Prioritizing your accounts...

As a sales person I’m always waging the classic war against time. Since there are only 24 hours in a day, and I’m only willing to work during my waking hours, I have to be smart about where I allocate that time. This is especially important for those of us who are paid on performance – if where we spend our time doesn’t pay, we don’t get paid.

Sound familiar? In another context we need to look at how we prioritize our account to make sure we’re maximizing our return on our time invested (ROTI)

Take a look at your entire client list and rank them into the following catagories
A - Low maintenance/high revenue (Coddle and protect, leverage for referrals)
B - Low maintenance/low revenue (Grow share)
C - Low or high maintenance/low revenue (low producer) - Dump them or resist any time investment whatsoever
D - High maintenance/high revenue (Selectively dump/recruit layers from leadership)
E - High maintenance/low revenue - Dump them


Don’t forget to assessing “aggravation” factor...is it worth it (think of all the mental and physical energy exerted, how can you better spend that time) In some cases it’s worth “firing” a client that is not yielding a return. Get focused and spend "appropriate" amounts of time with each client segement. Work with A's, B's, and D's and dump your C's and E's.

Happy Selling!

War against time...

As a sales person I’m always waging the classic war against time. Since there are only 24 hours in a day, and I’m only willing to work during my waking hours, I have to be smart about where I allocate that time. This is especially important for those of us who are paid on performance – if where we spend our time doesn’t pay, we don’t get paid.

I know that I spend my time in essentially three different areas:

1. Administrative work (expense reports, tracking results, planning, attending meetings – I never let this take more that 15% of my time)
2. Maintaining my current clients (where I spend a majority of my time - 60%)
3. Prospecting (purposefully going after new business – the rest, 35% or so)
   

Administrative work I must do or I’d get fired eventually for not doing it.
Client Maintenance I will never forget since those are the people I like (usually) and they pay my bills.
Prospecting… Ah there’s the trick, it’s the most elusive time of all, spending it purposefully focused on getting new business. It’s the first time that goes out the window in lieu of a client need or at the drop of a hat. It’s talking to people that I don’t currently do business with – let’s be honest, I’d much rather talk to my favorite clients over someone whom I don’t know and may tell me to got lost.

If I don’t focus my time on prospecting I’m lost, I’m beholden to where-ever the market takes my current clients – oh and by the way, it’s a fact that current clients are always a dwindling species (they move, they cheat, they get unsatisfied with service, they don’t forget mistakes, etc…).

Take control of your business, take control of your time by guarding your prospecting time with your life… you’re future paychecks certainly depend on it.

Next I’ll talk about how to effectively work with your clients and how to prioritize accounts and how to do business reviews to check in and leverage your best relationships.

The Key to Sales Success - Listening

The Key to Sales Success
By Brian Tracy

A vital key to sales success is listening

Learn to Listen Well
A vital key to sales success is listening. The ability to listen well is absolutely indispensable for success in all human relationships. The ability to be a good listener in a sales conversation is the foundation of the new model of selling. It leads to easier sales, higher earnings and greater enjoyment from the sales profession.

Being A Good Talker is Not Enough
Many salespeople have been brought up with the idea that, in order to be good at your profession, you must be a glad-hander and a good talker. You have even heard people say, "You have the 'gift of the gab'; you should be in sales!"

Focus On the Other Person
Nothing could be further from the truth. As many as seventy five percent of all top salespeople are defined as introverts on psychological tests. They are very easy going and other-centered. They would much rather listen than talk. They are very interested in the thoughts and feelings of other people and they are quite comfortable sitting and listening to their prospects. They would much rather listen than talk in a sales situation. Poor salespeople dominate the talking, but top salespeople dominate the listening.

Practice "White Magic" With Everyone
Listening has even been called "white magic." It is too rarely engaged in by business people. When a salesperson develops a reputation for being an excellent listener, prospects and customers feel comfortable and secure in his or her presence. They buy more readily, and more often.

Practice the 70/30 Rule
You've heard it said that God gave man two ears and one mouth, and he is supposed to use them in that proportion.Top salespeople practice the "70/30 rule." They talk and ask questions 30 percent or less of the time while they listen intently to their customers 70 percent or more of the time. They use their ears and mouth in the right ratio.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

1. First, resolve today that, from now on, you are going to dominate the listening in every sales conversation. Become comfortable with silence.
2. Second, practice the 70/30 rule in every sales conversation. Listen 70% of the time and only talk and ask questions 30% of the time.

Wise words by Brian Tracy...

Why you can’t live without a 90 day sales plan…

Why you can’t live without a 90 day sales plan…

It’s true. Every top producing rep I talk to has in some way shape or form a 90 day plan that outlines a couple of very key things. We’ll get into those in a minute.

Sales Manager / Profit Center Manager:
“Why 90 days, when I have to do a budget for the whole year?”

Simple – creating a budget is a critically important for the health of a business and budgets are typically designed to hit an over all expense number subtracted from an over all revenue number to give you an over all profit number. We’re then asked as managers to come up with metrics of opened orders and closed orders to “figure out” the revenue on a monthly basis. This is absolutely reasonable if you just stick with the big picture and use it as a management tool to ENABLE your sales reps to plan for themselves quarterly while allowing them to adjust for seasonal and market conditions.

Sales Rep:
“Why do I have to plan if my boss has already done the budget?"

Budgets and 90 day sales plans are two entirely different things that sometimes get lumped together. In simplified terms; budgets for our business or sales team project where revenue and expenses will be and how we’re allocating each to hit a profitability number (basically why we’re in business). 90 day sales plans identify both business metrics that an individual wants to hit in the next 90 days AS WELL AS what that individual will do to get there.

Function:
The function of a 90 day sales plan is for a rep to clearly articulate what results they want (I work backwards from how much commission I want to make this year, break it down to quarters, then figure out how many open deals I need based on my book of business – see the post that more clearly explains how to do that…) AND to help that rep define the activities that he or she knows can bring them results.

Here are some examples for both results and activities:

Results

• Open Orders
• Closed Orders
• Revenue
• Market-share
• Commission

Activities

• Asking for referrals
• Face to face appointments with prospects
• Business review meetings with customers
• Asking for orders
• Conversations with prospects

As sales or marketing reps we should be diligent about creating a 90 day plan every quarter, and commit to tracking what’s working and what’s not working so we can focus on DOING the things we know and have directly experienced in getting us new customers or more revenue. Commit to a minimum activity for each week, because at the end of the day – it’s the ACTIVITY that gets you the results, not just saying I want the results to happen.

By being diligent in creating a 90 day plan and keeping track of your activities, you’ll emulate the top producers both inside and outside our industry. Visit our RightNow eStore for a free download of the template of the 90 day sales plan we use in the real estate services industry. It is provided as a free Excel download, with permission to modify and use.
http://www.rightnowconsulting.com/store/index.php?p=catalog&parent=4&pg=1

Happy Selling!

Do you have a Sales Process?

Ask yourself this question: "How would I describe the process I use to develop a prospect into a client in a step by step manner?". Most marketing and sales reps I ask this question of have vague answers to this question and in many cases - top sales reps do have a process that they haven't clearly defined for themselves.


My position is simple: If you have a sales process, the process alone will help you win more business. Having a process allows you as a rep, sales manager, or president of a company clearly define what activities are required to move a prospect through the sales cycle. Once that is done you just have to commit to doing those activities that you know yeild results.

Here is the sales process I use in our industry - although it relates outside our business as well.

We're creating a set of "Audio Boosts" in the next few months that will delve into each step of this process more indepth and will be available at our website - the link is also to your right.

Basically, imagine $$$ at the top of this pyramid and the foundation which it sits is your 90-day sales plan (see previous post to see what that means). You will work your prospects step by step hitting each milestone along the way until you've reached the top.

A sales process in itself is not rocket science. Sticking to one and holding yourself accountable to activities that help a majority of your prospects move through the process is where great sales people distiguish themselves. If you have a need get a coach, leverage your sales manager and above all, have fun doing this!

Happy selling...

Find Me Some Buyers...

We’ve heard this very comment countless times in the last 60 days, perhaps more notably in the Western United States, as the market continues to shift. The average days-on-market is longer. There are more houses on the market. And, the tables have turned in favor of the “all mighty buyer.” The market has shifted, and this inevitably means for some, on its way back to ‘normal.’


As Title Sales Professionals, what can we really do as real estate ‘Business Consultants’? Do Realtors actually expect us to pull buyers out of our pockets and hand them over? The answer is undoubtedly, ‘no’.


Remember, in the last 60 days, Average Joe Real Estate Agent has communicated more than ever with his/her clients (on the listing side) explaining why their house hasn’t yet sold.
This is commonly due to two things:

1. A shift in market inventory, creating more cost pressure - a.k.a. "Improperly Priced Home,"


2. High Expectations set by their clients from past market performance, combined with lack of evidence - a.k.a. "Comps are Reinforcing High Prices."

Feels like all buyers have fallen off the face of the earth. In ANY given market, there are plenty of buyers for properly priced homes.

We are most likely using the same marketing techniques that have worked for the last 5 years. And so are our Realtor clients. Today is a different market, and sometimes a different market requires us to change some of the ways we look at our business and how we do things. (Please note: I said, some, not all).

SO, Where ARE the Buyers? As a valued business partner in your client’s success, here are a few key topics of discussion with around finding more buyers…How are you….

How are you...Communicating with Your Clients?

• Pricing in general - methods thereof
• Communication around current listings and price adjustments, if needed
• Expectation setting with future listing clients

How are you . . .Marketing the Property to Buyers?

• Increasing the sales price of a home – lot’s of articles attached
  What is the profile of the buyer?
• Where are you looking for buyers (Is it strategic? Is there a plan?)
• Positioning the property in the market to be more appealing to buyers

How are you . . .Pricing a Listing?

• Methods of pricing (comps, other agents, brokers, etc..)
• Research (Are there other homes out there that fit the profile in the same neighborhood?)

Where can you . . .Find more Buyers? Ask yourself “Who needs to buy Right Now?”

• People that are relocating. Get a contact list of all HR departments of large companies in your territory.
• People with kids entering high school - school district lock down.
• People with kids entering college - downsizing.
• People with 3/5/7/10 year ARMs
• Investors with 4+ properties - not the onsie/twosie-types

I hate to say this one, but here it goes…..

• People that are dividing assets through a divorce or estate. Marketing to divorce attorneys for referrals.

Five articles I found in 5 minutes researching “How to increase the sales price of a home”, and “Why not to lower it (if it’s a fair price)?”, and “What the percentage return you can get if you decide to spend the money to make improvements.”

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/real-estate/BuyerGuide2004/increase-resale1.asp

http://www.servicemagic.com/article.show.Checklist-Increase-the-Potential-Sale-Price-of-Your-Home.10494.html

http://www.reiclub.com/articles/never-reduce-sales-price

http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=fa9mpwbab.0.0.7qs4zobab.0&p=http%3A%2F%2Fmoneycentral.msn.com%2Fcontent%2FBanking%2FHomebuyingguide%2FP84657.asphttp://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=fa9mpwbab.0.0.7qs4zobab.0&p=http%3A%2F%2Flala.essortment.com%2Fincreasehome_rwli.htm

We are not expected to have all the answers – the key herein lies in asking your clients the right questions. All of the possible, unique, individual, customized solutions to this ‘Problem of Buyers’ are already in your clients’ heads. YOU just have to pick their brain to help them get it. Asking the right questions, armed with the right information from the articles above will help you do just that.

Remember, your overarching goal is to help your clients build their business in a way they see as meaningful. In this next 60 days, try focusing on what they are telling YOU. It is NOT ‘not enough buyers’, it is in empowering your clients and prospects knowing where to find them.

Try this out to get some appointments:

"My goal for all my clients this quarter is to help them position themselves in this market to capture a greater share of the buyers that are out there. Is that worth sitting down for 30 mintues to talk about and see if there is some way I can add value to your business?"

Good luck out there, I know it's tough...

Top 10 Golden Rules to Selling to Realtors - or just about anybody

Top 10 Golden Rules to Selling to Realtors - or just about anybody...

So how can you differentiate yourself from your competition? Stop being a salesperson! Instead, become a valued business partner or consultant to your clients. It all starts with making YOUR top priority knowing what THEIR top priority is ~ to increase their business, or a way to improve their business by working less. You are bringing VALUE to them. A consultant advises after listening and obtaining facts. A consultant is knowledgeable and worthy of respect. A consultant’s customer doesn’t want what they have - s/he wants what they know. This is what today’s salesperson must become.

Below are a few of the top Golden Rules of Selling to Realtors which may put you in the correct mindset moving forward:

1. Know who you are, and how YOU want to be perceived.


2. Limit your target list to no more than 40 contacts and update every 30 days.


3. Focus, focus, focus.


4. Set up formal appointments. Don't perform drive-by sellings.


5. Never make a call without a purpose. Provide value.


6. Interview prospects to educate yourself, not to close the sale. Since you don’t know if you can help..get more info and be a consultant to set up the next appointment.


7. Intend to understand what it is the customer wants, rather than “sell” your services and products.


8. Never tell a customer what to do, or what they want.


9. Focus on after-sale fulfillment, communication, and service issues to build customers-for-life.


10. Look for opportunities to evolve or expand with your customer. The second you take your customer for granted, they become vulnerable. Meet with them once per month in a business setting to re-evaluate your service levels.

Sales is about perseverance. Typically, the most fear-inspiring realtor, lender or attorney in the office is the one you should be talking to. It will take creativity and tenacity to get time in front of them and likely he/she thinks you are just like every other title rep or lender. As General Patton said- "Courage is fear holding on a minute longer."

So persevere, and be courageous. Apply what you’ve learned and blow away your competition by setting a higher industry standard.

Happy Selling!