Coaching

Last week we kicked off our agent business planning program with part one of Planning for Profit: Getting Started. With the current economic conditions it is more important than ever for agents to develop sound, written business plans. However, it is also more difficult than ever.

The first ingredient in our business plan recipe is to set your production targets for the upcoming year. The uncertainty and concern from the agents was obvious. They asked questions like:

• Given the market, how can I possibly set production targets?
• Should I set my target lower then I actually want?
• Should I set my target higher then I actually want?
• Why bother, I’ve got no control over what is happening in the market. (Most are feeling this sentiment.)

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“I want to know you’re successful and that you work with lots of buyers and sellers, and I want to be treated like I’m your only client.”

Nearly 25 years ago, those words from a seller helped mold my professional future.

We work in a fee-for-service business. “I … I … I …” doesn’t work. Frankly, a seller doesn’t care that I was agent of the month for three months this year. They’re not listening when I tell them about my long list of awards or designations, and they certainly don’t want to hear about the wonderful, exotic trips I attended as a result. They only care about getting their house sold. And while our awards, designations, and accolades are products of our accomplishments, sellers don’t make the connection.

Whether upsizing, downsizing, decreasing debt or relocating, selling a home is a very personal means to an end. We have a responsibility to our clients to help them reach this goal so that they can move on with their lives. In Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service, Ron Zemke says, “Seeing and treating each customer as an individual helps you meet the needs of each on their own unique level.” Read the rest of this entry »

When you have a thought it creates a physical reaction — the mind and the body are connected. If you are having negative thoughts you are likely to feel blue, lethargic, and pessimistic. With everything that is happening in the economic world how do we stay focused on the positive?

NAR data indicates that homes sold at a seasonally adjusted rate of more than 409,000 homes a month between August 2008 and August 2007. The brokers and agents who are focusing their energies on these activities have a very different frame of mind than the ones that are focusing on the various other economic challenges.

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Posted by Sherry Chris

At the upcoming NAR conference in November, I will be speaking about the power of networking and how it can have a profound impact on your business. One of the masters of networking is author and professional speaker Keith Ferrazzi who wrote the bestseller Never Eat Alone. Not only has Keith turned his natural networking ability into a very successful business, but he has managed to stay ahead of the curve by using social networking. If you check him out on Facebook he has thousands of friends and he just launched his own social networking site. Go take a look. We are fortunate to have Keith as a member of our advisory board. His wisdom and insight is invaluable.

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Posted by Wendy Forsythe

Tomorrow, I’m speaking at RISMedia’s 19th Annual Leadership Conference in New York City. The topic is: “Weeding Out Bad Recruits: 5 Ways to Recruit More Effectively.” I think we need to focus more on weeding out bad recruiters then recruits.

Here are my thoughts on 5 Ways to Recruit More Effectively. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Wendy Forsythe

I was speaking with a broker the other day who was sharing his frustrations with attracting and retaining “younger” agents. It was his opinion that Gen Y and Gen X candidates don’t understand what it takes to be successful in our industry and aren’t willing to work hard. In his opinion, these behavior traits combined with the current market conditions has led him to the conclusion that recruiting younger agents isn’t worth the effort. He then proceeded to ask me what I thought of his conclusions.

I disagreed.

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Posted by Bob Albanese

“Rule #13 - When put in charge…take charge”

One thing that agents want to have is a decisive leader. Yes, they want us to hear ‘both sides of the story’ and we must be always be good listeners, but when all is said and done a decision must be sometimes be made solely by the leader. This is what General Norman Schwarzkopf calls Rule #13…”When put in charge, take charge.”

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Premise: Let your goal be for your agents to become independent of you and, ironically, they will rarely leave you

In short, Isaac Newton was right… “Every action” does have “an equal and opposite reaction.” The thing that Newton did not fully explain to us in his writings though, is that this principle also applies to many aspects of human behavior. I call this “The Law of Opposites.”

One of your main objectives as a leader should be to develop the skills of your team members to the point where they become highly knowledgeable and potentially ‘independent’ of you. In other words, help them to think like business people and to become self-sufficient, highly competent professionals. This may sound wrong or backwards to some real estate leaders because they believe that this degree of knowledge will cause agents to leave them. However,  please stop for a moment and just think about it.

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As leaders, we hold a very formidable position in directing our people’s professional lives. Leaders exert great influence over and impact the success or failure of their sales agents and staff whether acting as a CEO, a branch office leader, or any other position whereby we touch business lives.  It took me five or six years of running a real estate operation to fully understand the degree to which I represented the voice of influence to my sale agents.

This realization is the beginning of true growth in leadership skills. In other words, if you believe that you will influence the outcome of individual business lives, then you will. Conversely, if you lack belief that you can influence outcomes, then get some coaching on that issue first, before attempting to implement change.

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In true real estate fashion, the room began to fill with agents just minutes before the announcement was to be made.  Truly, the team of Wilkins & Associates Real Estate entered the breakfast meeting with anticipation and, judging by their faces, some anxiety.  They hung on every word of their leader, Tom Wilkins, and only exhaled after Sherry Chris our President and CEO, and Wendy Forsythe, our Vice President of Broker Services, presented our company to them for the first time. 

Amid the flurry of post-announcement questions, all seemed calm … which made me just a little leery.  You see, I alone was to remain in the Poconos for the next several days to personally deliver the tools and systems of the Better Homes and Gardens® Real Estate brand to the agents 120+ agents and management team.  I was scheduled to run through seven presentations in three days.  Why, you ask, would I have concerns when everything appeared fine on the surface?  Because we all know how people usually accept and adapt to change. 

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