Our thinking controls our destiny. What happens when our believes don’t benefit us? How do we uncover the flaws in our thinking that prevent us from being the best versions of ourselves? Why does lack of transparency lead to a stressful life? In this episode, Kim Ades speaks about uncovering your beliefs and why we shouldn’t be afraid to reveal our true selves.
A lot of people aren’t transparent because they are trying to manage other people’s impression of them. -Kim Ades
Three Things We Learned
Build a team that doesn’t need micromanaging
Accountability is a hot topic, especially for team leaders. But keeping people accountable implies they can’t keep themselves accountable. Instead of investing time and money constantly keeping an eye on your team, why not go to the root of the problem and find out what prevents them from taking action? What are the beliefs that stay in the way of being productive?
Affirmations can actually backfire if we don't address the little voice in our head that doesn't believe them
Positive affirmations hold no power if in the back of your mind you don’t actually believe the things you tell yourself. You have to be able to let go of your inner critic and truly believe you can succeed.
Use journaling to get to the source of the beliefs that hold you back
Journaling can help you find out what people or events made you feel the way you feel about yourself and the world around you. Toxic people or traumatic events can distort your perception of who you are and what you are capable of, and getting to the bottom of the beliefs that rule your thinking can help you reach your true potential.
Lack of transparency never works to your advantage. It will attract the people you don’t want to work with and there will always be pressure to keep up with the persona you build for yourself. You have to accept that some people will dislike you and the fact that you can’t manage the impressions of everyone else, nor can you rely on external validation to keep yourself happy and confident.
Guest Bio
Kim Ades is the founder of Frame of Mind Coaching and Journal Engine software as well as a speaker, author, and mother of five. Kim coaches teams and individuals to unveil their thought patterns and hidden beliefs, and unleash their true potential by gaining a better understanding of who they are and where their talents lay.
If you want to find out what beliefs are holding you back from succeeding, you can take her free test here.
You can’t stand out by doing what everyone else does. What’s the best way to get started in your journey of becoming a local rockstar? What are the small changes you can make to convince your clients appreciate you more? How can you stay in touch with potential clients or people in your database without being intrusive? In this episode, we talk about serving people better, becoming less intrusive, and how to slowly become the face of real estate in your community.
Make yourself stand out so when they think of real estate, they think of you.- Greg McDaniel
Don’t advise your clients based on your wants and needs
If you want people to remember you in a good light, build a positive reputation, and stay in touch with your past clients, you have think of them first. You have to be honest. When you get asked questions about where the market is going or if they should wait to sell or buy, you have avoid giving advice that doesn’t work in their interest.
Don’t be intrusive
If a seller postpones a sale, your best bet is finding a less intrusive way to remind him or her about your existence. For example, you can stay in touch with a potential client by mailing a send out card with a small gift. Few people go that far to stand out, especially when there might be no return on their investment. As a result, you will get remembered by your potential clients because no other agents are willing to walk the extra mile.
Brainstorm new ways to market yourself
Because some marketing tactics work, we all tend to do the same thing. The end result? The marketing message gets diluted and you don’t stand out in your market. You’re just doing what everyone else is doing. Explore ways to promote yourself that are creative and unexplored by other agents. One example would be Youtube ads.
No matter how creative you are at promoting yourself and getting in front of people, if you don’t do your job right, you will only attract people that will end up ruining your reputation. The first step is to get creative about marketing yourself. But what makes the difference is how you advise your clients and whether you make them feel great after a purchase, after they sold their home, or if they feel like they get ripped off by an agent who chased a commission. Great promotion tactics and great service have to go hand-in-hand for you to become a mini real estate celebrity in your area.
Getting a real estate license doesn’t actually teach new agents to take the leap into real estate. As a consequence, many new agents are surprised by how real estate actually works. How do you know what strategy will work for you? How do you build a system around your natural talents? Should you partner up with senior agents in the beginning? In this episode, Christina Macro talks about how much easier it is for agents to reach their goals once they find something that suits their personality and skill set.
Meet people where they’re at and build something not simplistic but doable, in the sense of building them a system of thing they will actually do. -Matt Johnson
Three Things We Learned
Find a prospecting method that suits your personality
There are only so many ways you can prospect, but enjoying it and being comfortable with it has a great impact on your performance. You can’t do something you aren’t naturally built for. Find what you might be good at and give it a try for 3 weeks, and if it doesn’t work, move to the next prospecting method.
Focus on a system that works instead of the ideal
When you’re just starting out, you shouldn’t focus on the ideal system right out of the gate. Start with something that works and keeps you above the water, and refine the system over time. You can’t make something work perfectly the first time, nor should you aim to do so because it only leads to disappointment.
Partner up with the top agents in your office
As a beginner, the best place to start is to partner up with the top agents in your office after you’ve discovered what prospecting method suits you. If you perform well, the next time you won’t have to ask around for people who need help. You’ll get call backs just based on the results you had the first time.
If each one of us would be inspired to do what we love, we would all perform at a high level. The secret to success in real estate is to find out more about who you are as a person and what aspects of real estate suit your personality. The next step is to use that knowledge and build a system that taps into your strong points without having to rely on the areas where you aren’t an expert.
Guest Bio
Christina Macro is a real estate broker, co-author of a best selling book on Amazon, public speaker, trainer, and mentor. She quickly climbed her way to the top in real estate by becoming a top performing agent on her team. She realized she enjoys helping and leading people more than anything else, and this is how The Brainy Broker was born.
Christina helps new agents identify what their strong points are and build a prospecting system that suits their personality.
You can find Christina at https://www.facebook.com/christinamacro
Your entire business is built on what you believe you can do, the effort you put into it, and the people you surround yourself with. What happens when you get discouraged and it starts affecting both your focus and productivity? What self-care routine should everyone practice to get stronger mentally and physically? How can you stay away from toxic thoughts? In this episode, Kathleen Black speaks about the experience she had at a Tony Robbins event and how she helps her clients thrive by taking a holistic approach to their personal life and business.
Worrying is a prayer for what you don't want. -Greg McDaniel
Three Things We Learned
Prime your mind and body every morning
Make sure you start off the day with the right mindset. It will affect your decisions, your performance, and the way you interact with others. You have to let negative thoughts go, visualize your goals, and work on your health and well-being.
The best way to fight negativity is to take action
You can’t fight the way you feel sometimes, but you can look around and determine what changes would make you feel better. What can you do to improve your current situation instead of letting the thoughts of an unfinished job eat away at you?
Practice acceptance of the things you cannot control
There will be days when you’re forced to deal with bad clients, and there will always be reasons to feel anxious or angry about something. What makes a big difference is mood control, being emotionally resilient, and not letting emotions control you for the whole day.
Worrying not only robs you of energy and enthusiasm but it also makes you focus your energy on things that aren’t under your control. If you’re constantly stressed out due to your fears and worries, you’re actually making them more likely to come true, as worrying affects your energy levels and productivity, which leads to a vicious cycle. There will always be crisis in your life, but the best you can do is focus only on the things you can control.
Guest Bio
Kathleen Black is a CEO and a leader of a team that has 80% of it’s agents in the top 1% nationally. She is a real estate coach at Kathleen Black Coaching & Consulting as well as a certified NLP practitioner coach.
The rejections that come with prospecting and low conversion rates can wear down any agent. But is there an alternative to finding clients? How can content establish you as an expert? How can you start creating content when you have no experience? In this episode, Justin Zimmerman talks about how real estate agents can use content to build and nurture a strong database that will bring business for years to come.
Content is that vehicle that delivers that ability to build trust over time. -Justin Zimmerman
Three Things We Learned
Ask for a big yes first
When prospecting, ask for a big yes first, and then ask for a yes to something smaller later. This increases your chances of being told yes to the second yes, and this should be the “yes” you were looking for in the first place.
How to create content without any experience
You don’t have to be a writer to create content. In the beginning, you can take topics everyone else is talking about and put your own spin on it. Also, make sure you give your database “micro doses” of content. Overwhelming your readers or viewers with statistics might make them click away.
Content can help you go from prospector to marketer
Content will increase your visibility and help you establish yourself as an expert in your field.
Once you have a list of people who you send content to on a regular basis, you won’t have to put that much time (if any) into cold calling.
Prospecting is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to get new clients when you’re starting out, but it can also be tiring and time-consuming. Most won’t be interested in buying or selling a house right now, but they might be in the future. Instead of just ignoring the prospects who aren’t a potential transaction right now, send them a secondary call to action. Use content to engage with them in the long-term, potentially years. This way, you build a database filled with people who have known you for a long time and consider you their go-to resource for real estate. When they are ready to buy or sell, chances are, they will contact you.
Guest Bio
Justin Zimmerman is the director of content development at REDX and a content strategist with a background in real estate.
He started off in real estate at 24 and built a software that took local MLS housing data and transformed it into a format easy to understand both by buyers and sellers. This helped him gain a competitive advantage in an profession where the average age was 47.
His software was so successful that he started training other agents to become Certified Market Advisors" and went from being a simple agent to managing 51 people.
Today, he uses his real estate and marketing knowledge to help agents create content that eliminates the need for prospecting and builds a strong database.
The road to success can sometimes be shortened if you put aside your ego and allow yourself to learn from others who have already made it big. What is the biggest misconceptions new agents have when they enter the real estate world? Should you just take any listing in the beginning? Why do negotiation sounds so scary for most people, and how can you get better at them? In this episode, Candy Miles-Crocker talks about the biggest mistakes new agents make and what shortcuts she wishes she knew about when she started out.
You don’t want to take any listing. Not all listings are good listings, and not all money is good money. -Candy Miles-Crocker
Three Things We Learned
Treat real estate like job
Many people get into the real estate business looking for freedom. They want to enjoy a more flexible schedule. But they end up not taking real estate seriously. They don’t put in the hours, nor do they make enough calls. New agents need to learn to treat real estate like a job. You can’t afford to slack in real estate. You either work and take the commission or you fail altogether. In this industry, the sky's the limit. But to reach it, you have to put in the work.
Don’t take any listing that comes your way
Many new agents are desperate enough to take any listing, even when they know that the property is overpriced and the seller unreasonable. You don’t want to take a listing that has very small chance of selling. This wastes your time when you could be working on something else.
Negotiating is part of everyday life
You probably negotiate every day without even putting too much thought into it. Many beginners make the mistake of assuming that people aren’t willing to negotiate. Rejection is part of the everyday life of an agent, but if you don’t ask, the answer will always be no.
Many beginners, out of fear that they won’t get another listing, take whatever comes their way even if the chances of the property to sell are very slim. No matter how much you try to promote a house, when the price is too high, it won’t sell. Buyers today are too savvy to be tricked into buying an overpriced home. They can search online to find out what other homes of the same size and in the same area cost. You have to be honest with the sellers from the beginning when it comes to the real value of their home, and if they don’t change their minds, there is no need for you to waste your time with overpriced properties.
Guest Bio
Candy Miles-Crocker has over 17 years of experience in real estate. She’s a real estate agent who closed 14 sales in her first year, only to see the numbers climb higher and higher over in the following years. In the present, Candy helps new real estate agents get the training she would have liked to have when she started out. If you want to take a sneak peak at what she teaches agents, sign up for her free email course.
Every broker or team leader dreams of expanding their team nationally one day. But what’s the difference between a small team and a business that operates all over the country? What kind of lead generation tactics do they use? What kind of people does it take to play in another league? In this episode, Kevin L Kauffman talks about how to make the right hires, why you shouldn’t go crazy with buying leads, and how you can generate leads for free.
Get in business with the right people first and the rest will take care of itself. -Kevin L Kauffman
Three Things We Learned
Get in business with the right people
The real estate industry is constantly changing. Being in business with the right people is one of the things that will help you withstand any market shift. What matters is finding motivated people of character; everything else can be taught if motivation and character are already there.
Don’t purchase leads you can’t follow up with
The highest conversion rates will always come from sources such as a referrals or past clients. The more time you spend on a lead, the more likely you are to convert. Purchasing leads online is a waste of time if you don’t have the tools and resources for a quick follow-up.
How to generate leads for free
One of the best ways to generate leads without paying for them is to interact daily with 5 people in your database and 5 people you would like to include in your database. You shouldn't ask about selling or buying real estate. Just become part of their sphere, and when they are in need of help, they’ll contact you, not an agent who they barely know.
Leveraging relationships both with agents and people in your database is the one of the safest paths to success. The highest conversion rates come from the people you know personally and you interact regularly with, as you don’t have to work to gain their trust. If you contact 5 people from your database and 5 people outside it, and have a few meaningful conversations with each of them, you won’t have to worry getting enough referrals or warm leads in the future.
Guest Bio
Kevin Kauffman is the CEO of Group 46:10 Network, a real estate company active in 4 states in North America. In his 10 years of experience in real estate, he learned the ins and outs of the industry and shared his strategies and knowledge via speaking events and coaching. Kevin is now offering coaching for team leaders and brokers who want to take their business to next level just like he did years ago.
Starting a real estate business by yourself sounds scary, especially if you’re part of the team. But what happens when a team setting stalls your progress? What can you do when you start from scratch with no experience as a business owner? What should your expectations be and what means should you use to generate leads on your own? In this clip, Beth Seegert talks about how she hit the restart button on her real estate career by leaving her team and starting her own business.
Making calls is not the only way. You just need to find what you are comfortable with and works for you. -Beth Seegert
Three Things We Learned
Success doesn’t happen overnight
We see all these successful people going from zero to 100 when in fact they only get attention when they make it big, not while they’re on the journey of getting there. Few people are honest about their journey and how much work it actually took them to make it big.
No system is perfect in the beginning, and you shouldn’t expect it to be
In the beginning, all that your system needs to be is adequate, just enough for it to generate leads and get you the clients your business needs to survive. The next step is to make your system good, and the final step, which comes with experience, is to make your system great.
Ask the right questions
At an open house, neighbors usually come to look at the home as well. Usually, they aren’t looking to buy but instead just to look around. This is the perfect occasion to try to get another listing by asking a simple question: “Have you secretly thought about selling your home?”
Making calls is not the only way to get more clients. In the real estate industry, there are many ways you can keep nurturing you database, with social media being one of them. But if you really want to get more clients on social media platforms, you need to be more intentional about it. Make a list of your prospects and constantly keep an eye on them. Also, what determines your success on social media is the number of conversations you actually have with the people you’re targeting.
Guest Bio
Beth is an agent based in Detroit, Michigan. Find her on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/beth-seegert-5948a132/.
Technology reshaped many industries in the last few decades, but how will the real estate industry look after the next big technological shift? Who’s at risk of losing their jobs? Will real estate remain a people-based business? How can we use the new tools to our advantage? In this episode, Gene Volpe talks about augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and how real estate agents can use them to grow their business instead of fearing them.
There is always going to be the need for that hand-to-hand combat and human connection. - Gene Volpe
Three Things We Learned
How augmented reality will change the real estate industry
Putting furniture in a home using your smartphone to see what it looks like and flyers that come with QR codes are just a couple of the perks of augmented reality. This technology will make it easier for agents to help their buyers figure out if the home they’re seeing is a good fit for them.
Technology won’t remove the need for face-to-face interactions
Home buyers won’t put their biggest purchase in the hands of an agent they’ve never seen. They might come to you because of technology, but you will still have to meet with them in person for them to see if you’re trustworthy and a good fit.
How to use beacons in real estate
Beacons are small devices that use bluetooth technology. You can use them to trigger an outcome, such as an automated message via bluetooth to someone who passes by a home that is on the market for sale, letting them know they can click to see the virtual tour.
Technology is just a tool that can make our lives easier and cut out some of the mundane tasks that take hours from our days, but it will never replace the human connection needed for both selling and buying a home. Real estate is a people business, and no buyer would put their trust in a bot to help them make the biggest purchase of their lifetime. They still want to meet with an agent and find out for themselves if the agent is trustworthy and capable of helping them out.
Guest Bio
Gene Volpe is the founder of GVI Media and has over 10 years of experience in real estate marketing. With over 200 transactions under his belt, Gene is known as an authority in his field and is often invited to speak at events. You can find more about Gene at http://www.genevolpe.com/about-gene/#.
Building relationships with your database is a far more pleasant experience for both sides than cold calling, sending emails, or trying to use any of the traditional marketing methods. But how can we genuinely touch lives and build relationships? Why isn’t social media alone enough to make this happen? And why is sending out cards such a powerful way to make people remember you? In this episode, Kody Bateman, the CEO of Send out Cards, speaks about relationship marketing and how you can transform the way you succeed through relationships.
If you act on your promptings, they will guide you on where you are supposed to go with your life. -Kody Bateman
Three Things We Learned
Social media diluted the meaning of personal messages
Most people are inundated with marketing on social media. Your audience is probably too, and they expect certain messages from the people they do business with as well. But this only dilutes the message because it’s well known those messages are impersonal and sent with a specific goal in mind: to sell.
Send-out cards work because they are tangible
After the appearance of social media, there was a huge shift. Many marketers thought they can use social media alone to keep in touch with their database. But they soon found out that social media is not enough, that people need something tangible to bond with. What social media has done is create more noise.
You can touch people’s lives
A drip campaign or a quarterly call doesn’t touch people on the same level as send-out cards do. You can put a smile on somebody’s face and make them feel appreciated when they need it the most just by making a small gesture like sending out a card.
Social media and send-out cards can work together. For example, you will need social media to find out when important events happen in your audience’s lives in order to connect with them. You can also take photos from their social media accounts to print out your cards, especially if you write a card to congratulate them on a specific life event. This type of marketing not only allows you to contact people in a way that other agents don’t, but it also helps relationships. It’s a more pleasant process for both sides than cold calls or drip campaigns.
Guest Bio
Kody Bateman is the founder and CEO of Send out Cards, an internationally recognized public speaker, and marketing and personal development specialist. He is a leading figure in relationship marketing and the author of The Power of Human Connection, a book that will be launched in August this year, but if you pre-order it now, you qualify for a free download of the digital version. You can find out more about him, his other books, and events at https://kodybateman.com/about/.
Technology has already changed the way real estate is done. But how will the rise of augmented reality impact the industry? What are the current developments, and what can be done in the present with augmented reality? What are the predictions for the future? In this episode, we talk about how you can use augmented reality on your smartphone and what other possible uses may be coming in the future.
If you can make people excited about their future reality taking place in the property they are looking at, they will become bonded to that potential opportunity. -Greg McDaniel
Three Things We Learned
Applications that add furniture in a home
Potential buyers and tenants can now see how their furniture will fit in the new place by using augmented reality. There are applications where you can see the furniture selected on your smartphone right in the new property.
The future of augmented reality
In the future, you may be able to use augmented reality to show potential scenarios in a home that isn’t just limited to furniture and home decor. As a result, buyers will be more likely to consider the property if they can already visualize it’s potential.
How to position yourself as an agent
In any given transaction, 1% to 3% of any given price is in play. That goes to whatever side has the best negotiating skills. Instead of presenting yourself as just an agent, present yourself as the one who can bring the best negotiating skills to the table.
Augmented reality has already started impacting the way we do real estate. There are apps that you can use on your smartphone that show possible buyers or tenants how their belongings will fit and look in a new place. Buyers who are open to the use of this type of technology will be more likely to buy because, without knowing it, they already formed a bond with the property by visualizing their belongings inside the property.
The resistance of leads over the phone is getting stronger and stronger while many agents give hundreds of calls per week. What causes this resistance? What are the limitations of scripts and mirroring? Why is it important to roleplay? And what’s the secret to making leads feel understood and not sold to? In this episode, Dale Archdekin speaks about how you can convert leads to active buyers with ease, while Gene Volpe shares his latest tech discovery.
This interaction is not about you, it’s about the person you are talking to. Who are they? How does their world work? What’s important to them? -Dale Archdekin
Three Things We Learned
Don’t use your sales pitch unless the prospect shows interest
Many agents jump right to the sales pitch when leads aren’t even ready to hear their value proposition. You need to put aside your desire to get the listing second and ask questions that will reveal what their key motivators are, and find out whether they are a good fit for you or not.
You can’t always use a script
You can’t repeat the same script over and over again. First, you need to find out what their pain points are and what they plan to do about it. Scripts can be helpful, but you need to adapt them to each prospect. Otherwise, what you’re saying won’t make sense for a large percentage of your leads.
Start a roleplay group
Practising should always be one of your priorities. You can’t get better at handling objections and dealing with unexpected turns in the conversation by memorizing scripts alone.
Many agents have a hard time listening to the their prospects during a phone call. They go through a set of questions prepared beforehand, so they aren’t actually interacting with anyone. They just tick a few boxes and deliver the sales pitch. The secret is to actually focus on the person. Forget that you even need the listing, and ask them questions that will make then open up instead of getting defensive. Don’t focus on the listing unless they show interest in working with you.
Guest Bio
Dale Archdekin is the CEO of Smart Inside Sales, an inside sales training and coaching company focused on real estate, and the former director of lead generation and realtor at PhillyLiving.com
You can find free advice on how to train your ISA’s and get better at selling over the phone at http://www.smartinsidesales.com/blog/
To access Dale’s free giveaway, 7 roleplay group sessions conducted with one of his coaches go to http://www.smartinsidesales.com/training/7-roleplay/
Big companies replicate the same well-oiled machine. They hire people and attract clients based on it. But how do you build the same systems for a real estate business? What are the best ways to attract clients without going through hundreds of calls per week? Are marketing skills applicable to any industry, and how it can be applied to yours? In this episode, Glenn Twiddle speaks how he built his own real estate machine, how he attracts clients, and how he finds talent.
Really good marketing makes sales people unnecessary. -Matt Johnson
Three Things We Learned
Give now to receive later
Giving your advice, content or trainings for free builds a relationship with your prospects. Now they owe you something for helping them out, which taps into the law of reciprocity. The moment they have the opportunity to pay you back for your help, they’ll do it. You can’t attract the same amount of people with a free service as you would with a paid one. The first may pay off later, but the earnings are definitely bigger.
Build a system that takes care of every aspect of your business.
You need a system that leaves nothing to guessing; otherwise, you will be constantly disorganized, putting the wrong people in the wrong positions, and have a hard time teaching what you do to new workers. A system that takes care of every aspect of your business will save you time spent every day trying to figure it out what to do and what to delegate, and it’s going to make things easier for you to train new people.
A skilled marketer can thrive in any industry
Once you become a skilled marketer who can put systems that target the right people in place and fix their pains, you can work in any industry within your skill set.
The DISC profile enables you to figure out who is better at what. If you get to do something that you aren’t good at, you can send it over to someone who enjoys it and is qualified to do it better than you. There are very few jobs in a real estate system that everyone should do or can do at the same level. But if you have an idea of the personality types in your team and their motivations, it’s easier to figure out in what spots they will thrive.
Leads might be easy to get, but they’re harder to convert due to the fact that in the online environment everyone is bombarded with ads. What can you do to sound less salesy and stand out among other ads? How can you humanize your interactions, and what role does video marketing play in it? Why is the cost per click no longer relevant in the big picture? In this episode, James Rembert talks about how you can lethal with Facebook lead gen.
My conversation digitally has to be as if I were in front of a person. -James Rembert
Three Things We Learned
Humanize your interactions
If it sounds salesy to you, it probably sounds salesy to someone else as well. Because people in general are bombarded with so many ads and promotional content, they develop a filter and get better at telling when someone is simply trying to push a sale.
Video content can reveal who your audience is
Know who your audience is and write to them. Be authentic but speak their language. If you use video, your audience will let you know who they are, as they will be the ones who comment, share, and engage with you.
Don’t look at the cost per click
Agents should stop looking at the cost per click and start calculating the cost per conversation. Both buyers and sellers are more likely to work with the agent they last spoke with. Putting up landing pages and grabbing emails is not enough if you fail to start a conversation with them.
Facebook makes it very easy for anyone to get leads. It’s a sophisticated platform where you can be quite specific about what type of person should see you ad. However, there’s a catch: Facebook leads are often useless. Because everyone is bombarded with advertising, they develop a defense mechanism against salesy language. As a consequence you have to go a step further and get in contact with your leads, build a relationship with them, and interact with your them as you would speak to someone face-to-face. Cost per click is no longer relevant when clicks by themselves are quite far away from conversions. What becomes a better metric for agents is the cost per conversation.
Guest Bio
James Rembert is the Zillow Killer. Using Facebook, he provides marketing solutions to real estate agents who want to get high-quality leads without investing large amounts of money in platforms like Zillow. You can find out more about James and his work at http://www.jamesrembert.com/
Discount agents are a challenge since many sellers are looking to save as much money as possible, but in the end both sides lose. How can you make an offer that is even more compelling than the one of a discount agent? How can you give your prospects the option to pay only for the things they need? And most importantly, what can you do to stand out during the listing presentation? On this episode, Derrick Evens speaks about how to win listings over discount brokers and withstand market shifts.
In reality, it’s never the price that’s the issue with the consumer—it’s the value that we bring, or the perceived value. -Greg McDaniel
Three Things We Learned
How to put together a compelling offer
The reason why discount agents are so successful is because they have a better offer. A good offer has to have something of value and be easy to understand. If you don’t want to lower your commission, you have to explain what can be done with a certain amount of money and what can’t. For example, if the agent gets a smaller commission, there won’t be much money spent on advertising. In order to sell the house, the homeowner will have to lower the price to get some buyers.
Why people think your services are overpriced
Business is simple: people pay for something of value, and if they don’t wanna pay, they don’t find it valuable. Many prospects don’t find certain things you do to sell the house valuable. To get the listing, you have to offer packages tailored to the individual. When people see they have the option to choose from a basic and premium package, they are more likely to buy because they only pay for the things they find valuable.
Focus on their needs by writing everything down
Your listing presentation shouldn’t last longer than 30 seconds. Let the prospects do the talking. One of the most common complaints is that the agent isn’t a good listener. Grab a piece of paper and make them write down what’s important to them and ask them what they want to achieve at the end of the transaction. Then sign it, while promising you will do everything in your power to help them accomplish their goals.
When we try to sell our services, we usually tell the potential client what we do and what we charge for. But what happens when the potential client doesn’t find some of the things on your list valuable? Most likely, you will make someone feel like they are overpaying for services they don’t even need. This is why you should offer a few different packages to target different needs without making them feel like they are overpaying for a service they don’t need anyway.
Guest Bio
Derrick Evens has over 17 years of experience in radio and 14 years of experience in real estate. He is the host of List it Live, Digs and the owner of Smarter San Diego Productions. You can connect and find more about Derrick at https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrcredit/
Agents often hate the idea of using AI in their sales processes, but real estate will always remain a people-to-people business. Artificial intelligence just takes some of the time-consuming tasks off your plate. But how can you use AI without making a compromise in customer experience, and when is it the right time to do so? What kind of interactions can be taken care of by a bot? Could bots save agents time and money, and how? In this episode, Tod Holland talks about how you can both generate and weed the good leads from the bad ones by using AI and bots.
There is a way to organically promote your business without coming off as a real estate robot. -Tod Holland
Three Things We Learned
How to use AI without making a compromise in customer experience
The secret is to keep the human element but automate everything that can be automated without making a compromise in consumer experience. You have to know at which point in the interactions you should put AI aside and bring in the person.
How agents should use AI to save time and weed out the bad
Bots should be programmed with consideration for your potential client. You don’t have to outright specify that your bot is a bot and not a human, but you have to build in a series of interactions that make sense and save time for the agent. Before the leads even get to the real estate agent, there are some questions that should be asked in order to weed out the the bad.
How you can use AI to narrow your focus and save time
Using AI helps you narrow your focus. You hand off everything that can be done by robots to the robots, and the relationship building, the processes that involves human interaction, will remain your job. Bots can help you save time by eliminating some of the time-consuming, mindless tasks.
Facebook is one of the best platforms for pushing content because everyone is on it. There is no other platform that has both the people and the tools needed to segment and test what kind of content works and what doesn’t. Also, Facebook rewards high engagement rates by making you even more visible the next time you post on their website.
Guest Bio
Tod Holland started his real estate journey when he was 18. In the present, his company was recently sold, but he is still active as a consultant on the board and he helps real estate agents and loan officers integrate AI into their sales processes.
Agents face many obstacles in the process, from having their emails ignored to dealing with buyers who can’t make a decision. But what can you do when your clients don't reply to text or email? Should you give them a call? How do you deal with buyers who can’t make up their mind or want to see all the listings in the area? In this episode, we speak about buyers, means of communication, and Gene shares one of his latest tech discoveries.
The more you clarify your thinking, the more you can communicate thoughts in fewer words. -Matt Johnson
Three Things We Learned
What you can do when buyers want to see all the houses in the area
As a real estate agent, you don’t have the time to show your buyers all the houses in the area. Plus, they probably already have their dream home in mind.
Ask them what boxes their perfect home should tick, and then you can go further and propose to see only the houses that fit those criteria instead of seeing homes they won’t like anyway.
Always make sure to follow-up via the phone
Emails and texts are often ignored, but few clients of yours will not pick the phone when they get a call. On top of this, a conversation over the phone is more humane, and it’s easier to be more persuasive and transmit more emotion during a phone call.
Shorter calls
Agents often end up spending too much time on the phone without saying much. Writing can help you clarify your thinking and help you become more brief in your communication without sacrificing any information. Shorter calls will give you more free time, and your clients will be happy with it as well.
The best way to save time when dealing with buyers that have second thoughts on homes is to create a checklist. When a property doesn’t meet their expectations, or it’s impossible to modify it to meet their expectations, it all gets written down on the checklist and the piece of paper will be thrown away. In many cases, buyers have second thoughts even about homes that don’t meet their expectations, which only slows down the process. But if you destroy the sheet with houses that don’t fit the criteria, you remove the home from their minds as well.
Guest Bio
Gene Volpe is the founder of GVI Media and has over 10 years of experience in real estate marketing. With over 200 transactions under his belt, Gene is known as an authority in his field and is often invited to speak at events. You can find more about Gene at http://www.genevolpe.com/about-gene/#.
Being informed about what makes a business successful, how large your database should be, and how to sharpen your selling skills is the difference between the agent in survival mode and the one who’s thriving. What’s the best way to connect with online leads, phone or video? Do referrals and repeat business signal how healthy your business is? And how important is empathy in real estate? On this episode, we talk about tips from sales books and phone consultations, and we reply to some of your questions.
Every business that is healthy will generate referrals and repeat business. - Matt Johnson
Three Things We Learned
The ideal size of your database
The size of your database is determined by the type of agent you want to be. For example, if you want to be a referral agent, 1000 people is enough. But a prospecting agent needs a lot more because their conversion rate will be smaller.
Have empathy towards your clients’ lack of knowledge
People often make bad decisions because in the moment their current knowledge seems like a good idea. Not everyone has the time or the resources to research the market and think like a real estate agent. And as an agent, you shouldn’t look down on the decisions of your clients. Instead, you should treat them with empathy and serve as a reliable resource for them.
Use video to get in contact with your leads
Do your best to convince your leads to have a video call with you. If they feel uncomfortable about that, you can send them a video message. Whatever it is, make sure you use video so they can attach a face to the voice. This way, it will be harder for them to forget about you.
Every good business, when healthy, will generate referrals and repeat business. If you don’t invest in client retention programs, the percentage of clients that come from referrals will be smaller, but you will still have some recommendations. This occurs because a good service or product will be appreciated anyway, especially if your competitors don’t deliver the same value or the same price. If you don’t have any recommendations or repeat clients, you should consider tweaking your business, because your clients aren’t satisfied.
Changing your daily habits and replacing the systems you already have in place to function can be very challenging. But what happens when what we are currently doing doesn’t serve our goals? What kind of goals and expectations should we set for ourselves to make sustainable changes both in business and in our personal lives? And what is the secret to making ourselves motivated enough to step outside of our comfort zone? In this episode, Monica Weakley shares how to reach massive success.
If we only get motivated when we go through pain, the motivation stops when we go above the pain threshold. -Matt Johnson
Three Things We Learned
Stop making promises you won’t keep
We all know when our expectations and promises are unrealistic, especially when we are just starting to tweak our action plan. Don’t create schedules that only robots can keep. Treat yourself as you would your best friend. What are the things that you are willing to do that also happen to be beneficial? Don’t promise yourself that you will increase your revenue overnight when you know it’s not possible to do so at the moment.
Don’t try to change in one day what was built in a decades
Our work tactics, and our mindset is the result of decades of conditioning and habit.
We work the way we work because we have some unconscious system put in place, the smaller the changes, the smaller the resistance. But if you jump into making a huge change in your life, you will encounter a bigger resistance. Start slow to avoid change fatigue.
Your why isn’t big enough
Pain and discomfort pushes people towards action. But what happens when that comfort kicks in? In order to keep yourself motivated, you need to ask yourself about your end goal, and keep your eyes on the prize. When you don’t know your why, there is nothing to fight for, and nothing to keep you motivated along the way.
Our life is a collection of systems that produce certain results. These systems took years to create and refine, and when change appears, you will face resistance. You may get pumped after watching a motivational video or a book and want to change the whole system, but the truth is, you can’t change what you built in decades by Monday morning. There are a few people who can push themselves to make major changes in their system and sustain those changes, but those are the outliers.
Guest Bio
Monica Weakley is an experienced real estate agent with over 5 years in a position of leadership at Keller Williams Advisors and a coach at My coach, Monica. Her approach to real estate is focused on building relationships and creating repeat clients and referrals.
The way we see ourselves and the world around us either serves our purposes or prevents us from taking action and reaching our true potential. What are the things you do on a daily basis to keep your energy levels up and focus on the things that matter to both your business and personal life? Do you enjoy your victories? How does an abundance or scarcity mindset impact the probability of getting the listing? In this episode, Jeff Latham and Gene Volpe speak about how to level up your mindset to set yourself up for big wins.
It’s the last mountain, and the enjoyment of coming down from that mountain, that’s the fuel for the next one. -Matt Johnson
Plan ahead in the morning for the whole day
Every morning spend at 30 minutes meditating on what can make your business and day better. What is the one thing that needs to be accomplished for you to grow your business and have a better day? By doing so, you cut down your to-do list by eliminating the things that aren’t urgent, and this allows you to focus on what needs to be done right now.
Pause and enjoy your victories
No matter how big or small your victories are, they need to be celebrated. If you are just ticking a box on your checklist, you’ll never be motivated enough for your next goal. Why? Simply because attaining your previous one wasn’t all that fulfilling. Give yourself credit and take some time to feel good about yourself and your accomplishments.
Have an abundance mindset
Many agents fail to get the listing because they have a scarcity mindset. In the back of their heads, they are desperate for the listing and the commision that comes with it. As a result, they are too focused on themselves and what they want instead of being focused on the seller.
But if you are detached from the commission, you can truly help a seller because you are more focused on what they want and what they need, and by doing so, you increase your chances of getting the listing.
Practice selective ignorance daily. We all have negative thoughts, but what we choose to do with them is what becomes visible in our mood and results. Living in the past and dealing with insecurities daily not only slows us down and makes us unfocussed, but it also causes us to be unhappy no matter how much money we make.
Instead of focusing on the bad, why not pick a beautiful moment in our lives that we can always come back to? Think about a moment of pure joy and fulfillment that will give you enough energy and positive vibes for the entire day, instead of wrestling with negative thoughts.
Guest Bio
Jeff Latham is the founder of Latham Realty Unlimited, Latham Coaching Unlimited, and The Freedom Evolution. Jeff has an unique approach to real estate that makes him almost unbeatable in his area. He buys and repairs homes, and he promises to sell a property within 25 or his team will do all the work for free.
You can find free content on real estate and mindset created by Jeff at http://jefflathamrealestate.blogspot.com/
Gene Volpe is the founder of GVI Media and has over 10 years of experience in real estate marketing. With over 200 transactions under his belt, Gene is known as an authority in his field and is often invited to speak at events. You can find more about Gene at http://www.genevolpe.com/about-gene/#.
Many top agents make money but struggle with long work hours and have little time for themselves and their families. What can you do as an agent to save time without making a financial compromise? What’s the most valuable hire for a busy agent? And how can you make money just by networking with other agents? In this episode, Amy Broghamer shares how she achieved freedom without losing money.
The more value you add, the more valuable you become. -Amy Broghamer
Three Things We Learned
Build a network of skilled agents
Don’t be afraid to carve out a niche for yourself and work with only people who are a good fit for you. At the same time, you can make money even if someone isn’t a good fit. Network with highly skilled agents from different niches and send over clients who aren’t a good fit for you. This way, you still make some money without taking over more work.
The best first hire is a transaction coordinator
The best part about a transaction coordinator is not only that you can send them some of the things you don’t have time to do, but you also pay them a flat fee per each transaction. This will both save you money and time spent replying to emails and managing paperwork.
Build systems
Documenting everything and knowing the steps and how to speed up the process not only makes things easier for you and your staff. You just have to build the system once, and after you are done, you can just replicate it and save time on each transaction.
In your branding efforts, make sure you don’t use your picture too much. It’s safer to attach your name to the brand, but not your face. If you do use your face, all of your clients will have an expectation to work with you directly, which is not possible in most cases. This will also sabotage your efforts of recommending other agents and receiving a referral fee.
Guest Bio
Amy Broghamer is a team leader at Amy B in Cincinnati, Ohio, and a real estate coach at Amy B. Experience Success Speaking and Coaching. Her goal is to help agents build systems to increase their passive income via referrals and make money without sacrificing their time with family and friends.
Rockstar Agent Marketing Toolkit - Featuring our favorite scripts, tutorials and quickstart guides to marketing strategies like Facebook Live, door-knocking, remarketing advertising, open houses and referrals. Get actionable ideas and tactics you can use in your career right NOW.
The hiring process can be brutal. Often times, you’re flooded by resumes, and only a small percentage have both the soft and the hard skills you’re looking for in your ideal candidate. But how can you weed out the good from the bad? What should be your expectations when it comes to the hard skills of your next hire? Are top agents looking to join teams? And most of all, what’s the magical word that you can put into your ad that will scare the candidates that don’t understand what real estate is all about? In this episode, Wizehire founder, Jay Niblick shares the 3 things you should know before you make the hire.
Bringing someone on your team is like getting married. You are going to be around these people almost as much as you are going to be around your spouse. -Greg McDaniel.
Three Things We Learned
Put everyone on a probationary period
There are traits that can’t be measured by personality tests, and character is one of them. This is why it’s good to set an expectation from the beginning that new hires will go through a probationary period. You will spend a lot of hours every day near your hires, so why would you keep someone who doesn’t meet your standards?
Top agents don’t need teams to share their commission with
Many team leaders make the mistake of expecting agents that can jump into their business and crush it right out of the gate. But the truth is that teams are not mini brokerages. And a top agent doesn’t need the help of a team, so why would he or she split their commission with you? Instead, you need to search for talented and capable people and coach them into becoming top agents.
Mention “sales” in your ad
Many people become agents for the wrong reasons. Some like homes and interior design, and others enjoy the idea of doing open houses. But at the core, being a real estate agent is being a salesperson. For this reason, you should mention the word “sales” in your add. You might scare off the candidates who look for a comfortable job office and attract those who are comfortable working on a commission.
Bringing someone on your team is like getting married. You will spend a lot of time around them, probably as much as you spend with your family. The wrong people make you lose money and time, as you’ll have to search again to replace the bad hire. By using personality assessments and clearly stating in the ad that this is a sales position, you can weed out some of the bad hires. But in the end, what matters the most is that you use a probationary period. There are still variables that can’t be measured, and stating from the beginning that they will go through a probationary period makes your life easier.
Guest Bio
Jay Niblick is the founder of Wize Hire, a real estate recruiting software with a data-driven approach to the hiring process. You can take the personality test mentioned on this episode at https://wizehire.com/#disc-ebook-signup
Agents often have a hard time benefiting from new softwares and technology, even though most agents use at least a CRM. How can technology bring the “wow” factor and help you get the listing? What is the biggest money waster in real estate? How can you integrate every software you have and simplify your processes? In this episode, Chace Oldmixon, Gene Volpe, and Karri Flatla talk about technology, selling homes in neighborhoods with new constructions, and making your listing stand out.
Tech can help, but you actually need a system for how you want things done. - Matt Johnson
Three Things We Learned
Drone photography brings the element of novelty to the table
Novelty is a powerful tool. Call your videographer to the listing presentation and whether you give us the listing or not, this drone footage will be yours. While drones are not a new technology, they’re still underused, and it’s often exciting for the homeowner to see how much you invest into the presentation of their home.
Technology can often be overwhelming
There are many CRM’s that do the same things but are marketed to different markets. Agents often end up paying more for software that overcomplicates things, or for technology that they never use because they don’t know how to use it. You don’t need a sophisticated software if it doesn’t make your life easier and isn’t integrated into your current systems.
Faulty lead systems are the biggest money wasters in real estate
One of the biggest time and money wasters in real estate is not nurturing the leads you’ve paid for. Building an online presence, funnels, and paying for advertising are useless if you don’t have the resources to follow-up on each lead within minutes.
Technology is supposed to make your life simpler and integrate perfectly into your systems. But in many cases, software makes an agent’s life more complicated because it requires a learning curve. Also, when you work with many types of software, things tend to get complicated because you need to transfer the data needs between them. Before you purchase any piece of software, make sure that you have an integration system or you work with someone who can help you pick the software you need and know how to use.
Guest Bio
Chace Oldmixon is the founder of Chace Oldmixon consulting and the consumer evangelist at Real Sync. He has a background in sales and now helps brokerages and team leaders figure out how they can integrate technology into their systems and make their lives easier in the process.
Karri Flatla is an experienced realtor and team leader with a background in marketing. She worked as a copywriter and web marketing consultant. Today, she is the team leader at Karri Flatla & Associates in Lethbridge, Canada.
Gene Volpe is the founder of GVI Media and has over 10 years of experience in real estate marketing. With over 200 transactions under his belt, Gene is known as an authority in his field and is often invited to speak at events. You can find more about Gene at http://www.genevolpe.com/about-gene/#.
Agents are often times confused about the many options they have when it comes to growing their new business. Should you partner up with a mortgage loan office, and how can they help you get more leads? Is cold calling still a viable option? What’s the best way to contact someone and ask for information from them? In this episode, Robert Wilson Ring shares how you can grow a new business and talks about what a mortgage loan office can do for you.
An add won’t hold much power in the future unless it’s strategically done. -Greg McDaniel
Three Things We Learned
What you should expect from a mortgage loan officer
As a real estate agent, you need to find a mortgage loan officer that does more than just help your buyers find a mortgage so you can close the sale. This could translate to helping you with your advertising efforts or working your sphere. But you also have to keep in mind that a mortgage loan officer earns only one-third from the commission you make, so it’s not realistic to ask from them for 50% of the advertising expenses.
Cold calling is no longer as effective as it used to be
Both buyers and sellers are flooded by sales calls. As a consequence, they grow immune to it. New cold calling involves going through a list of people you already know and are in contact with.
The best way to attract someone's attention is to show them how you can bring value
If you call someone and lay the process out on how you can help them convert more or what your lead generation system is, you will receive some call backs. But if you don’t go in-depth with how you can help, you won’t be able to stand out.
Both for real estate agents and for mortgage loan officers, there is a shift towards the direction of branding, building relationships, and trust. Because both buyers and sellers are bombarded with calls and emails, the marketing message gets diluted. As a result, the best way to grow your business and get a competitive advantage is to nurture the people who already trust you and keep in touch with them on a personal level. This can be done via send-out cards with their photo and a personal message or email.
Guest Bio
Robert Wilson Ring is a branch manager and a mortgage advisor at People Home Equity, Inc.
He is also the founder of Robert Ring Team and part of a humanitarian program that helps orphans in Africa. His specialty is helping first home buyers and sellers get the best interest rates and mortgage packages.
Productivity in a fast-paced world is a struggle, especially when there always new things appearing on our plates. But what does it mean to be productive as a real estate agent? How can you shake off the feeling of not being productive enough? And how do you fix the lack of drive? In this episode, we speak about how to become more productive by narrowing your focus.
What’s the one thing I can do that makes everything easier or unnecessary? -Matt Johnson
Three Things We Learned
How to shake off the guilt of not feeling productive enough
Sometimes we may appear to be productive to the outside world, but if we don’t do the things we think we should to, we still feel lazy and unproductive. Sometimes we avoid doing hard and uncomfortable tasks, but it could also be that we might set unrealistic expectations for ourselves.
You can have fun and work at the same time
Social media platforms are often labeled as time wasters. But if you’re spending time on Facebook, you could also contact people. Post useful content and stay in touch with previous clients and prospects. Many people are willing to work with a real estate agent but never do because some agents aren’t keeping in touch.
Ask yourself what lifestyle you want and what you are willing to sacrifice for it
We often fail to get started or lack motivation due to the fact that our why is not big enough. If we aren’t willing to make the sacrifices needed to reach our goals, then we might be running in the wrong race or seeking to accomplish something we may think we should rather than something that will make us happy.
The biggest reason why we get overwhelmed is because we don’t eliminate all the tasks that aren’t as important to our goal. As a consequence, we set unrealistic expectations, and when we fail to reach those, we feel miserable. Focus on picking one thing, the one thing that makes everything else unnecessary or easier to do, and include it in your daily schedule.