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There is a curious challenge that everyone faces in his or her career. The challenge is to understand how to do the things that will create success.
In the simplest form, the best construct for appreciating learning about success is watching how successful people immerse themselves in practicing the behavior of successful people. For agents who use Moxi Works, there is an easy way to understand success. Memorize this fact. It comes from measuring thousands of successful agents using our system.
82%+ of your real estate transactions can come from your contacts
Why is this awesome? The alternative is sorting through hundreds of internet leads, effectively volunteering yourself to be the help desk of the internet. Wasting your time answering questions like: “What color is the bathroom?” or “Are there any good coffee shops close by?”
According to a recent WAV Group study, 48% of leads don’t ever get responded to. Even amongst the ones that do, agents waited an average of 15 hours to respond.
I get it; a lead comes in when you’re having dinner with your family, or in the middle of the night, or you just get the feeling that it won’t turn into a client. Very understandable.
However, if you’re an average agent who only has 48% referrals and repeat business. New leads are still really critical to your business and you’re going to have to do the lead grind.
Unless there was a better way…
A better approach is to take care of your sphere so that when they are ready to transact or know someone who is, they refer you
Your sphere is pretty easy to understand. It is all of the people that you know. To make sphere marketing work you need to change how you think about your business. Aim to become the trusted long term real estate advisor for everyone in your sphere. The first step is making sure you have a database of contacts. Here is a simple goal.
Have a minimum of 500 contact records
This goal matters because with fewer than 500 contacts, your sales funnel is unlikely to be large enough to generate a steady flow of business. Depending on a variety of reasons, homeowners move about every 13 years. Doing simple math (500 divided by 13 is about 38) shows that your database of 500 people will yield 38 transactions per year if they move every 13 years and if you get 100% of the business.
The truth is that if you count the people you know today that would absolutely only use you in a real estate transaction, you will be lucky to reach the number 10. Family and close friends are your best targets. If they don’t trust you enough to allow you to handle their transactions, you may have a bigger problem than goal setting.
Set a goal to reach all 500 people once a month
It is pretty easy to stay connected to your close friends and family, but I guess we are all guilty of not connecting with our family enough. The truth is, staying connected with people is really difficult. The good news is that there are easy ways to set a plan to do it. It’s the combination of automated newsletters, emails, phone calls, direct mail, and meetings. You need to figure out what works for you. No matter what tools you choose to use, the goal is the same; touch every person in a meaningful way at least once per month so that they let you know if they are considering a transaction.
Set a goal to deliver 10 presentations each month.
A presentation is either a buyer presentation or listing presentation. All too often, agents fail to understand that a presentation is the key to sales success. It sets the stage to get a commitment, to ask for the order, to get hired to represent them or stop them from shopping for another REALTOR®. If you are not good at presentations, you may need to do more than 10 until your closing rate improves. If you rock the sales presentation, perhaps you only need to do 2 or 3 to sell 2 or 3 homes per month. This is the most fundamental part of sphere marketing and goal setting – putting yourself in a position to make a sale.
Get smart about managing transactions
Different agents have different feelings about transaction management. Some do the entire transaction themselves, others have teams, and still others use the transaction management services of their brokerage. Regardless, you need to be focused on the number of closings per month and always be engaged in closings. Never delay tying up loose ends. Build your process for closings and either follow it to a tee or manage it with others who are doing it for you. The transaction becomes your golden ticket.
All too often, agents and firms look at results or closed business in units or dollar volume. Your results are measured by reaching your transaction goals, but if you are not looking at your goals for contact records, staying connected with your sphere, and doing buyer and listing presentations every month, the big goal of transactions will never come.
What sphere marketing looks like in a tool
Don’t pay a lot of attention to the image below for the numbers. It is simply used to illustrate what a sales driven organization provides to agents who set goals, leading to success in real estate.
In a glance the agent can see the number of contact records.
#1 Number of people in your data base – 100 is not enough, you need 500.
#2 How many touches do you need to perform every month to result in presentations?
#3 How many activities (presentations to buyers or sellers) – this agent has 4.
#4 Track GCI – Progress to GCI goa.
Sphere marketing starts with a goal and tracking your progress to that goal ensures you achieve it. And hitting your goals feels great every time.
If you listen to coaches like Tony Robbins, they teach that things only happen when you do them so often they become real. You must be 100% focused on the reasons why you do what it is that you do. Take 20 minutes and watch this Tony Robbins Ted Talk, http://youtu.be/Cpc-t-Uwv1I – then come back and read this article again.
