Continuous Improvement

Last October, I had a chance to chat at some length with Gino Blefari, the new CEO of HSF Affiliates, LLC, when he was in town for our ribbon cuttings to launch our new Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices brand. I took the opportunity to ask Gino what had been the key to his success in growing Intero, a brand new brokerage company, from a couple of people when he founded it in 2002, to the 13^th largest independent brokerage in the USA by 2013. Pretty good track record for 11 years!

Gino’s response, with no hesitation at all, was “Training. Ongoing training opportunities at all levels coupled with solid coaching and mentoring.” Music to my ears! We talked about a number of specifics and Gino then said he felt that outside training from one of the “Big Three” real estate training companies was a an important element of an overall program.

Of course, you know what my next question was!

Again, with no hesitation, Gino recommended the Brian Buffini Peak Producers program. As you’ve seen, I then became a Buffini &  Company Certified Mentor and I’ll be facilitating our first Peak Producers Training class at our Indianapolis office starting February 17. I’ll be following up with our other offices around the state with a goal of starting Peak Producers classes in the ensuing months so all our agents will have the opportunity to benefit.

But, back to my conversation with Gino about training, coaching, and mentoring in the broader sense. One thing Gino said really stuck with me, and that was that, in our business, we have to continuously grow and adapt to changes in technology and market conditions, improving our skills as well as our habits and attitudes. Or we risk stagnation.

Then, just a few weeks ago, I read an article about some different cultural attitudes and approaches to business and life in general and came across the Japanese term “Kaizen.”No, it’s not some ancient Samurai warrior term, but actually a concept that grew out of Japan’s industrial growth spurt of the 1980’s. That was when companies like Sony and Toyota jumped ahead of most other manufacturers in both cutting edge technology and high quality. They made those strides in large measure because of Kaizen, or “Continuous Improvement.”

These manufacturers achieved continuous improvement by focusing on small steps, consistently applied. They encouraged all their tens of thousands of employees to make suggestions every time they had an idea to make their job easier, faster, more effective, or make the product or part better. During that time, employees averaged more than 60 suggestions a year, and many of them were incorporated, thus pushing their products toward the leading edge of technology and quality.

The bottom line was this: being aware of and seeking improvement, in even tiny ways, on a consistent basis, will have a huge impact on your success. Our goal with the training, coaching, and mentoring programs at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Indiana Realty is to help provide everyone with those opportunities and tools to find new and better ways to enhance each of our businesses and our lives. And, yes, your suggestions for new training and tools are always welcome!

Kaizen!

David M. Hassler

VP, Director of Business Development

The Word for the Day . . . Every Day!

Recently, I listened to one of Brian Buffini’s coaching tips on Prioritizing Your Day and I realized that that single tip, if we can all remember it, can make every one of our days far more productive, less stressful, and thus more profitable in our business and more enjoyable in our lives! Buffini’s Peak Producers Training Program focuses on building our business by focusing on referrals from our Sphere of Influence, so his suggested prioritizing starts with People. Current clients of course would come first, but if we think about who among our sphere is most important or helpful or responsive, ie, those we might consider our business advocates, and focus our time on them first, we’ll enhance our success. Of course, prioritizing this way can also help us realize on whom we should spent less time!

Buffini goes on to say that once we prioritize the people we want to focus on, we then can prioritize the actions we need to perform to optimize our ongoing service relationships with people, showing our professionalism as well as our appreciation for their business and their referrals. So, what will we do to interact with those important people when we engage with them?

Then, once we have set our priorities of people and actions, Buffini says, we can then more easily prioritize our time. And knowing the impact of proactively working with our key people, we should be more aware of the need to protect and make best use of our time.

Finally, he concludes by noting that prioritizing has two dimensions to it, that of focus and that of boundaries. Keep in mind that focus will be difficult if not impossible if we don’t set boundaries! Buffini reminds us that we should spend our time and energy on the people who deserve it, not just those who only need it! Of course, our business is serving client needs, but we’ve all had those energy sucking clients, friends, or that kindly agent down the hall who loves to chat without asking us if we have a moment, so Buffini suggests a few of the tips we’ve covered in the Playbook before: don’t answer your phone, turn off the dinger on your email device, (oh, no mine just rang!!) close your office door at least part way, and maybe offer that friend/agent a chance to chat later once you finish your tasks. All good ideas, and much easier to implement if we remember the goals of prioritizing and setting boundaries: to enhance our business, reduce stress, and enjoy life and family more and more!

Have you set your priorities for today . . . for next week . . . next year?

David M. Hassler

VP, Director of Business Development

Perfect Pricing

“Price is what you pay; value is what you get.”

--Warren Buffett

Recently in a coaching session with one of our agents, we reviewed their stats for the last year.  The agent had been on fire and had closed a volume considerably higher than any previous year.  Their average side was far above market and their sold listing DOM was well below it.  All great news!

Then we looked at the average commission rate per side and found it was just a touch over 2.5% instead of their targeted 3.0% average.  The agent had done a few relo transactions with their lower fee in return for a near guarantee of a closing, but overall, based on their average sale price, that 2.5% was on the low side.  In fact, when we looked at the numbers, the agent could have added another $25,000 to their bottom line if they could have kept the average rate at 3%.  That’s some real money!

We talked about many of the market pressures on our pricing and yet the agent realized they could take a more proactive approach to their goals.  That’s when I heard Uncle Warren’s voice whispering in my ear:  “Price is what you pay; value is what you get.”  Wise words, since all too often we allow ourselves to be dragged into discussing price instead of value.

In his excellent work, Book Yourself Solid, Michael Port talks about Perfect Pricing and he focuses on value versus price.  He encourages us to think always about the value our services provide and to ask ourselves—and the client—some questions:

How much financial benefit will our service create/provide?

How much pain will our service relieve?

How much pleasure will our service create?

How will our service create substantial peace of mind?

While some of these may sound like “soft” benefits, they’re what really separate excellent service from the mediocre.  And just as importantly, we have to ask how we value ourselves.  Remember, as Port says, people rarely buy professional services based solely on price.  They actually express their own values through what they buy!  So let them!

At the very least, most people love to feel they’ve gotten a deal, so when we believe it necessary or appropriate to discount our fees—yes, we need to consider it as such—we should be sure to help them feel how successful they’ve been in their negotiation and how much we’re giving them.  If we don’t think there’s value in what we’re giving away, why would our clients?

Of course, a discount with a client should produce or strengthen a referral source that brings us more clients and more revenue, so we can sometimes view such discounts as an investment in marketing.  Just make sure that when we make such an investment, the prospects of the return are high!

Remember, “price is what you pay; value is what you get.”

David M. Hassler

Director of Business Development

Less IS More!!

A recent article in Inman News reminded me of something I regularly say when teaching fiction writing: Less is more! In that instance, I mean that “fewer words” accomplishing the same goal is usually more effective than “more words,” but the point is the same: evoking something rather than mimicking it!

The Inman article focused its minimalism on the number of photos we show on our Board’s listing service as well as our own website, Facebook, or other portals. The writer made the excellent point that, just because your MLS allows 24—or 36, or a million—photos, don’t put in poor shots or ugly rooms just to fill up all those slots! Given that so many folks these days search for homes online and do a good bit of decision making on what to go out and see based on those lovely pictures, the writer made the point that we have to put our best foot—or, in this case, maybe a bathroom or family room—forward to keep our listing on the “let’s go see this one” list.

Her point focused on only including photos of the home’s best features and rooms and specifically NOT including that basement bathroom that looks like something from a Steven King movie. Makes sense, since our goal is to attract buyers to come out and see the home. So, remember to evoke the best about your listing and don’t dilute those great features with unneeded shots of boring—or worse—elements. Remember, the writer tells us, our goal is to market the house, not create a detailed Wikipedia entry showing every possible room and/or angle.

And speaking of marketing, I always encourage agents to use a professional photographer or service so your listings will look the very best they can. While it may not make financial sense in some cases, I suggest for any listing at or above the market average in your area, to offer professional photography as part of your listing presentation. If your competition isn’t offering it, maybe it will win you the listing—not bad for around a hundred bucks! And the results are startling—everyone can tell the difference, and those great photos of the great features should help bring more buyers out to the house, all else being equal of course.

Finally, in order to not only enhance the photos of the home, but to really optimize that emotional appeal to grab the buyers when they walk in the door, don’t forget the value of a professional stager! Yep, another hundred bucks out of your pocket, so it won’t be appropriate at certain price ranges and in certain circumstances, but a pro will frankly have a better eye for this than 99% of us, and they can also say things more directly than we can! Again, in your listing presentation, if you offer this and the competition doesn’t, then boom, maybe that and the pro photographer nets you the listing. Even using the new math, I think COMMISSION CHECK minus $200 still equals more than NO COMMISSION CHECK! Remember, the goal of a stager—and those wonderful photos—is to evoke a certain feeling of the home, and that always mean fewer décor items and clutter!

Less can indeed mean more: more commission income and more happy clients!

David M. Hassler

Director of Business Development

Creating Your Roadmap--or Do You Know the Way to . . . Detroit?

Hooray, it’s my favorite time of year again! No, not just football or Thanksgiving approaching in a few weeks, but it’s ANNUAL BUSINESS PLANNING SEASON! Yet, I’m always reminded of how that holiday and some good planning fit together.

Some years ago when my daughters were both in school down in Bloomington, our extended family decided to celebrate Thanksgiving in Detroit instead of the usual family homestead in Columbus, Ohio.  The girls decided to drive separately from my wife and me so they could bring boyfriends.  Since they’d never driven to Detroit, but they knew the family branch in Detroit often drove down to Columbus for gatherings, they figured the best way to Detroit was…yep, through Columbus, Ohio!  Unfortunately, none of the eager collegians thought to bring a roadmap—and this was in the dark ages before they had cell phones, let alone smartphones with GPS—so their trip took nearly twice as long as it should have, and it produced a ton of anxiety for them and for my wife and me, waiting for them in Detroit on a cold, rainy, windy night, hours after they were expected!  So, while they did finally make it to their goal, the journey was unnecessarily stressful and tiring. 

Maybe they should have done a little advance planning and used a good roadmap instead of just setting the final destination!

Yet, since we’re all in business for ourselves in real estate, you may be used to simply setting a final destination of improving sales volume by, say ten percent over the prior year.  But how will you get there with the least stress and anxiety if you don’t know the best route to follow?  Just like getting to Detroit, you can make your journey a lot easier—and probably more profitable—with a good roadmap in the form of a solid annual business plan.

So what do we need in our business plans?  Once you’ve “Mastered your Stats” for 2014 and earlier, you should review your Target Market and see if any adjustments are warranted.  From there, you can begin to develop your goals, working backward from that ten percent volume increase through the number of sides that will take based on your own average transaction value; through the number of listings taken and presentations needed; and on down to the details of each day and each hour of the time you want to commit to your business to achieve your goals.  You can then wrap all this planning into a detailed business plan covering everything from your market budget to managing your time.  By keeping your detailed goals in mind weekly, daily, and hourly, and how they lead to achieving your larger goals, you’ll be able to manage your time more efficiently and thus be more effective each and every day!

Bottom line, if you put in the time and focus this fall to develop your plans and put them into a clear roadmap, your 2015 should be more enjoyable and profitable. The BHHS Resource Center has a great tool for working on your annual business planning that makes it a snap to put together. We’ll send that file around to all the offices for distribution, so take some time as the weather continues to chill, and put together your own roadmap to success so your journey is as direct as possible.

David M. Hassler

Director of Business Development

First Things First

Recently, I chatted with an agent who asked for ideas on dealing with the barrage of emails and phone calls from clients and others and how that wreaks havoc with their schedule.  We talked about time blocking—I prefer the term task blocking as it focuses more on WHAT versus WHEN—which, in our business, can be tough to stick with, and other approaches to controlling our daily agendas, given that we’re especially prone to interruptions and lack of structure.  All too often, we may find ourselves in a stressful situation and under pressure to respond to a crisis. 

Instead of trying to fit too much structure onto such a slippery environment, we figured the better approach is simply to do our best to remember—and focus—weekly, daily, and hourly, our priorities. (And to implement the Getting Things Doneapproach from David Allen’s book as we’ve discussed in other Playbooks!)

Stephen R. Covey, in his The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, talks about “Putting First Things First” as one of those seven habits, that of effective self-management.  Of course the place to start is with a business plan that includes distinct goals that in turn can be broken down into activities that can be prioritized.  All well and good from a planning standpoint, but what happens when things start hitting the fan in the midst of the busy selling season?

Covey goes on to set up an approach to defining our activities so we can better understand where we should spend our time—and where not to.  All our activities can be viewed as either Important—meaning they produce results—or Not Important, and also as either Urgent or Not Urgent.  If we look at those two factors we can put them into four quadrants:

I           Important/Urgent—finalizing that listing presentation for an unexpected opportunity

II         Important/Not Urgent—fine-tuning your listing presentation so it’s always ready

III        Not Important/Urgent—responding to emails and texts from friends or answering the phone every time it rings

IV        Not Important/Not Urgent—improving your score in Angry Birds. 

Unfortunately, we frequently find ourselves spending far too much time in quadrant I dealing with Important and Urgent items in a crisis—that inspection response deadline, the demand to show a home on short notice—and that’s what can add to our stress level.  The key, of course, is to not only minimize the time we spend on items that are Not Important, but to focus our time and planning and execution in quadrant II, those actions that are Important but not Urgent . . . yet!  The more time we spend in quadrant II, the less we’ll need to spend in that stressful quadrant I, and the more successful our business should be.

Easier said than done, of course! Yet, if you keep these ideas in mind as you approach your daily work, you’ll find yourself headed in the right direction.

Your coach will be there to help you as you assess your own activities and focus on those that are Important, but not Urgent, helping you achieve greater results with less stress.

David M. Hassler

Director of Business Development

Real Estate Advice from the BHHS REThink Council: How to Handle Stress!

We’ve mentioned that Warren Buffet is a huge advocate of listening to the ideas of the younger generation of professionals and that has led to the creation of the BHHS REtink council, comprised of top young BHHS agents under 35 around the country. You can follow and comment on the some of the thoughts of the bright young folks in our organization at the blog, Rethink Report, at

http://rethinkreport.com/

And here’s a recent post by Kim Gellatly that we can all keep in mind in this often stressful business:

How to Handle Stress

By Kim Gellatly

With rising sales prices and very low inventory here in Portland, Oregon, I have been noticing a trend over the past several months of buyers and sellers who are carrying a lot of stress about the sale or purchase of their home. More transactions seem to be falling apart over buyer and seller differences, and more tense interactions seem to be occurring among real estate agents as they negotiate deals. It makes sense: Stressful clients can easily make for a stressed-out agent. So, if you’re feeling the pressure of your local market, here are some tips and tactics I have used during some of my recent stressful sales to help ensure a smooth transaction for all parties involved:

1) Give people the benefit of the doubt and listen to their concerns. When a buyer or seller is stressed, it often materializes in a late night angry call or a lengthy email. If you’re on the receiving end of these stress-induced communications, please remember what it’s like to be in your clients’ shoes. While we are juggling multiple home sales at once, this is their only home and it is everything that consumes their thoughts. This home is where they have built their memories and a lot of times grown a family, so it is a very personal experience for them. Most of the time our clients just want someone to listen to their challenges and empathize with them.

2) Remember that for an agent, stress plays out in many ways. When an agent gets defensive in a transaction, please remember that many times this reaction could be triggered by something unrelated to the transaction itself. Maybe this agent is going through personal issues or had an argument with their spouse that morning or is dealing with stressed-out clients as well. More often than not, when my interaction with an agent is stressful, it has little to do with me. Be sensitive to the fact that their frustration isn’t a reflection of your abilities as a real estate professional.

3) Always keep in mind that we are representing our clients’ desires, not our own. We may want to go to bat and fight with another agent over the giant repair addendum they just sent over, but if our clients want to move forward, then we need to humble ourselves and remember that we are working for their wants, not ours.

4) Admit when you’re wrong. If an issue arises where you have fault, quickly admit it and don’t blame others for what happened. Honesty, integrity and humility are characteristics that are seemingly rare in our industry and incredibly needed. You’ll gain respect by owning up to your own faults.

5) Stop and take a deep breath. Before you make a difficult call or begin a tough negotiation, stop to breathe first. Don’t react immediately; respond after taking time to remember what is most important in the situation. When we give knee-jerk reactions, we tend to grow the problem, not the solution. Thoughtful answers can are more easily found when you allow time to gather your thoughts.

6) Take time for YOU! Get that massage once a week, go out with friends for some down-time, turn off your phone and have dinner with your family instead of immediately calling your client back. By filling your own tank, you are able to then fill others. When you are running on empty as an agent, you are no good to yourself or your clients. Relaxing and recharging will help you improve and grow.

I hope these tips have been helpful and you’re feeling ready to stay calm, cool, collected and the very best for your clients!

Kim Gellatly

Wise words for us all. Thanks, Kim.

David M. Hassler

Director of Business Development