The Larger Questions

This time of year, our coaching and the Playbook focus a lot on numbers as we encourage folks to master their stats and create their roadmap for 2014 as part of an annual business plan.  We look beyond sales volume and GCI to things like average DOM and average side price and even average commission rates, so agents can both differentiate themselves and set target areas for improvement.  The details are the key to this analysis and planning work.

But this time of year, when transaction activity is typically at a lower pace, is also a great time to step back and look at the bigger picture, to ask some larger questions.

First of all, as you review your business for 2013, you might want to consider what event or experience with a client or transaction was the most rewarding for you.  Not in terms of dollars, but in terms of gratification for a job well done, a difficult problem solved, or a client’s perhaps unexpected gratitude.  Think about that situation or experience and see if there is some key element or pattern that can be grasped and learned and repeated in your own actions and attitude.  Wouldn’t it be great if we could achieve that kind of satisfaction in our business regularly?

Next, think about the opposite, the most challenging situation or event or relationship in your business last year.  What went wrong?  Who did it impact beyond yourself?  What role did your own actions and attitude play in creating the issue?  And most importantly, of course, what might you have done differently to prevent or minimize the negative impact, and how can you integrate that learning into your approach to similar situations in the future?

Finally, the most important of these questions:  what do you want from the business in 2014 for yourself and your family?  How is your business integrated with your overall goals as a person and member of the community, and what is it, beyond any monetary considerations, that drives and encourages you?

Simple questions, really, but ones we all too often forget to contemplate.  Let’s all take some time before the snow melts to incorporate these larger questions into our business planning so 2014 can truly be our best year in all respects.

David M. Hassler

Director of Coaching

A New Year, a Fresh Start!

The holidays are now behind us—hopefully filled with lots of good cheer—and it’s time to dive into 2014 and making it the strongest year in your business yet!  The stats all tell us the market definitely rebounded last year, so the time is right to set expectations and goals for a strong 2014.  Remember, the first thing we need to do is to Master our Stats for not only 2013, but to look at the trends over the last few years to find areas for differentiation and for improvement.  Did you sell more homes in Sunnyside Acres than any other agent?  Was your “Days on the Market” a bit longer than the average?  How about your average side price and your average commission rate per side?  Did you have great success in one of these stats and can you now use that to differentiate yourself?  Or is there room for improvement that can add to your bottom line once you recognize what you need to do?  Only by digging into your stats will you be able to note these details and take action to correct them—or take advantage of them in your marketing.

Once you’ve Mastered your Stats, then you can Create your Roadmap for 2014 so you’ll have a clear, detailed path for your activities to help you reach your goals for the year.  And don’t forget to think Paperless as you add new tools to the mastery of your business to support your unique, cutting edge approach.

Remember, your coach will be there to help you dig into Mastering your Stats and Creating your Roadmap, so if you haven’t done so yet, set an appointment for your first coaching session of the year.  Our coaches have some great new tools to assist you in your analysis and your Annual Business Planning—along with all Five Keys to a Strong 2014—so you can make more money per hour this year!

David M. Hassler

Director of Coaching

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