You as a System

I want you quit thinking of yourself as a creative individual, and, for a moment, consider that you can organize what you do just like software organizes tasks (well, almost!). In other words, you can systematize YOU, to some extent.

Choose or create systems—then harness technology. First, create your systems. Then, choose the technology to run those systems. You’ll spend less money and utilize your technological investments better if you’ve organized your business systematically first. Then, you’ll know exactly what systems you want to automate. In Up and Running, I’ve provided a Technology Planner, to help you prioritize your needs.

Five Steps to Systematize Your Business

1. First, itemize the tasks you do each day.

2. Prioritize your tasks as they relate to accomplishing your main objectives. What are the most important tasks you do to assure you make money consistently? (Up and Running provides lots of guidance on prioritization.)

3. Organize your high-priority tasks into systems–or purchase systems.

Should you create your own system, or buy one? Smart agents buy systems, if they’re available. An example is a listing presentation. Even though an agent could create a system, time spent on creation isn’t worth the price paid in ‘down sales time’ profitability. Don’t be a creator unless you just can’t find a good system.

4. Choose your technology to support the systems you already have in place. Let’s say you now how a manually-created listing system. You’ve decided who you will involve in the plan; you’ve decided which tasks you can delegate. Now, you’re ready to choose technology to automate your system. Because you know what you want this technology to accomplish, you can make a good choice. You can easily customize the software to meet your needs–because you already have a system in place.

5. Package your systems so you can promote your exceptional business organization to buyers and sellers. For example: If you’ve never worked with a particular buyer or seller before, that buyer can’t know if you’ll communicate regularly. Show the buyer your process/system for communicating regularly, so he can start trusting you as the professional you know you are. Remember, we believe what we see, not what we hear.

Start with just one series of tasks and get that systematized. Soon, you’ll be running your business much more like a business.

If you’re a newer agent, I understand how difficult it is to organize that blizzard of information. And, admittedly, you’ll have to keep changing your organization as you progress. Yet, until you meet the organizational challenge, you can’t really move forward.

There are two reasons to organize.  The first is that it provides much better customer service. If I’m the consumer today, I want to know that you are trustworthy—that you’re good for your word. If I can see that you have systems, I know that you will have a much better chance of keeping your word to me. I’m using the word “see”, because we believe what we see, not what we hear.

The second reason is that it provides you much better time management. The agent’s biggest challenge is to find a way to make the same amount of money and quit working 24/7. Creating systems will take a long way toward that goal.

Take system inventory now.

Here are the minimum systems you need:

For sellers:

• Lead generating system (should be run with contact management software)
• Automated process for following the lead from first contact through listing
• Visual marketing presentation and a system for having them pre-done and always ready to go
• Pre-first visit presentation and a system to have them packaged, ready to use
• System for following the listing from first listed to after closing (can be automated with use of a contact management program)
• After close/client retention system (can be automated)
• Your personal marketing system—a marketing plan that can be automated and delegated to someone

For buyers:

• Lead generating system—driven by contact management
• System to follow the buyer from first contact to sale (can be automated)
• Visual buyer presentation—packaged and ready to use
• Pre-first visit presentation—packaged and ready to use
• Checklists: process during buying/before closing/after closing—client retention
• Your personal marketing system

How to begin. Real estate professionals are doers. We talk our way through processes.  We dread organizing things, and frankly, we’re not good at it. So, how do we begin?

Start with one system or process at a time. Make a list and prioritize it for the systems you need first. Put a date to start, and a date for completion (I know, there’s that organization again!). You’ll find that the first is the hardest, and then, it starts to actually get easy! It’s a skill like anything else. Bottom line: Systematization allows you to actually run a business, not just run after buyers and sellers.

Note: If you want to make it easy on yourself, get The Complete Buyer’s Agent Toolkit and Your Client-Based Marketing System, the complete buyer and seller systems, with dozens of checklists, processes, and presentations already created for you.

Webinar on Motivating Yourself/Others

Motivational and inspirational webinar coming up for you: On March 17, at 2 P. M. EST, I’ll be doing a webinar for the NAR Learning Library, titled Light ‘Em on Fire: Newest Truths about Motivation. Click here for more information. Join me!

I’ve done surveys to managers and to newer agents about the value of their new agent training. I found a great disparity between what the managers thought, and what the new agents thought—six months after the training. So, I’m gathering information from the source—you newer agents—to find out what you found valuable, and what you wish you had experienced in training. I will also do the same from the management perspective.

Here are some things to think about:

How well did your training prepare you to give effective listing and buyer presentations?

How could it have prepared you better?

How well did your training prepare you to answer buyer and seller objections?

How well did your training prepare you with visual buyer and seller systems so you appeared to be a ‘seasoned agent’ to compete with the best?

How well did your training prepare you with the self-confidence to work with difficult buyers and sellers?

What did you want your training to do for you—before you entered that training?

After having been in the business awhile, what do you wish you had experienced during the training?

Did your training lay out a business start-up plan, and did it train and hold you accountable to that plan until you got results?

Did your training require you to demonstrate enough competency that you could effectively work with buyers and sellers?

How well did your training prepare you to write and negotiate purchase and sale agreements?

How well did your training prepare you to gain loyalty and buyer agency agreements?

What Else?

Please comment on the positives and negatives of your training, so I can better help managers and trainers prepare newer agents for the ever challenging markets and sophisticated buyers and sellers. Thank you!

                                        within your first month in the business. 

Are You Going to Hit the Ground Running?

 My assumption: You want a fast start! If you already have my business start-up plan, Up and Running in 30 Days, you know I start you right into the business so you can realize that sale within your first month. This is, unfortunately, very unlike the start most agents get (they get a very slow start—keep reading!).

 Your Manager’s Expectations May Surprise You

 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?  Most of the respondents from the survey didn’t know what their manager’s expectations were.  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.

 Be Sure Your Manager’s Expectations Match Your Goals

 To assure that the new agent and manager see ‘eye to eye’, you need mutual expectations in writing prior to hiring on. You need to see the exact business activity plan you will be coached to. You also need proof that the plan works! What if your manager doesn’t care how fast you make a sale—or even that you make a sale? You need much more support than that.

Be sure your manager has expectations of you that you can fulfill, and that your manager will actively coach and support you to realize.  (Psst: Go ask NOW!) Now, get up and running to that first sale! (or more)

 I’ve compiled 10 questions you should ask yourself. In the last post, I gave you the first five.  In this post , I’ll give you the rest of the questions.

Ask yourself:

1. Do I know how long it will take to get a sale? To get a listing? To get a listing sold? (so you can project your income) (New agents tend to wait, and wait, and wait, to get into the business ‘stream’, thinking that there is no time frame to buyers’ decisions—wrong!)

Key point: Use the time lines in Up and Running to project your income. You don’t want to run out of money before you run out of time!

2. Do I have a method of setting goals and tracking accomplishments in the areas above—so I can analyze my specific strengths and challenges in this business? (Most agents never track what they do, so they don’t know what worked—or why what they’re doing isn’t working).

Key point: If you know how many listing appointments it takes, for example, for you to list one marketable property, you can project with confidence your income. You have truly become independent.

3. Do I have a budget so I know how much money I should be spending in marketing myself/marketing my listings?

Key point: Creating a marketing budget from day one assures you get paid for all that work you’re doing in lead generation (Up and Running has a prototype marketing plan for you, too).

4. Do I have someone to talk to regularly, to coach me, to keep me on track, and to help me if I fall off my start-up plan (to keep me from failing)?

Key point: Most new agents drastically over-estimate their mental toughness in the face of adversity. Studies show that having a mentor, a coach, someone on your side, greatly increases the chances of your success.

5. Do I have a method to keep myself motivated and inspired to keep on keeping on (like a coach or your manager)?

Key point: All the successful people I’ve ever met have a method to ‘keep themselves up’—diaries, logs, inspirational notebooks, readings, CDs, etc. That’s why I put so much inspiration and motivation in Up and Running—we all need it!

Give yourself every chance to succeed to answering ‘yes’ to all of these ten questions. You deserve success! Quit stumbling and get Up and Running!

Social Networking has Taken the Place of Databases, Carla–You old Fuddy-Duddy…..

I know. You just love social networking. You could spend hours on it (in fact, you do). You go to all those classes on social networking, and, by golly, you know more about it than your manager. Don’t get too cocky yet. There are two problems you’re creating for yourself by relying on social networking:

1. You are probably spending too much time at your computer and not enough time neeting real people and forming relationships. Remember, buying a home is not like buying a set of knives. You’ll have to work hard to establish a trusting relationship. Most of us aren’t good enough at writing to do that without finally meeting someone.

2. You are not gathering your future goldmine–your database full of people who are going to love you and what you do.

Who do you ‘Own’?

Here’s the problem with relying on the social networking sites to keep track of your potential clients. You don’t own them. The social networking site could go out of business. It could start charging you. It could sell your contacts.  That’s why you need to ‘own’ those contacts in your own database. Now, you can create a marketing plan. You can communicate with those people on a schedule.

Start and Populate your Database Intensely

You’re a newer agent. You want to make money fast. You want to establish a solid long-term career. Become a ‘database freak’ so that you can remember all those wonderful people you met. Lead generation is the most important part of the sales business. Doing a lot of it assures high income. That means tracking all those people you meet. It takes more than one communication to create a loyal client.

New Agent Key to Success: Right Priorities

Those of you who have used Up and Running in 30 Days to start your careers know that I have worked hard to prioritize your business for you so that you are successful quickly, and gain business management habits for life. I’ve prioritized types of business, best sources of leads, and all the activities you’ll do to get started quickly. I want you to prioritize your technology activities, too. Remember, you’re a salesperson.

Become that database freak and see your business develop quickly.