Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
How to Deal with the Difficult Client Using the Cow Patty Process
by Mark Rosenberger, CSP
It’s bound to happen! Sooner or later a client is going to take their no good, lousy, rotten attitude out on, you guessed it, YOU!
It’s happened (or will) to all of us at one time or another. You’re the target of a client that is determined to unload on you - personally! You pick up the receiver and get the "what for", being chewed from one end to the other. And most likely, you didn’t do a thing, except pick up the phone at the wrong moment. So what can one do to not take the experience personally and maintain a positive attitude?
Use the Cow Patty Process!
The Cow Patty Process is a simple, fun technique for taking the emotion out of the situation and thus permits you to go home without feeling like the center bulls eye of a dart board.
Let’s begin at the beginning:
"Cow": a large domesticated farm animal. You know - "moo, moo". Gives us milk.
"Cow Patty": a leave behind substance from said cow. Cow pie, Meadow muffin, prairie pizza. Something you’d prefer not to step in.
Got the picture? Now that we have the basics covered, let’s leap forward to the process.
Next time an upset client begins the attack and starts to give you the "what for", visualize that they have just thrown at you a - you guessed it - a cow patty! (Hold the phone! Before your skeptic minds discount this entire idea, read the complete article!)
If a cow patty is flying through the room at you, what could you do? You’re right, DUCK! Yet how often do we sit there watching and chanting- "Here comes a cow patty, here comes a cow patty, here comes a cow patty—- splat!" We then spend the rest of the day bent out of shape because one upset client hit us with a cow patty. No more, it’s now time to duck!
Visualize the client has thrown a cow patty at you and DUCK! Let the emotion go by and then take care of the client and the situation. Read that last line again. It’s the key to the process. Let the emotion go by and then take care of the client and the situation!
There is no reason to get hit by the cow patty! You simply mentally duck next time a client begins the emotional bombardment. You let the emotion hit the wall behind you and take care of the client, untouched and cow patty free!
It’s an easy, fun way to change the way you react to the attacks!
Help others avoid the cow patties! Next time you notice a co-worker or family member with their teeth clinched, knuckles white, shoulders up near their ears, eye balls bulging…show them the fake cow patty!
That’s right, hold your hand as if a cow patty were in your grasp and come toward your co-worker or family member! If they know the "Cow Patty" theory, they’ll see your hand and recognize it as the simulated patty. It’s a tremendous tool for helping others see the emotion; helping them let it go by, then taking care of the situation.
A word of caution: If the person is NOT familiar with the Cow Patty Process, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT, come at them with your hand held in the designated position! They’ll really think you are off base and justifiably so!
So the next time you pick up the phone and hear that highly charged, angry client looking for someone’s hide, don’t get upset…simply DUCK! It’s much more effective than getting hit with another cow patty!
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How Dreams Make You a More Successful Agent
By Kate Kirby, HouseValues, Inc.
Have you ever kicked back in your chair and visualized what your ideal real estate business would look like? This isn’t a silly “New Age” exercise. When you picture what you want, even if it involves a personal jet and taking conference calls sitting on a veranda overlooking the Mediterranean, you are setting goals.
Just like a Fortune 500 business, top agents know they need to set specific, measurable goals to get them where they want to go at the end of the year. Now, yes, it’s true that “Owning a personal jet” isn’t a practical goal. But closing 30 transactions this year is an important step in the direction of owning that personal jet. And making 10 or 20 or 50 new contacts a month is an important step towards getting those 30 transactions a year.
If you think about it, then, each new contact is another rivet in your personal jet.
Here are some suggestions to consider when creating a practical plan for where you dream of your business going:
1. Set Realistic Goals
Decide what you want to accomplish based on a realistic assessment of your market — how many hours you want to work, how much money you want to make and/or transactions you want to close. Also keep in the drawer that list of “dream” goals as well. These dream goals are just as important as the realistic, practical ones. When you’re feeling down in the dumps, it helps to pull out your dream list and look at it—and remember why you chose to build your career around real estate.
2. Make an Action Plan
If you’ve ever taken a road trip into an unfamiliar area, you know that the fastest and easiest way to get to your destination is to map out the route in advance. Figure out what it will take to reach your goals, including a projected advertising budget and a timeline to accomplish each task. Then write it down and review your plan frequently.
3. Be the Big Name
Keep your name and your face in front of your customer as often as possible. Make sure yours is the first name your prospects think of when it’s time to choose an agent and you’ll give yourself the best chance of ultimately winning the business—and your dreams.
Here’s one simple, final suggestion: Stay accountable!
Businesses of every size and type have ups and downs, some of which are within their control and others which aren’t. Celebrate your successes, accept your mistakes and above all, remember that as leader of your business, you can—and must—follow your action plan, track your progress and stay committed to your strategy. It’s your business and your life. Dream big and start planning today to make every year the best year ever.
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The Essentials of Real-Estate Success, Part 3 Processes/Practices
by Doug Walker
Based on The Essentials of Success™ from A-Ha Performance: Building and Managing a Self-Motivated Workforce by Douglas Walker with Steven Sorkin
Sometimes success comes because we see an opportunity and strategically pursue it. We plan our work; work our plan. We create our own disciplined process and stay with it. Undeniably, strategic approaches have a good track record. But what if we’re just not strategic kind of people? Keep reading because we’ll focus in this piece on the Essential for Success™ that is our Process or Practices but we’ll discover that many non-strategic people have found enormous success too. How do they do it?
A number of years ago I was retained to consult with a company that was grossing about $28 million annually. The two owners had been written up as entrepreneurs of the year and now wanted to figure out how to become a $100 million company.
I started the engagement with something called the Seven-S assessment, a way to identify current realities in seven components of an organization:
1. Shared Vision
2. Strategy
3. Skills
4. Staffing
5. Systems
6. Synergies
7. Style
I asked what their vision was. “What would this company look like as a $100 mill. Company?”
“It would be bringing in $100 million dollars/year. Other than that, we’re not quite sure.”
“Well what’s your Strategy for getting to that $100 million dollars?”
“We’ll need to sell more and acquire some other companies.”
“Successful acquisitions are very difficult to pull off. The failure rate is over 75%. Do you have the Skill sets among your current Staff to profitably acquire and integrate other companies? And with current revenue at $28 million, your organization’s sales skills are strong enough for that level, but do you think you have the sales Skills to increase revenue to $100 million?”
“We don’t really have expertise in acquisitions and our sales people are working pretty flat out to keep us at the level we are now, so probably we’d need to improve that skill set.”
“How would your business Systems have to change in order to support that increase of business?”
“Don’t know.”
“You have 2 divisions in your company now, each in a different location and each focused on a different offering. Are there practices in place that maximize the Synergistic sharing of information and insights between those divisions?”
“Not really. The 2 divisions each function like autonomous companies.”
“Have you given any thought to the Style of your company, or companies if that’s really the more accurate picture, and how that’s going to change as you grow?”
“Nope.”
I was puzzled. How did these two guys get to be entrepreneurs of the year when it appeared they had no strategic bone in either of their bodies? I asked. (Asking, by the way, is a really good thing to do when you’re curious about something.) “How did you guys build your company?”
The story boiled down to luck. They were both working together on some minor projects when they learned that a company they knew and had worked with was going to shut down a $7 million dollar division for some reason. These guys managed to buy it at fire sale pricing. Then they heard that another company was going to cut-loose a $21 mill. division in another location… they managed to buy that, too. They had not built their company from scratch. They were in the right place at the right time and noticed an opportunity.
So what was I going to do to help them? They were successful, not strategically, but serendipitously. It contradicted my assumption at that point that success was the result of skillful strategizing.
That evening I put my pondering around what seemed like a paradox on hold and turned on the TV. Some successful rock band was being interviewed. The interviewer said, “Your accomplishment must be beyond your wildest dreams (Vision or Shared Vision).”
“What dreams?” said one. “We were just playing at a bar when in walked some guy with a big ol’ cigar. He heard us play, then came up to us and asked, ‘How would you boys like to be stars?’ We said, ‘What the hell?’ We didn’t have anything better to do.”
That’s when the A-ha came to me. There are 2 ways success comes; Strategically and opportunistically.
Some of us are strategic, like sharks; we pursue goals. Others of us are more leek eels, we wait in the rocks for something to swim by. There are successful sharks and eels in the ocean so both approaches must be valid.
How do we create the practices that maximize our success?
1. Determine our basic success style; Strategic? Opportunistic?
2. Ask our selves; “If I’m basically a strategic kind of person, could I increase my effectiveness by adding some Opportunistic practices… and if I’m basically an opportunistic kind of person, could I increase my effectiveness by adding some Strategic practices.”
3. Strategic:
- Set goals – what do you want?
i. 2 years out
ii. 1 year
iii. 6 months
iv. This month
v. Today
- Identify where you are relative to those goals – what have you got?
- Create “to do lists” to meet today’s goals. (Success IS, to some extent, a numbers game… make those calls.)
- Review what you did at the end of your day – what am I doing?
- Evaluate the effectiveness of your activity and your skills – how is it working?
- Figure out and implement improvements – make a plan for more effective doing as well as for developing and improving skills.
- Implement the new plan
4. Opportunistic:
- Be aware of what you want
- Talk to a lot of people – Participate in associations and events
- Give great service - Think ETS2
i. Eager to Serve
ii. Excited to Share
- Be real nice – Say “yes” as much as possible
- Notice the opportunity in every situation
- Be prepared to act in a principled way on that opportunity
- Synergize with others
Please let me know how you use these ideas. If you implement them on your own, or are already utilizing them, I’d love to learn how they’re working for you. Feedback is a wonderful thing.
Remember, doing doesn’t make the difference… effective doing does.
Doug Walker
A-ha! Performance
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100 Mile Ride for a Cure!
Did you know…
►Leukemia is the #1 Killer of children under age 14?
►Every five minutes, someone is diagnosed with a blood cancer
►Most of you reading this have been directly or indirectly impacted by someone suffering from Leukemia, Lymphoma or Myeloma
Did you also know…
►You can make a HUGE difference in helping to find a cure!
That’s why you’re reading this page. It’s my intention to enroll your participation in helping me raise $50,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to find a cure for blood related cancers.
Here’s the scoop: I have committed to completing a Century bike ride (100 miles-all on the same day!) to raise awareness and money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
I’m excited to participate in the 18 week training program and complete the 100 mile ride on June 1. (O.k., I’m nervous as heck—I rode 20 miles, slowly, and needed to recover the rest of the day!)
My goal is to raise a gigantic $50,000 for Leukemia research! If you give only $25, I’ll reach this outrageous goal! ($50 will get me there faster! And really motivate me in those early mornings!) And, I’m excited to report that 75% of every dollar goes directly to research.
I have a very personal reason for completing this 100 mile ride.
After three marathons with Team-in-Training, I was struck by cancer in the summer of 2005. It wasn’t a fun experience for me or my family. So, I am peddling for everyone who has had cancer. I am riding to find a cure so no one need experience what me and my family went through.
Will you help me raise awareness and Money to find a cure? I’m asking for your support–$25, $50, $100…(or more…I’m very o.k. with more!!!)
Giving is simple—the Leukemia society has helped us set-up donation websites via Active.com or you can write a tax deductible check payable to “The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society” and mail it to our office—I’ll handle the paperwork from there.
I know writing a check to help an important cause is sometimes a challenge. I realize y  ou’re approached by everyone and their mother for a fund raising effort. But please remember this, my honored teammate, six year old Kyle, doesn’t think going through chemotherapy every week is very easy either.
Please be an important part of my fund raising effort to raise a whopping $50,000! I promise to keep you posted on fund raising and training progress (I’ll spare you the photos of me in the lycra cycling gear!)
The next step is yours:
Thanking you in advance for your support and encouragement,
Mark Rosenberger, CSP
Your Realty Insider
760.602.1206 x1103
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Selling Homes Faster in Today’s Tough Market
By Bob Crawford, Brook Furniture Rental, Inc
In this “buyers market,” home sellers need every edge they can to improve the marketability of their homes.
The easiest tactic to employ is the “price drop” tactic. However, for homeowners to capture the full value of the equity in their home, the “price drop” tactic is not always the best option. There are other proven alternatives!
For the last 4 years, across the country, Brook Furniture Rental has taken several steps to provide improved solutions to real estate agents, builders, and staging professionals, with the goal of helping them sell homes quicker and for higher prices.
Brook has significantly invested in improving the quality of its furniture inventory. If you haven’t had a chance to review Brook’s inventory recently, it’s worth a visit to a local showroom or a visit to the online catalog in the “home staging” section of www.bfr.com to browse the furniture. This higher quality furniture was brought into the Brook lineup specifically for staging purposes.
Brook has partnered with Barbara Schwartz, pioneer of the staging business, to drive joint efforts in the business. In her recent book Building a Successful Home Staging Business, Barb had many examples to share, and has this to say about Brook Furniture Rental: “Professional ASP Stagers were called in and with the help of furniture rentals from Brook, worked their wonders as you can quickly see from the stats.”
Here are nine hot home staging tips courtesy of Barb Schwarz - ASPMTM, CASPT, CSP,RLS, ABR, AB
INSIDE:
1. Clear all unnecessary objects from furniture throughout the house. Keep decorative objects on the furniture restricted to groups of 1, 3, or 5 items.
2. Clear all unnecessary objects from the kitchen countertops. If it hasn’t been used for three months… put it away! Clear refrigerator fronts of messages, pictures, etc. (A sparse kitchen helps the buyer mentally move their own things into your kitchen.)
3. In the bathroom, remove any unnecessary items from countertops, tubs, shower stalls and commode tops. Keep only your most needed cosmetics, brushes, perfumes etc., in one small group on the counter. Coordinate towels to one or two colors only.
4. Rearrange or remove some of the furniture if necessary. As owners, many times we have too much furniture in a room. This is wonderful for our own personal enjoyment, but when it comes to selling we need to thin out as much as possible to make rooms appear larger.
5. Take down or rearrange certain pictures or objects on walls. Patch and paint if necessary.
6. Review the inside of the house room by room, and:
· Paint any room needing paint.
· Clean carpets or drapes that need it.
· Clean windows.
7. If you need room to store extra possessions use the garage or rent a storage unit.
8. Leave on certain lights during the day. During "showings" turn on all lights and lamps.
9. Have stereo FM on during the day for all viewings.
Brook Furniture Rental has also invested in enhancing the training it provides to its delivery teams, to make sure that these critical people are meeting customer needs at the point of customer interaction: inside the home.
Across the country, Brook has been having positive results. In Atlanta, where the staging industry is growing, Lynne Cherrington of Harry Norman Realtors states that “Brook Furniture Rental has helped me stage a home recently, which sold for 98% asking price in only 38 days- a far better performance than anticipated. Our sellers were thrilled how successful they were!”
Residential home builders are partnering with Brook as well. In the Chicago area, Mike Kelahan of Dubin Residential, states that “Brook’s design ideas, professionalism and follow–through have made it simple and easy to get our inventory staged and sold in a hurry. That kind of success is a bargain at twice the price in today’s market!”
For proven results to sell homes faster in today’s environment, it’s becoming increasingly important to partner with companies that know how to market homes effectively. Give your local Brook Furniture Rental representative a call, or visit www.bfr.com.
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Checking Your Clients DNA
by Dirk Zeller
Based on your qualifying efforts, determine the likelihood that your prospect will convert into a good client for your business by conducting a DNA analysis. This involves measuring the prospect’s level of desire, need to take action, and ability and authority to make a purchase or selling decision.
D for Desire
Desire or motivation is the strongest indicator of a successful business outcome. A prospect’s burning desire can overcome all other deficiencies, including a lack of financial capacity or purchase ability.
The summer before my junior year in college, I painted houses to earn money for my tuition, books, and room and board. When I started work on the last house of the summer, I learned that the owner was selling a 1976 BMW 2002. I wanted that car, even though buying it would take all my summer earnings and college savings. My parents tried to counsel me away from this foolish idea. My ability to buy was limited due to money, but my desire was greater than my lack of ability. I ended up borrowing the money for the car and still covered my college costs. This creative ingenuity didn’t please my parents at all. Looking back, it wasn’t one of the smarter decisions I have made in the last 25 years. But it did teach me a lesson about the power of desire or motivation to compensate for all other shortcomings.
Let me give you one caution: Desire is not the same as interest. Anyone can have interest. Interest doesn’t reflect intent, and it doesn’t indicate a high probability of action. If a prospect says, “I have an interest in selling,” probe deeper to see if there is real desire to sell, or just interest.
I have found that many “interested” shoppers are looking for something that doesn’t exist. Truly, I’ve heard interested prospects say, basically, “If you can get me $50,000 above market value for my house, and you can find one I can buy at $75,000 below market value, I’ll list my home with you.”
Get real! The truth is, if I could find a property for $75,000 below market I wouldn’t sell it to him; I’d buy it myself, and so should you!
N for Need
A need is a specific and identifiable problem that your service can help a prospect overcome.
Many prospects’ needs stem from lifestyle changes that prompt environment changes. A family expecting another child needs a larger home. Empty nesters tired of yard work and home upkeep want to move to a maintenance-free condo. A divorce requires one household to become two households, forcing a home sale and several purchases in the aftermath. The need to buy or sell based on environmental changes such as these prompt the majority of real estate transactions each year.
One of the reasons I worked expired listings was because the owners’ level of need was so apparent. After sitting with an unsold home for months or longer, the sellers’ need to find an agent who could solve the problem was pretty clear. My job was merely to convince them that, by working with me, their problem would be solved; that I would deliver a different and positive outcome.
A for Ability and Authority
Clients need both ability and authority to conduct a real estate transaction.
Ability relates to the financial capacity of your prospects. Do they have the financial wherewithal to sell their current home and buy the one of their dreams? Do they have enough equity in their current home? If not, can they borrow a larger sum to buy the one they want, or do they have access to additional funds to achieve their goal?
Authority means the prospect has the power to make the decision; to say yes or no to the deal. Find out: Are you working with the ultimate decision-maker or decision-makers, or is someone else also involved? Will the prospects decide autonomously, or will they seek the guidance or advice of others as they make their decision?
I think agents make a huge mistake when they make listing presentations without both spouses or significant others in attendance. Whether or not both names are on the title matters little. In our family, we own properties that show only my wife’s name on the title, and others that show only mine. This is purely an estate-planning move on our part. If we decided to sell, I guarantee that our input would be equal in decisions about pricing and who should represent our interest in the sale.
By using this DNA analysis of measuring one’s level of desire, needs, and ability and authority you will have an accurate basis for determining the probability of your prospect converting to a good client for your business.
Dirk Zeller is an Agent, an Investor, and the President & CEO of Real Estate Champions. His company trains more than 250,000 Agents worldwide each year through live events, online training, self-study programs, and newsletters. He’s the widely published author of Your First Year in Real Estate, Success as a Real Estate Agent for Dummies®, The Champion Real Estate Agent, and over 300 articles in print.
You can get more information by visiting Click Here For More Training!
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