Category Archives: commitment

commitment, Communication, planning

Do you recognize a prospect ….when you see one?

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This is a loaded question…I know, but I just had to finally put it on paper.

When you are given a possible contact name and number of a person that is interested in what you have to offer do you truly follow up with this person?

 

Be honest ………..

 

Every time …most of the time ….or occasionally?

Experience has taught me that about:

95% of the receptions are very eager to talk to the person.

55% take time to make the first initial contact over the phone or email with in 24 hours

30% will talk to the person during a one on one meeting only once

6% will close the deal

1% will keep of following up with the referral, prospect

The rest will just fall through the crack and never will be farmed or followed up on even after the first initial contact.  Talking with one of my investor Friends who uses his FSBO approach to weed out unproductive Agents has confirmed what I already know.

By now the 80/20 rule no longer exists…it is more like 10/90 or 5/95 at best.

commitment, Communication, planning

Building relationship and Follow-Up

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I have been quite for a while and world watch out. …….I am recharged.

……so you subscribed to a lead generating program and they are sending you homeowners to contact.

You make your first initial contact, left your info, and you wait….and wait ….and wait…

….I hate to tell you; just with one visit most of the owners will not call you. On the average it takes up to 5 personal visits before an owner will either open the door or call you back.

One of my great friends and Real Estate investors has made it a sport in weeding out the “fly-by-night Real Estate Agents” (his words not mine). He advertises his properties as FSBO when he is looking for an agent to sell his home in states other than mine.  He does not call any agent back unless he has heard from the agent in some form or fashion at least 5 or more times.

He gave me the following percentages from tracking the Agent’s activity over the last 10 years:

 

40% of the agents will not call or contact him for a second time

30% will contact him at least twice

20% will contact him at least 3 times and give up

9% will contact him 4 times and give up and

1% of the original agents who contacted him will contact him 5 or more times

 

He told me that it did not matter how the market was doing. When the market was good, bad, or ugly the average numbers were the same.

 

Sobering numbers? ….I think so.

commitment, Communication, Team work

“You can not always control circumstances, but you can control your own thoughts.”

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This quote from Charles Popplestown came to mind as I received a very long email from a possible Real Estate recruit, that in detail explained to me why she hates doing certain tasks in her current function and why she thinks she will not doing them later.

 

Do you know who your customers are and where do they come from?

 

It is easy for all of us to complain about this or that, him or her. It is so much harder to look at the problem and offer a solution and when a company is recruiting, that is exactly what they are looking for.

Most of the time when a company is hiring they are faced with an opportunity that has not been solved and they are now looking for the solution externally.

 

In our business we strive for referrals and for the referral business. Before we receive the referral business we have to earn it. Referrals and the referral business do not come without hard work, dedication, and offering of solutions to our current customers and clients.

 

This does not only hold true in the world of our business, this is true for all types of jobs and employment.

 

Be the solution to an issue and don’t become the issue and when you have an issue offer a solution.

commitment, Communication, organizing, planning, Team work

Can your client count on you?

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…..how many times have you told your client that you will have something to them by a certain date and you did not deliver?

…..how many times did you promise to call back by a certain date and you did not make the call?

……how often did you set time for a F2F meeting and you where late, even for 5 minutes?

…… how often did you miss a deadline, even less than a day?

…..how often do you read your emails only to be told that no one can email you because your inbox is full and no longer can accept emails?

….how often do you miss listening and clearing your phone voice mails only to be told that on one can leave a message because your voice mail box tells the caller your voice mail box is full and no longer can accept messages?

Sounds familiar?…..No……are you sure?

None of us are perfect……..a few will accept the opportunity that is given to them, tell on themselves and strive to make changes and adjustments.

 Where to start?

….recognize you overextended yourself and notify early. Don’t have it called out on you

….don’t make excuses. Own up to it.

commitment, Inspiration, tips

Our office does not pay a referral fee!

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Reading my emails I came across a posting from Peggy Chirico called “I Don’t Take Referrals!” and it reminded me of several conversations I had with REALTOR’s that where located in an areas I had a referrals for.

 

As I called and talked with the Principal Broker, to find out which of her agents to send the referral too, I was surprised to hear her say that her office is not paying a referral fee for referrals. They never have and never will. She informed me that it is not necessary for her office to pay a referral fee; they have enough work coming in to keep them busy.

 

OK…..I understand….and I moved on to another office in the area, which was happy to pay a referral fee for a listing referral in the area.

 

In our office we love receiving referrals and we do pay a referral fee to the agent who gives us the referral at the time of closing. I do not see anything wrong with this. When we have a referral for other areas, I am gladly willing to send the referral to a more local agent.

 

I see a referral given or received a chance to build a relationship for live and a potential for future referrals and that is the true value of a referral.

 

There are so many men who can figure costs, and so few who can measure values.  ~Author Unknown

commitment, Communication, Team work, tips

Are you truly listening…………..?

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I had several situations this week that made me think…..are we truly listening to the person who is talking with us on the phone or who is talking with you right in front of you?

 

With our busy life and work we all try to multi task and sometimes we forget to focus on what is important right at this moment.

 

…..have you ever had the situation that you where talking to a person, maybe at a meeting, and they checked their phone for messages during you conversation with them and not even ten minutes later they asked a question that you had covered with them not even ten minutes ago?

 

…..or where you ever in a restaurant ordering food and the server wrote down your order but had side conversations while taking your order and as you received your order, it was not correct?

 

….or have you ever been given a message from an email or phone that someone else took for you while you were out and as you followed up with the message it was not what the messenger told you or assumed  it was?

 

Things like this happen more and more often. We trying to do too many things at once might be the culprit. The more we try to do at once the less we accomplish and create re-work for ourselves and others.

 

Here some ideas to make certain that the person you are talking with understands and has listed to you.

 

On the phone:

 

  • Ask them open ended questions about what you just presented
  • Ask the person to paraphrase the information what you just told them
  • Find out if there are in the car talking with you, when they are, reschedule the conversation to a time when they are not driving or being driven. Cell servicer in some areas is not 100% and important parts of a conversation could be missed
  • Send an email with all of the discussion points and ask them if there are any more questions about the task at hand and ask an open ended question to make certain it was understood and they have to reply.
  • When they put you on hold during your phone conversation, reschedule the conversation after they return to your call.

 

When it is a face to face meeting;

 

  • Ask them to please put the phone down
  • Do not sit behind the desk, use a more casual conversation group

 

When it was an email message that was taken for you

 

  • Ask to have the original email forwarded to you
  • When something is unclear contact the original sender to clarify

 

Politeness is the art of choosing among one’s real thoughts.  ~Abel Stevens

commitment, Inspiration, planning, tips

I call it the stinking thinking

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As soon as you open the email, or turn on the TV you hear the bad news.

Job loss here, cut back there …..and you name it.

Today alone the last months’ job numbers where posted. Nation wide now at 8.1% unemployment…..

…….91.9% of the total work force is still employed.

Things I hear on the street every day are sayings like

 …..I am not getting my raise this year.

…. I no longer get any overtime.

…. I was told I have to take an extra day off

Think of it as:

….my Company is being proactive so that I still can work in the near future.

I call it as the stinking thinking that get’s us in a bad mood and how we think about things what we are being spoon feed over the news and airwaves every day.

It does not matter what your circumstances are at the present moment. Think positively, expect only favorable results and situations, and circumstances will change accordingly. It may take some time for the changes to take place, but eventually they do.

Sure you can not turn the stinking thinking around on a dime and no one expect s you to do this. You need to practice and maybe find a positive thinking partner to help you with this.

Read about the subject; and when you can not buy the book there is always the old fashion library to go to.

Start visualizing you success, smile more even when you have to face it and use positive words when communication with yourself and others.

Last but not least…..as soon as you have one of those stinking thinking thoughts try to replace it with a positive thought. It is not easy at the beginning. We are creatures of habit and habits are sometimes hard to break, but you will get there.

commitment, Communication, organizing, planning

Building relationship and Follow-Up

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……so you subscribed to a lead generating program and they are sending you homeowners to contact.

You make your first initial contact, left your info, and you wait….and wait ….and wait…

….I hate to tell you; just with one visit most of the owners will not call you. On the average it takes up to 5 personal visits before an owner will either open the door or call you back.

One of my great friends and Real Estate investors has made it a sport in weeding out the “fly-by-night Real Estate Agents” (his words not mine). He advertises his properties as FSBO when he is looking for an agent to sell his home in states other than mine.  He does not call any agent back unless he has heard from the agent in some form or fashion at least 5 or more times.

He gave me the following percentages from tracking the Agent’s activity over the last 10 years:

40% of the agents will not call or contact him for a second time

30% will contact him at least twice

20% will contact him at least 3 times and give up

9% will contact him 4 times and give up and

1% of the original agents who contacted him will contact him 5 or more times

 He told me that it did not matter how the market was doing. When the market was good, bad, or ugly the average numbers were the same.

 Sobering numbers? ….I think so.

 This leads me into an RISMEDIA article I found, on January 26, 2011, that focuses on how Real Estate companies recognize that relationship building and follow up service are critical components to promoting both customer retention and revenue growth.

commitment, Inspiration

Go with the change or you are being left behind…

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….that is THE thought came to mind as soon as I read a blog from Krista Franks about the Real Estate Professionals feeling the burn of the recession.

Sure Real Estate Professionals are not immune from the downturn of the market; most of them have been on the forefront of the wave and many have not survived the trend and had to find either another part time or full time job to keep up with their cost of living.

The once who looked beyond the box they had themselves in during the good and great times of real estate and adjusted quickly to the change had it a bit easier than the few who did not see the tide coming and where swept off with the tide of change.

Real estate as usually was no longer the way to do business, real east of change was what you needed to adjust too and that is what the consumers wanted from the field.

The once who did not adjust lost a huge portion of the market that is today’s norm and the once who adjusted early took over….bottom line is when you do not adjust to the changing market and educate yourself, you will be left standing at the vacated empty dock with the ship sailing without you to newer ground… or like in “Who moved my Cheese”    from Spencer Johnson you will arrive at Cheese Station C to find no cheese left.

 So…who are you….??? Sniff and Scurry or Hem and Haw.

commitment, Communication, Team work

Communication….here is the ugly side or the lack of it….

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Sitting at my desk on a cold Winter Friday morning, looking at my referrals that were given to individual Professionals that were not acted on and wondering how some of them are still in business in today s market.

I have now called all of these professionals three times this week to find out why personal referrals are not being acted on and I am still waiting for a phone call or email back from any of them.

Where has the courtesy gone? Is it a lost art to answer phone calls and emails in a timely manner? By timely manner I mean within 24 to 48 hours. Just a simple message or email indicating you have received the voice message and you will get back with me.

Every day I run across full email and voice mail boxes and wonder how much business individual professionals are losing due to the lack of follow up and follow through. I also listen on a daily bases to voice messages that where from a week or a month ago. I just had one the other day that was from the 2nd and as I called the person it was the 27th. When I run across a full email and voice mail box, most of the time, I removed this individual from my contact list.

 Ranted enough! Here are some Ideas to make certain you are not losing out on business: (I use some of them myself)

  • Hire a virtual assistant.
  • Delegate and ask for help
  • Set time everyday to return calls and emails
  • Set the auto responder when you are not available for a longer period of time. Just change the message later.
  • Make a work schedule. Will it be perfect? No. Use it as a guide
  • Make a daily to-do list. Will you be able to complete it all that day? Maybe yes, maybe no…none of us are perfect.

 Plan you day and work the plan. Don’t forget time for family, devotion, friends and fun.

 I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.  ~John D. Rockefeller, Jr.