Making More Money Per Hour!

How would you like to make more money per hour in your real estate business?  Maybe that means increasing your bottom line, or maybe it means maintaining your current volume and income levels while lowering your level of stress.  Either way, you should be able to enjoy your business more and thus achieve a happier life for you and your family.

The goal of the Prudential Indiana Coaching Program is to help each agent achieve their own business goals through regular discussions focused on tracking your stats, creating a clear roadmap, fine tuning your process, personalizing your touches, and practicing accountability.  Your coach will be there to help you gain more control over your business, avoid distractions, and to focus on the actions that will help you reach your goals.

If you’re ready to make 2013 your strongest year ever—and to start your planning to make 2014 even stronger—so you can make more money per hour in your real estate business, maybe it’s time to give the Prudential Indiana Realty coaching program a try.

What great could you do in your life if you made more money per hour and got more enjoyment from your business?

David M. Hassler

Director of Coaching

That Nasty Eleven Letter Word

Most of the time, we hate to say it aloud, especially in mixed company.  A word that can strike fear into the heart of agents with huge SoI's, or weaken the knees of agents with years of repeat clients and consistent referrals.  Shhhhhh!

But as we sit back and enjoy our numbers as we’ve satisfied the market’s pent up demand so far this year, and as that market activity begins to slow with the kids getting back to school and the sights and sounds of football practice filling the air, maybe it’s time we spoke the profane aloud:

PROSPECTING

There, I said it.  Hopefully, the kids aren’t reading this!

Yes, prospecting, that element of Real Estate 101 we tend to put on the back burner—or totally forget—when the market is strong and things are going well.  But we all know that generating leads is what makes our business grow, and our marketing program is only part of the formula.  While most of us now have our own websites and hopefully a program of advertising and direct mail and maybe even farming, those marketing tools can’t take the place of an active prospecting plan.

The best prospecting system lets us put into play the most effective levels of communication: telephone calls and face to face meetings, either in groups or, ideally, one on one.  Remember, a major goal of our prospecting plan is to contact those targeted folks we don’t know yet, and to convert them to members of our sphere so they can help us generate more leads.  Of course, we’re prospecting when we hold an open house or contact those FSBO’s and Expireds, but it’s also important to target groups or areas for prospecting that will have the greatest potential for bringing in new referrals.  And, as we said in the last Playbook, one of the best prospecting targets is our own sphere of influence, as long as we’re prepared to be proactive in asking those friends for their help in expanding our business.  Don’t forget that “What can I do to help you?” approach!

So, let’s get ourselves organized and do some profitable Quadrant II work (remember Stephen Covey and his “Important, but not yet urgent” quadrant) as the football season kicks off!

David M. Hassler

Director of Coaching

Personalizing Your Touches

Now that school has started and the weather is pretending to be early October in the Catskills, the frenzy of this year’s hotter market may be starting to slow down a bit.   Now we can take a deep breath and relax for a moment.

But only for a moment!

In addition to "Mastering your Stats" and "Planning your Roadmap" for 2014 (yes, time already to start planning--okay after you take a vacation!)  you should also take some of your "extra" time and use it to personalize your touches and connect with folks more directly than you can during the busy season. 

Remember, Michael Maher's hierarchy of The Seven Levels of Communication--from Relationships to Referrals--tells us that we can't rely on advertising or websites alone.  Here is his list of communication levels from least effective to most effective:

7. Advertising:  broadest form, expensive, shotgun approach

6. Direct mail:  more targeted but still scattered

5. Email: aha, a person's name at last!

4. Handwritten notes: truly personal, finally

3. Phone:  and now we hear a voice!

2. Events/groups: and finally see the person and shake a hand, but we have share them with others

1. 1 on 1: best of all, we look them in the eye and have their full attention

As the days approach when you have more control over your schedule, take advantage of that extra time and go to those club or organization meetings and shake those hands, and, more importantly, arrange to meet those closest friends, past clients, and referral sources one on one.  Don't forget the value of the "What can I do to help you and your business?" conversation and its natural extension to how those friends might help you!  And the more you personalize the venue--the racquetball court, the volunteerism opportunity, the traditional lunch, or even the cigar bar--for each individual contact, the more likely you'll achieve positive results, not to mention the simple human pleasure of communion with another person. 

So reach out and touch someone and your business should prosper.  Enjoy!

David M. Hassler

Director of Coaching

Getting to NO!

We've all had those clients who seem like they were direct descendants of Count Dracula--the ones who seem to enjoy sucking up our time and draining our energy.  Those buyers who call at 4pm and insist on seeing a single house as soon as possible once the sun goes down, and then demand we write a low ball offer since the house isn't ideal, yet they expect the seller to jump to accept it since it hasn't yet sold. Or the sellers who reject a solid offer while insisting on weekly open houses and daily updates, and who bombard us with the latest marketing wrinkles they overhear from cocktail party real estate experts.  

Or, the worst true story I’ve heard so far, a buyer who makes you show them 135 houses and manages in the process to lose out on five—FIVE—offers because they don’t know when to stop negotiating, and who even claims a seller is using unfair business practices when they ask for a best and final offer!  Ouch!

With these vampire clients, we may scratch inadvertently at the fang marks in our neck as we replay in our mind the latest waste of our time, and all too often find ourselves complaining to our compatriots at the office, to our spouse, our kids, and even the dog if we can find time to walk old Fido!  And yet, many times with these clients, we know deep down inside they'll vanish if they get caught in the sunlight, and may buy a FSBO or an open house and not even bother to let us know till after the closing.

So how do we protect ourselves, our business, and our families while watching our frustration rise and our energy level drain?

First of all, while we always want our clients to feel they're getting our attention as if they were our only clients, we really don't want them to think that they are our only BUSINESS, with the potential loss of respect that might bring.   So when the phone rings or the email dings and Dracula is chasing us, a first step is simply not to answer it!  Then call or email them back at your convenience and tell them "No, sorry, I'm not available then but I can meet on...!"  Managing your time effectively will demonstrate a high level of professionalism to all your clients and hopefully train them to respect your valuable time--and you.

But if that vampire can't be tamed, it may be in our best interest to simply find an oak stake (this is a metaphor only!) and end the relationship by telling him "NO" and letting Dracula move on.  Hopefully we can refer the client and enjoy a nice fee and a thank you.  But even if we just say farewell, most of the time we will feel energized and more able to focus on those tasks and relationships that we know from experience will pay off in the long run.

So remember, saying NO at the right time may salvage a relationship and your sanity, or, if not, at least free you from going steady with Dracula and neglecting Fido.  Your coach is there to help you decide if and when that "NO" may be the best gift you can give yourself, your business, and your family!

David M. Hassler

Director of Coaching

One Picture . . . May Cost You a Thousand Dollars!!

Recently, one of our top-producing agents shared with me a troubling experience regarding the use of artwork or photos on our websites or other promotional materials.  This agent and his team had created their own website not long ago and it looks fabulous.  But one of the photos they used came from a website of thousands of shared photos that seemed like a great place to download excellent stock pictures.  They assumed, as I’m sure any of us would, that since you could so easily download the image, it must have been in the public domain and available for anyone’s use.  I know I’ve downloaded things like that before on occasion for flyers and other materials.

Well, as Lee Corso might say, “Not so fast!”  (Hey, football season is just around the corner, right?)

Unfortunately, the agent and his team received a “cease and desist” letter from an agency claiming to own the rights to the photo, and demanding they not only stop using the picture, but also that they pay $1,100 to the agency or face a law suit!  After consulting a legal advisor, the agent and his team were told that, indeed, the claim was legitimate and that the agency probably made a practice of suing folks over this kind of thing.  Talk about a shock!  It turns out that the website where the agent’s team got the photo had a disclaimer, probably at the bottom of some page in a tiny font, noting that the site did not own the photos and that they were all subject to the rights of the owner.  Translation:  you can’t download them and use them commercially.

The bottom line was that the agent had no choice but to pay the claim, although they were able to negotiate a slight reduction in the cost.  Thus, a word to the wise: beware and be careful ever downloading an image from the internet unless you have confirmed that it is freely available for commercial use or you have purchased it from one of the many stock photo websites.  Photo Bucket and other similar places that allow folks to post and share their pictures are not making those photos available for our commercial use! 

So, enjoy those shared photo websites and use them for inspiration and ideas, but get out your own camera—or use a pro—so you can leave those shared photos on their own websites and keep your money in your own pocket.

David M. Hassler

Director of Coaching