January/February 2010 TRET eBulletin |
|
In this issue:
- AREC10 Preview: Full program details
- Sales: 3 simple tips for sales success
- Management: Why business needs creativity
- AREC10 Social Event: Meet Sir Bob Geldof
- Technology: What you need to focus on now
- Lead Generation: Generate new business now
- Marketing: Importance of branding in 2010
- Productivity: 5 focus areas for success
2010: NEW DECADE. NEW DIRECTION. AREC10 PROGRAM PREVIEW
DOWNLOAD PROGRAM SNAPSHOT: 
arec10_program_snapshot.pdf (350.46 KB)
Well, 2009 proved that markets are certainly cyclical – it was a challenging year for all of us. But the outlook for Australia is better than ever. The next decade looks to be one for growth and new direction. In retrospect, the tougher times were not wasted and have taught us how to better manage our business, embrace new strategies and adapt quickly to change.
With a focus on renewed vigour, energy and fresh perspectives, our AREC10 speakers will share with you their tools, techniques and ideas to catapult your business into the new decade. As always, AREC sessions will revisit essentials that will help you improve on the fundamental skills of prospecting, listing and negotiating, but will also look at emerging trends (like social networking) and new skills (such as creative thinking) to ensure you are always one step ahead of your competition.
Our AREC10 content is specifically tailored to the unique needs of sales agents, property managers, business owners, senior managers and team leaders, to provide you with take-home value and practical strategies you can put into action as soon as you return to the office. Regardless of your level of experience or the area you operate in, there is something for everyone at AREC. Rev up your business for the first financial year of the decade and set the pace for the rest.
A new decade calls for new thinking. So many agents are great at all the basics... and wonder where to from here? Creative thinking genius Edward de Bono and businessman-artist Erik Wahl will stretch your imagination on what you can do with your business and what you can achieve in life if you choose to think differently. And the necessary evil for everyone in business today is to understand and harness the power of new media tools like social networking sites, a topic that Matthew Ferrara, known in the US “as the best technology instructor in real estate” will address.
AREC10’s star keynote is pop star, humanitarian, activist and astute entrepreneur, Sir Bob Geldof. Truly an inspiration, he is a man who’s never taken no for an answer. He works tirelessly to increase global awareness of the issue of poverty, particularly in Africa, is involved in a succession of high-profile successful business ventures and still does what gives him the most pleasure, playing music, with his latest album due for release in May. A man who not only decided to change the world but actually went ahead and did it, 2010 marks the 25th anniversary of the mammoth Live Aid extravaganza that reached a worldwide audience of over one billion, the largest-ever televised concert (and the 5th anniversary of Live 8). For his humanitarian work, he was granted an honorary knighthood in 1986 and in 2005 received the Nobel ‘Man of Peace’ Award (he has been nominated six times for the Noble Peace Award, more than any other living nominee). Over the years, he has created a number of innovative businesses and will share with the AREC10 audience his insights into what creates success, how to identify opportunities and embrace commitment. In the early 90s, he started his production company that pioneered breakfast TV in the UK. When he had problems booking a family holiday over the Internet he founded an online travel agency. Another business he co-founded is today the UK’s leading independent producer of factual content for TV, online and print, and now also supplies to Asia.
Other highlights of AREC10 include US real estate superstar Rick DeLuca, back by popular demand with all-new ground-breaking material to set you on the road to sales success and popular TV host and property expert Andrew Winter from The Lifestyle Channel’s Selling Houses Australia who will not only be presenting a session for both sales agents and property managers but also hosting the Sunday general program.
Learn to list like Australia’s No.1 agents after an exciting session with state leaders for their brand Tony Bacic of PRD Nationwide Hobart, Randall Curry of Century 21 Bay Realty in Brisbane, Jodie McCarthy of Biggin Scott Richmond in Melbourne, Wayne Vaughan of McGrath Estate Agents Epping in Sydney, Peter Vietch of Toop & Toop in Adelaide. In addition you will come away with a custom-designed listing kit you can put to work for your own business.
Other AREC10 Sales Program speakers include Aaron Shiner on creating a ‘Client for Life’ contact management system; Josh Phegan on how to super charge your appraisal to listing conversion; Darren Saunderson on the 7 keys to standing out in your marketplace; and, Australia’s prospecting machine James Tostevin in a fantastic session where he will walk you through the steps you can follow to be a champion prospector like him, plus see a video of him live-in-action in his office making prospecting calls.
Property managers will be in for a treat with a special branding and marketing session from international strategist Ross Smith tailored around growing your rent roll and revenue. Ross is a favourite on TRET’s Leadership Conference program and is appearing at AREC for the first time. A packed program full of new faces, the Property Management Program also features Greg Watson from New Zealand on how improving efficiencies, Jonathan Handford from the UK on lessons from their downturn, Peter Kakos on listing for property management, Fiona Blayney on turning your PM business into a money tree and a fantastic panel that looks into three of Australia’s big agencies to explore how they tackled the past 12-24 months to ensure they stay at the top of their market featuring Sophie Lyon from Philip Webb in Melbourne, Brent Sullivan from Ray White Goodwin in Auckland and John Percudani from Realmark Real Estate in Perth.
And if you run a business or lead a team, don’t forget the optional Leadership Day on Tuesday 18 May featuring special sessions with Edward de Bono and Erik Wahl and featuring John McGrath on 5 things business owners can do to shift gears, Ewan Morton on building an award-winning agency and Belinda Yabsley, expert on sales and service on creating a culture of entrepreneurship in your business.
The TRET team looks forward bringing you the very best real estate event on the planet with award-winning entertainment, inspirational speakers, cutting-edge content and the industry’s most comprehensive trade exhibition, plus the chance to network with over 2,500 of your peers!
Come learn, connect and be inspired with us in 2010 in Sydney in May!
AREC10 is brought to you by Total Real Estate Training and is in its 13th year. The event attracts over 2,000 real estate professionals from around Australia and New Zealand. AREC provides something for everyone in your organisation and covers all your sales, property management and leadership training needs under one umbrella. To securely book online visit the TRET web store.
RICK DELUCA:
3 SIMPLE TIPS FOR SALES SUCCESS
Superstar salesman and AREC favourite Rick DeLuca is back. See him at AREC10 presenting all-new ground-breaking material. His systems are used by thousands of agents around the world to increase their production and efficiency.
I learned three great things from the finest salesperson I ever knew – my Dad. I was raised in the auto industry and watched in amazement at the success my father achieved. He was, without question, the greatest salesperson I ever knew. He passed way earlier this year and it was upon reflection of his 85 years that I have come to appreciate what he taught me. I attribute a great deal of my success to him and was fortunate to have the opportunity to thank him before he passed.
1. Your sales success is secondary to the success of your service department.
When I heard those words I didn’t understand what he was saying. I was in awe of his sales ability and attributed his success to those sales skills. He explained to me that the first sale is made by the sales team. However, all subsequent sales came about because of the customer service “after the sale.” He told me if they make one purchase from you and then have bad experience with your customer service you will never see them again. On the other hand, if you provide a high standard of customer service, you will have a customer for life. I made a decision then and there my real estate career would be founded on customer service. There may be agents and managers who are smarter than me and work harder, but no one will provide a higher level of customer service.
2. This is and will always be a people business.
Our product is real estate. However, as the way we do business changes due to technology, legislation and other factors, the one constant at the heart of every transaction is a person. I remember my Dad coming home each night from work and pulling from beneath his desk a shoebox. He had several of these boxes and in each box were 3X5 index cards of every person who had ever purchased a car from him. Each night he would call a few of them to simply see how they were enjoying their car and when he hung up he, more often than not, wrote them a personal note. That image stuck with me and I discovered the more experience and success you achieve – the more it means to people when you take the time to stay in touch.
3. What every salesperson needs is specific direction.
Although most salespeople have great people skills and are by nature very creative, many of us are not very organized and systematic. He taught me if you’re going to do an activity more than one time, then have a system for it. It makes it much easier to be consistent and helps us become more organized. During the course of my career I made a sincere attempt to create systems and checklists for everything I did. When I make my phone calls there are five things I say, when I do a listing presentation there are eleven things I cover, when I add someone to my database there are five things I do to get their name and address, etc.
As I moved from sales to management during my career I never forgot the three most valuable things my Dad taught me. With little modification of these basic points, I built a company of nearly 200 salespeople that achieved national recognition for per agent productivity.
Whether in sales or management, you would be well served to focus on customer service; it’s a people business and specific direction. You can thank my Dad.
Regardless of your level of experience, Rick DeLuca’s systems are proven to both increase your production and allow you to work smarter, rather than harder. In a market with a population of 200,000, Rick averaged nearly 200 sales per year. His AREC10 session will demonstrate the same practical and systematic approach to selling that enabled him to become one of the top agents in the US during his 15-year career. Rick’s systems are taught and used all over the world and he is also regularly features at Brian Buffini’s training events.
EDWARD DE BONO: CREATIVITY IN BUSINESS
Edward de Bono created the term “lateral thinking” and is the world’s authority on creative thinking. His keynote at AREC10, Your Success is Determined by How You Think, will bring a new dimension to how you think about yourself and your business. Here he shares a thought provoking article on creativity in business. Here he shares a thought provoking article on creativity in business. This article has been sourced from “Thinking Managers” a free business and management library website co-created by Edward de Bono and Robert Heller, the renowned business management guru to help business to survive, thrive and develop into market-leading and world-beating organisations.
The design of the self-organising system of the brain allows us to adapt and adjust to a stable environment. The purpose of the brain is to make stable patterns for such an environment. This makes good sense - but it is the exact opposite of creativity.
Why should anyone seek to be creative? Creativity is full of risks and uncertainties. There is the risk of failure. There is the need to persuade others. There is a need for political skills. It is much better to sit quietly and do what you are supposed to do.
Managers are promoted on the basis of continuity and problem-solving. They are supposed to run things in the usual way and to overcome any problems that interfere with that continuity. Most organisations do not expect their executives to be creative - and do not appreciate it when they are creative.
In surveys I have done on executives attending my seminars, over 90% say that creativity is expected – but that nothing is done about it. There is a lot of lip-service to creativity but not much serious action. All this is understandable. If things are going well, who needs creativity? If things are going badly, then there is no time for the uncertainties of creativity.
If you add up a column of figures you expect to get a definite result. We want our thinking to be as definite, and we call it logic. If you set out to be creative – and even if you use the powerful tools of lateral thinking - you cannot be sure of a result.
There is a further problem. Every valuable creative idea must always be logical in hindsight - otherwise it would have no value. So it is assumed that logic could have reached the idea in the first place. This is totally untrue in an asymmetric patterning system like the human brain. But how many people know about asymmetric systems? So executives expect only ‘blue sky ideas’ from creativity and these are then deemed impractical.
PERSONALITY
There are a few people who enjoy the challenge of creativity and the achievement of a new idea. There would be many more such people if education made a genuine effort to foster creativity. Most people are very good at learning ‘the rules of the game’ and then following those rules. The rules are all about doing things the way they should be done.
There are dangerous tests which set out to tell you whether you are creative or not. If you fall into the ‘not creative’ box, you give up and leave creativity to someone else.
Such tests are dangerous because they are all about ‘what is’ and not about ‘what can be’.
If we regard creativity as an inborn talent which some people have and others do not have, then we just look for creative people.
If we regard creativity as the ‘skill’ of using information in a patterning system like the brain, then everyone can develop the skill of creativity. To be sure, some people will achieve a higher degree of skill than others - as with any skill - but this is not the same as being naturally creative. People who are not naturally creative might develop a higher degree of skill than those who are naturally creative.
There is no mystery or mystique about creativity once we understand its basis in the way the brain handles information (see my book, The Mechanism of Mind, 1969).
CONFIDENCE
Confidence is a key factor in creative effort. Those who have succeeded in having creative ideas in the past are much more willing to make a creative effort. They know from experience that new ideas are possible. They have experienced the joy and achievement of having a new idea. This is a very powerful motivation. Sometimes it can even be too powerful, when people want to do everything in a new way!
How do you build up confidence if school does not encourage creativity, and the workplace does not expect it?
Art is a form of creativity because something new is produced and it has value. This is unfortunate, because people start to believe that artistic creativity is the same as idea creativity. It is enough to teach art, and you must be teaching creativity. Unfortunately, this is not true. Artists are not particularly good at idea creativity.
Language badly needs a new word to distinguish art creativity from idea creativity. The term ‘lateral thinking’ is a step in that direction.
EXPECTATION
Most people do what is expected of them. The rebellious few do not. That is why we usually associate creativity with a rebellious nature. But it does not have to be like that. Most people are good at understanding the game which they are expected to play. Those who do best at school understand that the game is ‘guessing what the teacher wants and giving this to the teacher’. If every child entering school was told that was the game, many more children would do better at school.
In the parallel thinking of the Six Hats method, the Green Hat stands for creativity. When the Green Hat is in use, everyone is expected to make a creative effort. If not, you keep quiet. People do not like keeping quiet so they make a creative effort. Often people who have never considered themselves to be creative make this creative effort - and surprise themselves as well as those around them with their creativity.
ACTION
To get creativity into an organisation you must make it an ‘expectation’. At the end of every meeting, the chairperson must allocate the last fifteen minutes to ‘anyone who is exploring a new idea’. If no one has anything to say, they are told they are not doing their job.
A creative ‘Hit List’ of areas which need new thinking is produced and made visible to everyone. Executives are expected to work on items from this list - either as individuals or as assigned teams.
It is usually up to the CEO or someone senior to set the tone of the expectation. It needs to become part of the corporate culture.
People who do develop new ideas are given ‘hero status’ (as is the case with DuPont). Having the idea is an achievement. Making it work, however, is a double achievement.
It is not a matter of putting new ideas into action. In the end this is what matters. But the effort to have ideas is key. It is important to be always exploring new ideas. If this is the attitude and the action is then usable, powerful ideas will be found. Having ideas must be acknowledged as an achievement and as a worthy ambition.
If new ideas are an expectation, if having new ideas is an expected part of the ‘game’, then people will make an effort to have new ideas. They will have new ideas.
Their confidence will grow and eventually there will be a creative organisation.
It is also important to learn how to be creative. Attitude is important, but it is not enough. To climb a mountain you need the intention and the right attitude - the belief that it can be done. But you also need to learn climbing skills. It is the same with creative thinking.
There is a need to learn the formal skills of lateral thinking which make creativity available to everyone.
The author of 62 books including Lateral Thinking and Six Thinking Hats, Dr Edward de Bono has lectured to government leaders, educators and heads of industry, sharing his message that thinking can and should be taught as a skill if we are to meet the needs of today’s fast-changing world. He has made the intangible subject of creativity practical and accessible to everyone, across many cultures, from school children to senior executives.
View Edward de Bono on You Tube
NEWS FLASH! MEET & CHAT WITH SIR BOB GELDOF AT THE AREC10 SOCIAL EVENT
Make sure you book your ticket to the NEW FORMAT social event at AREC10. Numbers are limited and they WILL sell out*
A highlight of this sundowner event will be the opportunity to meet and chat with Sir Bob Geldof.
The AREC10 Networking Lounge social event will take place immediately after the Sunday program closes. Wlak out of the auditorium and directly into the beautiful Bayside Gallery & terrace with spectacular view of the city skyline and Darling Harbour.
Relax after an information packed day with 90 minutes of drinks and nibble as the sun sets over the city. Catch up with colleagues, peers and old and new friends before you head out for dinner with your team or catch up with family in Sydney.
*All Property Management program tickets include a ticket to the AREC10 networking lounge social event.
When? Sunday 16 May
Time? 5.45pm to 7.15pm
Cost? $40 per person
Where? Bayside Gallery & Terrace
Level 1, Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre
MATTHEW FERRARA:
WHY REAL ESTATE NEEDS TO FOCUS ON TECHNOLOGY MASTERY NOW – THE 4 KEY AREAS
Matthew Ferrara is known in the US “as the best technology instructor in real estate”. He will be appearing for the first time at AREC10 speaking on the Secrets of Social Networking. A vocal advocate for real estate embracing technology as a business fundamental, he shares here the 4 key areas of technology we need to address now.
In early 2007, Matthew Ferrara published a white paper titled Why Technology Matters – Real Estate in the Post Boom Cycle. It explores how in the US, real estate sales growth in the boom years came down to who could take the orders the fastest and there was a huge influx of newly licensed agents entering the market who were “successful”. By 2005 the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reached record membership levels. With the racing pace of sales the fundamentals of real estate – agent sales skills, cost and infrastructure efficiencies and technology usage – were papered over with profits. So, who needed to master a Blackberry or bother replying to consumer emails? When the opportunities were so easy, who needed a plan? And then, in mid-2006 in the US it all came to a stop when real estate experienced its own market correction.
Here is a summary of Matthew’s white paper – you might see some similarities to the correction our industry has been through over the past year!
Long-disregarded fundamentals are now back in the spotlight as companies struggle with lower margins and higher costs. While many companies invested in technology during the boom, their total effective use of it remained marginal.
Peter Drucker, often called the man who invented management, once said that companies do not “suddenly” find themselves outmoded in the marketplace. What he meant was that the erosion of a company’s performance capacity is usually underway for years before it becomes a crisis – even during boom times. And, this is exactly what I see is happening to the real estate industry today. Nothing really “happened” to the industry. No “disruptive” technology transformed the process of selling. The banking industry didn’t suddenly reorganise the market. Nothing actually “smashed” the business model. It has simply withered. It is only a deep inattention to the business fundamentals that leaves agencies vulnerable to the serious consequences of a cyclical downturn. Much of this inattention was in technology maximisation.
In boom times agents were hired into the industry simple to take bidding orders and were ill-trained in the skills necessary to incubate and convert online consumers – using online tools. Essentially, everyone skipped sales training as long as buyers readily knocked down the door. Deals could be done without the need for deep sales and technology tools –two fundamentals of any sales industry. Companies thought they could “afford” not to prepare for the rainy day when fundamentals would be back in demand. Today, it’s finally raining. Fundamentals like basic training, negotiating, technology usage and marketing efficiencies are suddenly back in fashion. The question remains: did they return in time?
Post-boom there were more agents who were highly inefficient at lead conversion and marketing and businesses with growing operational costs as they poured money into marketing, staff and technology to “combat” the market slowdown. It is believes that in 2007 in the US one out of four agents called it quits. Most companies erroneously think this is good, that fewer agents will mean less competition. But reconsider for a moment: Less agents means only the best will remain. Slower markets are driven by better competition from those who stay in the game. Working the boom market was not the hard part. Thriving through tough markets requires serious strategies. The competition will be defined by masters of real estate fundamentals: well trained, well-financed and most likely, well versed in the technology tools that keep them competitive.
Here’s why technology matters more than ever.
When markets tighten, competitive advantages are critical. Enhanced technology skills provide competitive advantages across every segment of the business:
> prospecting;
> lead generation;
> communications;
> marketing;
> transaction tools;
> client relationship management.
Every one of these areas can benefit from technology that saves time, cuts costs and expands opportunity to maximise the market. Especially for agents who are struggling to catch up with basic skills like prospecting, relationship building and internet marketing. Technology mastery becomes more critical than ever.
This is not to say that most companies didn’t invest in technology during the boom. Certainly websites expanded, email usage grew and a vast majority of agents traded their desktop computers for laptops. Yet countless studies show that investment in these areas has not returned the levels of return primarily because the strategies that drove their adoption did not include an emphasis in using them to transform the sales process. Rather, most technology was used to sustain old habits and high-cost practices. Examples include the massive use of colour printers to print direct mailing pieces, the use of computers to “transmit the weekly newspaper ads” and the flat-line trend that while 80% of agents report owning a laptop, less than 2% report ever taking it to a listing presentation or open house.
Clearly, the vast majority of technology investment was focused on maintenance of traditional performance standards, not transformation of the process. Even highly advanced technologies – such as leads management systems – have made only marginal dents in real conversion rates since technology itself is not what makes the sale.
If the skills behind a technology are not sufficiently competitive, then speeding the process up will simply results in faster “dead” results. This is evident in very simple examples, such as the number of agents who “use” Microsoft Outlook merely to “send and reply” to emails. Dozens of other time-saving features remain un-clicked and therefore unleveraged. Other examples easily come to mind.
There are four areas technology must focus on right away:
1. Customer acquisition.
One of the greatest expenses for real estate professionals is the cost to find new sellers and buyers. Let’s start with some honesty: agents are ill trained to pick up the phone and call prospects. Even if trained, they are hardly motivated to use the phone (or email or instant messaging) when the option to conduct postcard mailings remains.
While agents remain unaccountable for the return-on-investment for their prospecting expenses (too much of which is paid for by the company), they will prefer writing newspaper advertisements on their word processor – rather than learn to upload ten photos per online listing. Such approaches to real estate sales violate a number of fundamentals: prospecting effectiveness (by measuring return metrics), marketing research (the limited effectiveness of newspaper property advertising) and the growth in consumer shopping preferences (the fact that listings with more than 5 photos have a triple-chance of inducing consumers to inquire).
It’s time to unleash the web and correct customer acquisition costs. Real estate sales must start by finding consumers interested in selling their homes. To acquire listings, agents must use the internet to search websites, not create personal ones. Agents must pursue the client, not the other way around. They must master methods of using email meaningfully, which means writing messages around building relationships, not bragging about themselves. Since owner prospects will also become buyers, one use of technology can result in two potential acquisitions of new business. That’s a cost efficiency driven by a change in sales practices that leverage technology.
2. Communications.
Companies must mandate that every agent in the company gets a Blackberry or similar devise or leaves the company. Two wonderful things will happen: creation of a mobile-empowered workforce and elimination of those agents who won’t come up with this relatively small $ investment in their business. The persistence of mobile salespeople without mobile technology is absurd. Since consumers are decreasingly using telephone-based communications (calls, voice mails) in favour of messaging tools (email, IM and SMS text), agents without mobile tools are anti-competitive. Agents without a Blackberry or similar device are simply cut off from consumers. Worse, they are cut off from economic reality – as they are attempting to set the rules for how consumers can contact them. This supply-sided communications mentality is a fundamental impossibility in an industry that offers consumers so many ready alternates to those who hide behind such barriers.
Routing emails to the agent, rather than to their computer also means better customer service, faster first-response to new leads and a dramatic time-savings daily. It also begins the process of building skills that agents will need to communicate with the increasing segment of Generation Y buyers in the market – for whom text and instant communicating are more critical than voicemail and email messaging. This demographically-driven communication change also heralds good news for budgets, lowering the voice costs in mobile phone bills while simultaneously using data messaging to reach more contacts.
Text messages (SMS) also reduce direct and broad-media marketing costs: SMS can eliminate newspaper ads in favour of directly communicating open house times to prospects. Websites featuring an RSS feed (a form of broadcast-text) can enable agents and consumers to receive updated market information on basic smart phones. The possibilities to leverage wireless text are endless and endlessly inexpensive. Business runs on instant communications today – a fact that is frequently looked upon sceptically by Baby-Boomer agents who mistakenly think instant messaging is “for kids”. That self-deception may keep them from having to master the technology today, but as the buyer demographic changes, they will have to play catch-up to IM-ready rivals. Only by embracing mobile tools and non-voice-driven “messaging” technologies can agents save time – the resource with the highest scarcity.
3. Marketing.
Text on the web is dull. Snore. Boring. Old school. Today’s most competitive web sites – in every industry – are alive with video, sound and interactivity. To view a prime example of a multimedia website, visit the Mercedes Benz website. These kinds of tools are known as immediacy technologies – tools that do not require the consumer to do anything except pay attention. Rather than requiring consumers to read (or in some cases, translate jargon-heavy marketing), video clips, audio blogs and instant chat with real people offer comparative advantages to “read-me only” websites.
The vast majority of real estate websites today are glorified catalogues. Text describes the property and some photos (usually too few) display rooms with nebulous clarity. Silent movie-era fish-eye-nauseating virtual tours make buyers move on. If marketing technology is going to make a difference this year, it’s time to make websites grow-up – and that means multimedia.
First, cut the costs of creating virtual tours by doing it in-house. If you have a marketing department, then develop a simple application to make videos. For agents, downloading free software like Microsoft’s Photo Story 3 turns any sequence of photos into animated voice narrated video clips with minimal training.
Since standard video clips don’t require plug-ins or pop-ups, moving away from proprietary video products is the only way forward for websites. And moving forward means getting video onto cell phones, PDAs and iPods, not just websites – something virtually none of the virtual tour companies does well – or at least inexpensively. Simply teaching agents to use the standard video clip functions of their digital cameras would be a start in the right direction, because at least the video clips could be narrated.
Add video to websites, listing presentations and email marketing. Require at least one video per listing, along with at least 10 photos (why not 20?). Remember, only a tiny fraction of adults learn by reading – so the faster you move your marketing to multimedia, the faster you’ll get the advantages that television advertising already enjoys.
4. Client Relationship Management.
Start by dispelling a myth: Sending canned letters and emails to prospects on a “drip campaign” is not client relationship management. It may be mass mailing, drip advertising or even junk mail – but it is not the way to create and keep relationships. Nobody ever created a relationship through a postcard – at most awareness maybe. But relationships require real human interaction. This requires any medium that can provide agents with real-time communication with prospects (in lieu of mail or meeting in person): phone, instant messaging, and video-conferencing.
Understanding this distinction between generating messages and developing relationships will reposition campaign manager technology far more advantageously. Much time and energy can be saved from creating endless mass-emails filled with pithy maxims.
Using technology is not selling; it merely enhances the sales process.
Contrary to popular thought, the only technology agents need to develop relationships is a reminder on their calendar. And while it may involve a paper-letter, an email or a personal meeting, the technology should never be used to substitute for the actual doing of the activity. Sales can only be done by the salesperson. Does the “senior” client prefer a phone call? Set a reminder to place it. Does the GenXer prefer an instant message while online at work? Get online and start chatting. Does the luxury client prefer an invitation to a round of golf? Put it in the mail. The biggest misunderstanding about modern technology is that email campaigns somehow substitute for real sales activities.
If letter and email campaigns really built more business, then any of the mass-mailing houses should have become successful real estate agencies by now. But mass mailing is only an applicable method of selling a commodity – even a commodity service. The danger lies in using technology to send canned content in highly differentiated industries like real estate, for it tends to reinforce the consumer’s suspicions that the real estate industry has become a commodity as well.
Every time agents send “stuff” rather than build relationships marginalises their ability to hold off further commoditisation. To remain more than a mere transactional functionary, brokerages need a better understanding of customer relationship management. The key word is relationship, not management. If they focus on management, then they focus on drip systems and automated production processes. If they focus on relationships, they must focus on the sales process –empowered but never replaced by technology. The laptop must accompany the agent to the listing presentation; never arrive there on its own.
The challenges are clear. Market fundamentals can no longer be overlooked. A bloated industry can no longer support itself on easy money wasted on old-school sales habits and dis-integrated from technology. History has shown us that these are the times where simply trying harder won’t protect businesses. Agencies are going to have to try smarter. They must use technology to transform sales fundamentals to make up the difference.
Matthew Ferrara is the CEO of Matthew Ferrara & Company. His company has focused on modernising the real estate business since 1990 and his team has transformed the sales, marketing and technology fundamentals of some of the highest performing real estate agencies worldwide. Matthew will be speaking on at AREC10 on the Sunday joint Sales & Property Management program on The Secrets of Social Networking.
MATTHEW FERRARA Interesting Tech Bits
JOSH PHEGAN:
THE ELITE AGENT’S NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION – GENERATE NEW BUSINESS NOW!
Josh Phegan is the in-demand coach to a select group of top 1% agents and agencies in Australia, helping them achieve explosive income growth, particularly in challenging times. His simple systems appeal to both new breed agents and ‘old-bloods’. Kick start your new year with Josh’s tips on sourcing productive leads and come see his AREC10 session on super charging your appraisal to listing conversion.
After the amazing holiday festivities we are now back to work and hopefully trying to set up some solid goals and targets to make 2010 even more successful than 2009. As a top-performance coach of some of the most successful real estate agents in the country, it is my job to make sure my clients are focused and engaged on the right things to kick off the new year. Here is a sneak peek on what I will be telling them; including some key resources that you could implement NOW that will guarantee you start the year off with some amazing results.
Add this to your New Year’s Resolution list: Generate new business NOW! What you do right now will determine your momentum for the rest of the year! The sooner that you generate new relationships and business in 2010, the better your ENTIRE YEAR is going to be overall.
Want some ideas on ways that you can source more leads? From our observation of the industry, the most productive lead sources amongst Australia’s leading real estate agents are: Past Client Referrals
Directly referred to you by past clients. Usually the consumer feels safe when this is the listing lead source as they have taken the advice of a friend whose opinion they respect. Your past performance is now the normal service standard. Personal brand & profile marketing
Based on results. The best form of personal brand and profile marketing must be statistics-related. It must be clear and sell the prospect into what you do based on your socially proven results. Common successful campaigns cover recent sales success, ie, 21 properties sold in 21 days, over $65 million in negotiation experience, the winning of an industry-related award such as an Auctioneering Competition or sales results. Buyer conversion
A high listing lead source as these prospective clients are interested in moving and often have a shorter purchasing cycle than other methods. Working a good quality buyer database, combined with specialist techniques to get in the door, for pricing opportunities takes focus. Dialogue here on open for inspection call backs is a major lead opportunity.
Seminar
Open public events – A lead generator where you get to showcase your skills as an industry specialist. This concept is based on the idea to provide value and invoice second. The value is in the key information you give away for free to participants to help them in their next real estate move, such as how to negotiate. Your open and transparent assistance leads naturally to further recommendations and listing opportunities as you are approachable and recognised as a talent in the industry. Just listed
This is a key component of a street by street targeted campaign. This is based on the concept that you will have an overflow of buyers in the area, hence an opportunity to sell more than one property. Often, when one property is listed in a street it ignites an itch for other neighbours who are also considering moving on, given the new impending interest in the arery. Just sold
The social proof of your recent sales result will spur on others to move. The opportunity to collect a profit, or for some to save on marketing costs, is a consistent lead generator. The key here is in your approach to your future clients. How will you approach them and sell your services in such a way that it is a natural flow? How do you underpin their motivation to move on? Professional referral groups
Developed by associations with leading influencers in the moving decision such as solicitors, accountants, financial planners, valuers, mortgage brokers and other financial institutions. Create strategic alliance for referral between the members of the group. Often the leaders in each industry will belong to an unofficial referral group of other like individuals who they know can get the job done. Landlord investment strategy
This is a key strategy for offices with a rent role. Often landlords will only hear from property managers in relation to their property management. Successful agents and property managers regularly review the property investments that landlords have made, and set about specific target marketing to encourage their current landlords to upgrade their portfolios, given that the landlords already have an affiliation with the brand. This can help to not only grow the property database, but provide a continual stream of properties, often attracting the first home buyer and other investors.
Now, along with these sources you will obviously need specific marketing campaigns in place for each lead source. That’s where the ‘little salesman that could’ comes in…
There was once a little salesman that could. The little salesman that could was always positive about the process that he took people through in order to successfully negotiate any sale. He had a process or a way that he sold his product and was clear about his customers’ pain points as this allowed him to craft with passion his solution.
In any marketing that you undertake consider that you are the little salesman that could. What is it that you say to a customer when you meet them that allows you to successfully sell your services? A great way to do this is to record those conversations that you have with consumers then listen to them for the clues on what winning words and processes you discuss that allow conversion.
Most marketing undertaken by agents is too brief and muddled. Consider this, if you were the little salesman that could, and let’s say you had to take your just listed marketing piece to the front door of any home in your market area, then when the home owner opened the door, the only thing you were allowed to say was what was on the marketing piece. Would the consumer get what you were on about? Does it clearly sell them into the opportunity? Remember the little salesman that could never made a consumer feel that they are being sold to; rather they facilitate a smooth easy process allowing the consumer to buy into the solution.
So clearly define, what is the marketing piece going to be? How will it look? What will it say?
Perhaps it’s a database clean up. You would need to develop a script on what you will say and understand the purpose and objective of each call. When this thinking work is done, then you can get to it. One of our clients clearly thought through their strategy. It was to call all past clients who had bought / sold three years ago. After the first phone call, he successfully listed a 20-lot land subdivision. The strategy was to get back in touch with people who had experienced the brand and experienced the service, rather than calling for cold new business.
Break things down into the next steps that you need to do in order to get it complete. Clearly define what it is, then step it out into clear next steps, deciding by whom and by when. It may all be by you. That’s fine, but clearly step it out.
Work through each step, concentrating on one activity at a time. Remain consistent and always ask the question – if I was the client, what would this mean? Would it cut through? What value have I provided?
Often, the simple campaigns that we can do today are put to the sideline as they’re seen as too hard or too much work. Consider that you have a database of contacts.
What could you do in that database? Who could you search for? What could you do to provide them with value?
One cool search might be all past buyers who have bought from you in the last 12 months. Simply call each of them confirming that it has been 12 months since they have been in their new property and that you’re checking in to see that everything has worked out as they had hoped. This one call was a successful campaign for me in my career with a highly transient population in a mortgage belt area; I often had many clients who sold within 12 months of buying. A clear strategy stepped out and then executed well yields strong results.
Finally consider this, how do you get in front of as many potential customers today and provide value to them?
Principal Coach at reEngage Coaching, Josh Phegan hails from a long line of real estate agents in regional NSW/VIC. His sales experience covers a diverse range of property and he is also an award-winning auctioneer.
ROSS SMITH: THE IMPORTANCE OF BRANDING IN 2010
A regular at TRET’s Leadership Conference, international brand and marketing strategist Ross Smith will be addressing Property Managers at AREC10 on how aligning your service offering with your brand promise directly impacts the success of your rent roll growth and revenue. Here he explains why now is actually the optimum time to review and revitalise your brand for any real estate agent or business.
WELCOME to the brave new world of branding. In fact welcome to the dawn of the age of survival for the strongest brands. The economic downturn caused business owners to re-think many of their long held views about how to promote themselves. Communications technology, faster and more available broadband, more powerful mobile phones, easier to use PDAs and Blackberrys are now forcing a review of “what works and what doesn’t” in branding and brand communication.
Nothing new there!
And consumer behaviour continues to change. There’s a sudden demand for brand freshness and honesty in advertising. What’s that I hear you say? Honest advertising. Now there’s a thing. What next?
You see, it's not that consumers have cut back entirely on their spending; it’s just that their priorities have changed. No one knows where to put cash anymore. Where is it going to be safe? Just look at the demise of many of the world’s “solid” banks. What used to be considered “safe as houses” just isn’t anymore! Banks have (to many people, especially unhappy shareholders) become the new evil – the absolute zenith of modern day greed and avarice.
So, we’re all learning to live on less, as our parents did. It’s becoming a fashionable norm (staying in is the new going out) and that will have a knock on effect on the way we all live. The emerging trend is for people to spend more of their leisure time staying at home. Instead of going out to a fancy restaurant in their fancy car, wearing their fancy designer outfits, and paying with their fancy Black or Platinum credit
cards, they’re throwing small, intimate “come as you are” dinner parties “round at our place”.
They’re also doing their own house cleaning, gardening and home repair. There’s a renewed focus on family events such as birthdays and celebrations, and hanging out with friends. This well-documented and measured return to basics, probably explains why garden centres are selling plants and seedlings like they’re going out of fashion. Equally, that will place different demands on other types of business, but along with all that change comes huge opportunity, and high up on the list of businesses that could actually benefit from today’s economic conditions are small/medium sized organisations (SMEs).
But, how long is it since you had someone outside of your business take a good hard look with a fresh, skilled and unbiased pair of eyes?
Over the past twelve months I’ve been asked to take a “good hard look” at more than 50 Australian and New Zealand real estate agency brands, and in virtually every case, there has been substantial opportunity to re-direct effort, focus, and existing (ie, not additional) marketing spend, so that the brand
of that agency actually stands for something, has a uniqueness, is believable, and most importantly, resonates with and gets higher up on the consideration set of consumers.
I believe that the majority of other agencies should take the same opportunity to have a good inward look at themselves! So, where do you start with all that? Well, there’s a number of “brand basics” to remember. Here are just three for starters:
Firstly
Remember, your brand should be first and foremost built on HOW you do what you do NOT what you do. This shift away from running page after page of price based might be initially hard to grasp. But in reality, it’s no different to you picking up the Saturday paper and trying to read the cars for sale supplement (as if you’ve got nothing else to do in 48 hours)! It’s highly unlikely that you’d actually trawl page by page through twenty, thirty or forty pages of “same as” advertising. What you might do though is take notice of an advertisement that actually “touches” you in a different way to the others. One that resonates with an unusual air of honesty, or where the message has special relevance in current circumstances.
Secondly
At a major conference I was invited to speak at in Australia in mid-2008, I said that the world was rapidly heading towards a point where the price for rampant consumerism and unbridled greed would have to be paid. Truthfully, I hadn’t foreseen it being quite as cataclysmic as it has subsequently proven to be. It was very evident though, even then, that the days of crazy and irresponsible lending and irrepressible consumer debt couldn’t carry on. At some point, consumers would have to start living within their means again – and we all now know the effects that those changes in attitude and spending are having on businesses. The key thing of course is how quickly your business will start coming out of these difficult trading times; and the answer to that is going to rely heavily on the visibility, perception, and power of your brand, and the belief in your brand – internally and externally!
It’s time to re-align your approach to the value and meaning of your brand and subsequent brand communication. Never before has it been more vital to make sure that you get the most value from your advertising dollar, so it’s equally vital that EVERY PIECE of your brand communication gives
the same clear and believable message about your brand. There is an undeniable need to allocate a sensible proportion of your marketing budget to set out HOW you do what you do. You can no longer just “get by” with taking full page ads, loads of 30sec radio commercials, or even glossy TV commercials, in the hope that they are strong enough to carry and promote your brand message. After all, EVERY other retailer has to make sure that every piece of their brand communication results in one clear perception of them, so why should your world be any different?
A good place to start getting to grips with all of this is to think of yourself more as a retailer. The big brand names that we all recognise as part of everyday life in Australia – David Jones, MYER, Coles, Woolworths, Crazy Johns, Dymocks, Supre, Adairs, Country Road, Michael Hill and many others, all
invest heavily in making sure that we have POSITIVE FEELINGS about them, so that when we need something they could sell us, we subconsciously “default” to their brand and choose to drive to THEIR store rather than one of their competitors. Nothing new there, you say. That’s what professional
big brand retailers have done for years, decades actually. Correct! But what IS new, however, is the rude awakening that maybe, just maybe, smaller companies have to follow suit?
Thirdly
The global advertising agency M&C Saatchi recently espoused the notion that the downturn has created eight different spending personalities:
"Scrimpers", who are trading down and going for cheap stuff;
"Crash dieters", who have cut spending on all non-essentials;
"Treaters", who buy themselves special gifts from time to time, especially as a reward for their frugality;
"Justifiers", who like spending but need an excuse;
"Ostriches", who behave as if nothing has happened;
"Abstainers", who put off buying items until they can afford it;
"Clothcutters", who reduce their spending on some items to buy stuff that's more important to them;
"Vultures", who thrive in an economic crash because there are so many bargains.
These definitions aren’t only applicable to the FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) category. A number of them are also highly relevant to BIG TICKET items too – houses, cars, holidays.
These groups all have different “red buttons”. They will all (to some extent or another) respond differently to different branding stimuli. Your challenge is to reach out to them in a way that sits comfortably with their values, and their new-found views on life and truth. And, of course, you must do it in a cost-effective way.
You can start by trying to identify, what I call, your BRAND DNA. If you REALLY understand the absolute essence of what you and your team are all about, then this can help make quite a difference to how soon your phone, your Inbox, and your offices are going to begin ringing, filling, and humming with sellers, buyers, landlords, and prospective tenants again. When will that be? Well, Bernard Salt, the well known and respected demographer from KPMG says from 2010 onwards. Salt says that until then, we can expect a time of moderate spending, modest debt, and an emphasis on sustainability.
Salt also says: "It will be a case of, 'We have sinned and now is the time for redemption'. We will not make any breakthrough acquisitions; we will reduce our debt and change our thoughts and values accordingly."
So, in order to be prepared for that day coming, when both minds and wallets are once again more open than closed, it’s vital that business owners get their shop in order NOW, get their brand positioned as effectively and as believably as it can be, get their people “living” their brand promise – and then turn the “CLOSED” sign over as they get back to being “OPEN” for active business once more.
Ross Smith is CEO of Mindshelf which specialises in brand strategy and implementation. Ross has substantial expertise in the Australian and New Zealand SME sector as across various industries including real estate. He is also a regular guest speaker at International Brand and Marketing conferences. Ross will be speaking at AREC10 on the Property Management program and will be MC of both the Property Management and Leadership Day programs.
DANIEL SPENCER: TOP 5 FOCUS AREAS FOR PRODUCTIVITY
Fascinated by the habits of real estate sales people, agent analyst Daniel Spencer has invested much time researching over 50 agents who fall into the $1m+ producer category. He will be facilitating a fantastic session at AREC10 that will reveal the secrets of what makes five of the top agents in Australia such successful listers. Here Daniel shares some of his findings on what top agents focus on to be so productive.
Top 5 Focus Areas of a Top Performing Agent
I regularly get asked by agents, “So Daniel, you have coached and analysed the best agents in the country, what do they focus on more than the rest of the agents currently practicing?”
My answer to that is that the first thing an agent needs to realise is that time does not equal money in the real estate industry. What I mean by this is one agent can be at work for 60 hours a week and earn $50,000, yet another can be at work for 60 hours and earn $500,000. Therefore, in this industry, time does not equal money, productive time equals money.
So, what are the top 5 things that top performing agents focus on to be more productive?
1. Prospecting
9 out of every 10 top performing agents I have analysed are prospecting in the morning. They are not organising call lists but have one provided to them by their assistant. They are calling the most likely people to list their home today. The average calls to this list seem to be about 50 connections per morning session. Remember - don’t think who do I call and will they want to hear from me? Just do it with high quality relevant information about their market place and make sure they can feel your passion and enthusiasm for what you do.
2. Vendor Management
Your current customers today are influencing your business tomorrow. It’s your vendors particularly that are talking about you at BBQ’s. This is where your name is turned into gold or made mud. What do vendors say when they are serviced by top performing agents? Things like, “He rang me everyday throughout the sale of my property, was honest, was transparent, gave me straight talk, couldn’t do enough...” Remember every customer touch point has the ability to make that person’s day. Top performing agents aim for the world’s best customer experience for their vendors and realise BBQ’s are where profiles are built, not in the letterbox.
3. Delegating
It’s also about what they aren’t doing because low dollar productive activities need to be completed or the customer will have a bad experience. If you are serious about this industry get an assistant. You cannot consistently make more than 4 sales per month without help. The best way to know how to find and structure the role of an assistant is to call a well known real estate brand. Ring and ask for their best performing agent in the state and make a phone call to the agent asking for business advice. Most of these high performing agents are generous and have helpful natures by default. If you get a no from one then pick the phone up again and ring another.
4. Check Lists
Their team have check lists for everything from things that need to be done before the property is put on the market, through to a checklist for settlement. The key with check lists is that nothing is left to chance. These checklists are different from agent to agent and seem to be refined on an ongoing basis. The key is have them, don’t think you can run a listing campaign without them as you are opening yourself up to a bad customer experience.
5. Have a business plan
All top producing agents have a business plan. Most that I see are one page plans. Every person in the agent’s team is driven by this plan and everyone in the team has a common understanding of where the business is aiming. What is the overall main focus of this plan? Having the plan starting with a goal of gross commission, chunked down to how many sales need to be made to generate that commission, chunked down to how many listings would need to be listed, chunked down to how many appraisals need to be conducted, chunked down to outgoing touch points to gain sufficient appraisal numbers.
Daniel Spencer has owned several award winning agencies and now as an agent analyst spends his time training and presenting. He has presented to over 15,000 agents worldwide and is passionate about the industry. He conducts regular research on top performers using probing questions to uncover their secrets and has created a structured learning resource based on their specialist knowledge and experience. Daniel will share some of this at his session Learn to List Like Australia’s No. 1 Agents at AREC10.