m going to share what I learned as a musician that will change your  performance dramatically—for the better.

 You Aren’t as Good as You Can Be—I Promise

 I just did a talk for our area’s Women’s Council, on how to have a much better ‘next year’—how to smash through that ceiling of achievement. (Title: Everything I learned about Achievement I learned from Tickling’ the Ivories—also the title of my latest keynote).

 As a four-year old, I climbed up on the piano bench and figured out, by ear, how to play “Sue City Sue”—with bass notes, chords, rhythm, melody—the whole shebang. I was acclaimed as a little kid. However, as I got a little older, I found that playing by ear just wasn’t getting me to be a better player. Here’s what I did to get to concert artistry level, and earn a bachelor’s in piano performance—and how you can translate these performance principles to your real estate business.

 Get from ‘By Ear’ via your Talent to Conscious Systemization

 As a musician, I know that no one can play very well when they try learning only by hearing (playing ‘by ear’). To progress past a ‘whiz-bang, aren’t you wonderful’ amateur level, musicians must learn to read music, get a great teacher, and learn to practice perfectly. Generally, their teacher/coach will teach them how to practice, and provide the best editions of music. They will teach them a specific system. The better the system, the coach, the music, and the practice, the higher the performance—the sky is the limit.

 The First Time You Do Something Isn’t As Good as it Gets!

 What does that mean to a real estate professional? Most of us started selling or managing ‘by ear’. Some of us were talented, and that carried us pretty well for quite a while. But, then, we hit our ‘ceiling of achievement’, and found we were working 24/7 and expending way too much energy—and money. The way out:

1.  Grasp systems (the best systems you can find)
2. Follow processes and checklists
3. Get a great coach
4. Practice as perfectly as you can

 Practitioners—Watch Those Actions, Not Just the Words

 Unfortunately, we real estate professionals don’t realize that we are judged on our performance, not our knowledge. So, when you get all antsy because you think you need more classes, stop and think about your performance level, not your knowledge level. Spend more time evaluating your performance, and pay someone to coach to you get better (all performers, whether musicians or golfers, do this, by the way). Critique your systems, and keep refining them because they will subconsciously affect your performance levels.

 If I had a piano, I’d demonstrate these points (I do use the piano in the keynote!).

 What Do You Want to Work on This Year—from ‘By Ear’ to Systematic?

 Do you have some business plan goals for yourself this year to raise your ceiling of achievement? What do you believe is most valuable for you to work on?

Remember, if you’re a newer agent, you’ll be tempted to hang back, keep your fingers off the keys, and wait for something different–or better–to happen to you. Don’t get tempted! Put to work these performance principles and see yourresults improve dramatically.

Question: What do you wish you’d had as training to help you ‘see’ success early in your career? What would you change about your training if you were creating it?

 What should you expect from a training program?

What to Look For: Five Critical Points

If you’re looking for effective training to get your career started fast, or re-started, you need to choose a training program that has these features:

            1. The objective is fast productivity, not just knowledge. When you interview, ask what the objectives of training are with that company. If it’s just knowledge, run the other way! You will know a lot, but you won’t be in business very long!

            2. The training program has business-producing expectations and goals.  For example, if you expect to make money fast, your training program needs to help you learn to set prospecting goals and attain them. That doesn’t mean lecturing in class. That means you have an activity plan and are working in the field during the class duration. That also means that you aren’t in class all day.

            3. The training program is built around a business start-up plan. Ask to see the company’s business start-up plan for you. If it isn’t sales-producing, it isn’t a real start-up plan.     

4. Sales skills are practiced by the students in class. How can you expect to be competent with clients if you haven’t gained competency and confidence in the classroom? Clients are very discriminating these days. They expect agents to know what they’re doing! During the interview, ask for a description of how the students spend class time. If the manager says the students listen all the time, pick up your materials and go to the next interview. You need skills training; you don’t need to know everything the instructor knows.

5. Expectations for achievement in sales developing and packaging are clear. Is this a college-level training? In college, students are expected to perform during the course. If you’re not expected to practice outside class, and get your sales packages together (like listing and buyer presentations), then this isn’t a real training. It’s just a time-eating event. Wouldn’t your consumer expect you to have a high level of competence? Then, your training program must deliver.

Armed with these 5 critical expectations, you can choose a training program that is dedicated to assuring you quick results, high sales skill, and confidence with consumers. Why settle for less? 

Question: What went wrong with your traiming? What do you think should have been in your training program?

Want to see that kind of program–and a sample of what it looks like? Check out Advantage 2.0. Click here to see more.