Five Keys to a Strongest 2016

Three years ago, we launched the Coach’s Playbook and our updated program with the Five Keys to Success in Real Estate system. Since then, we’ve added Peak Producers training and our Wednesday Wake Up and Tech Savvy Thursday training sessions live and via Go to Meeting to offer everyone the opportunity for that “kaizen” or continuous improvement in your business that Gino Blefari spoke about at our latest Business Conference.

So, now as the holiday season has started in earnest, it’s time to start thinking about 2016! 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? So, it’s time to again remember those FIVE KEYS TO SUCCESS! Your management and coaching teams are available to help you do the planning and preparation you need to kick off 2016 at full speed.

First, you’ll want to MASTER YOUR STATS. You can use that information as the basis for planning your action for 2016; 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. We recommend looking not just at your sales volume or gross commissions, but digging into your average side price, your average days-on-market, and your average commission percentage rate, with a goal to average at least 3.0%!

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. The ideal plan will break things down to show you THE ACTIVITIES YOU NEED TO DO EACH WEEK to build your business for the long term based on repeat and referral business. Remember, people with written plans—and who track their progress regularly—in any endeavor, are many times more successful than those who have no plan or tap their head and say “It’s all up here!” Your management and coaching teams will be there to help you through this process.

Also, you can spend some of the cool season MASTERING YOUR PROCESS and making sure all your technology tools, your CRM lists, and your presentation, service delivery, and negotiation approach are all in fine tuned working order and up to date. Our regular training on systems and business skills—with 10 monthly sessions live and via webinar--are a great opportunity for you to add more arrows to your quiver!

And—most fun of all—you can PERSONALIZE YOUR TOUCHES by contacting all those friends, clients (remember, there’s no such thing as a “past” client, they’re either active or inactive!) and potential clients to spend some of that face to face time at the top of the pyramid of the 7 Levels of Communication to build your referral based business. Don’t forget that wonderful “What can I do to help you and your business” conversation opener!

Finally you can make the habit to PRACTICE ACCOUNTABILITY by completing your business plan and implementing an agenda to keep you on track DAILY so you can make 2016 your strongest year!

But for now, enjoy family and friends through the holidays and get ready to leap ahead in 2016!

David M. Hassler

VP, Professional Development

Gino's Thursday Thoughts on Leadership: December Inspiration

Again this week, I’m going to point everyone to the words of one of the leaders in our industry, this time Gino Blefari, CEO of HSF Affiliates LLC, whom most of us got to meet last year when he took part in a few of our ribbon cutting ceremonies for our transition to the BHHS brand. Gino is an inspiring leader and we can follow some of his thoughts on the “re_think report” blog at rethinkreport.com. The REthink  Council is made up of younger BHHS agents from around the country—Erika Fultz from our Lafayette office is a member—who work to help create and explore new resources and tools to enhance the success of all our agents. Here’s Gino’s latest blog post:

This week my travels find me in Irvine, CA at the HSF Affiliates LLC headquarters for a leadership meeting and a Town Hall with the entire Irvine-based staff. During these get-togethers, my team will discuss motivation and inspiration, reflecting on our past year and looking forward to a year of growth and prosperity ahead.

Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, once said, “The best way to predict your future is to create it.” And in fact, the name of your game this December should be proactivity. If you haven’t done so already, now is the time to think and plan out how to have a breakthrough 2016. To get you started, here are some ways to increase productivity and success in the new year:

·       Fill up your January calendar now; set as many appointments as you can. This way, when January rolls around, you won’t be waiting for business to pick back up.

·       Call everyone in your circle of influence and wish them happy holidays. You can use the F.O.R.D. method and ask them about their family, occupation, recreation and dreams to stir conversation.

·       Host a client appreciation cocktail reception. Be sure to interact with all your invited guests and let them know you’re grateful for their business.

·       Invite VIP contacts to events you’re already hosting or attending.

·       Send a personalized holiday card with an enclosed gift certificate to a local store.

So, what’s the message? No matter what you do this month, the key is to keep it personal and rooted in holiday cheer. Don’t make your efforts overly promotional or agenda driven. Your goal this December should be to show your customers, clients, friends and family just how much you care.

GINO BLEFARI is CEO of HSF Affiliates LLC.

I love Gino’s tips and his reminder of the F.O.R.D. conversation method for connection and I hope you all find some inspiration in Gino’s words!

David M. Hassler

VP, Professional Development

December is Here: Some Great Ideas from Tom Ferry

This week’s Tom Ferry Blog really hit home on the importance of making the best use of our time in December to get focused on making 2016 our Best Year EVER! Here’s his blog post:

Hopefully all of you have completed your 2016 Business Plan by now and have set yourself up for success come January. Now it’s time to get uber-focused and knock out these 8 actions you absolutely need to do in the month of December.

All 8 actions fall under 3 areas: Getting Organized, Filling the Sales Pipeline, and having a Focused Mindset. When you’re organized, planned and focused, your business operates smoother and work becomes easier.

Let’s get started!

1. Get Organized 

·       The Open Loops

 Make a list of all the open projects you have right now. Next, you will need to prioritize this list by what matters most to you and you business, such as revenue generation. Once your list is prioritized you will need to make a time in your schedule to start completing these projects. 

It can be a little unnerving to see all these project that you’ve started and not yet completed … but … once you get them in order and start closing the loops your business will become more systematic and more organized.

·       Inbox “Empty” 

Clean up your email inbox. Start deleting irrelevant emails and move important email into a folder, so you can use them as reference them later.  The less cluttered your inbox is the more efficient and effective you will be. 

·       Declutter Your Social Newsfeed 

Go through all your social media pages and unfriend/unfollow those who are no longer relevant in your life. We live so much on our social devices that it is important that what you see on your newsfeeds is relevant and important to your life. 

2. Pipeline

·       Email Every Lead

Personally write an email to every lead in your database. Say “name, are you still interested, are you still planning, to (Sell/Buy) in 2016?” The intent for this is to clean up all your old leads and you get on final touch in before the end of the year. 

·       Schedule Q1 

You know your market … what type of marketing you need to be doing come January 1st. Spend the a few hours mapping out all your social posts, your emails and social proof piece etc. So when you start the new year you don’t have to think you just have to execute. 

·       Shoot Gratitude Videos 

Shoot 10, 15 even 50 personal gratitude videos. These do not need to be very long, just a quick personal thank you video. This is a very powerful way of strengthening a relationship and it will indirectly build your pipeline by building awareness. 

3. Focus

·       Goal up & Visual!

If your goals aren’t written down somewhere that you will see them everyday … well then …  you really don’t have any goals. Get your goals written down and put them in a manner that is visually appealing to you and in a way so you can show your progress. 

·       Track and Measure 

Stop making decisions based off of your “GUT” and start making decisions based off of your data.  For 2016 you need to decide what and how you will track and measure.  Once you start tracking and measuring the important numbers you will start to make better decisions about your business.

Thanks, Tom, I couldn’t have said it better myself!

David M. Hassler

VP, Professional Development

What's in a Name, Redux!

“What’s in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Billy Shakespeare said that—well, actually he had Juliet say it in Romeo and Juliet. Of course, Juliet’s problem is that Romeo’s last name is the name of her family’s mortal enemy and she is supposed to hate him just because of his name! She finally makes the rationalization that his name doesn't really characterize him since he is so wonderful to her—not to mention she apparently thinks he’s smoking hot. Anyway, maybe she should have avoided Romeo, but, hey, it's a great story!

On the other hand, we all know how names can indeed strongly impact us with their connotations versus their denotations. Madison Avenue certainly knows that’s true! The denotation of a word is its basic definition: a "horse" is a solid-hoofed, plant-eating, domesticated mammal. More importantly, though, the connotations of "horse" are far more significant: the nobility of the warhorse; the athleticism of the racing filly; the drudgery of the county-fair pony walking tiny circle after tiny circle carrying screaming kids; the loyalty of that Budweiser Clydesdale! Powerful stuff, right?

Okay, that's cool, but what does it have to do with Real Estate--our noble profession?

Well, when your name is Berkshire Hathaway, PLENTY!!

Two floor calls to the 82nd Street office a few months ago show us that a real estate brokerage by any other name may not smell quite as sweet. In the space of an hour, Gary Boram took a pair of calls that could lead to about $1.2 million in transactions. Wow, floor can still work, that's great. And congrats to Gary for already converting one of the calls to a new listing. Excellent work!

And now, for the punch line, here's where Juliet may have missed the mark with her rationalization about Romeo's last name. Both floor calls came in because the callers had seen some BHHS Indiana Realty signs but they knew nothing about us. What they both DID know, however, were the names Berkshire Hathaway and Warren Buffett and they knew the connotations of those names: success, stability, professionalism, unmatched business wisdom, superior quality, the list can go on and on, all positive, and they said as much in their own way when they called.

The first call was from a couple who had bought from a builder several years ago and was considering selling to move up from about $150,000 to maybe $250,000. They got to Gary because of Uncle Warren's reputation and the connotations of the Berkshire Hathaway name. They didn't call about a specific house and they didn’t call any other brokers—and now Gary has listed their current house and is helping them find a new one.

The second call came from a lady who explained that her listing had expired recently and that she had of course been besieged by every realtor in town shouting how they--and only they--were the perfect agent to get her house sold. She said she was tired of such hyperbole and had seen some of our BHHS Indiana Realty signs around town. She of course knew Berkshire Hathaway and Warren Buffett and no doubt all those positive connotations underscored her perceptions of us even though she knew nothing specific about our real estate brokerage, so she asked Gary if we were different! He then met with her a couple days later and she decided to sign the listing contract on the spot—and she canceled a total of FOUR other appointments she had previously made! Again, congrats to Gary on the excellent work, and thanks to Uncle Warren for the leg up.

Oh, by the way, the new listing is just under $900,000.

Wow, so floor can still work and Gary--a relatively newer agent--has shown us not only that he's off to a great start in his real estate career, but also that there is genuine, and growing, power in a name--sorry, Juliet--when it's Berkshire Hathaway.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE! A couple weeks ago, Julie Downham got a similar call from someone who had had their home listed with a competitor and decided they wanted to take advantage of the value in the name Berkshire Hathaway. Julie now has a lovely new $699,000 listing.

And the calls keep coming in!

Are you making the best use of the strength of our brand and all those positive connotations to help get you to the five-yard line so you can punch the ball over the goal line more easily? Or are you sending one of your linemen off the field when they just might make the key block to spring you into the end zone?

Remember, that name Berkshire Hathaway smells mighty rosy!

David M. Hassler

VP, Professional Development