What Does your Phone Voice Say about You?

Pretend you didn’t know you. Listen to your phone message. What ‘first impression’ are you making?  Do you sound happy to hear from that caller? Sluggish? Disinterested? Timely?

When I phone an agent today, I have no idea where that agent will answer his or her phone—or from what phone the call is being answered. And, I don’t really care. Technology allows the phone to follow the agent. That’s great. Here’s what’s not so great. Many times the agent’s message is so dull, powerless, or mumbled that it doesn’t sound as though the agent wants to talk to me. Or, the agent’s message is so long, that I’m impatient by the time I get to leave the message.

What Impact Do You Want to Make?

Surveys show that consumers want their agent to be enthusiastic. So why do many of the agents’ phone messages sound as though they are terribly tired or uninterested in the caller? Here’s the principle.

We use our senses to make snap judgments about people.

The less senses involved, the more important it is that we communicate properly. On the phone, there is only once sense involved—that of hearing. You have no ability to communicate your warmth, your interest, etc. visually on the phone. You have only your voice.

Decide What You Want to Communicate

What conclusions do you want your caller to have about you? Write down the five most important judgments you want your caller to make about you and your business approach. Now, listen to your own voice message. Do you believe you are communicating your ‘best self’? Ask five other people to listen, too. Decide what you like and what you want to change.

Research your Competition

Don’t listen only for your own communications. For three days, listen carefully to the tone, intent, and messages you hear on answering machines or voice messages of other agents and brokers. Listen carefully to how agents answer the phone at their offices. What do you think those agents are communicating? Do you believe they are communicating the kind of qualities they want to communicate—and think they are communicating?

Four important tips to remember when recording your own message:

1. Stand up—you’ll sound as though you have much more energy.
2. Write out your script first—and be sure it’s not too long. I don’t really care where you’re going to be all day!
3. Modulate your voice pleasantly. Try to get some resonance.
4. Sound as though you’re looking forward to hearing from me! 

These simple tips will increase your trust rate and your business. Get to ‘hearing’ today! Best news for budgeting: These tips cost you nothing, but reap you great benefits. First impressions count: Create your best phone voice.

Why meeting buyer qualifying criteria is important: Buyers today have many choices of how to find homes. You need to create competitive reasons to help buyers choose you.  It will save you time and money. And, if you’re a newer agent, creating solid reasons to help buyers choose you will increase your self-confidence 200%.

Five Critical Questions Buyers Should Ask Agent ‘Candidates’

Here are five critical questions I believe buyers should ask agents to assure they have a ‘match’ between what they are looking for and what the agent provides. In addition, I’ve added what I believe buyers should look for in the anwers (that means that we agents must be able to qualify on these terms):

1. “Is selling residential real estate your full-time career?”

My advice to buyers: Listen to be sure the agent specializes in residential real estate. You want someone selling homes for a living, not apartment houses. Listen to see if this is the agent’s full-time career. Ask additional questions if the agent’s answers need more clarifying.

2. “How many homes did you sell last year?”

My advice to buyers: You want someone successful; that means, at minimum, the agent sold homes to buyers at least six times in that year.

3. “How long have you specialized in residential real estate in this area?”

My advice to buyers: Be sure the agent has been working in the area where you want to purchase for at least six months, so you know the agent has expertise and interest in that area.

4. “Describe the work you do in our price range and area.”

My advice to buyers: Listen to be sure the agent zeros in on the area and price range you need. If the agent says, “I work anywhere with anybody”, that agent may not be for you, for he may be trying to cover too much ground to know very much about specific areas.

5. “Tell us how you will work with us.”

My advice to buyers: Listen as the agent describes the buying process, as he views it. Does it reflect what you’re looking for?

Agents: Think These Criteria are Too Tough?

Did some of those questions and my advice to buyers make you defensive and argumentative? That’s because we agents tend to look at things ‘inside out’ (from our perspective). Instead, pretend you are a discriminating buyer. You’re going to spend $60,000 on a car. What kind of customer service do you expect? Now, think in terms of the real estate buyer. What kind of service should a real estate buyer expect?

Newer Agents: Panicked Because You Think You Can’t Qualify?

Relax. You don’t need to qualify on all terms. But, you need to have answers and explanations ready so you can provide buyers reasons to work with you.

 Advice: Educate yourself so that you are as well-prepared to help a buyer as an agent who has sold 100+ homes in his/her career.

Sound off! What did I miss? Are some of these questions too tough? What do you think?

Complimentary Sales Webinar with International Speaker

Master Motivator Verl Workman helps you get your year started off right.

This action packed 1 hour webinar is like a private consulting session with one of the industry’s top coaches and mentors.

Verl will take you step by step through how to build your business plan and achieve your financial goals.  Using the 3 Ts:  Technology, Training, and Trade Secrets of the top performers in the world, Verl will show you how to make 2012 your best year ever in real estate.  Invite your friends, partners, teams and entire companies to this event. 

When: Jan. 19

Time: 1:30-2:30 PM, PST

What: a webinar

To register:  https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/289780334

Are You Telling It or Showing It?

We believe what we see, not what we hear. If you’re still talking a mile a minute, telling the sellers how wonderful you are, blah, blah, blah–just stop talking and start showing. Also,

We remember only 10% of what we  hear three days later! With visuals, retention goes to 65%.

5 Points to Include as You Create that Marketing Plan

            1. It’s an action plan—what you will do for the seller

            2. It’s specific—it has dates for what will be done and who does it

            3. It’s not about what the company will do—it’s about what you will do

           4. It is stated either as a checklist, as a calendar of events, and/or in visuals.

           5. It has a section on pricing, but the pricing, or market analysis, is only one part of the plan

Creating specific marketing plans for each individual will put you far ahead of most real estate practioners. Now, the next important action is to dutifully do the actions you promised and report back.

Complimentary Sales Webinar with International Speaker

Master Motivator Verl Workman helps you get your year started off right.

This action packed 1 hour webinar is like a private consulting session with one of the industry’s top coaches and mentors.

Verl will take you step by step through how to build your business plan and achieve your financial goals.  Using the 3 Ts:  Technology, Training, and Trade Secrets of the top performers in the world, Verl will show you how to make 2012 your best year ever in real estate.  Invite your friends, partners, teams and entire companies to this event. 

Most agents tell me they did not receive a job description when they started in the business (or in the interview). If not, why not? In my last blog, I discussed the fallacy that agents should start out as ‘independent’ business people. Now, I don’t mean they shouldn’t take responsibility for their actions and success. I mean that we shouldn’t abdicate our responsibility to teach, train, and coach them so they become great salespeople (so they can become independnet).  Besides not having skills they need to succeed, they usually don’t even know what the job is!

Poor Job Descriptions Abound

As I teach management courses nationally, and speak nationally, I see many examples of poorly thought-out job descriptions and activity plans. What do you think is a poor job description? Take a look here.  ( a preview is to the right).

Why do you think I regard it as a poor job description? It’s not:

Prioritized

Some of the activities don’t result in success

My conclusion: This job description was written by an academic who had never been successful in real estate!

Abdicating  Leadership Responsibilities

Part of that abdication of management responsibility, I believe, is managers not providing a prioritized job description to agents. Notice I said ‘prioritized’.  Which activities should the agent start with? Which are important to be successful? Which are less important?

Before I share my job description with you, please write the job description you believe is the one you follow. Is it helping your hurting you prioritize your most important activities?

My Prioritized Job Description

Now, take a look at the prioritized job description I developed as a foundation for the new agent’s start-up plan,  Up and Running in 30 Days. How does yours differ? What does your job description say about what you think is important? Are you gaining as much success as you should? What does your job description and business plan have to do with those results?

For a printable copy, click here. 

Get that job description refined. Talk to other agents to assure it’s the job description that reflects how you want to work. Compare that job description to what you actually do every day. How close can you come to your job description in your everyday execution? Now, you’re getting much more effective and efficient.

Getting the guidance you need to succeed: If you’re a new agent (under 1 year), you need Up and Running in 30 Days. If you’re a seasoned agent, you need The On Track to Success in 30 Days System. Why not assure you have a better year in 2012?

Whether you’re new or in business for decades, read on. You may be deluding yourself about your path to success.

There are many skills required in this business that people new to it just don’t have. Yet, too often agents believe all they have to do is to start in this business and go to training. They will be successful. Then, when they start failing, they can’t figure out why. In this blog I’ll name 3 qualities and skills you need to develop fast. My question to you is: How are you going to develop or refine them?

Skill # 1: Time management

Most people go into real estate from a field that required them to show up on time, do specific work, and work for at least eight hours. If they didn’t fulfil the minimum requirements of the job, they were fired. Understandably, many people don’t like to work under those strictures. So, they go into real estate where they can name their own hours, work at their own speed, etc. etc. The problem is, with many, that they don’t understand that working at their own speed many be working at a failure speed.

My question: How are you developing your time management skills? Did you bring them from your former business? (Most agents don’t).

Skill # 2; Being accountable to a plan

When I was regional director for a very large international franchise company, I found, as I screened them,  most potential owners and managers had never had anyone hold them accountable. In fact, there was a negative feeling about being held accountable. When you have a ‘boss’, you are accountable to that work plan and to your boss. In real estate, we’re so careful not to step over the boundaries of the independent contractor concept, we rarely hold anyone accountable to anything. The result: Most people never know what the job really is, and whether they are on track to attain their goals.

My question to you is: Who is helping you be accountable for your own success? Who is your coach? (And don’t tell me it is YOU…..)

Skill #3: Implement a plan of action.

It is just amazing to me the kablooey plans of action out there. In another blog, I’ll show you why most of them lead to an agent’s failure. Most of the time, in fact, an agent isn’t provided a plan of action. He/she is just told suggestions or 50 ways to do something. The result: The agent has no idea how to prioritize activities and proceed. He has no idea whether what he is doing every day actually is leading him toward a goal.

My question to you is: Do you have a proven, prioritized plan of action and are you executing it?

So, after I’ve given you 3 skills agents need to succeed, what do you think? Is real estate an ‘independent’ or dependent business? I believe it needs to be a ‘dependent’ business at the beginning. That is, I coach the new agent as he/she starts his/her business. I am the leader. The new agent is the follower (or the struggling agent). There is the dependence. Once the agent ‘has it’, I step back, and become more of a consultant. Have you been a successful follower, so you can learn the business right? If so, why not?

If you haven’t read the great book,  Outliers, get it and read it now. One of the great lessons in the book is that no one succeeds alone. In later blogs, we’ll talk about the ‘community’ it takes to help someone be successful today.

Give me your feedback on the ‘independent’ or ‘dependent’ concept. What do you think?

Getting the guidance you need to succeed: If you’re a new agent (under 1 year), you need Up and Running in 30 Days. If you’re a seasoned agent, you need The On Track to Success in 30 Days System. Why not assure you have a better year in 2012?

1. You don’t have a sales history to review (a large part of the business planning process). You don’t have a frame of reference.

2. You don’t have a need to think out 3-5 years.

3. You don’t have a need to make complex marketing plans.

What you do need: A prioritized business start-up plan. If you don’t have that, you will do meaningless activities like:

• get organized–all day
• attend classes–all day
• preview properties–all week
• observe others–all week
• do research and follow-up

A friend of mine observes that agents who fall into this action plan seem to be “getting ready to get ready”.

The very dangerous thing about agents creating a daily plan without good business-start-up principles, is that they create habits of failure. In effect, they created their own start-up plan—one that assures low production.

Dump that Long-Term Plan and Look at your Start-Up Plan–If You Have One Why not rate your plan now to see which path you are on? Simply add up the number of hours you spent last week in the activities above. Now, add up the sales producing activities (lead generation, showings, listing presentations, sales, and listings gained). Which of the categories has the larger time block?  What does that tell you about the job description you have created? Is it a job description that leads to sales?

Attributes of an Effective Business Start-up System

So, then, what is an effective business start-up plan? And, what else do you need? An effective business start-up plan has these attributes:

1. An organized activity schedule that has certain activities prioritized first, so you can manage your time effectively—throughout your career

2. A schedule that has certain activities scheduled secondarily—and why—so you don’t teach yourself to be a failed agent

3. A road-map for a continuing plan, so you can continue growing your business to the next level. (These are all attributes of Up and Running in 30 Days, the new agent’s business start-up plan).

Plan must be integrated with training and coaching. But, that’s not all you need. You need integrated programs with a skilled coaching professional (it can be your manager, or an outside coach), to help you implement successfully.

When to Switch to a Bigger Business Planning Process

1. When you’ve completed 8-12 transactions in a year (now you know how to organize and implement your prioritized day-to-day activities)

2. When you have a track record so you can review your previous year to see patterns and make changes

New Business Planning Series

If you’re unsure how to start your plan, if you don’t see the benefit of planning, I’ve got some answers for you.  I’ve been working on business planning for years……and I’ve just come up with a series that I think answers questions like, “How do I get started? How do I know what numbers to put in? How can I make my plan useful?  How will I know that it works?”

I call this big program Come See 2012: Beyond the Basics of Business Planning. In it, I’ve created 2 webinars to walk you right through the planning process. I’ve made it simple and straightforward–but not so simple it won’t work!  Along with that, I’ve provided the most updated versions of my planning documents–15 of them!

In addition, I’ve added several bonuses:

• From the Coach: 53 Pointers for your Business Plan
• Biggest Marketing Dos and Don’ts
• Especially for teams: How to use the planning process to teamify and inspire

All for a VERY affordable price of $79. Why not let me walk you through the process, provide inspiration, and confidence that your plan will work to give you a great 2012? Click here for more information and purchase.

Have you ever seen anyone follow a process doggedly–and then fail? Of course. Whether we have a bad road map, a poor teacher, or a lacking coach–it all leads to less than exceptional performance. I know this intimately, as a musician. I’ve worked with musicians who learned a piece of music wrong. Then, they just keep playing it wrong! They can’t seem to break those bad habits–even when they know they are playing it wrong.

The Power of Models

We blithely follow just about anyone’s directions, because we assume they must be good if they’re published (ha!). Or, we follow them because we like them. However, sometimes the plans we are drawn to are really, really bad! We like them because they ask little of us.

Be very critical of the directions, plans, processes, and systems you get from someone. If they are poor, they will lead you in poor directions.

Watch a Failing Real Estate Agent to See What I Mean

So many times, agents come into the real estate business and make up their own ‘version’ of the business. After all, they come into the business to be ‘independent’. If they only knew what they were doing to themselves…..You see them sit around and wait for something to happen. You see them criticize the ‘leads’ they are given. Left to their own devices, they create a plan for failure. The worst thing is that they don’t even realize they are doing it! They think that any plan of action will work to get them to their goals.

Be sure you are using proven plans–whether you are a new agent or a seasoned one. As a seasoned agent, too, you need some latitude in the planning process. Yet, you’ll want to use a process that leads you in the right direction.

Some Business Planning Tips from the ‘Coach’ (That’s me…)

Click here for those 53 business planning tips from the Coach.

New Business Planning Series

If you’re unsure how to start your plan, if you don’t see the benefit of planning, I’ve got some answers for you.  I’ve been working on business planning for years……and I’ve just come up with a series that I think answers questions like, “How do I get started? How do I know what numbers to put in? How can I make my plan useful?  How will I know that it works?”

I call this big program Come See 2012: Beyond the Basics of Business Planning. In it, I’ve created 2 webinars to walk you right through the planning process. I’ve made it simple and straightforward–but not so simple it won’t work!  Along with that, I’ve provided the most updated versions of my planning documents–15 of them!

In addition, I’ve added several bonuses:

• From the Coach: 53 Pointers for your Business Plan
• Biggest Marketing Dos and Don’ts
• Especially for teams: How to use the planning process to teamify and inspire

All for a VERY affordable price of $79. Why not let me walk you through the process, provide inspiration, and confidence that your plan will work to give you a great 2012? Click here for more information and purchase.

 6. Not focusing on service ‘wow’

Less than 25% of all agents send surveys after closing. According to customer satisfaction surveys today, consumers aren’t exactly thrilled with the level of service. Building a career based on delighted buyers, sellers, and other agents, assures you build a long-term career–at one quarter the marketing dollars expended!

Recommendation: Include a survey at closing with every ‘thank you’ letter and gift you deliver to buyers and sellers at closing.

Click here to download my ‘ After the Sale’ closing survey.

7. Listing properties that don’t sell

What’s wrong with that, you say? After all, you got a sign up. You got sign calls. You made money. But, what about the seller? Was he thrilled with your service? You can bet not. Without knowing it, an agent who lists a property that doesn’t sell provides more negative PR to himself, his company, and the industry than all other real estate behaviors combined.

Recommendation: In your business plan for next year, shoot for 85-90% of your listings selling within normal market time. It’s the way to build a great referral business at low cost.

8. Not qualifying buyers before putting them in your car

When I was a new agent, I put everybody and anybody in my car. My motto was, “Either they get tired and buy from me, or I get too tired to show them any more homes and they don’t buy.” Not exactly professional (and I corrected that habit). Yet, many agents are still putting too many “non-buyers” in their cars.

Recommendation: Use a comprehensive buyer information questionnaire, so you’re sure you’re meeting the needs of that buyer AND working with a bona fide buyer.

9. Not asking directly for loyalty

Recently, an agent told me that he doesn’t ask for loyalty. He thinks, by showing the buyers what a good job he’s doing, they’ll figure out they should be loyal. I’ve got a secret for you: Buyers don’t know that’s what they’re supposed to do–they don’t know the game. How do I know? I tried it that way, too.

Recommendation: Decide where, when, and how you’ll ask for loyalty. Practice your presentation until you’re sold, yourself, on your unique value as a selected ‘pro’. Go to your manager or coach and practice dialogue until you’re comfortable with it. Get feedback on what comes across as beneficial to the client, vs. what is perceived as self-serving.

10. Not building the value of working with you

Let’s get blunt: Why should I work with you? What’s so terrific and different about you and your service, that, out of the ten agents I’ll meet today as I look at open houses, I could spot you as exceptional in a minute? Because, you see, that’s about all it takes for a buyer or seller decide whether they want to entrust tens of thousands of their hard-earned dollars to us!

Recommendation: Write down at least ten talents, skills, and areas of knowledge you possess (not in real estate), that would be benefits to buyers and sellers. Now, attach benefits. Now, say them aloud. Last, create visuals to back up your claims.

Don’t forget: Click here to get my ‘ After the Sale’ closing survey.

Which of these recommendations can you implement to greatly improve your production and profits for next year?

Where can you get more information to get past those career barriers? My consultative resource, The On Track to Success in 30 Days System for the Experienced Agent, gives you dozens of tips on how to figure out what’s right and what’s holding you back in your business. Then, I provide recommendations in each chapter, plus a 30-day regeneration plan.  See more here.

 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?

 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.