Social Networking Sites have 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 meeting 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. Think of it this way:

Your database is your goldmine of business.

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.

I Can’t Spend Money on a Contact Management Program Right Now….

Okay. I could tell you that you’ll lose much more money by putting off creating that database. But, I won’t. Instead, there’s an easy, short-term answer:

Use Outlook.

I’ll bet you have Outlook on your computer. Or, look at the free or inexpensive contact management programs some title companies are offering as support for real estate agents. As you get more comfortable with databases, you can go to a fancier contact management system (be aware, though, that many agents buying or leasing those systems never learn to use them…..)

The big message is: No matter what you use–use something to keep and organize those contacts.

An Overall Solution to Managing and Marketing to your Contacts

I love the program my friend Frank Jurado created, because it’s very affordable–and really an ‘all in one’ marketing and database management. Check out  Red Tools.

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.

Have you found yourself going to too many different directions? Do you have some significant time management challenges? In this world of lightning change, salespeople can struggle just to stay even–much less get ahead. The ability to organize these changes seems daunting. But, the need is greater than the risk. If we can’t manage the day-to-day business through systems, we’re caught forever in ‘crisis’ management. Here’s how to organize, systematize, and automate our jobs so we can manage change—rather than having change manage us.

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 in 30 Days, 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.

Questions: If you’re wondering whether systems are worth investing time and money in, think about the top agents you know. Do they operate without systems? Could they?

What systems do you have? What systems do you need?

What to Measure

Of course, you’ll want to measure the goals you set at the beginning of the year. Use this form to do that.

Your Time Management

Agents say time management is their biggest challenge. And, it all comes down to prioritizing your activities. Here’s the question: Are you spending more of your time in

Business-producing activities (lead generation, interviewing/qualifying, showing, selling, listing, listing sells)

or

Business-supporting activities (everything else)

In my business start-up plan for new agents, Up and Running in 30 Days, I break all real estate activities into the 2 categories above to create a business start-up plan for success. Why? To give new agents a precise, correct model for a successful business.

Creatures of Habit

We are creatures of habit. Without a different model, we tend to do whatever group of activities which appeal to us because they’re easy and don’t take us out of our comfort zone. Unfortunately, then, we create a business activity plan that leads us to failure, not success.

How to Analyze your Time Management

How do you know which ‘business plan’ you’re following? (because you’re following one, whether you’ve written it down or not!)? Simply look at your schedule for the last 2-3 weeks. Put your activities into the two columns above. How many business-producing activities did you do? Is your activity schedule highly ‘tilted’ toward business supporting activities? Why? What do you want to change?

Note: There are many more analysis tools in this month’s featured resource, The On Track to Success in 30 Days System for the Experienced Agent.

This comprehensive resource is like having your own consultant 24/7. In each section, you have the opportunity to analyze your strengths and challenges and make a specific plan to improve. In addition, there’s a 30-day regeneration plan. See more at The On Track to Success in 30 Days System for the Experienced Agent.

Know Your Business

Do you know where the majority of your business came from last year? Do you know what percent (or even how many) of your marketing dollars you spent in creating that business? Some agents know the answer to the first question. Very few agents know the answer to the second. A few months ago, I was a speaker at a large regional company convention on business planning. I found that about half the agents could answer the first question. They knew their best source of business was referrals. However, only one out of 400 knew what percent of his total marketing budget he had spent generating this best source!  Why? Agents take referrals for granted. They don’t build a marketing plan around this best source, so they have no way of allocating marketing dollars or measuring results. Their approach to their best source seems to be, when you’ve been in the business for awhile, you get referrals, don’t you?

 Are you Mining Referrals or Just Waiting for Them?

Assuming that referrals automatically come to you as a result of being in the business for awhile is a costly mistake. Smart salespeople in other fields today know that planned, purposeful business networking for referrals is the best way to increase your business at small cost. No matter how many referrals you get now, here’s how to increase that goldmine. An added bonus: Your business experiences will be less stressful, for you’ll be working more with people who know you’re wonderful–or have heard you’re wonderful. Here’s how to systematize your ‘goldmine’ to assure that getting referrals is not just a great idea–it’s a major part of your business plan.

Two of the Six Goldmine ‘Moves’

1. Find out where your business came from last year. This is a very important, though usually left out, part of your business planning process. My new business planning program, Beyond the Basics of Business Planning, has a system for analyzing your best sources of business (as well as analyzing all of the most critical areas of your business) . 

After discovering where your best sources of business were last year, add the number of marketing dollars you spent on each source of business. Compare sources with outlay of marketing dollars. Are you allocating more of your marketing dollars to your proven sources? What’s your return on your marketing investments? Are you, as many agents, spending too many marketing dollars chasing the wrong sources of sources of business?

According to marketing research companies, it costs five times more to get a new customer than to keep an old one! But, you say, why should you spend marketing money on people who won’t buy another home from you, or list their home, for another five-fifteen years? Because you’re not after just the sale. You’re after referrals.(insert figure here)

2. Start thinking of your best source of business as a “target market”. Who gives you referrals? Your most important source are old customers and clients. Your second source, in that same category, are people who know and trust you. Have you ever thought about these two groups as a specific “target market”? Looking at them that way changes your whole view on their importance to growing your business.

A word of caution about concentrating on getting referrals as merely tactical moves. It’s bigger than that.  To grow your goldmine with referrals, you must integrate this referral concept into your business plan. This is a specific market, one that’s much more important than for-sale-by-owners, first-time buyers, or other markets. Why?

What insights did you get reading this blog? How much money did you spend on your best source of business last year? What changes are you going to make?

“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.

Your Attitude about YOU is Much More Important than Your Talent or your IQ

Malcolm Gladwell actually said this in the chapter in Outliers about proverbs. Study after study shows that, if you have the big “T” (tenacity), and you believe you can do something, YOU CAN!

I’m a graduate of the University of Oregon, and I always read the alumni magazine. In a recent edition, there’s a fascinating study by a couple of physicists (sounds like those physicists just can’t stop themselves from studying this, that, and the other). They found that students with lower American College Test (ACT) or SAT scores could compensate through hard work. So, don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t achieve what you want to achieve. Unless you’re trying to become an NBA center, and you’re 5’ 10” tall, you CAN achieve great things in real estate.

By the way: Another study showed that IQ doesn’t pay a role in real estate success!

Tenacity is Key

Here’s my favorite quote by one of my favorite leaders, Winston Churchill:

Give In?  Never!

Never give in!

Never give in!

Never, never, never, never

- in nothing great or small,

large or petty –

Never give in except to

convictions of honour

and good sense.

– Sir Winston Churchill

Speech at the Harrow School

October 29, 1941

Achievement Can be Yours

Work the hours it takes. Be honest with yourself about your work ethic. Use my analysis, Time and Activities, to check that your hard work is really the work that counts. Take the attitude that YOU CAN. You don’t need great height or great musical talent to do well in real estate. You need the values that you already have: Caring for people, wanting to do right by them, and putting the client above your best interests. Now, go and have a great rest of 2012!

Are you the Greyhound or the Turtle?

Some people barge ahead and worry about the details later (that’s me). We start badly, but, because we’re tenacious, we surprise people by how good we finally get. Other people observe the action for a long time. Finally, when they feel ready to perform well, they get into action. They start slowly but well.

The ‘Get Into Action’ Style that’s Problematic

Other people just wait to start until it’s proven that whatever the coach has told them will work for them—because it actually worked for them. Unfortunately, though, it can’t happen that way. You can’t know that you absolutely, positively, undeniably can do something before you’ve done it it! You must start with some faith that you can do it, and that what you’re being told to do will work, because it has worked for others before.

You can’t get better until you get into action.

The Fallacy about Motivation

Have you tried to motivate someone into action? Did you pump them up when they were in your office, only to find them deflated later? I call this the ‘immediate fizzle effect.’  Yes, a motivational pep talk can make us feel better, but, the truth is that talk does not provide us the sustaining motivation we need to take the risk and try new things. What does? Action. Read what psychologist Jerome Bruner says:

You’re more likely to act yourself into feeling, than feel yourself into action.

 If you’re still not convinced, it’s because you have a ‘get into action’ profile that author Kolbe says wants all the proof it worked—before you do it! Not too logical, is it? So, you’ll have to trick yourself into action faster if you want to succeed in real estate.

If you’re unsure whether you will reach your goals, (or even make enough money to stay in the business), ask yourself these 10 questions: 

1.  Do I have a ‘start-up’ plan—a plan that tells me what to do, when to do it, how to do it, and why to do it? (Or, do I just come to the office and ‘go with the flow’)

2. Am I waiting for someone to tell me what to do each day, or do I have focus and purpose with my plan? (it doesn’t work to ask your manager what to do each day, and, as a newer agent just told me, your manager answers, “Mail some postcards.” You wouldn’t expect a Starbucks franchise to ‘guide’ the new franchisee that way, and you’re not going to get a business start with that kind of  piecemeal ‘advice’!)

3. Do I have a daily schedule that is prioritized with the business actions most important to me to assure I make money? (If you’re just relying on your office for its floor time and meeting schedule, you aren’t in the business!)

4. Do I know the best methods of lead generation—and how to implement them? (You can’t wait for ‘training’ that starts in 3 months to start your business!)

5. Do I know the numbers? (how many contacts does it take to get a lead, how many leads to get an appointment, how many appointments to get a listing, showing, how many showings to get a sale, how many marketable listings will sell) (If you don’t, you are destined to be an ‘on accident’ agent—only selling someone something when the stars are aligned).

6. 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!)

7. 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).

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

9. 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)?

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

If you can’t answer the questions above with authority and confidence, you need much more business direction than you’re getting now. It’s time for you to get serious about real estate as a business, and grasp a start-up plan and the support you need to assure your success.

 Resource: See Up and Running in 30 Days, www.carlacross.com. It’s a comprehensive new agent start-up plan with enough training to get you into the field, and focused, starting with your first week in the business. It answers all the questions above. Most people would call it a ‘business plan’, but it’s not. It’s specially created as the appropriate ‘start-up plan’ for the new agent, just as all successful franchises provide their start-up plans for their new franchisees.

Managers: My survey of hundreds of agents under 3 months in the business showed that the majority expected a sale their first month in the business. Guess in what month they are mentally and emotionally out of the business? Month two.

Especially in a challenging market, it’s your job to provide them a comprehensive start-up plan and coach them to it, to assure your investment in them pays off—and their investments in themselves pay off, too.

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?

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.