In an interesting twist, the same week Twitter deemed itself to be less personal, it made people searches one of its main search features.

Remember MySpace? In an attempt to reinvigorate its image and membership, the site is unveiling a new look, with a major focus on news streams. It will be interesting to see if it can catch up to rivals, especially as numbers show that, since last year, membership has dropped 5 percentwhile Facebook membership has grown 50 percent. (Facebook is actually expected to announce its 500-millionth user– WOW!). Do you think MySpace really stands a chance?

In our industry, we are constantly on the go, driving to new homes around our area. If you have a tendency to get lost, check out Google’s “Send-To-Car” feature that lets users send destinations from Google Maps directly to their vehicles. The service is compatible with 20 car brands including BMW, Ford, Lincoln and Mercury. Don’t ever be late to an appointment again!

Within three weeks of posting her house on Facebook, a woman in Iowa accepted an offer. This just goes to show the power of the Web as a sales tool.

If you are planning to advertise soon, take a page out of About.com’s new campaign. In research, the site “found that consumers responded well to ads that helped them go from a ‘need’ to ‘accomplish’ state.” Think of how you can communicate problem solving in your ads. If you are developing a marketing campaign, check out Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign, a very innovative use of social media which has gone viral. The face of the campaign, former NFL-player Isaiah Mustafa, responds to consumer’s questions via video in almost real time. Can you integrate real-time responses into your efforts?

In closing, if you are planning any late-summer barbeques, check out Weber’s On the Grill iPad app for recipes, rubs, sauces and grilling tips. Enjoy!

• Training Programs
• Self Study/Office Based Training
• Online Training
• Management Training
• Networking Opportunities
• Recognition
• Marketing
• Core Products/Services
• Technology Resources
• Lead Generation
• Relocation and Referral Networks
• Public Relations
• Company Image
• Commercial Services
• Advertising
• Other Company – Specific Support Structures

There are two skills needed in order to leverage the power of your value proposition:

1. The ability to identify an effective value proposition, and
2. The ability to express an effective value proposition

Identifying the Value proposition require the 4 following concepts to be employed:

1. Differentiate your offer from competitors
2. You may match a competitor on every dimension of value, except in one key area
3. In at least one element of value you need to excel above your competitors
4. In this way you become the best choice for your optimum “customer”

Expressing the value proposition effectively can be achieved in four simple steps. The answer to step #4 is your Value Proposition:

1. Ask yourself: “Why should my ideal prospect (the group you intend to serve) use our services instead of a competitor?”
2. Compare your answer with the claims of your main competitors
3. Refine your value proposition and articulate it in a single, instantly credible, sentence
4. If you had just 10 words with which to describe why people should buy from your company instead of someone else, what would you communicate?

1. Put agents needs first

In the presentations that were made during the launch, several key speakers mentioned Kevin’s overriding concern for his agents. During contract talks and negotiations, Kevin Levent continually asked the question…”fine, but how will this help my agents be more successful?” It was only when his questions were answered in a satisfactory fashion that Kevin decided to go forward. In a nutshell, Kevin Levent shows a clear and personal interest in the success of each and every one of his agents. If you were one of the agents at Metro Brokers, how would knowing this make you feel?

2. Have a positive attitude toward the real estate business and people

When was the last time that you saw a company owner dance on stage at a major company meeting? Kevin did! What a demonstration of spirit and enthusiasm, as well as a willingness to “go the distance” for the common good. When leaders demonstrate enthusiasm coupled with a good sense of humor, it creates a strong and formidable magnet that draws the real estate professional.

3. Project high standards

Toward the end of the launch event, Kevin stopped and said to his agents…”you still have 2 hours and 30 minutes of daylight to go out and sell something.” Everyone laughed, but the message was crystal clear. Strong leaders maintain a posture of motivating and directing their people toward performing critical, productive activities. They know that keeping sales professionals “on track” with productive activities will result in increased success, financial rewards and ultimately, improved agent retention.

4. Brand the image

Monday’s event ended with the entrance of Metro Mike, the branded Metro company mascot. As Metro Mike came up the aisle, the audience cheered, making it clear that this oversized-branded mascot meant a great deal to all of them. I don’t claim to have one specific formula for establishing brand image, because there are as many ways as there are companies. If you want to hear about one very clear success story,though,  ask Kevin Levent.

1. In both situations, highly talented individuals are asked to contribute to a team effort
2. Both are highly rewarding in terms of income, but due to spin off success, high performing teams typically earn more than high performing individuals alone
3. Both scenarios require high ego-driven individuals to respect and support overall team goals
4. Both situations present challenges for leaders and managers in creating perceived value for their agents and staff

To Agents

To me, the conversation always comes back to accountability; accountability to self and accountability to the team. Just think about the interviews that were aired during this most recent World Series. In fact, if you recorded the games go back and view them again. What you will hear, time and again, is a high performer crediting teammates for their personal success. If you stop and think about this for just a moment, it is a really striking development and testament to the fact that high performing athletes understand what Warren Buffett meant by the following statement.

“It’s better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction” – Warren Buffett

So the secret to winning, whether a World Series of baseball or any campaign in business, revolves around one simple notion – the ability to hone and develop one’s personal skills and success, while at the same time helping others around you to succeed as well. This is an art that was formerly a fundamental part of the fabric of American business, which sports modeled itself after. Today, it all too often seems to be regarded as a nice, yet antiquated idea. This must change!

By the way, It is interesting to note that only two teams (one in professional baseball and another in college football) do not display player’s names on their jerseys. Can you name them?

To Leaders and Managers

Great managers like Vince Lombardi, Tom Landry, or Joe Girardi create cultures where high expectation and a high degree of accountability is the accepted norm. These leaders also understand that all interactions need to form a two-way street of accountability. At times in our business, leaders unwittingly discount their own value by allowing communications and accountabilities with their “team” to become a one way process; always heading in the leader/manager’s direction. Of course agents provide productivity and hence dollars to the company and no one could ever dispute the critical nature of that contribution. But leaders are equally critical in this mix. After all, it is the leader who;

1. Creates a sound culture
2. Coaches agents to higher levels of productivity
3. Uncovers opportunities in the marketplace
4. Distributes company leads equitably
5. Helps in the negotiation of transactions
6. Provides marketing guidance, and
7. A myriad of other things that have value to agents and company alike.

In Summary

It is time we all realize how much we all truly need one another. It is time for all of us to understand how inextricably we are all connected with each other’s success. This applies to agent teams, the entire collection of agents within a brokerage or our entire industry for that matter. Given the pressures we face from organizations outside our industry who continue to wedge their way into our relationship with consumers, let the valuable words of Henry Ford serve as an anthem for how we can win every World Series of real estate.

“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success”

Company leadership should take the blame for the demise of the sales meeting. Why would agents continue to show up for meetings that were typically unorganized and uninformative? The office manager was unprepared and ill equipped to offer value in exchange for the time invested by the agent to attend.

We are in a business culture over saturated with meetings, so I’m not advocating for the weekly sales meeting. But in its day, it was at the very least, an effective way for an office manager to see a good portion of their agents on a regular basis.

The demise of the meeting raises an interesting dilemma. How do you build culture and atmosphere with people integral to the company who rarely appear in the same place, at the same time for events built to cultivate culture and synergy? With everyone doing their own thing, how do you foster interaction and build rapport with your agents?

Regardless of the type of business model you choose, next generation real estate brokerages will have to face and solve this challenge. To begin, it might be helpful to understand what the agents in your company expect, want and would find most meaningful to their businesses. It will be important to focus on harnessing the strengths of every agent in your company and not trying to make your relationship with your agents fit into a one size fits all box. But lastly, it will be critical to find ways to engage your agents to contribute to your brand in new ways, using new tools born out of the social networking paradigm to create and instill a sense of placement within what might be considered your particular corporate social environment.

A mixture of online interaction utilizing social media, wikis, chat, email communication, video conferencing, WebEx, and office blogs may all serve to replace the physical get togethers that are fast becoming part of our past. Granted, in person meetings still reign supreme and should play a growing role in the sales meeting of the future. But I submit that these new ways might do wonders in helping create a culture that could inevitably look forward to the in-person meetings.

The next generation office manager will absolutely need to adopt the right mixture of communication and social interaction vehicles to extend the sense of company value back to their agents. Without this, they will not have an effective way of building culture and environment in their company. This leadership or lack thereof will separate the success stories from the failures.

Take for example the learning of a foreign language. Why is this challenging a task for most people? Basically, it is because words in new language sound different to those that we are familiar with and our natural tendency is to translate the new words, based upon our understanding of those that we already know. When we do this, we are essentially seeking to understand the “new” through the clouded lens of the “old.” Conversely, it is only when the learner can simply accept that the words are different and then focus on learning them on their own terms that the learning becomes easier, quicker and more enjoyable.

Another example can be found in the martial arts. One of the most interesting aspects of Martial Arts is the technique by which experts are able to “break the board,” by using one body part or another. We, outsiders, look upon this technique with awe and wonder how anyone could possess the strength to pull it off. In essence, it is not as much a function of strength as it is a function of focus. In breaking the board, the Martial Artist is taught to:

“Focus on a point beyond the board“

In focusing “beyond the board” the energy is concentrated beyond the point of impact. It is this, more than anything else, which creates the power behind the phenomenon. More than anything else, it is this focus along with the will to look beyond the obstacle at hand, that changes the disposition of “the board.”

It is time for the real estate industry to focus beyond the board. Let’s not settle for inertia, because our customers and clients are counting on us. Looking at the example of the Martial Artist, we know that necessary change is possible when we have the adequate will and the proper focus.