Five Keys to a Super 2014

Now that we’re seeing snow on the ground regularly, it’s time to start thinking about 2014!  Of course, it’s an undeniable truth in our business that transaction activity will be slowing down over the next couple of chilly months, so how do we continue to make the most productive use of our time to make our business profitable?  Don’t forget those FIVE KEYS TO SUCCESS!  Your coach is available to help you do the business planning and preparation you need to kick off 2014 at full speed.

First, you’ll want to MASTER YOUR STATS.  You can use that information as the basis for planning your action for 2014; then hopefully you’ll find a stat that allows you to differentiate yourself in your market; and finally you may note an area you can focus on for improvement.  Once you’ve captured your stats, you can CREATE YOUR ROADMAP, a detailed business plan with an updated mission statement, target market, cash flow budget, and marketing plan.  Your coach will be there with tools to help you through this process.

Also, you can spend some of the wintertime on PROCESS MASTERY and making sure all your technology tools, your Sphere of Influence and contact lists, and your presentation and delivery approach are all in fine tuned working order and up to date.  And—most fun of all—you can PERSONALIZE YOUR TOUCHES by contacting all those friends, past clients, and potential clients to spend some of that face to face time at the top of the pyramid of the 7 Levels of Communication.  Don’t forget that wonderful “What can I do to help you and your business” conversation opener!

Finally you can begin to PRACTICE ACCOUNTABILITY by completing your business plan and implementing an action agenda to keep you on track.  Your coach will be there to help you focus on those FIVE KEYS—and action versus motion—so you can make 2014 your strongest year.

In the meantime, enjoy your holidays!

David M. Hassler

Director of Coaching

More Paperless Magic

In a recent Playbook, we covered some of the ways agents are incorporating their iPad or other tablet into their listing presentations.  We’d heard about and tried some of the basic elements including showing your presentation to your prospective clients on your iPad and minimizing the number of trees you had to chop down before the meeting.  Also, Fusion works well on the iPad, and you can even go through and sign the listing agreement right there on your tablet as well.

But a few weeks ago, attending a webinar on becoming a paperless agent, we saw a couple more tricks that aren’t simply the duplication on screen of what we can do on paper.  The webinar showed how the adept paperless agent can use their iPad in different ways to show both their leading edge technical mastery as well as their unique approach and professionalism in the real estate business.  Who wouldn’t want to differentiate themselves from the stodgy old competition?

The first new wrinkle was simply taking some pictures of the home, using their iPad, as they toured it with the prospective seller.  But snapping a few shots wasn’t the point.  Using the app Evernote, the agent then annotated—right there with the seller—the photos showing either great features of the home or, more importantly, specific items they wanted the seller to know needed attention.  As they say, one picture is worth a thousand words, and in this case, hopefully a healthy commission too! 

The second, and more fascinating, wrinkle, was when the paperless agent sat down with the seller and asked that fairly typical question of what they loved about their home and the neighborhood.  But here’s where that iPad set them apart.  The paperless agent then brought up a map of the area and took a screenshot.  Then, as the seller told them about their local coffee shop or their kids’ favorite playground or the neighborhood pool and clubhouse, they annotated the map using Evernote to create what they called a “Lifestyle Map.”  The greatest element here was that the prospective client is drawn in and participates with the paperless agent in creating something that will become a part of the marketing of their home.

Impressive!

At any rate, this paperless trend will certainly continue and grow over the next few years.  In fact, in ten years, we’ll all probably be laughing about our current tablets and smart phones, and how clunky and inept they were compared to the technology we’ll have then.  Do you even remember what cool personal technology tools most folks in business used ten years ago?  Does anyone use pagers in the normal course of business today?  And more to the point, remember how cool we were when we showed off our sparkling new…Palm Pilot!!  Yes, we no longer needed that bulky day planning folder the size of a phone book.  So cool, and yet so vanished today.

As you consider your goals for 2014, be sure to include some planning to improve your use of leading edge technology.  Your coach and our training staff will be there to help and guide you.  Oh, and leave the Palm Pilot at home!

David M. Hassler

Director of Coaching

Talk About Mastering the Stats!

We recently decided to see what correlation might exist between the coaching program and agents' business achievements, and decided to compare both Sales Volume and Gross Commission Income (GCI) for the 12 month period ending October 31, 2013, versus the 12 month period ending a year earlier on October 31, 2012.  We gathered those statistics for all agents in the Indianapolis Metro offices.

While the market has generally been considered stronger this year, we were delighted to see that the level of Sales Volume for all agents in the Metro Offices increased by 14.6% for the most recent 12 months versus the same period last year, and that GCI increased by 11.3%.  After the previous few years in our business, those are some great numbers!

But the greater news is that, for agents taking part in the coaching program in the Indy Metro offices, (about one third of the total number of agents) the increase in Sales Volume was 32.5% and the increase in GCI was 28.6% year over year.  

That means coached agents created more than DOUBLE the average increase in Sales Volume and nearly TRIPLE the increase in their GCI versus the average increases for the Metro Offices overall. 

While the correlation between taking part in the coaching program and those incredible levels of success may not be one hundred percent perfect, it certainly is a significant statistical indicator that shows the coaching program clearly assists coached agents in achieving an incredible increase in their business success!

As we head into Annual Business Planning mode to prepare for 2014, what better time to sign up for the coaching program so you can work with a personal trainer for your business to make the best use of your time and talent, and make more money per hour next year?

The stats guarantee it!

David M. Hassler

Director of Coaching