In my last post I discussed the difference between yesterday’s pull marketing and today’s push marketing. I explained how pull marketing is reactive — “If you build it they will come.” Push marketing, on the other hand, is pro-active — “If you build it they won’t come so you have to go get them.” (Click to view previous blog post.) Many agents today have experienced that very phenomenon: doing lots of advertising and getting little if no results. Today’s successful agents are going upstream and capturing the lead early — generally during Phase One of the buying cycle.

Let’s face it, NAR tells us that 74% of all sellers and 76% of all buyers work with the first REALTOR® they talk to. So the key to success is simply being first and not chasing the customer away by using the wrong approach. Just be early and do it right and you’ll do business with them three-fourths of the time! But being early — getting there first — brings a unique set of challenges. First, there is understanding the nature of Phase One business, second is being able to create plenty of low-cost leads, and third, is managing all those leads for the time required to actually complete transactions with a large number of them.

Let’s start with the nature of Phase One leads. Traditional marketing attracts customers during Phase Two of the buying cycle. (For more, read this blog post.) Magazine and newspaper ads, yard signs, duty desk calls, open houses, referrals, and other traditional lead sources typically brought us a customer that was 2-3 weeks out from writing a contract. That customer had already moved into Phase Two of the buying cycle and was willing to talk to an agent. Most Phase One leads, however, come to us through the Internet. And because they are still in Phase One, they tend to be 6-8 weeks earlier in the process. In Phase One, they are still building their dream and gathering information, and they don’t want one of us pushing them. They simply want information where Phase Two leads are ready to search for a house. So the challenge becomes learning how to work this new style lead by providing customer service and not pushing or selling. Those agents who fail to learn how to do this are destined to fail working Internet customers. And that’s why many of our new agents do so much better than seasoned agents who have worked only Phase Two customers.

Let me share a simple yet powerful illustration that will change the way you look at Internet leads. I want you to think back to the last time you shopped in your favorite department store. Now, if you’re like me, you don’t have a lot of time to waste; when you go shopping, you go because you want to buy something. But remember how, as you walked into the clothing department, a sharp sales clerk came up to you and said, “Can I help you?” Now, I want you to be completely honest. What was your answer? You know what it was; it was the same as mine: “No, thanks. I’m just looking.” And I’m willing to bet that, within five minutes, you were looking around and finding that same clerk to help you locate something in your size.

Did you really mean that you weren’t interested, or were you implying that you wanted to gather information for a few minutes (Phase One) and that, later on, when you were ready to search (Phase Two), you might actually need his assistance? The procedure is no different for a real estate customer except that the buying cycle is much longer, given the price point of the purchase. The Internet customer is still gathering information when most agents call to say, “Can I help you?”

So there are generally only two reasons that an agent will fail in working Internet leads: 1) either he’ll take the “No, thanks. I’m just looking” literally, as though the customer wants nothing to do with him, or more often 2) he won’t take the hint and instead will insist on trying to set up an appointment to start showing houses immediately! This overbearing, hard-sell approach simply alienates the agent from the potential customer and removes any chance of his gaining the business. But make no mistake — that customer will go on to buy or sell, but with another agent! What a tragedy.

Okay, in the next installment I’ll discuss how to generate tons of Internet business using your website. I know what you’re thinking… but you really can generate more business than you can possibly handle using your existing website with a few simple tricks. There is plenty of business out there and getting your share is not that difficult. You’ll be amazed at how easy it is, just wait and see…

Before we launch into this segment, let’s recap the last installment. In it I was discussing how in the 1960s and 70s, our industry was in a Broker-centric Era. The brokers had all the power. Customers had very little access to listing inventory except through them. Agents had no business except through them. Modern real estate brokerage was in its infancy. By controlling the inventory, broker-owners were able to build real estate dynasties. It was common place to see multiple office operations with teams of agents, and it was during this climate that companies like Century 21, Coldwell Banker, ERA, and other similar broker-centric companies became huge empires.

Then came the Agent-centric Era in the 1980s and 90s and the resulting shift of power to the agents. One of the catalysts was the personal computer. First the brokers lost control of the listing book, then their exclusive main frame computer connection to the local MLS. Agents were suddenly able to be independent with their own MLS access. And since the agents were the ones doing all the transactions, many began demanding a bigger slice of the commission pie. That led to new agent-centric companies springing up: companies like Re/Max and Keller Williams. Agents got their bigger slice of the pie, but with it, came a bigger slice of the overhead.

Around the turn of the century, another remarkable thing began to happen, again powered by technology. Just as the PC empowered agents, the Internet empowered customers. Armed with information and choices (and let’s not forget the most important thing — the money), the customer became the one with all the power. It was inevitable, and it was proper. Information is power. Today’s customer has more information at his fingertips than brokers and agents had just a few short years ago. That shift of power has caused an erosion in overall brokerage fees of roughly 15% over the last decade. Nowadays, the agent must add value and not simply control access to the MLS and the lockbox.

Ok, so that’s where we are now and how we got here. But that still doesn’t help today’s agents, many of whom are still in broker-centric or agent-centric companies wondering where all the customers went. So where did all the customers go? Allow me to explain it by telling you a fishing story.

Once upon a time there was a huge river, stocked full of home-buyer and home-seller fish. All along the banks of the river were REALTORS® with their fishing poles. Everyone was catching all he wanted, and life was good. Then one day, way upstream, a big commercial fishing company set up operations, with its computerized fish finders, its power nets, and the latest in online fishing technology. The company began to pull many of the home-buyer and home-seller fish out of the river before they could ever make it downstream to be caught by agents still persistently hanging onto their same old fishing spots. Little did they know, the total number of fish making it downstream was getting smaller and smaller. It wasn’t long before the fishing began to get tough — so tough, in fact, that many REALTORS® just threw in the towel and quit fishing altogether. Others fished longer hours and did what they could to survive, while a third group simply gave up on fishing for themselves and began to buy fish from the big commercial fishing operations.

But what if an agent were able to get their hands on the same technology that those large commercial fishing operations were using? What if he were to go way, way upstream and begin to catch large quantities of home-buyer and home-seller fish? Not only would life be good again: it would be GREAT! What a huge advantage that agent would have! Well, believe it or not, this story is actually true. The big commercial fishing operations in this story are lead vendors, like HouseValues, HomeGain, and ServiceMagic, and every day the “fishing” gets tougher because a new lead vendor opens its doors. If you don’t believe me, just check your email inbox. Not a day goes by that I don’t receive some new version of the same old thing — another company using our listings to advertise on the Internet, catch our customers, and then attempt to sell them back to us.

But there’s another part of the story that’s also true. It’s actually possible for an agent to use the same kind of technology that the lead vendors use to capture leads — commercial lead capture technology only designed for single-agent use. And for those agents who have it, the technology produces amazing results. It’s called lead capture technology, and those agents who use it have more business than they can handle. Many go on to build teams, and some companies. Those agents who are proactive are having their best days ever, and here’s why they are:

Today, instead of locking down the information and the access, and waiting for the customers to come to us, the successful agent must go get the customer. Nearly all customer gathering methods used by agents in the broker-centric and agent-centric eras of real estate were what we call “pull marketing”. Today’s customer-centric agent must use “push marketing” to be successful at attracting business. Pull marketing includes strategies and ideas that are passive in nature. Think branding. Among pull strategies are geographic farming, sphere of influence marketing (also know as networking, circle of influence or circle of 50 marketing), open houses, model homes, yard signs, home magazines, etc. Think “If you build it they will come.” In all of these methods, the agent spends time, energy, and money building his or her name or brand and then waiting for the customer to call.

The problem with using pull strategies today is that customers will only call you after they’ve entered Phase Two of the buying cycle (For more about the real estate buying cycle, read my article: Working Internet Leads.), and most of the successful online strategies capture Phase One customers. By the time most of today’s customers get to Phase Two, it’s too late. They’re already working with an agent — an agent doing real estate the new way!

On the other hand, push marketing involves ideas that are active in nature. Think “pursuit” marketing. Pursuit marketing involves identifying a lead, and then the resulting proactive measures that will move it from a lead to a customer. Push marketing doesn’t wait for the customer to come to us. It goes right to the customer. And it typically goes way upstream, as much as 6-8 weeks before that customer ever responds to a pull campaign. And unless that first agent has done a poor job, one of the downstream old-school agents will never get the call. Instead of “build it and they will come”, today’s push marketing is more like, “build it and then go get them”. Sounds like more work, doesn’t it? It’s really not. It’s just a different way of doing real estate — a new way!

In the next segment, I will begin to describe the way today’s customer-centric agents practice real estate this “new way”. Many of you will be surprised at how different it is, and yet how easy. Until next time…

When CNN’s Pulse on America program featured us two years ago, they were investigating an interesting phenomenon in our industry. Click to view video. It seems that today there are two real estate worlds coexisting simultaneously. Like in the movie The Matrix, there was the “perceived” world and then there was the “real” world. In our industry there is much the same today. Those agents who are practicing real estate this new way, are doing quite well — many better than ever. But those who are hanging onto the old-school real estate model are finding themselves working harder and harder and making less and less money. In order to understand this “new way” of doing real estate, we must first look at the history of real estate practice and see how it has evolved.

The 1960s and 1970s: The Broker-centric Era
The 60s and 70s were quite literally the “golden age” of real estate (think Century 21’s gold blazers): a time when the real estate industry as we know it today was born. That original giant, Century 21, and other companies like Coldwell Banker, ERA, Prudential, Wychert, Long and Foster, etc., are responsible for pioneering many of the techniques that have become synonymous with real estate practice. The then novel ideas like geographic farming, sphere of influence marketing, floor duty, open houses, model homes, and so on, have now all become today’s mainstream methods of gathering customers.

I call this time in history the broker-centric era, because the broker was king. The broker owned the office, the listings, the signs, did the advertising, and generated the sales leads. He provided the agent with training, tools, and work space. It was also broker-centric in that broker kept most of the money. A 50/50 agent split was the norm, and that was after taking any franchise fees off the top. Real estate brokerage as we know it was in its infancy and many agents did quite well.

The 1980s and 1990s: The Agent-centric Era
Sometime in the early 1980s, top producing agents began to wake up to the fact that they were “doing all the work” and they were not getting what they felt to be their fair share of the money. Enter the agent-centric era. Companies like Realty Executives, Re/Max, Keller Williams, Exit Realty, and many others began to spring up, offering the top producing agent much more money. But like any other industry, there is no “free lunch”.

The additional agent compensation (today’s average agent split is now 62%) came with a price. Along with shifting brokerage commission dollars to the agents, brokers began shifting much of the associated overhead to them as well. Desk fees, office rent, telephone, fax, and copy fees, administrative fees, transaction coordination fees (to name only a few), became the norm in those agent-centric model companies. The agent was now king, but he had to finance his own kingdom. The agent did his own advertising and provided his own sales leads. The money for the agents became marginally better, but the overall customer experience (as measured by customer satisfaction levels) began to erode, as more and more agents were driven by independence and money.

2000 and beyond: The Customer-centric Era
Around the turn of the century, real estate began to change again, this time brought about by the Internet. Today’s information-empowered customer is now king. In both the broker-centric and the agent-centric models, the real estate professionals (either brokers or agents) were in control. Today, however, the customer is in control, and the customer demands excellent service. If he doesn’t find it with one agent, he will move on to another.

And now that the customer is king, the key to success in today’s fragmented real estate market is learning to gather customers, and then learning to serve them well. In an article I wrote for Broker Agent News, I describe at length the market dynamics of today’s customer. Essentially, today’s customer is different, and understanding and adapting to those differences, will make you wildly successful in our current market environment. Those agents who take the time to learn real estate this “new way” will dominate the real estate landscape over the next decade while those who don’t will be looking for new careers.

In my next post, I will begin to develop that foundation. How can an agent transition to the new age of real estate? How can you thrive while those around you are floundering? I believe you can! I believe you must! Stay tuned…

“Goosey Lucy said that Ducky Lucky said that Henny Penny said the sky is falling.” From reading and listening to the media you can’t help but think of Chicken Little. Okay, well I’ve finally heard enough! I’m so weary of hearing one person after another bemoan the sad state of real estate today that I’m about ready to scream!

Every time it’s told it gets worse! “The end of real estate is near.” “The mortgage industry is doomed.” “Give up and get out now while you still can.” “The lead aggregators have ruined our business.” “The banks are taking over our business.” On and on it goes. No doubt, you’ve heard it too. Well I say poppy-cock! The sky is not falling!

Certainly today is a tough time to be in real estate. If you are trying to do traditional real estate, you are no doubt struggling. But the funny thing is that for many agents — agents who have embraced the new model of real estate — this is one of the best times ever! It all depends on how you do real estate.

One of the agents that I supervise is named Kevin. Kevin has been in the business for less than two years. Before real estate he was a truck driver. Last month I paid him over $50,000 in commissions and he had his best month ever — well, that’s until this month. I have another agent named Dave who’s been licensed barely a year. Dave is part-time. He earned over $300,000 last year and he can’t even begin to keep up with his business. I could go on and on, listing agent after agent across the country that are having amazing times in this tough market. So what is this “new model” of real estate?

As opposed to the broker-centric model of the 1960s and 1970s, or the agent-centric model of the 1980s and 1990s, around the turn of the century this new model began to emerge. I call it the customer-centric model. In this new model, gathering customers is king. Those agents who’ve learned to do that — to gather customers well — are experiencing growth like never before in the history of the business. Gone are the days of “branding”, “image advertising”, and waiting on customers to come to us. Today we must go get the customers. Those who learn to do it well are making amazing money.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll write a series of commentaries on this new model and how you can participate in one of the best opportunities in the history of real estate. For now, I will settle for letting you ponder this question: Is real estate really that bad, or is it your approach?

As I’m sure you know, it is difficult to operate a business in today’s economic climate. It is more difficult to operate a start-up business, particularly a restaurant. That’s why I bought a going concern. During the course of my due diligence, I was given P&Ls for the previous six years of operation, all certified by a CPA. The most recent six months’ financials, however, were not available. I did, however, have numbers from the previous owner that showed consistent sales for those last two quarters, as well the owner’s certification of his full regulatory compliance at the time of the sale. Not being able to futher verify the information, I decided to purchase the restaurant anyway. I know what you’re thinking… and you’re right!

As it turned out, sales for the last six months were well below (less than half) the historical sales, and the latest information given me was fraudulent. Additionally, the restaurant (I later got detailed inspection reports from the county health department) was not in regulatory compliance, and was in danger of being closed. Clearly I could have done a better job in my due diligence. The good news is that we have courts to protect buyers from fraudulent representations of sellers, and there is now pending litigation that will hopefully compensate me for much of, if not all of my loss.

I also assumed a commercial lease that was 5 months in arrears when I bought the restaurant. I assumed that having a paying tenant would be enough to assure a great relationship with my landlord, who was responsible for all landscaping. When I took over, the restaurant was overgrown and looked like it was owned by the Adam’s Family. I requested several times that the landscaping be addressed in time for my grand re-opening to coincide with the face-lift we had given the building. When we got to the weekend of the opening and the landscaping wasn’t done, so I hired a landscape company to make the business look good, at my own expense, of course.

The new landscaping was a source of irritation to the landlord who eventually sued me wanting me to reimburse him for replacing 20 boxwood bushes which had been cut back a lot but were still healthy and growing fine, albeit much shorter and smaller. Our relationship deteriorated from there, and soon I was not afforded electricity to my road sign (on the shopping center’s circuit) even though I offered to pay for the power. We went for months during the summer when the sign didn’t illuminate until nearly 9PM (well after the dinner hour), and we had many guest stop in to see if we were open. The sign was on a timer and an electric eye system and wouldn’t illuminate until there was not a ray of light in the sky. The final straw was the landlord’s removal of our Muzak satellite dish from the roof (it had been there for 5 years) with no notice, and on Valentine’s Day (the biggest day of the year for a fine dining restaurant).

I made the decision that I would not continue to swim while carrying these lead weights. I felt I could certainly use the energy for my core businesses, and the ongoing financial drag on the corporate checkbook made the decision an easy one. I had been given the perfect opportunity to get out, by an unreasonable landlord who had breached our lease again and again. I took the opportunity, although I very much liked the business and was continuing to grow sales and manage expenses. I kept my general manager on the company payroll and now we’re using his skills at FavoriteAgent.com.

In making the tough decision to close, I had to detach myself from my emotional reasons for keeping the business and simply look at the numbers. It was a business. Was it the highest and best use of my time and resources, when I had been given the opportunity for a legal “do-over” by the actions of both the seller and the landlord? It took me about 15 seconds to realize that it was not. I didn’t like the prospect of facing friends and their feeling sorry for me. My pride was injured but I’m confident it will heal. Perhaps one day I will own another restaurant. It is nice to buy wine wholesale!

Ok. I closed the restaurant… well, it’s more like I am in the seemingly eternal process of closing the restaurant. I can tell you one lesson: It’s a lot easier to start something that it is to stop it. Buying a point of sale system takes a morning. Selling one takes weeks. Buying inventory is a quick and steady process involving a few minutes a day. Disposing of inventory takes forever. The same with everything, from leases, to advertising, to accounting, to tax returns. So what’s the lesson?

Take the time to plan your business. It is much easier than having to change directions after beginning in the wrong direction. The same is true in the real estate business. I’ve seen agents waste a year or two in a company they would never have chosen had they taken the time to look at different options and their own business plan. I’ve seen agents waste months and thousands on the latest advertising idea, simply because they saw an idea at a conference or seminar. Advertising (your single biggest expense in real estate) should be carefully thought out and planned. It is much easier to plan well going in than spending the remainder of a contract and a lot of hassle trying to extricate yourself from a bad marketing plan.

Planning is crucial to your success, regardless of the business you are in — whether restaurant or real estate. See my article on planning. And sometimes, even the best plans don’t work because circumstances change, as in my closing the restaurant. Don’t be discouraged if that happens. Hey, it’s only money, right?! If you know how to make money, you can always make more.

In the next installment, I’ll discuss the decision making process I went through in deciding to close The Vineyard. Maybe as we explore it together, we’ll take something away that we can use the next time we are in a similar situation. Please feel free to write and submit comments and questions. I’d love your input. Until next time…

In the last installment, I compared the restaurant manufacturing operation with real estate. In this installment, we’ll look at a restaurant as a sales organization. While the back of the house (the kitchen) is all about manufacturing, the front of the house (the dining room) is all about sales. Meeting customers, setting expectations and exceeding them, and attention to detail are crucial elements in any sales organization. A restaurant is no exception. Everything is important — from the elegant music, to the dress code of the staff, to the words in your script, to the carefully choreographed service. That’s why our company has carefully selected background music, decor, and office location to help create the right environment to facilitate transactions.

Harvey Mackay, best selling author of Swim With The Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive, once wrote that sales is really about creating the right setting so that the customer sells himself. In a restaurant, up-selling and suggestive selling, building the sale, and properly presenting options are important to your success. As real estate professionals, we have the opportunity to do all of that as well. Up-selling and suggestive selling is much like finding bargain properties for investors, 1031 exchanges for those who have recently sold and need to find a new place to invest their proceeds to save on taxes. Building the sale in a restaurant is much like our finding creative ways to help customers purchase more real estate, whether quantity (more properties), or quality (bigger and better single purchase). We build the sale by educating our customers, like properly explaining the leverage value of real estate investing, higher rates of returns on certain higher priced properties, finding our clients incredible opportunities, and so on.

At one time or another, we’ve all been to an empty or nearly empty restaurant. What did we think? Maybe other people know something we don’t. Maybe there’s a reason it’s empty. When the waiter spoke to us, he sounded desperate. So it is in real estate. One of the most pathetic sights is an agent without enough customers. He or she becomes desperate, and generally pushy. And somehow customers and clients can sense the desperation, and either leave or become more demanding. Before I discovered how to generate hundreds of new customers every month, I was a desperate agent too. Part of being a successful salesman is having enough customers that you can relax and focus on providing good service.

And of course, we all know how important it is to present our services in the best light. Whether that means properly staging a listing, cleaning up our offices, dressing properly, washing our cars, or a myriad of other seemingly small things we do to increase sales. The restaurant business is very similar. Appearance is critical — from the plating of the courses, to the presentation of the food at the table, to the proper method of opening a bottle of wine and presenting it to a guest, to the dress and hygiene of the staff, everything is important in making the sale.

In my next installment, I��ll discuss how it’s easier to start something that it is to stop it. More to come��

So I closed the restaurant after a year. We had grown sales about 20% over the year and were continuing to grow in sales and margin every month, while controlling costs and growing margin, but we were still another year from turning a profit. Because of the down turn in real estate, the pressures from my core business (real estate and real estate related technology) I felt I needed to really focus my attention on them. Continuing to subsidize a restaurant during the housing downturn would have brought our company’s cash reserves to dangerously low levels. So, I sucked it up, and made the tough decision to close. It was bittersweet. I enjoyed the restaurant. I enjoyed meeting the people. I enjoyed the staff. And I enjoyed the food and the wine. What did I learn? One thing I learned is that restaurants are really two businesses rolled into one. In other words, you can operate one part perfectly and still have a problem with the other. It’s a balancing act, but it’s a business. So what are these two parts or businesses?

First, a restaurant is a manufacturing business. In a restaurant, your product is first and foremost, your cuisine. To execute well, you must not only have good food, but you must be able to prepare it within budget. As a fine dining restaurant, the rule of thumb is for food cost to be between 27-35% of sales. By carefully choosing to offer a very limited menu, and by only offering entrees that would provide us with a good gross margin, we managed to keep our food cost under 22%. It is very similar in real estate business, however, instead of manufacturing a product, your “product” is your brokerage services.

Like a restaurant is careful to choose its menu, it is important that an agent choose his service offerings carefully, or he may do lots of transactions but not generate any revenue. I have agents in my company that do lots of transactions but at very low price point, resulting in lots of work and very little money. Or, there are those agents that somehow feel that spending a day doing a BPO (broker price opinion) for a bank for $50 to $75 is somehow a good idea. What niche you focus on is very critical, after all, your time is all you have to sell. Similarly, you may gross a lot of commission dollars, but if your operating costs are too high, you may flow a lot of money and yet not make any.

Many agents today find themselves with good commission cash flow and yet no real income because their marketing and advertising costs are so far out of line. Recently I was asked to speak at a local Association of REALTORS� in Roanoke, Virginia. I had an agent in one session that grossed well over six figures last year. But he spent nearly 30% on advertising, when he should have been able spend 10% and actually generate more business, had he done it properly. More importantly, he was very frustrated because while he was grossing a lot of money, he wasn’t bringing it to the bottom line.

In my next installment, I’ll show you how real estate, just like a restaurant, is also a marketing business. More to come…

Well, I finally did it. I decided to close my restaurant after a year of hard work, a lot of struggles, and even more soul searching. Over a hundred thousand dollars invested in trying to “turn around” a failed upscale eatery. And as I unwind the affairs of the restaurant, I must confess, it is a very bitter-sweet experience for me. I had to lay off nearly 20 good employees, walk away from a large capital investment, and more importantly, admit to myself that I am very capable of making bad decisions.

So as I finally finish the urgent details of closing, I’m finally able to sit and reflect on the last year of being a restaurateur. What did I do right? What did I do wrong? What was foreseeable (even if I missed it) and what was not? What should I have done differently? And most important — what did I learn from the experience? I know we’ve all heard the stories of people like Henry Ford that failed five times before his huge success, but somehow when you’re sitting in the ashes of recent failure, those stories don’t seem all that encouraging. Sure it’s nice to know that I’m in good company, but I need a little time. It’s pride, no doubt.

So, over the next few weeks I’m going to post a series of reflections on the experience. Hopefully readers will find the posts helpful, and perhaps the exercise will allow me to “work through it” all. Maybe we can all learn from this together. More to come…

Putting it All Together

WHAT’S IN THIS INSTALLMENT?

1. THE TECHNOLOGY ELEMENT
2. THE HUMAN ELEMENT

In the previous installments we’ve discussed all the various elements or components of what I believe to be the best buyer seminar you’ll find anywhere. I’ve determined not to give you just fluff, but rather to give you my entire system — from the underlying theory, to the preparation required to become a top buyer agent, to the actual nuts and bolts of how I became a mega-producer in a few short years.

In this installment I will help you assemble all the pieces. I admit that I’ve given you a lot to chew on already. Not a day goes by that we don’t get three to five emails from agents asking us to explain some of the mathematics or to discuss how the approach might work in their market. If you’re a bit overwhelmed, don’t feel like the Lone Ranger! I hear those questions a lot. But remember: nothing worth having is easy to get.

If this approach were really easy to learn, everyone would be doing it. However, the fact is that it’s not. While the concept itself is the very picture of simplicity, putting it all together takes a commitment from you the agent, probably unlike anything you’ve ever been taught. But again, I promise you that, if you’ll take the time to put it all together, you’ll become a mega-producer. You’ll be the top producing agent in your market — maybe even in the state or country.

My approach really comes down to two parts: the technology element (assembling the right tools) and the human element (having the knowledge and the philosophical base). If you have the technology element and yet lack the knowledge and underlying values, you won’t become a mega-producing agent. By the same token, if you have all the education in the world and yet fail to acquire the technology tools critical to compete in this new age of real estate, you can never become the dominant agent in your market, and you may find yourself struggling just to survive. Becoming a mega-producer requires balance.

THE TECHNOLOGY ELEMENT

In the first two installments of this seminar, we discussed how the Internet is rapidly becoming the predominant method for home searches today. From only a small percentage of searches a few years ago, as many as 92% of buyers and sellers today are turning to the Internet like never before. Now more than ever, it’s critical for any agent to develop a comprehensive web-marketing strategy. After all, if the Internet is where the customers are looking for real estate, then the web should be where you focus your marketing efforts.

To develop a comprehensive Internet marketing strategy, it’s not necessary to spend a lot of money. Instead, it’s important that you invest in assembling the proper pieces. Many agents adopt a marketing policy of “ready, fire, aim,” rather than “ready, aim, fire.” The result of such a policy is frustration. Frustration from spending a lot of money and receiving little, if any, return on your investment. Frustration from wasting a lot of time trying to do what all the “experts” advise, only to figure out too late that those so-called experts haven’t got a clue about online marketing. Frustration from making a good-faith investment of time and money, only to be let down again.

For less than the cost of running an ad in a homes magazine for a single month, you can put together the marketing solution that will return as many as 100 new inbound real estate customers! (For most agents, that same money spent on a magazine ad will return 8-10 leads.) What’s even better is that, by using technology to capture the leads, not only do you get more information, but also the information is inserted into your database, and follow-up is a snap.

Using our LCM Gateway, our typical agent partner spends only about $120 per month for his technology. That small amount buys him his lead capture gateway technology, and then we give him a website and an integrated customer database (the very same ones that my own real estate team uses), at no additional cost. After getting the technology in place, our average agent spends roughly $250 for advertising. That’s all! The result is an average of 92 leads, nationwide, for a marketing cost of only $2.71 per lead. And for that tiny investment, our agent partners not only spend less money on marketing than their competition does, but also they generate more business than they can personally handle, allowing them the freedom to grow their businesses like never before.

Imagine what it would be like for your own business to have twenty new leads every week — and each for less than the cost of a cup of Starbucks® coffee! Would that change your business? Would it take the pressure off? Would it allow you to be a little choosier about which customers you work with? Would it give you enough “breathing room” to begin to expand your business? Could you see how simply having a steady inbound stream of customers would allow you to run your practice more like a business?

If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, you truly owe it to yourself to look into getting the right technology. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to have state-of-the-art lead capture. And good lead capture will set you up for being the top producing agent in your market because you will have more opportunities than anyone else. And that’s what it really comes down to: more opportunities. Call us toll free at (800) 708-7705 extension 7500, and speak to one of our real estate coaches. Or feel free to visit our website, where you can learn more about our technology and our agent partnerships. We’re happy to discuss your specific scenario and your market. Maybe we can help you take your practice to a new level.

THE HUMAN ELEMENT

As I mentioned before, having the best technology in the world — having an endless supply of new inbound customers — won’t help you at all if you don’t have the basic skills needed to turn those opportunities into closed transactions. That’s where the human element comes in. I believe that there are several fundamental things that a REALTOR® must have if he’s to become a mega-producing agent. Just as the technology is crucial to success, so are these basic “human” factors.

First let’s talk about education. In this seminar I’ve given you some very specific things to learn that will make you the best agent for the job. Let’s be honest here: most of us haven’t done a lot of studying since we left school, and the temptation is to try to get by without having to do the work. I know that. But that’s all the more reason to make yourself do it. Average agents won’t. You want to be a top agent!

I’m going to make a confession here. I don’t really like to study either, but that’s what gives me an advantage. My peers never crack a book, while I read about two books a week. Do I do it because I like to read? NO! I do it because I need to continue to push myself to become all that I can become. If I am to be the top agent in my market — if I really want to be the best — then I have to make myself do those things that I don’t necessarily want to do. Remember how your mom used to make you eat spinach? Well, I say eat your spinach.

It’s a hassle to do the market research required to become a top agent, but this is your career. I promise you that there are agents calling me every day asking for help because they really want to go to the next level. Those who put in the work invariably succeed. Those who don’t, won’t. They won’t become top agents. It’s as simple as that. Winners make it happen, and losers make excuses. It’s all about you. Do you really want this? If you do, I’m absolutely convinced that you can achieve it.

The other key human factor is your governing values (or personal philosophy). It’s not my desire to be preachy here, but I believe that out of our inner self flow the issues of life. We influence our success or failure by how we bring ourselves to the process. And I believe that the value system we use to govern our businesses has a direct impact on the outcome of our lives. And I believe that there are a number of principles that we can follow to ensure our success.

1. The Principle of Vision. The most important principle, in my opinion, is vision. By this, I mean being able to see that which is not, as though it were. I believe that we’re made in the image of a creative God and as such are inherently creative by nature. And it’s that creativity that gives us the opportunity to build something truly phenomenal. Most of us don’t take the time to allow a clear vision to be formed in our hearts. But the more detailed our vision, the greater our chances of achieving it. The scriptures teach that, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. Allow yourself to develop a vision for what could be and take the time to see it clearly in your mind’s eye.

2. The Principle of Confession. Taking our vision and beginning to articulate it is the key to bringing it to reality. Just as God’s instrument of action in creating the world was “speaking” (i.e. God said, “Let there be light”), the way that we transfer vision to reality is by speaking it. I never miss an opportunity to share my vision with people around me. Every time I get a chance, I articulate it to employees, agents, recruiting prospects, and peers. Why is confession so important? Because our subconscious mind believes what it hears. That’s another reason to be careful what you’re listening to. If there are negative people around you — people who tell you that you can’t do something — it’s important that you let them know you don’t want to hear their negativity. If you must, find someone else to spend time with! You alone control what your subconscious mind listens to, so make the message good.

3. The Principle of Reciprocity, or Sowing and Reaping. We’ve all heard the old adage that what goes around comes around. It’s true. Scripture teaches us that, “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” In other words, give, and it will be given to you. This principle has two aspects:

a) Quantity. To the degree that you give, to the same degree you’ll receive. “He that soweth sparingly will reap sparingly.” The more you do to help others, the more your kindness and generosity will come back to you. Giving abundantly is the key to success. I know of lots of agents who never volunteer at their local Association, who never take the time to help a new agent, who never help those in need. What a shame.

b) Kind. You will reap in kind with your sowing. If you plant apples, don’t expect to grow bananas. If you want to reap success, you need to sow success for those around you. If you’d like to receive happiness, then make sure that you don’t sow seeds of “ugliness” for those around you. Whatever seeds you plant will ultimately come up. Make sure you’re planting the right seeds.

4. The Principle of Greatness. If we want to be great, we must be servants. The way up is down. This is contrary to traditional wisdom, which teaches us that, if we want to get ahead, we must put down our competition. I marvel at the crab-bucket mentality that so many agents have. Many would rather pull someone else down than actually see what they can learn from a competitor. How tragic! If you want to be great, serve those around you.

5. The Principle of Leverage. Two are better than one. You can create leverage through synergy. Team building is an example of this principle. By enlisting others, we can build something much bigger than ourselves. In fact, we can build a whole that’s greater than the sum of the parts. Don’t be afraid to work with other people: often that’s the key to going to the next level.

6. The Principle of Stewardship. If we’re faithful in the little things, we will be entrusted with bigger things. If we waste the resources that we’ve been given, we shouldn’t be surprised that we lack the resources that we need to grow when opportunities come our way. I know of many agents who have all the “toys,” own a huge house, drive the most prestigious car, and yet live from deal to deal. Again, what a tragedy.

7. The Principle of Responsibility. To whom much is given, much will be required. God holds us accountable for that which he has entrusted us. If you’ve been given success, you have the opportunity and the responsibility to use it wisely. This principle is related to the principle of stewardship, but different. One is the flip side of the other. Stewardship is the key to getting success. Responsibility is the burden of that success.

8. The Principle of Perseverance. We must endure trials and hardships in order to succeed. There is a refinement of character that comes from perseverance. Show me a successful person, and I’ll show you someone who has gone through many personal trials. And when those trials come your way, learn to see them as an opportunity to persevere. I know that, in my life, nearly every time I feel as if the situation is so bad that I can’t possibly endure it, I hold on anyway. Invariably the solution to my problem comes right after I’m the most tempted to give up.

9. The Principle of Thankfulness. Nothing is less attractive than a whiner and griper. Nobody wants to be around that kind of person. Well, there’s a principle that thankfulness is attractive. Of course, when everything is going well, it’s easy to be thankful. But if you find yourself in a tight spot, determine to be thankful anyway. Lack plus thankfulness equals sufficiency. I personally believe that this is the mechanism that demonstrates to God that we truly trust Him. If we’re thankful, regardless of our situation, we attract other people to come along and help us.

10. The Principle of Rest. The more talented you are, the more you’ll be tempted to “force” things. And while forcing something often provides a solution, it’s rarely the best solution. If you feel pressured to make a decision, don’t make one. Bite your tongue, and say, “No, thanks.” Often the best action is no action — rather simply to wait patiently for the right solution to emerge from the quietness.

So there you have my entire buyer seminar that’s made me one of the top producing agents in the country and earned my clients and me lots of money. Now you have the big picture, from the technology tools to the underlying philosophy that’s been responsible for my success. Hopefully, you can see that this is not simply a buyer seminar to memorize: it’s a way of doing business. I hope that you’ll try it if you’re looking to improve your business.

I know that, over the last few years, we’ve had hundreds of other agents who’ve decided that this approach could provide a missing ingredient in their practices. Many have gone on to grow as fast as or even faster than I did. We have quite a few agents who’ve grown so fast that they’ve had to recruit additional agents. Many have grown their personal production while taking more time for other activities. But one thing is certain: every single agent who has actually tried to do what we taught him has experienced some degree of success. The fact is that this approach works everywhere. Call us today at (800) 708-7705 extension 7700, and we can help you find the technology, or we’ll help you with any part of the seminar if you have questions. Our LCM gateway may be the right solution for you, and it may not be, but we’re happy to help you either way.

SO WHAT’S NEXT?

Well, now you have the secrets that allowed me to become a mega-producer. Now you know exactly how I’ve grown from a single agent practice to the owner of the largest brokerage in our market, all in three short years. It wasn’t magic. It wasn’t luck. I didn’t do anything that you can’t do if you decide you want to do it. The ball is in your court. Will you decide to go for it? I hope you will.

Feel free to print out the installments and to read them again and again at your convenience. If you take the time to study what I’ve shown you and then — more importantly — to apply it, your real estate business will never be the same again.

For more information about FavoriteAgent.com, call us toll free at (800) 708-7705 extension 7100 or visit our website at http://FavoriteAgent.com.

We’re happy to help you become a mega-producing agent. It’s my greatest honor to be able to play a small part in your success. Thanks again for reading.

Matt Jones
President/CEO
REALTOR®, BROKER
FavoriteAgent.com