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What does your competitor look like?
By bryankelsey · June 17, 2009 · Leave a Comment
THE NEWBIE – The brand new agent polishes his name badge, smells the new business cards and after studying the benefits of the company goes out to conquer the For Sale By-Owner world, only to get kicked to the curb after about 2 weeks of failure. “Tenacity only goes so far if you don’t know what to say.” You will compete with many new agents, but most will quit and go to phone duty or open houses.
“Tenacity only goes so far if you don’t know what to say.”
THE OCCASIONAL – There are agents that occasionally call on this lead source. They may have more years in the business but if they are just out “bragging about the brand” you will find that these are not your true competitors.
THE PROS – I would recommend that you track all of the fsbo’s in your desired area to find out “how many sell on their own, and for those that don’t, find out who is winning them”. The pro could be achieving a portion of these every single month, month after month. They probably have a team and a successful system. Keep in mind they get so busy with their success that they to will slow down. I was a part time agent for my first 3 years in the business. When I lost my job as a computer programmer shortly after turning down a job offer to relocate to Newark I went into full time real estate. With commitment and necessity being my business partners I listed 10 properties in my first 60 days. I was a pro. Then I got so busy with sign callers and referrals that I dropped out and became an “occasional prospector”. When I needed a real boost in my listing inventory I would invest 90 days back into the program and pull the listings from the fsbo or expired market until I achieved my goal.
TO PROUD TO PROSPECT
I recently had a conversation with an agent about 2ND CHANCE LISTINGS. She said, “I wouldn’t do that type of thing if you paid me. I’d quit before I would have to do that kind of prospecting.” I wondered why someone would say this. Was it fear based? Was there a lack of knowledge about what to say, and how to say it? Was it pride? Pride cometh before the fall. I did ask her in what ways was she “jump starting her business” because her sales volume had drastically fallen off. And I asked if she “could honestly say that she had learned to add more value to her clients in the past 2-3 years”. My last question to her was “could part of the reason your business is off because you need to sharpen the saw?” Sensing her pride, I suggested that she call on 2nd Chance Listings in price points that were 4-5 times higher than what she lived in. In other words, get her out of her socio-economic comfort zone. The commissions were bigger than her current average sale price and it was a way to break into a new market. Now she was getting the right perspective and found purpose in the pursuit of 2nd Chance Listings.
“Pride cometh before the fall.”
I HAVE MET MY COMPETITOR AND IT WAS ME
What is the biggest reason you as an agent don’t get more business? Is it what your competition is doing, or is it what you are not doing? In almost any business the competitor does less harm to us than we do to ourselves. Fear, procrastination, judgment whether this idea, or that idea, will work keep us from achieving simple everyday goals of listing 3 houses this month. Sometimes the answer is to stop doing the wrong thing so you have time to do the right thing. So, who is your competitor?
COACH – CAN WE PRACTICE A LITTLE WHILE LONGER
When I was a kid and playing sports I hated to practice. I just wanted it to end. It might be noted that I was average to below average athlete. However I was a fanatic when it came to real estate interviewing and building my skills at pricing. I would go to vacant houses and practice the questions on my initial walkthrough script. Nobody was there it was just me practicing getting the right questions in the right order. It became like a play at the famed Fox Theatre in St. Louis. I realized that each interaction was a bit of a performance. And the audience was judging everything you say or did. If they liked you and judged you to be professional they would employ you and refer you business. And as I have stated there was no other better source of role playing than with 2ND Chance Listings. They were always ready and willing to practice with me. And I did it until I got better and better. I have many of those early sellers that I failed to get listed, but did not fail to learn to thank for a 7 FIGURE INCOME. My future clients deserved better than an average agent. The only way I could get better was to practice.
“What are you willing to do in the next ninety days to better yourself for your clients?
Your best business opportunity for 2009 is to pursue Listings that have a high probability of closing!
By balderfer · June 2, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Many agents cannot resist the temptation of taking a listing “JUST FOR TAKING A LISTING SAKE” and end up overpricing it. That seems to be like taking a “part time job” and not getting paid for it!
None of us would do that, but about 1 of 2 listings end up paying zero.
But not 2nd CHANCE LISTINGS. They have almost 25% better chance of selling!! This greatly increases your odds of getting paid and establishing a new referral source.
In the past few months there has been about $1,000,000,000 (Yes that’s $1Billion) in listings that have ended in the St. Louis Market alone. Many sellers are now ready for the truth about what has to happen to get the property sold. They are ready for their 2nd CHANCE. We could see $2B this year!
It may sound like OLD SCHOOL - chasing expired listings. It is if you approach the seller and “tell them why you are a marketing guru and how the last agent was a marketing goof”. Maybe you are not that blatant but it seems I have seen alot of letters that seller’s have given me where the prospective agents are professing how they have all the answers.
For a few years I was closing about $2,000,000 per month. However I did not have time to do a lot of networking or prospecting. And if I did any marketing it HAD TO WORK. I was often irritated by someone selling print media that said “50% of print media works, and 50% does not, we just don’t know which 50″. I wanted HIGH PROBABILITY SALES APPROACHES and HIGH PROBABILITY SALES SUCCESSES. aka HIPPIES.
I am a big proponent of testing ideas until I find something that works. I studied marketing and mailing campaigns of Lexus and Volvo and also media companies that wanted big buck commitments. After all, they probably put a lot of time, money and thought into their programs in order to be effective.
MY GOAL was to mail 2ndCHANCE sellers (expired listings) a package that would get them to call me. If this would work I would have created instantaneous listings and new referral sources. In other words, I found another real estate cash flow.
Well it worked, and I can share that with you at our upcoming event May 20th, 2009.
Be a HIPPIE in 2009 - High Income, High Probability sales
Can you beat the success of 2nd Chance listings?
