5 Inhibitors to Success

A colleague of mine recently put this together and I thought it was so good I had to post it... Thanks to Anthony George.

Five Inhibitors to Success

Reality continues to sink in. We have all recently felt the effects of the shifting market. In fact, we are reminded daily that ‘the sky is falling’ from a variety of sources: the media, the internet, the news and perhaps most notably, from our clients (or lack of!). During challenging times, sometimes we need to “let go” in order to “grow”. We need to stop doing the things that have gotten us here and focus on the things that will get us there. We need to step out and step up!

Here are five inhibitors you must STOP doing in order to grow your revenue and take your territory to the next level. These same five inhibitors can be shared with your clients/prospects to help them increase their sales and in turn strengthen your business relationships.

1. Stop standing still. Stop being passively paralyzed and get into action. Start moving now! Get into action early each day and stay in motion all day. Set your attitude the second you wake-up and resolve to become an order-maker not an order-taker.
2. Stop worrying about how much work you need to do and focus on what you need to work on. Spend more time on doing the right activities, such as those that contribute to new revenue growth, that are going to get you the best results. Prioritize based on productivity. Drive your schedule based on highest-return activities instead of letting your schedule drive you. Spend more time with top producing clients and prospects.
3. Stop complaining and start contending. Excuses will get you nowhere you want to go. Identify the real issues and take action to get results.
   Write down your top three excuses for lack of greater achievement. Now tear up that piece of paper and let them go!
4. Stop thinking of training as a luxury. Start thinking of training & education as a necessity for you and your organization. Now more than ever, we need to be the best and brightest professionals in the business.
   Practice makes pros who out perform the competition. What is your current skill level? How effective are you as a sales reps? What is something new you’ve learned in the past week that will contribute to your success?
5. Stop hanging around with nay-sayers. Don’t answer the calls from Pessimistic Pete and Debbie Downer.
   Spending time with losers will contribute to your losses. Cultivate a can do/will do attitude by associating with leaders who have a positive influence on your values, discipline and production. Reach out to other in and out of the industry that will pick you up and prime you for success.

Successful Sales Management - Four Problems to Solve

Over the past couple of years I have spent a good deal of time helping my clients to handle the trials and tests of managing sales reps in the real estate services industry. I have observed from my experience inside the industry and out that sales managers often feel powerless and frustrated, searching for resources that often don't exist and are generally hungry for guidance.

Many times sales managers find their way into that position through a variety of means, be it they were in operations and we needed a sales manager so voila! Or as a retention tool to keep a top producing sales rep, we promoted them to manager. Many organizations don't have the internal resources, training, or tolls which are designed to increase the effectiveness of sales management efforts.

All of the above contribute to four core problems of managing sales efforts (and specifically in the real estate services industry).

The four problems are (which I'll elaborate on in future posts, so stay tuned)

1. Differentiation (separating your sales team from the competition)
2. Knowledge (knowing your customer or knowledgeable sales people)
3. Accountability (focused on activity)
4. Service (consistency)

Peter Drucker - Management Thoughts

Couple thoughts from a recent article on the book – Management: Revised Edition, by Peter F. Drucker


Drucker considered management to be a blend of action and contemplation. The words "think" and "thinking through" appear throughout. Managers must take the time to consider what they are doing and just as important, why they are doing it. He produced a vast body of work, nearly 40 books and countless articles, before he died in 2005 at 95.

Many of his classic themes are on display, including:
•Management by objectives. Your organization's strategy for the present and future, converted into targets and assignments in such areas as marketing, innovation, human resources, productivity and social responsibility.
•The theory of the business. Collectively, it's the assumptions an organization makes about markets, customers, competitors, technology and other factors that make up its reason for being, or as he bluntly puts it, "what a company gets paid for." If your theory is outdated or no longer valid, you're headed for trouble.
•Management revolving around people. A manager's job is defined by relationships with colleagues, "upwards, downwards and sideways."
•Information responsibility. You must ask yourself what information you need to do your job and where you will find it. Related questions are what information you owe to others and what they owe to you.
•Getting out of the office. The key areas affecting your organization will inevitably take place in the outside world. Go out and talk to customers and find out who your non-customers are. Become a volunteer in a non-profit agency, not only for personal growth and helping others, but to work with and learn from people who don't necessarily see things as you do.



a few good pearls from Peter Drucker... Hope you enjoyed.

Sales Scripts - Prospecting Emails

I've been getting some questions about prospecting emails so I've compiled a few that might be helpful.

Prospecting Email Samples
Please cater these emails to your company and your territory… Several Industries can apply

Example 1 – for when the market tightens…

Hello Mr. Curtis,

As you already know our market has shifted considerably. A large percentage of Realtors and Title Companies will not survive.

I am grateful to say that the ABC Title is a leader in financial strength giving policyholders over “1 billion dollars- or insert appropriate amount here” in protection, and also provides valuable tools and resources to help Realtors be more successful.

With the disappearance of so many of your competitors I would like to help you capture as much of their market share as possible.

I am committed to help my clients not only maintain their success but to continue to grow their business by 10-15% over the next 6 months, despite the fluctuation in the market. Obviously, I won't know if we can reach this goal together until I sit down with you to better understand how you run your business and how I can help you build your business.

The best case scenario is this: I will provide enough value to your business to increase your closings by 10-15% in 6 months and in return you allow me to close a percentage of your directable transactions.

The worst case scenario is that our combined efforts do not result in an increase in your business and you proceed as usual.

I have time available to meet with you on Tuesday August 3rd or Wednesday August 4th in the afternoon. I will need just 20-30 minutes of your time so that we can have a dialog about your business and explore possible ideas and solutions for increasing it.

Please let me know what time works best for you. You can either email me back or call me at 515-xxx-xxxx.

Sincerely,

John Repp
ABC Company


Example 2

Hello Kay,

Thanks again for meeting this morning, and I apologize for the confusion. I have attached the photos we took so that you also have a copy of them, and I have sent them on to Sam Smith with Broker Associate Magazine. I am so excited that you are going to be the "Cover Girl", it is very well deserved, as I know you are a great role model to my mother and I as well as many others in the real estate community.

I would like to take you to lunch as I mentioned this morning. Please let me if you are available next Friday (the 20th), or another time that would work better for you.

I recognize, and appreciate your loyalty and friendship with Ginger at Security. I want you to know that I am also here to help you as well with any of your title or business needs. I would love the opportunity to earn your business as your #2 or #3 title person, and to do what I can to continue to help your business excel further.

One of the goals that I have set is to help successful agents like youreself to increase your busniness 10% to 20% over the next year. I believe that with a little better understanding of what you do now to be successful, I can help you increase your revenue and the amount of time you have to enjoy all of your CAR and board activities, as well as your grandkids a little more. Together I think we can achieve this goal.

Thanks again, and I hope you have a fabulous evening.

Susy Title
USA Company

Real Estate Investors Invade California

Here's a press release we just put out... important information - timely, enjoy.

If the real estate market is in a meltdown, California real estate investors haven’t gotten the memo. In fact, residential real estate investment activity has grown over 65% in the past year alone.

Walnut Creek, CA, August 28, 2008. According to an analysis of current California real estate statistics, residential real estate investors are the most rapidly growing population of buyers in California. RightNow Consulting announced today the results of a research project analyzing purchasing activities of California residential real estate buyers. Preliminary July 2008 residential property data reveals that the percentage of residential purchases by investors has risen from 6.74% to 11.41% since July of 2007. This represents a 69% increase in year over year proportional activity.

Despite fewer financing options and lots of bad publicity, investors are taking an aggressive stance. “We wondered whether investment activity might have increased in California given current market dynamics, but were truly surprised by these results,” says Dan Miller, CEO of RightNow Consulting. “Not only did the percentage of residential purchases by investors increase, but so did the number of investor transactions, increasing 16% from July 2007 to July 2008. Given that California median home prices continue to slide – down 3% from June and over 33% from July of last year according to CAR statistics – the dramatic increase in investor activity is surprising.”

By any measure, the increase is an encouraging nod to the perceived long term value of California real estate. Despite the doom and gloom, for investors and home buyers still sitting on the sidelines, favorable interest rates and price declines might push the California real estate market towards a recovery a bit sooner than expected.

[Research Methodology: Total monthly index records searched ranged from a low in July 08 of 67,329(preliminary data) to a high in July 07 of 160,275 inclusive of refinance activity. Refinance activity was removed, and non-owner occupied percentages of total purchase activity were calculated using property data provided by First American Core Logic. The final analyzed data set consisted of non-owner occupied purchases (excluding corporate owned properties) and included all CA counties, extracted from indexed property transfer records monthly from July 2007 to July 2008. Purchase transactions which did not require financing were excluded. Data analyzed and compiled by Laura Compton of RightNow Consulting.]

Branding your self - Niche Marketing

Most title companies and title agents I’ve spoken with have not taken the time to really put down on paper what they will do to “specialize” or how they will service a particular niche differently. The differences may be subtle but going able to articulate those differences are very important to building a niche brand.

As you read through some of the examples below – be sure to ask yourself the following questions, in doing so you’ll get a clearer idea of what niche you might want to go after.

• Could you create a division in your company specifically to serve the needs this niche?
  How would you operate differently?
• Who in your operation has the skills to services a particular niche? Or even more broad, what are the skills required to service this particular niche if any?
• What services and adjustments would be necessary to achieve success?
• What would you call it?
• What kind of sales and marketing effort would best attract these clients?

A few examples worth talking about given current market conditions and should help to illustrate this concept of developing a niche.

Top Producers: Let’s say you have been noticing the national trend which suggests that top producing residential real estate agents (those in the top 20% of production in their market) are gaining more and more share of individual markets. This trend also shows that top producing real estate agents have increased their share of the market over 160% during the past twelve months). Creating a “Private Client Services” division that is more in tune with these high volume targets and clients can enable you to be the company of choice for this niche.

Reverse Mortgage: Rapidly growing in volume and expanding in product type, the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage or HECM is a great source of business. Over 100,000 have closed in the FY 2006/2007 according to HUD, and these are likely to grow at the current rate (over 35% growth in the past two years) or higher given the aging of the baby boomer population. Isolating this business as different and unique, serving its customers specifically, and branding that effort separately from your core products and services will give you a high return. Everyone might be closing reverse mortgages, but who is serving the needs of the clients in such a way that they become recognized as the provider of these services? Who is marketing themselves as the reverse mortgage expert? Might as well be you.

Loan modifications: If you have mid sized mortgage bankers in your area, chances are they are performing loan modifications in order to stem the foreclosure tide. Although the national lenders have contracts which handle these limited title searches on a nationwide basis with title information service providers, there are opportunities at the local and regional level. Be sure to talk to your banker to see if your bank is actively performing loan mod’s in their servicing department and if so, get their title work.

Credit Unions: One of the fastest growing locally sourced high quality areas of refinance transactions. Don’t overlook the multitude of Credit Unions, many of which out produce community banks at a rate of approximately 2 to 1 in certain markets (CUNA Stat.)

Private banking and private mortgage services: The Private Banking and Wealth Management department of national, regional and local banks represent the majority of deposits in the United States owned by wealthy clients. Many of these people own lots of commercial and residential real estate and their banker can approve commercial mortgages as well as refer residential refinances and purchases. None of your competitors call on these accounts and your upside in terms of deal sizes and frequency is unlimited.

Pre-foreclosure/Short Sales sales: Teach real estate agents to handle pre-foreclosure transactions, becoming the local expert in this rapidly growing market segment. In certain parts of the US, over 20% of all residential transactions are predicted to be “short sales” over the next year or two. Even if your area is less affected by this issue, it is still a great way to get introduced to real estate professionals around a hot topic.

A little time spent asking yourself questions about how you'll "specialize" in a specific niche might just be the next step to winning more accounts and adding to your bottom line.

Do's and Don'ts of Sales and Marketing - Part 4

Leadership and Management - Driving Results from the Top Down


Do

• DO Make sure everyone in your operation knows the goals (Open, closed, clients, revenue)
• DO Focus on individual targets - offices can't give you business, individual agents or LOs can.
• DO involve everyone in your organization in the sales effort with specific action items, tasks and goals
• DO make sure that everyone in your organization knows what differentiates you from your competitors - You're customers should be able to finish the sentence, "I use you because...." and your sales people should be able to help your customers articulate that
• DO make sure each person knows what their role is in achieving the goals

Don’t

• DON’T assume each person knows how to sell or ask for business
• DON’T pay for customer service reps….incentives should be based on mainly new business

Short and Sweet. Happy selling!