Archive for Retention
Press Releases: The Hidden PR Power Tool
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You’ve just created a new real estate course that is getting great results. But, nobody’s showing up. You just hired a top agent, but no one knows. You need a method to differentiate yourself from all those managers telling agents “You should join our team”. You need a press release to the rescue! Few managers take advantage of press releases, and yet, they’re very effective–and very cost-effective (from $0 to a few bucks a month, if you use a service like Newswire or PR Web.)
Did you know that about 85% of the ‘news’ is planted? That includes press releases and articles. Whether you’re a company with one (that’s YOU) or 1000, you should be putting press releases into your marketing mix. Why?
1. They raise your credibility
2. They deliver the messages the way you want them delivered
3. You have no competition–most companies don’t bother
4. It’s no cost or low cost, and delivers big returns
Getting Started
What’s your reason for a press release? It could be
- a new class
- a designation
- an honor
- a publication you’ve been featured in
- a new concept you’ve launched
- a charity you founded or participated in
To create that first press release, just follow my template here. I’ve also given you an example. Let me know how press releases work for you.
Get Press for your Agents
Why not assist your agents in promoting themselves? Several of my agents had just made personal brochures with my guidance. So, I called our local newspaper and got a full-page article, with a color picture of my agents, explaining the concept and how the agents used it. Then my agents used those brochures in all kinds of promotion to help clients understand their approaches. It was a great retention tool!
Press release template and example
How’s your PR? What PR?
Posted by: | CommentsHow’s your PR? What PR? Are you taking advantage of FREE marketing? You should. I hear brokers say ‘I’m too small a broker’. ‘I don’t have a marketing budget’. Good. You don’t need one. Use the strategy below and reap big recruiting rewards.
Do you want a free recruiting tool? You’re a real estate professional. You have limited advertising/recruiting funds. You want to recruit more. You want to establish your credibility as an industry leader. One of the best strategies is to write articles that get published, and use those articles in all of your marketing strategies. Here are the steps to follow to write articles that are valuable and that get published every time. The best thing about this strategy: It’s absolutely free! Any broker of any size can do it.
The Process: Simple and Straightforward
Writing an article follows the same process composers use in writing a popular tune: It starts with the theme (A), continues with the middle, where you expand on the idea and example (B), and ends again with the theme. When I’m teaching my “Train the Trainer” course, we practice this simple structure when we create training programs.
The Eight Simple Steps to Get Started
Here are the simple steps I’ve used over the years to create articles that have gotten published hundreds of times in major real estate magazines and newsletters:
1. Decide on who your audience is, so you realize for whom you’re writing
2. Decide on the challenge (s) they have that you want to address
3. Jot down all the ideas you have about the challenges and solutions
4. Narrow the topic so you can zero in specifically on what you want to write about. The biggest mistake writers and teachers make is to choose too broad a topic for the time or word framework. For example, it’s difficult to write 500 words on how to create a team. You CAN write 500 words about why to create a team; or three strategic tips in creating a team.
5. Choose one to three ideas to discuss.
6. Arrange the topics in the order you want to discuss them
7. To expand on the ideas, present the idea clearly and then give an example. One commonality I’ve found among editors is that they want examples with the idea. Otherwise, the reader doesn’t really get the picture.
8. Close the article with the reiteration of your challenge and solution. Give your audience positive motivation to take action.
In my next blog, I’ll discuss how to build your distribution list easily–and how to distribute your articles. You’re on your way to an awesome free recruiting tool!
Managers: Develop this skill and then teach your agents how to use PR effectively. Use this skill in the interview to show agents how you’ll help them expand their reach.
Social media: Usually today, articles are published electronically. When your article is published, put it on your Facebook business page and LinkedIn. Invite peole to share the article. Instant PR!
Do Your Agents Have a Trust ‘Issue’ with their Clients?
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Do your agents have a trust ‘issue’ with their clients? (Look for the Trust Evaluator link below. Use it with your agents to test their ‘trust quotients’–great meeting topic).
We’re always telling our agents to ‘work smarter’, not harder. Yet, what does that mean? For one thing, in this low-trust world, it means creating high trust as a foundation for any sales action and decision. Yet, in the ‘on fire’ market of the past, agents didn’t have to work very hard at creating trust. The market forced decisions and the consumers ended up buying from an agent they may not really know. Those days are over.
Why Creating Trust is a $$$ Issue
Do you know how much more it costs to get a new client than to keep an old one? Marketers tell us 6-9 times more. So, it’s just good business sense to train your agents to create high trust with clients for return and referral business.
How You Can Help Your Agents Create Trust
Salespeople can’t sell anything to anyone without first establishing an exceptional level of trust–an increasingly difficult thing to do. The ten tips below shared on in a recent radio show help sales professionals build a ‘platinum level’ of trust.
Five Tips to Raise your Agents’ Client Trust Levels
Here are 5 tips, with special comments to you as a leader–in blue.
1. Learn non-verbal skills and apply them in writing, on the phone, and in person to establish rapport in an increasingly ‘cold inquiry’ world.
Are you teaching them Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NL))? Are you working with them to pace and mirror in interactive workshops?
2. We believe what others say about a salesperson, not what the salesperson says about themselves. Use testimonials; check evaluation websites to see what consumers are saying about you.
Are you checking out what the consumers are saying about your agents on the web?
Look at www.realestateratingz.com and www.incredibleagents.com.
3. Create an after-the-sale survey and use it consistently. If there’s something wrong, fix it fast.
Do you have an after sale survey that you send out from the office? How do you handle surveys that are less than stellar?
4. We believe what we see, not what we hear. Show, don’t tell. Use visual presentations consistently.
Are you working with your agents to practice showing evidence?
5. Flip your sales presentations. Ask questions—lots of questions—first. Educate. Finally, sell (well, you won’t have to sell).
Do you have a planned presentation you teach agents–and have them practice until they are ‘killer’?
Click here to get your Trust Evaluator.
The Bottom Line: What a Recruiting Mistake Costs You
Posted by: | CommentsWhat does a recruiting mistake cost you? Many brokers have told me it costs them nothing. Pshaw! It costs a whole heck of a lot. Take a look at my estimates below:
What are your numbers? Have you ever figured it out? Let me know. As a CRB instructor, I would ask managers this question. Generally, they figured the cost of a bad hire was $10,000-$30,000. What’s yours?
Do you have your recruiting plan in place? Check out The Complete Recruiter, with a special price of $30 off ($99.95 this month), plus 2 bonuses, a $70 value. You can’t afford to wing recruiting anymore!
Hire a New Agent? You May Have Just Lost $30,000
Posted by: | CommentsDid you just hire a new agent? What’s your success rate with agents? Do you know? Do you know how much it costs you when an agent fails? Most brokers don’t realize they are doing irreparable damage to their companies by hiring those who aren’t going to go right to work—and keeping those who won’t work. Here are the 3 biggest consequences to poor selection I see.
1. Stops you from hiring great producers. Likes attract. How can brokers hope to hire that great producer when they have more than 10% of their office as non-producers? I can see it now. “Sure, I’ll come to your office. I’m a top producer, and I just love to be dragged down by those non-producers. It will be my pleasure to waste my time with them.” Not.
2. Kills your recruiting message.
Do you have a training program? Do you use it to recruit? Here’s the real message: “We have a training program. All our new agents go through it. We don’t get any results from the program, so it really doesn’t work. But, join us.” You can’t possibly show how successful your training program makes your agents because your training program can’t possibly get results—poor people in and no actions and accountability required.
3. De-motivates your agents to provide referrals to you.
Your outcomes and hiring practices speak more loudly than you could possible speak. Why would one of your good agents possibly refer someone to you when your good agent doesn’t see those you hired starting right out and making money fast?
This Market Won’t Cover Up an Inadequate Selection Process
In a fast market, ‘accidental sales’ buoyed poor agents and made them look as though they were actually selling enough real estate to be a ‘median’ agent. When the market left, so did the agents’ ‘mirage’ of decent production. Now, brokers need to hire with purpose (using a stringent, professional interview process). Then, they need to put agents right to work with a proven start-up plan.
Please Tell Me What You Think
What do you think a non-productive agent costs the company? In my next blog, I’ll give you some line items that will probably double what you think a bad hire costs. Let’s see what you think first. Poor hiring practices really, really hurts brokers—both financially and emotionally.
What do you think? Should a broker hire anyone who walks through the door? Does your broker hire anyone who walks through the door?
Do you have your recruiting plan in place? Check out The Complete Recruiter, with a special price of $30 off ($99.95 this month), plus 2 bonuses, a $70 value. You can’t afford to wing recruiting anymore!
Brokers: Why Aren’t Your New Agents Succeeding?
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Brokers: Why aren’t your new agents succeeding? (half are failing in their first year; another 25% fail in their second year). What do new agents need to know to succeed? You’ve watched them come into your office and flounder. You’ve watched them become ‘time tornadoes’–whirling around in your office, sucking time from seasoned agents, while seeming to stay in terminal neutral themselves. Here’s your chance to tell me how real estate brokers (and new agents) are going wrong.
Why Tell Me Now?
Right now, I’m doing several things that I think will greatly impact the success of a new real estate agent. Here they are:
1. I’m making a new online version of Up and Running in 30 Days, to help new agents and managers assure that new agent gets started fast–doing the right things in the right order. I’ll be providing coaching, training videos, and accountability to show ultimate support for that new agent–and the broker enrolled in the program.
2. I’ve just been named New Agent Expert for a national real estate publication, which will interact with pre-license schools. So, I’ll have an opportunity to help agents prior to their coming into the business.
3. I’ll be providing brokers with coaching so they can stay on track with their new agents, and assure that everyone has the same focus–success quickly for that new agent.
So, I have two questions for you:
1. What does the new agent need to know to succeed?
2. What does the new agent need to do to succeed?
To answer those questions, think of the successful agents you know. What did they do in the first 3 months of the business? What did they avoid?
Training: What new agent training helped your new agents? What was useless? What ought to be there?
Coaching: Were you coached as a new agent? What was good? What was not useful to you? What do you wish someone would have told you? What about your coaching new agents has worked for you? What hasn’t worked?
Your Opportunity to Help the Industry
Okay. Here you go. Comment on this blog and help the industry, so we can raise the level of expectations of new agents, give brokers some guidance, and help consumers think well of us. Thank you!
Termination: Is Yours Graceful or G–Awful?
Posted by: | CommentsHow would you rate your termination system: graceful or g–awful? How to let someone go fairly–with grace–is a huge challenge for many managers. This challenge just came up again. I was just asked by an association of real estate companies to do a leadership webinar on standards. Before I do a ‘live’ presentation or a webinar for a particular group, I use my Pre-Conference Survey to find out exactly what their needs are.
(Note: If you do presentations for ‘outside groups’, consider making a pre-conference survey so you find out their exact needs, cultural specifics, and market differences. It makes a huge difference in your ability to deliver to their needs). This was the question that stood out most to me in the survey.
Question: How Do You Terminate Someone Fairly and Effectively?
Do you believe that the person who is failing knows he/she is failing? Of course they do. And, the longer they fail, the further down their self-esteem sinks, the further their confidence shrinks, and, finally,
the person simply quits working!
They still may be employed/contracted with you, but, they aren’t doing the things necessary to move their job forward. So, it’s not fair to simply let them continue failing. Nothing will change. You must step in.
The ‘One Last Chance’ Conversation and System
The principle is this: Never let someone go without a process that proves to them and you that it’s the right thing to do–unless, of course, that person has done something so egregious that she must be terminated immediately.
I’m a huge believer in game plans and systems for situations. That means you are fair with everyone. One of the reasons managers don’t want to fire is that they are afraid they will be unfair–or perceived as unfair. The way to take away those fears is to implement a system to give each person one last chance (this is after you have tried your normal coaching and training methods).
Important: Everyone in your office must know there’s a system, and that each person will be treated fairly within that system.
What’s in the One Last Chance’ Conversation
Here are the steps to terminate someone fairly and with grace.
1. Call the meeting. Do not engage in small talk. This is serious; it has no social aspect.
2. State that the person has not met your standards (minimum expectations). You DO have those in place, right?
3. Tell the person you will provide them one last chance.
4. Show them the performance system you will use (something like The On Track System to Success in 30 Days System for the Experienced Agent).
5. Get agreement that the person will use the system.
Make The Time Frame Short
I have been snookered by the best of them! I’ve learned to make the time frame no more than 30 days. You want that person to go right to work. You also must reserve the right to terminate at any time.
Good News: They Will Let Themselves Go 50% of the Time
You will find that many people are just waiting for you to provide that last chance, so they can face the fact they really don’t want to work. They will let themselves go.
When You Terminate
You have given them a fair chance. You have been straightforward. They have not gone to work. All you have to do in your termination conversation is to state just that. 95% of the time you will get no argument. In fact, they will thank you for being honest with them. Using these five pointers will allow you to let them go with grace, and relieve your mind that you are fair in your termination guidelines.
Get On Track with Your Business
This comprehensive resource is like having your own consultant 24/7. In each secction, you have the opportunity to analyze your strengths and challenges and make a specific plan to improve. In addition, there’s a 30-day regeneration plan. See more at The On Track to Success in 30 Days System for the Experienced Agent. This is also a wonderful tool to use to consult agents in or out of the business.
Is Everyone Coachable? How to Create the Foundation for Successful Coaching
Posted by: | CommentsManagers’ time is their most valuable asset (along with their agents). With a majority of managers today also selling real estate, their time allotment is precious. Yet, they’re told take the time to ‘coach’ agents to help them succeed. Read how to determine who to coach and when to decline and/or quit coaching—and keep your sanity and self-esteem while doing it!
Whose Fault Is It When They Fail?
A few years ago, I was facilitating a panel of exceptional trainers at the Realtors National Convention. During the question period, a fellow stood up and said, “I’ve tried all the training and coaching methods you mentioned. But, three of my agents just don’t respond. What am I doing wrong?”
What do you think is the answer? It is that he’s not doing anything wrong—except, choosing the wrong people to train and coach!
Like many of us, I went into management to help people succeed. So, as a new manager, I tried to train and coach all the agents who wanted (or needed) to step up to the next level. From that experience, I found that I couldn’t help those who didn’t want to be helped.
Why Coach Your Agents?
I have turned around two failing real estate offices. In the first instance, I didn’t know what I was doing and failed my way to success. The second time, I knew what I was doing, because I figured out the patterns that I had used the first time—intuitively. But, the agents in the second office had no confidence, at first, that I could do it. So, I’ve had real life experiences in coaching agents to success—in an environment where they didn’t believe in themselves—or me.
A New Vision Must Form the Foundation for your Coaching
In both instances, I created a completely different vision and team in each office. The second was more dramatic, since the agents had never had any vision or focused leadership and were enjoying an extreme ‘victim’ posture. They desperately wanted someone to paint a picture of the future that was bright and attainable. They had given up on painting such a vision. My job was to create a bright, vibrant vision, mission, and the teamwork to attain it. In one year, using the four steps I’ll explain in my next blog, I had created a six-figure profit and completely changed the atmosphere and culture in the office.
Readers: What mistakes are you making in those you choose to coach? What have your failures taught you? How do you choose your ‘coaching clients’ now? What did you put in place prior to starting your coacing/
Are You Ignoring the Red Flags in your Interview Process?
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Is your interview process gaining the kind of agents you want? Or, are you unpleasantly surprised ‘after the fact’?
The scene: You have been waiting all week with baited breath for that desired candidate to keep his appointment with you. Now you’re in the interview. Everything seems to be going fine, until…
You get an uneasy feeling. It’s just a ‘gut’ response. You can’t put your finger on it. Yet, this candidate has been recommended to you. He’s a top producer. You need him. Other companies have been wooing him. So, you ignore your gut and keep going.
Sound familiar? We’ve all been there. We are enamored with that candidate. We really, really need his production. Our competitive nature comes to the fore when we learn other companies are vying for this very agent. So, we don’t pay attention to the ‘red flags’ that are being waved in front of our face. In the next few blogs, we’ll investigate those ‘red flags’–and I’ll ask you to share with me YOUR red flags, too.
What are ‘red flags’?
The term ‘red flags’ has been around our industry for years. Literally, ‘red flags’ are indicators you observe which may be ‘knock-out’ factors for that candidate. Or, taken one at a time, they are warning flags. They indicate a candidate doesn’t fit the profile of the kind of agent you’re looking for.
Some Indicators that We’ve Been Ignoring Red Flags
From consumer feedback and sales statistics, seems to me we have been ignoring the red flag concept in our hiring practices lately. Why do I draw that conclusion? One reason is that 65% of agents today are part-timers. Now, you may decide to hire a part-timer on purpose. But, I’ll bet you’ve hired several agents in the past year who didn’t reveal to you they had a full-time job (and it wasn’t selling real estate…). You thought you had hired someone who would start ‘up and running’, but, instead, you hired someone who is slow and crawling—if moving at all!
Consumer Feedback Indicates our Red Flag ‘Ignorance’
Another clue that we’re not paying attention to those red flags is the consumer feedback. In a recent survey of buyers, the California Association of Realtors’ survey found that buyers rated their buyers’ agents at an all-time low: an overall satisfaction rate of a lousy 4%! Yes. That’s right. Not 40%–but 4%. You and I know that’s too low to get return business. It’s too low to maintain any type of attractive commissions. So, it’s time to bring that ‘red flag’ concept back and practice it to protect our businesses.
What ‘red flags’ do you note? How have you been ‘snookered’?
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Another Leadership ‘Whack: Quit Calling your Agents your ‘Customers’
Posted by: | CommentsWhack: Toss the mantra ‘our agents are our customers’. The real customer is demanding we pay attention to them—or else.
Many brokers call their agents their ‘customers’. We thought that, by calling our agents our customers, we would please them, create loyalty and forge recruiting tools. This trend of calling agents ‘customers’ was a reaction to the old-style ‘father knows best’ management. Not a bad thought, but, unfortunately, too limiting. We assumed that, if we provided the services agents wanted, everything would be wonderful.
That thought process has sure gotten us into trouble. Why? Because we forgot that the person who actually pays commissions is called a ‘buyer’ or a ‘seller’—the end user. If the end user is unhappy, they vote with their feet. The result of our lack of focusing on the end user is plummeting commissions and alternative ‘agent-lite’ companies, relying much more on technology than personal service.
The bigger business world got it long ago. When is the last time you were asked about the level of service in a business you were using? I’ll bet you are asked at least once a week. The bigger world of business discovered long ago that they had to satisfy the needs of the consumer-and that those needs were escalating by the minute.
How do we put the real consumer first, providing the services that make them so happy they would never leave us?
Recommendations:
- Quit hiring non-committed agents. They simply will not do the work, create a business, and serve consumer needs to warrant a ‘generous’ commission
- Establish standards of production for your agents. What do you expect of them—and when?
- Accept that a low-producing agent cannot and does not provide excellent service—and the consumer knows that
- Pretend you are a consumer. Which of your agents would you want to work with? Which of your agents wouldn’t you want to buy a home from?
If your agents aren’t your customers, what are they? Perhaps partners, as one very successful franchise has termed them. You decide.
Get Real Leadership Strategies
Do you want to step into a better leadership style? Be more effective? Recruit more and better? I’ve created a very special, unique program for managers and owners: Once a month I share a specific leadershp strategy to recruit, choose, train, coach, and retain winners. These are proven strategies to get you out of a rut, take you past crisis management, and energize and inspire your team. See more at 365 Leadership. This new series closes for enrollment March 15. Find out more here.