What is your elevator pitch for 2013?

Here's a challenge to start 2013 off!

Consider the concept of "elevator pitch". You are in a lift travelling from the ground floor to the eighth floor.

One other person is in the lift and so there is no awkward silence they ask you what you do.

You now have about 40 seconds to pitch to them and to make your pitch more engaging and interesting than the music in the elevator.

Unfortunately most of us have a really boring elevator pitch. 

The concept of the elevator pitch is not just about who you talk to in an elevator but people you meet everyday. You have less than a minute in most cases to impress someone, grab their attention or interest.

Your pitch needs to be exciting, honest and brief leaving the listener wanting more.

They want to follow you out of the lift so they can hear more about what you do.

Don’t use the stuff someone has written for you as part of your bio. Most bios are boring, read yours – is it really going to make me want to meet you and get to know who you are and what you do? Make sure your energy, passion, and humour comes across. Also ensure that it is conversational and real.

Take the time and think about your pitch.

What will you say in 40 seconds that will leave me wanting more of you?

Missed Opportunities, New goals, Movida and Wine

As we get to the end of year, take a moment to take stock of your performance over the past 12 months. Be ruthless and honest with yourself.

As you review the last year, ask yourself how much of what you haven’t achieved is due to missed opportunities (the potential listings you lost to your opposition, the marketing and training you didn’t invest in).

Is the lack of performance perhaps a result of executing  your actions poorly – prospecting calls you didn’t make, buyers you didn’t call, homes you didn’t sell, appraisals you lost, properties you didn't price correctly, calls and updates you didn't make to vendors, letter box drops you didn’t follow through on, prospects you didn’t enter in your database.

I would suggest that the higher percentage will be on the actions you failed to execute.

You see its the actions you take that create the opportunities you are currently missing out on!

Missed opportunities impact not only on potential dollars you may earn but market share, your brand recognition, database growth and potential relationships you may form that will result in new or referral business.

So as this year comes to an end and we make new year resolutions on what we want to achieve next year perhaps consider that it may only need to be as simple as:

I commit to follow through on all the actions that I need to take to ensure I reach my projected income, market share, training and development. I will have in place a business plan that supports my goals with clear actions I need to take to achieve them. I will also have someone who I respect and trust to hold me accountable to my 2013 goals.

Last week I met with my trusted friend Julia and over a very nice lunch at Movida and over a few Sangria's we wrote our goals for 2013. I now have them on my shower wall so that every day I am reminded of what I have committed to achieve next year.

Wishing you all a very Merry Xmas and new year. Fill it with love, laughter, friends and family. May 2013 bring you much success.

7 dumb things you may want to avoid as an agent.

 

 

1.       Bringing up objections that the customer hasn’t

As agents it’s always a great idea to be aware of the top objections your clients may potentially bring up. However let’s not be too eager to anticipate these and bring them up before the customer does.

Perhaps create an agenda with the client and focus on answering questions that they know are relevant to them, rather than you pre-emptively bringing up the top objections so you can then ‘refute’ them.

The typical example is when an agent is asked their fees we automatically go into defence mode as we assume the client is going to object to it.

2.       Not getting a commitment from the customer as to what the next step will be

Let me paint a picture on this one. You are on a date with a hot chick or man; would you actually leave without locking in another date? Probably not.

Never send out any communication where you ask the client to call or contact you. Because they won’t and you will be complaining about why you don’t get any responses.

Never leave an appointment without an authority or the agreement to catch up again if you didn’t get one.

Keep the ball in your court, tell them you will be touching base with them tomorrow or the next day or in your marketing tell the consumer you will be calling them. (please don’t say you don’t have all the numbers – door knock if you don’t)

3.        This one is my favourite -  Selling Features Rather Than Results

I often hear that the oppostion are getting more business because they have their photo on a board! No it’s not because they have photos of themselves on their boards. It's probably more likely they prospect the area, work their database, build better relationships and are a better agent than you.

Consumers do not buy a product because it has desirable features or your photo everywhere. What the consumer really cares about is the results they will get when they buy your product and how it will impact their next decision – usually to buy or sell, upgrade or downgrade etc.

Do some research and find out why customers buy your product –  then sell that result, using the features to support your ability to deliver that result.

4.       Be real – do not fake intimacy

You will get caught out.  Real estate doesn’t really sit high on peoples mind shelf as it is, so if you go into listing appointments and ‘gush’ unnecessarily you will be fighting an uphill battle to win trust.

Another example is when or if you are doing a cold call, do not ask how are you doing today? The person on the other side will probably want to hang up on you. Perhaps making the statement hope you are well today and the purpose of my call..... is better than the question

Remain professional at all times. They need to know you, like you and trust you before you can become casual with them.

5.        Talking More Than Listening

 This is such a common problem, agents love to hear the sound of their own voice and talk about themselves. Your clients find this behaviour very irritating and boring. Yes, you are nervous, excited, eager to drive the sale forward and want to get through your whole sales pitch, but just stop and listen to yourself.

The art of selling is a passive activity. You need to listen to your client’s needs, understand what their concerns and pain points are and then provide them with solutions they can relate to. You need them to trust you will deliver the sale of their property at the best possible price in the shortest period of time.

6.       Failing to Follow Through

 Not doing what you say you are going to do is failing to win the customers trust. The old adage of "under promise and over deliver" is important.

The consumer is actually used to agents not following through on what they promise. So in their mind we are guilty until proven innocent. To build the trust with your clients you need to follow through to ensure that you overcome the natural antipathy most have towards agents.

Remember- drop the ball on this once and you will be out of the picture.

However if you don’t drop the ball and where relevant do the extra 1% you will be remembered for all the right reasons.

7.       Treating a "Close" as the End of the Process

 Just because the property has sold does not mean it is the end of the process or activity. Agents have love affairs with their clients. A six – ten week campaign and once the sold stickers are on the board you move onto your next affair.

The real work happens after the sale has occurred. You now have two people who know you, like you and trust you. This can enable you to build relationships and receive ongoing referrals and repeat business. This is undoubtedly far more profitable then chasing new business.

 Always aim for long-term relationships rather than short-term affairs. The  "close" is the beginning, not the end, of the process.

How are you creating the experience environment within your business?

Managing a team can be frustrating. However, the results, culture and behaviour within your business all stems from you as the leader. If you are having issues around performance and behaviour, have a look at yourself first.

Learning from experience rather then having someone else do the work for you is preferable. However, how are you creating the experience environment within your business?

If somebody I work with comes to with me with a problem, I will ask them what is the best and worst possible outcome, and what is most likely to happen.

If however we have come off a major issue that impacted our results or service then the key question is “what did we learn”?

We all make mistakes and can often repeat them. We all from time to time fail to learn from experiences.

The question of what we learnt needs to be asked to get the best possible solutions. But it’s when and how you ask that determines the results.

When to ask: how often have you sat at your desk and a team member comes in and starts to vent? Generally I let them go for short time as they are focused on their own feelings of surprise and disappointment. However not too long into the venting I will ask – so what did you learn from this?

What this does is takes the focus away from the venting and into behavioural changes, how they would handle the situation differently next time and perhaps what dialogue they would use.

You can do the same at a team meeting.

How to ask: they need to understand what was the expected result, where are we now and how they got to this point. You cannot get emotionally involved in the conversation. A colleague once taught me that data and facts are needed to be able to take decisions and understand problems. So make sure you do.

Who to ask: If you are in team environment ask different people or everyone if you are able to. With a large group make sure that everyone is heard over a period of time. You will always have some members who are more vocal than others. However sometimes you will get gems from the quiet ones, but you will need to ask them first.  

Start positive: The group will want to hear what you have to say. Go last and start first with the productive and positive lessons. Make sure that you don’t point out flaws and faults. This does not create a culture of learning.

Skip the blame:   "What have we learnt?" is a very different question to  "Whose fault is it?" Your aim is to create insight and learning's that will change behaviours. When you ask whose fault it is you focus on the person, when you ask what have we learnt you focus on the process and facts.

If you can create this as a habit in your business you will find this works with clients.

Wishing vs Doing

We are nearly at the end of the year and yes it has gone fast.

A number of agents will perhaps be reviewing their performance to date and wishing that it was better than it has been.

These same agents are potentially going into excuse and blame mode of  it is the market, the brand, interest rate, China, USA etc.


The good news is that is not any of the above. The bad news is that it is YOU.

If your ideal performance is becoming a wish, a hope that you will generate the income levels that you would like then you are probably sacrificing the effort you need to make to get what you actually need.

Last time I looked there was no magic genie in real estate whose belly you rubbed three times and your wish to be a successful agent came true. I think you would have a better chance of winning tattslotto.

If I was coaching you as an agent today I would ask you to take a good hard look at your performance to date. I would ask four key questions as a starting point:

1. What are the non-dollar productive activities and what distractions are you wasting your time on?
2. What are you doing to build relationships with clients?
3. Are you entering people in your database who are buying or selling real estate?
4. How are you keeping in touch with people? Not just to get on their mind shelf but to understand their needs right now?

Waiting for the genie to show up is a waste of valuable time and in an agents case the magic is in the listings.

The waiting distracts us and devalues the hard work we might be doing instead.

We work in an industry where we directly influence the income we can earn.

So does it not make sense that if you can influence the outcome, do the work?

If you can't influence the outcome, ignore it as its simply a distraction.

Women know your place!

The recent performance by Julia Gillard and the subsequent viral spread of her message certainly indicates that one of the election issues may be about women and sexism in Modern Australia. Who would have thought that to be the case?

I find it amusing that Opposition leader Tony Abbott feels he needs to be seen as a feminist before he can hope to become the Prime Minister; even bringing out his wife and daughters to prove this fact.

It seems that women of child bearing age are becoming a powerful demographic and Julia Gillard’s recent performance in parliament probably won her a few of their votes.

I work with and coach a number of professional women and the most common issues I hear are regarding work/life balance, guilt and a lack of support or understanding from peers/employers/partner. Conflict arises with competing priorities and the pressure to make a choice between motherhood and having a career.

But why does it have to be a choice?

I work in a male dominated industry and in my sector I am the only female CEO in Victoria. I feel I can confidently say that it is difficult for men to really understand some of the issues Gillard raises. Sexism is more commonplace than we probably realise. I personally have been at the end of a number of conversations with my male counterparts who I know would never ever have the same level of conversation with their male mates.

I find that labelling a man as sexist is just too hard because most of the time they just don’t get it. I find it easier to just get on with the job and ignore the comments. However, there have been times when I choose to “vaporise” the individual and then I get labelled a ‘ball breaker’… one just can’t win!

I am not a supporter of Gillard or Abbott, however watching the PM’s speech I did feel a level of pride in how it was delivered. It was a passionate, feisty performance that used facts and left Abbott clearly uncomfortable.

The clear message to women was that it is ok to confront sexist language and behaviour, call it for what it is and be clear that it is unacceptable under any circumstances. I wonder, what will my male counterparts do next time I choose to point this out to them? I suspect I will get comments more drastic than “she has balls”.

Should I   see myself as a trailblazer in my industry? A number of women come up to me on a regular basis and say it is just so great to have a female CEO, a women leader. They are proud of my achievements.

I see myself as a CEO who has a job to do. However I do look forward to the day when the norm is   equality between men and women, the gender pay gap of 17.5% does not exist and there is no disparity on boards and senior positions. Where the impact of poverty and violence towards women is not devastating, societal change will be tremendous and something to celebrate.

Securing the female vote is clearly on the table now. I will watch with interest as the election draws closer and debates between Gillard and Abbott continue.

Storm Proof Your Business

There are a number of predictions as to what is going to happen to the real estate market. The “pundits” are all placing their spin on what they believe they see in their crystal ball based on global events in China, Europe, USA, mining sector, interest rate, Federal Government and statistics.

As business owners and agents we can get caught up in these “predictions” at the expense of our businesses.

It will be rare to find a business owner who does not fear becoming a statistic. As businesses come under more stress owners will start to turn their focus on to listing and selling creating a black hole in their businesses around recruitment, staff management, financial management, leadership, training, culture and ongoing investment into the business.

So what do you need to do as a business owner to ensure you don’t fall into the ‘black hole’.

1.       Review your businesses finances. Ensure that you sit down with your accountant, advisor or franchisor and review your business plan, have a financial budget in place, meet with your accountant monthly, tighten up spending, review your debt.

2.       Keep a strategic focus. Ensure that you and your team understand your market, customers, stock levels, days on market, have a business plan for each agent, department that links into the overall business plan and review regularly.

3.       Review reports. Ensure that you are provided with reports on a regular basis that enable you to see any changes occurring in your business. How can you also ensure that you deliver services in the most efficient and cost effective way without taking away from the experience.

4.       Cash is king. How you manage your working capital will be the key to your survival. Ensuring that you collect VPA up front, put agents on commission only structures, review overall spending however continue to invest in areas such as training, promotional marketing

5.       Cutting costs. This is the first thing we all do when there is a change in the market, cut costs, however ensure that you are doing this in the right areas. This is the time to grow your market share, attract new agents into your business.

6.       Prioritise expenditure. Get into the habit of developing a business case for significant expenses. What will the return on investment and impact on your bottom line.

7.       Performance management. Get good at managing people in your business, either to keep them and help them increase market share or pruning and replacing them with performers.

 As business owners we need to start getting smarter in how we conduct and run our businesses. We need to ensure that we maintain our focus on the areas above as well “getting back on the tools” for a short period of time.

Don’t underestimate however the opportunities markets like this provide us. Businesses that are run effectively are often well poised to make investments such as purchase of rent rolls, businesses, additional staff, training, marketing all of which will provide you with increased market share. When the market changes again as we know it will you will be a long way ahead of your competition.