Your “Do-Not-Do” List

Provided By KW Blog

“Oh look, shiny thing!” I often hear real estate agents joke about this phenomenon. You know … the one where you are completely focused on one strategy until something new comes along and grabs your attention. Then you focus on that strategy for a while until another shiny thing comes along and grabs your attention.

And on, and on, and on and…

OH! Shiny Thing!

In all seriousness, the number of strategies you can use to build your real estate business is exponential. And they aren’t all bad. In fact, most can be learned, implemented and executed to meet your annual goals.

The problem is that we tend to think if we keep ourselves busy with seemingly important task throughout the day, that we’re on the right track to accomplish our goals. But for all the new, notable and totally worth-your-time tactics, there’s a point at which you reach maximum capacity. When you attempt to learn and do everything you essentially master nothing.

Consider this hypothetical: your Facebook isn’t feeding you leads, your Tweets aren’t getting retweeted, and the people calling you aren’t hearing your voice because you’re too busy Pinning on Pinterest to return their phone calls.

It’s a crazy thought, right? Surely that’s not happening … Right?

Several months ago I attended a real estate event where consumers took the stage as panelists to answer real estate agents’ biggest questions. During the buyer panel, I heard a consumer say that she called two agents after viewing their listings online. After two days, she hadn’t heard back from either agent. So, she moved onto another website and another agent.

What were those agents doing? Where were they when the client called them?

During the seller panel, the moderator asked if the sellers would want to friend their agent on Facebook or follow them on Twitter. Guess what? All four panelists shook their heads in a resounding “No” – they were literally confused!

To be fair, social media gets a bad rap for being a huge deterrent to productivity. In fact, there are agents tapping into these tactics and they are seeing success. But I’d argue that it’s because they’re having conversations on channels where their clients are already talking. I’d also argue that they have mastered prospecting of the fundamental kind: calling and keeping in touch with their database in a consistent and systematic way.

So here are some questions for you to answer: Are you frustrated that your social media isn’t getting you more leads? Do you wonder where the day went and why you haven’t gotten that next listing? Do you end the week with all the BEST real estate tools in your toolbox but no buyers or sellers to use them on? If so, perhaps you are you wasting your time on the next new shiny thing.

So how do you combat it? How do you get back to (or start) doing the things that are going to get you results?

Start a “Do-Not-Do” List

Becoming truly productive is a matter of generating productivity habits – habits that you routinely do every day. And it begins as a deliberate decision. You shape the routines that create your habits – the habits that will lead you to your goals. You make the choice.

Begin by listing out those tasks that would only serve to consume your time. Then don’t do them! Determine what can be handled more effectively with technology and what you can delegate.

Here are some “Do-Not-Do” suggestions.

Don’t worry if you don’t have EVERY single new gadget or real estate app.

Do know which technology tools work best for your business and help make your customer service extraordinary so that you get generate endless referrals.

Don’t get ready to get ready.

DO be prepared, but remember how important it is to just start! For instance, you may feel like you haven’t practiced your scripts enough. Yet, three hours of lead generation with actual clients would give you tons of experience!

Don’t allow others to interrupt your three hour lead generation time block.

DO set expectations with colleagues and clients about when you will be in touch and what might be an appropriate interruption.

Don’t always feel the need to respond immediately.

Do let people know how much care about providing excellent service and that you will get to them at a prescribed time that is appropriate given the need they have. Prioritize!

Don’t put out fires!

Do have the know-how to separate the emergencies that require your attention and the ones that can be handled at a later date or by another team member.

Don’t over-engage in training and education to the point where your production suffers.

Do set annual goals and attend market center training that will help you achieve them.

Don’t invest a lot of money in your marketing before you master prospecting.

Do focus on crafting your marketing look and message and make sure you are doing the activities that result in dollars: converting leads to appointments and converting appointments to listings.

Don’t try to do everything.

Do choose one or two strategies for generating leads (outside of traditional cold calling) and become a master of it for a set period of time. Farming is an excellent example of this “Do” in action. Many top agents have said that it takes 18 months before farming became a solid lead generation strategy – but they had to stick with it.

Mega Camp 2012 – Here We Go!

Provided By KW Blog

Preparation is well underway as Event Staff and Employees from the KW International Support Center set up what is already looking to be the BIGGEST Mega Camp ever! Starting Tuesday, close to 11,000 Keller Williams associates and top agents from around the world will gather to network with the best and hear the latest insights, trends and skills they need to succeed. From interviews with industry experts and speakers, to panels featuring top agents from across North America, to live role plays, this high-energy event is going to be an event like no other!

And keeping tabs on the hottest panels, biggest breakthroughs and stellar success stories, will be the KW Blog Live Event Coverage Team. Come back each day for highlights, videos and hopefully (if we can catch them!) some behind-the-scenes glimpses of our wonderful speakers and panelists.

We’ll also be posting on the Keller Williams Realty Facebook Page and MAPS Coaching Facebook Page, tweeting with the official Mega Camp hashtag –#KWMC – from @kwri and @mapscoaching and pinning to our new Pinterestboards! So follow along, tag us in your Facebook pictures, tweet and retweet your favorite moments and share your MEGA experiences.

We can’t wait to see you!

The KW Blog Live Event Coverage Team

p.s. You can visit the Mega Camp website for more information on the event and to register.

MEGA CAMP!

Are you in the driver's seat of your success???

Call me to learn how you can ACCELERATE your GROWTH!

September 19th – 20th Mega AGENT Camp ($199)

Wednesday, September 19th 8:00am - 12:00pm
Wednesday, September 19th 1:30pm - 5:00pm
Thursday, September 20th 8:00am - 12:00pm

How to Prospect Expired Listings

Provided By Realty Times

Prospecting expired listings can be the core of anyone's business in the real estate field. You can create a system that will give you repeatable results for your effort. Let's look at these three very positive characteristics in prospecting expired listings.

They are easy to find: Expired listings come up everyday, so you will always have a handful that you can work with on a daily basis. They provide a steady stream of new leads to contact for listing appointments. There are also usually a few very heavy days each month. You will need to set your schedule to take advantage of these heavy days. The end of the month is one of the heaviest times for expired listings; up to 25 percent of the expired listings for the month may occur in just one or two days.

They want to sell: Expired listings were on the market at one time, unlike many other types of clients you will contact. The owners had a plan laid out to sell and move. Unfortunately, their plan did not work out, but, in most cases, they wish it had. There will be some expireds that were listed by clients who are now tired of the process, but the majority of them still want to sell.

The bulk of them are looking for an Agent: If the prospect still has the desire to sell, as most do, then they are searching for a new Agent. They are looking for someone who can solve their previous problem. Most do not know why their home did not sell, but they are frustrated with their previous Agent and sometimes all Agents. They will rarely return to their previous Agent.

The successful way to work expired listings is the CAP system: Consistency Attitude Persistence

The first part is consistency: You must consistently work expired listings. For you to achieve a large return on your time invested, you must work diligently for a minimum of four weeks straight. Expired listings cannot be started and stopped without losing momentum. There is a rhythm and a flow to them. They must be a daily discipline that you work on. If you prospect them for two weeks, then take a week off, you are back to zero. I did not prospect weekends, but I did diligently call Monday through Friday.

Your leads must build, and your follow-up must grow. When you get down the road 30 plus days, you will begin to receive calls for listing appointments from your work earlier in the month as well as your appointments from new expireds. You must work to create a pipeline of expired listing clients.

The second part is attitude: Your attitude plays a crucial role in your success working with expired listings. You need to convey to the seller an attitude of compassion and problem solving. They are not just looking for someone to pound a sign in the ground; they are looking for someone to get their home sold; they are looking for someone to solve their problem. They can get even more resentful due to the high volume of Agents that may call them.

Many expireds feel that everyone else is the problem, when it is actually them and their price. When it comes to expired listings, price is the problem 90% of the time. You have to read the people you are meeting with regarding their home. Too many Agents who work with expired listings hit their prospective clients with a ball peen hammer between the eyes when it comes to the price. That will work with some and will fail miserably with others. You must be able to adjust your delivery.

You need to read the prospective clients, and, most importantly, you need to exude an attitude of caring and compassion for their situation, while conveying confidence in your ability to get the job done. Sometimes, the only way to get the price down is to convince them you care, and it pains you that they have to sell for less, but there is no other way. It is like the doctor who tells his patient she has cancer. He does not like it, but he has to do it, so he can cure her.

The last, and at times most critical, is persistence: Your persistence or ability to stick with it can have the most positive results of all. Many expired listings do not set appointments right away with Agents. Sellers will wait a week or two, maybe even a month. The number of calls they receive about their home drops dramatically as the weeks tick by. Do not be one of the Agents who drop off unless the sellers have low motivation or are unreasonable. Be one of the ones left standing at the end of a week or two.

Be persistent in your calling. Call them a few times a week. All you are doing is trying to set an appointment. You are not doing a listing appointment over the phone; just close for an appointment. That is what the call is for. You just want to be one of the three or four they interview. If you keep that as your goal, you will get plenty of salable listings.

Focus on the CAP system daily. Work both today's expired listings, and the ones you gathered in the past. Effectively follow-up with your hot leads daily. Remember consistency, attitude, and persistence are the keys to prospecting expired listings.

Handling The Landmines of Wasted Time

Provided By Realty Times

here are numerous challenges and landmines to the time management equation. Entrepreneurial small businesses face a large number of these challenges. As Real Estate Agents, we are owners of entrepreneurial small businesses. This business type tends to put us in the front lines, with multiple job descriptions at once, trying to drive strategic objectives in sales, marketing, management, leadership, customer service, accounting, administration, and research and development all at the same time. The probability for landmines that can blow up and wreck your day, hour, or even half hour of production is lurking around every phone call e-mail, fax, cell phone call, and meeting. My goal is to give you tools, strategies, and implementation techniques to help you achieve the highest return on investment for your time.

1. Handling the constant stream of interruptions

We are in a profession that we delight in the inbound sales inquiry calls. We all live for the potential Seller or Buyer who calls us to ask about a property or, better yet, about our services. The problem for most Agents is there are never enough of those and a lot more problem calls. We can compound those interruptions through the use of cell phones, pagers, and access to our home phone as well.

I believe that we are the most interrupted profession on the face of the planet. We have the highest probability of distraction, as well, especially when we add e-mail to the distraction list. We must be able to limit the access we provide people by restricting inbound calls significantly. We want those calls, and we need to be able to respond to them quickly. One tactic is to use your cell phone for the lead generation calls or what I call "money" calls. We might have to re-educate our clients whom we have listed, sold, or are securing a home for to call the office line. It would help you reduce the number of cell phone calls. The more we can direct only "money" calls to the cell phone, the more we are able to secure the other calls out for later. Certainly, another technique is to simply turn off your cell phone and only operate through the voice mail for much of the day.

Create a short list. That’s a list of people your Assistant or Receptionist knows to put through to you right away when they call. You want about half a dozen people on your short list. For me, it’s my wife, my attorney, and my father. All other people must leave a message or book an appointment for as soon as I am free. There is rarely anything in real estate sales that can’t wait an hour.

2. Procrastination – the silent killer

Procrastination is caused by thinking that we have more time to complete a task than we really do. It is also a lack of urgency on our part. There is a difference between procrastination and prioritization. Prioritization is the skill of a Champion. A Champion puts off the things that don’t matter as much and uses their time to do high-value activities. Procrastination is putting off everything that is challenging and difficult. The challenging and difficult items are usually the most important and valuable items. Procrastination is caused by lack of clarity in goals and lack of connecting the goals to important activities that link with the goals. The key question: Is what I am doing right now bringing me closer to or further away from the goals I have set?

Procrastination can be caused by having too many workdays available. In your mind, you can think, "I can always do that later". It allows you to do the activities a few days later, even though today would be best. We can really fake ourselves out by not having set workdays. The old adage that work expands into the time allotted is true.

3. Unclear vision, objectives, and priorities

Procrastination can happen because of a lack of clarity in your vision and what you do. Why are you in real estate sales? What are your objectives for the year in gross commission income? What is the mix of your business in listing side versus Buyer controlled side? How many listings do you need to take yearly, quarterly, monthly, and weekly to reach your goals? How many Buyer sales do you need to make in the same time frame? What’s your conversion ratio of leads? How many leads do you need to generate and appointments do you need to make to earn your income goal? Every Agent who wants to achieve the Champion level must have clear objectives and a clear vision of what needs to happen next to accomplish their objectives.

The skill of prioritization is missing for most Agents. How you execute your priorities has a dramatic effect on your income and results. When we evaluate what our objectives and priorities are, too many Agents view them synonymously. Objectives are really the results you are aiming for in your business. Priorities are the individual steps in the right order to accomplish the objective.

Champion Rule: We have too much to do and not enough time.

Most people who are Champion Performers are running at 100% or more all the time, and there is more stuff added to their plate daily. As we get better and more successful, our opportunities and responsibilities increase.

I am blessed with more opportunities and responsibilities today than when I sold real estate. I have more now than when I founded Real Estate Champions over ten years ago, and ten years from now, there will be even more. With greater success comes greater responsibility and greater opportunities. You will also experience greater problems. As you expand your business, the problems and challenges will increase in number and difficulty. The good news is with larger problems comes larger money. We are problem solvers in the real estate business. When markets shift, problems increase, and your value as an Agent increases too. The increased responsibilities and opportunities are the circle of life from the time we were born. Wesley, my son, has more responsibilities and opportunities than his younger sister, Annabelle.

Time management myth: More successful people have fewer distractions. Because of their production and the opportunities they are constantly creating, they experience more interruptions, distractions, and challenges on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. They are, however, better at handling these demands than others. They have the ability to solve the challenges much faster. They let the negative things that happen to all of us affect them mentally for shorter periods of time. If you are a Champion Agent, like many of my clients who earn $500 an hour or more (that means each fifteen minute block of time is worth $125), you can’t let too many of those fifteen-minute blocks slip away during the day. The control of those blocks of fifteen minutes and the attitude control is one of the main reasons they are worth $500 an hour.

Champion Rule: We will never get caught up.

For Champion Agents, there is no hope of ever getting caught up. Why would you want to? It means you are not getting new opportunities, challenges, clients, prospects to sell to, etc. It means your business has stagnated or receded. A Champion Performer will go home each day of their work life with something un-done or not completed. We could stay in the office past midnight each day, and we still would not have everything completed. We must get over the "clean up and get everything done" syndrome. The question isn’t, did we get everything done; it’s did we get the most important things done. The ability to have a system to select and execute the high-value tasks enables us to align our priorities with our objectives.

Keller Williams Realty Ranked "Highest in Customer Satisfaction Among Home Buyer and Seller Segments" by J.D. Power and Associates

Provided By Keller Williams Realty

According to the J.D. Power and Associates 2012 Home Buyer/Seller Satisfaction Study^SM released yesterday, Keller Williams Realty, Inc. ranks highest in customer satisfaction in both the homebuyer and home seller segments. Keller Williams Realty, Inc. achieved the highest scores in all measured factors across both segments, receiving the highest JDPower.com Power Circle Rating^SM among its competitors overall.

“We are so proud to have our associates be recognized once again for leading the industry with the influence and reputations they have in their local communities. They continually demonstrate not only their level of talent, but their commitment to serving our communities with the utmost integrity and highest level of service," Mark Willis, CEO of Keller Williams Realty, Inc., stated. “Congratulations to all Keller Williams Realty associates. They have certainly earned this prestigious distinction."

The fifth annual J.D. Power and Associates study measures customer satisfaction with the largest national real estate companies within the home buyer and seller segments. Scores are determined by examining three factors of the home-buying experience: agent/salesperson; office; and variety of additional services. For the home-selling segment, agent/salesperson; marketing; office; and variety of additional services are examined.

J.D. Power and Associates stated, “[The uncertain economic times] present a challenge for the real estate companies to really work closely with the customers and really hold their hand through the entire process to make them feel more comfortable in the decisions. Keller Williams has set itself apart by performing high in all the areas that are most important to customers specifically with the agent, the offices, and the services that they provide."

“Our agents go above and beyond to help their clients at one of the most personal times in their lives – when they are buying or selling a home. We are incredibly honored and humbled that our associates have been recognized yet again for their incredible levels of service," says Mary Tennant, President of Keller Williams Realty, Inc.

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Disclaimer: Keller Williams received the highest numerical score among full service real estate firms for home buyers and home sellers in the proprietary J.D. Power and Associates 2012 Home Buyer/Seller Study^SM. Study based on 2,994 total evaluations measuring five firms and measures opinions of individuals who bought or sold a home between March 2011 and April 2012. Proprietary study results are based on experiences and perceptions of consumers surveyed March-May 2012. Your experiences may vary. Visit jdpower.com

About Keller Williams Realty, Inc.:

Founded in 1983, Keller Williams Realty, Inc. is the second-largest real estate franchise operation in the United States, with 675 offices and almost 77,000 associates across the globe. The company, which began franchising in 1990, has an agent-centric culture that emphasizes access to leading-edge education and promotes an economic model that rewards associates as stakeholders and partners. The company also provides specialized agents in luxury homes and commercial real estate properties. For more information, or to search for homes for sale, visit Keller Williams Realty online at (www.kw.com). Information about Keller Williams Realty’s international expansion can be found at (www.kwworldwide.com).

Real Estate Marketing Strategies: 7 Ways Perfectionism Stops You from Success

Provided By Realty Times

Are you a perfectionist? Do you know someone who is? Have you ever wondered if perfectionism is a help or hindrance on the road to success?

In my 15+ years of coaching real estate agents to be at the top of their game, I have seen that perfectionism does more harm than good. In fact there are at least 7 Ways that perfectionism stops you from success.

1. Perfectionism causes procrastination. Have you ever had a project that you really wanted to get done, but never could quite complete it? If you look carefully at what was going on in your mindset, you probably see that you wanted to project to be completed perfectly.

We live in an imperfect world. The idea that perfection is possible is just an illusion. Your desire for perfection can stop you from taking action that is needed. In fact it can even lead to mental paralysis and stop you from listening to your intuition.

Imperfect action is better than no action.

2. You get caught up in the details. Instead, use your business vision. There is nothing so compelling as a vision for which you have passion. But if you're busy with the details, and trying to get every little thing perfect, you lose sight of the bigger picture.

Delegate out as many details of your business as you can't so you can focus on moving your business forward.

3. Perfectionism doesn't allow you to be yourself. Have you noticed how guarded you feel when you're trying to put up a front of being perfect? You can't be yourself, because someone might see that you really aren't as perfect as you're trying to be.

How did that get started anyway? In the way that most of us were conditioned, we weren't allowed to be ourselves. The more our parents had perfectionistic standards for us and the more we tried to achieve those standards, the more of ourselves we had to give away.

We usually do to ourselves what was done to us when we were growing up. Therefore, if you suffer from perfectionism, it is a good bet that it was part of your programming in your early years. Quite likely you picked up the belief, "I have to be perfect to be okay."

Get to work on discovering your self-limiting beliefs with regard to perfectionism. When you bring those beliefs to the surface, you can release them and replace them with empowering beliefs, such as, "I am perfectly imperfect like everyone else."

4. Perfectionism set you up to need others' approval. Let's face it, when you're being a perfectionist, you're thinking about other people approving of you and your work. You're being "outer directed", i.e. trying to get you approval from the outside rather than giving it to yourself.

The truth is; we don't have to be perfect. All we need to do in any particular moment is to do our best. And our best changes from moment to moment in day-to-day. If you're feeling healthy, your best will be one-way and if you're feeling sickly your best will be another way. In either case you just need to remember that your job is only to do your best.

Forget about needing other people's approval, because what others think of you is really not your business.

5. Perfectionism causes you to be in a constant state of stress, because you're always trying to meet your perfect standards. According to the law of attraction, the states of consciousness that attract prosperity and success are very positive, such as gratitude, appreciation, and love. When you send out those energies, you are becoming more magnetic for your ideal business. However, when you are trying to be perfect, you are sending out signals of stress, anxiety and fear.

Notice the feelings you are sending out and make yourself as magnetic as possible by projecting gratitude and tolerance.

6. Perfectionism stops you from taking a risk. Any seasoned real estate agent knows how important it is to take educated risks to move forward. Staying stuck in the status quo never benefited anyone.

However, when you demand of yourself that you need to be perfect, you'll be very hesitant to take the risk.

When it comes to taking risks - follow your intuition. It knows better what you need then your own beliefs that you need to be perfect. Remember, perfection doesn't exist, it's a trap.

7. Perfectionism stops you from picking up the phone. The consequences of this are HUGE for your business. In today's marketplace the old methods of marketing aren't nearly as effective as you simply picking up the phone and prospecting. Prospective clients are less likely to notice you through a flyer or e-mail. However when they hear the sound of your voice, you're making personal contact.

So many people I've worked with over the years avoid this method of lead generation and their business suffers tremendously.

When I explore with them why they are so avoidant of picking up the phone, it usually comes down to the same thing…. they want to be seen as perfect. This is another way of saying that they are afraid of being seen as "pushy" and afraid of rejection.

When you are marketing yourself to prospective clients, there is no such thing as rejection. It's simply a match or it's not a match. Your job is to prospect, present your services and keep on the lookout for someone who needs what you have to offer. If they don't need it, it simply isn't a match.

Follow these tips listed above and allow yourself to be "perfectly imperfect". Your business will thank you for it.