For REALTORS - Success Action Steps

SUCCESS ACTION #1- "Spread the Word Loudly and Proudly" (Members Only) (edit/delete)
The First step is to - "Get your head in the game" - You are a professional REALTOR. Does everybody know that? I mean everybody. If you don't let them know then who will? Every single person that you come into contact with must hear and see that you are a Real Estate Representative and you are ready for business. How do you do that?
•1) CAR BILLBOARD - Does your car tell everybody what you do? It should. Your name and number and company logo should be on your car. Lettering on the window is great but I say do it as big as you can. Your car is a moving billboard. It is everywhere. People will begin to talk about real estate with you just because there is no doubt what you do. The more they see it, the more they will think of you and that is what you want.
•2) BUSINESS CARDS - Get your business cards done as soon as possible and get them out there and give more than one to everybody you see. Design a nice card so they will have a hard time throwing it away. Make it special. Don't waste that chance. It is all about you. What does your business card say about you? What is on the back of it? Is there a special phrase or recipe or mortgage calculator or something of value on the back? Think it through and get creative. Does your card ask for referrals?
•3) DISTRIBUTE INFO LETTER - Construct your introduction letter and make it quick and to the point. Again offer something of value. Maybe approach a restaurant and ask them if they will honour a two for one entree for your prospects and clients. Maybe there is a referral benefit to the receiver of the letter. Make that letter work for you so people don't throw it away. Give first - get later....
•4) LOGO CLOTHING - Get your company logo on your clothing. Give anybody an excuse to bring up the fact that you are in the real estate business. You can take existing clothing and get your logo attached for as little as $5 or $10.
•5) CONTACT LIST - Make a list as quickly as possible of everyone you know. If you just know their first name that is fine. Just write it down. Keep that list alive on your desktop of your computer or keep a running list hand written and every time you think of somebody get them on there before you forget. Call or contact at least 5 per day in whatever way you can. Call them if you have their phone number. Email them if you have their email address. Or drop by and say "hi" at their workplace or house and just touch base and leave them something about yourself. You are just letting people know in an enthusiastic way that you are in the Real Estate profession. That is it. Just do it and watch what happens. Touch 5 people per day minimum. Encourage them to send you referrals. Offer them something of value. Maybe market reports for the neighborhood on a quarterly basis. Engrain in their minds the fact that you are their Real Estate source.
•6) NEIGHBORHOOD PROMO - Go around your neighbourhood with a promo letter and walk door to door and introduce yourself as the new neighbourhood REALTOR and let them know that you are excited to keep values up in the area because you live there too. Keep your lawn nice and have colourful flowers. Show them that you care about how your home looks to them as well. Don't speed in the neighbourhood and wave to everybody as you drive by. Let them know you are available. Go as far as throwing a neighbourhood barbecue and invite everybody over and get to know them. They know people too. Make sure they leave with a package of comparable sales in the area when they go home. If you can add a fridge magnet or a calendar or a scribble pad then that is great.
•7) PUBLIC EVENTS - Go to public events where you will run into people. There is something going on in most communities on just about every weekend. Let people see you with your family and understand that you are just like them. Stop and talk to as many people as you can. Focus on them and make them feel good. Find something to compliment about them.
•8) DRIVE BY'S - Go for a drive every day. On your way to an appointment or on your way home or when you have some free time just expand your route a bit. Take a road that you don't normally go down. Explore and learn about different neighbourhoods. You may see someone outside washing their car or weeding their garden. Stop and say "Hi". Compliment them on their garden. You don't have to ask them to sell their house. Just connect with people. Be outward focussed. Forget about what they might think. It will blow their minds that someone just said hi and complimented them on their garden. It will make their day. Doesn't that feel good? Absolutely. Make someone else smile. If your car is speaking for you, you don't need to say a thing. Maybe you will see a "For Sale By Owner" sign. Great. Stop and call the number. Let them know that you were in the neighbourhood and saw their home for sale and ask them what they want for their home. What is wrong with that? Ask them if it would be alright to view the home sometime for potential buyers. Just get an appointment. Get a chance to meet that person. Who knows you could become the best of friends one day. More on that later.
•9) COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION - Be out and active in the community. Walk your children to school and meet some of the other parents. Coach a soccer team. Join a class of some sort to learn something new. Join a service club or the Chamber of Commerce and attend the events. Go on a nightly walk and encourage casual conversation with the people you see. Visit the place of your old occupation or job.
•10) BUSINESS REFFERAL NETWORK - Make a list of all the potential business referral sources that you can think of. Anybody that is in business for themselves or relies on referrals as well. That can turn out to be your winning team. Nurture those relationships and create a reciprocal benefit. Ask them how you can help their business. Ask them who their best potential client would be. If you meet somebody that is in business for themselves and you get their card. Make notes on the back and tell them that you are going to try and help their business. And do it. The return business will come to you tenfold.
Those are 10 things to do consistently and with focus that you can actually build a business on. Simple Really. Very few people actually do these activities. If you do half of those activities you will be in the top 20% within 24 months. Believe it. It's absolutely true. Can you commit to doing a minimum of 5 of those things right now. Now go back and pick 5 things that you want to implement right now......
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Circle the numbers.
If you think that you can do them all then circle the whole group of numbers. Now remember you will be coming back to this manual at some point to remind yourself what you have committed to do. This is a decision and a commitment. Some of the items above may be a little tougher for some people for budget reasons and that is ok. That is why I am asking you to do at least 5 of them. Pick a minimum of 5. Now you can decide if you are going to be a minimalist or get maximum results. 5 is the absolute minimum ok. You cannot do less than 5. Item #5 has to be included in your five items so pick four others as well.
About Item #5:
Now in this manual, I base everything on a 5 day work week. (Notice the 5 theme?) So that means that we need you to contact 30 people per week. That is 120 people in the first month of business. Your first 30 days are critical. If you have been in the business or licensed for a couple of months or so and have just received this manual then your first 30 days is starting now. Now if you can only think of 80 people in your "sphere of influence" list then that is fine. Some people are going to be contacted maybe in a different way a couple of times. People that you meet throughout the month count also. Remember this list is alive and ever growing and you need to keep feeding it. If you contact 30 people in one day then that is great. You have the remaining four days to do other pro-active things. Structure it however you want but do not allow yourself to do any less.
The form attached to the next page will need to be filled out and will become your first tool to creating a great business. For now, use that form for filling in your contacts for the purposes of this manual until we have reached the 30 day threshold and the office manager has signed it. You can then detach the form and put it into a contact file or binder or enter your contacts into a form on the computer or whatever. This is just the beginning for you. This is a very important first step in building your business. After reaching 30 days and having the form filled in with your contact actions then you can move on to the next Action Item. If it takes you 60 days to finish it, that is fine, but you cannot move on until your manager signs off on the form.
Now other things that are offered with our office in particular and should be done along with the above items in concert are the following:
•A) The Mall Kiosk - the kiosk is a fantastic way to learn how to get into conversations with people about Real Estate. People love talking about it. Have some material there to promote anything that you think will interest people. Something to give them when they walk away. Something that speaks for you. Make sure that you tell the front end staff that you want as many shifts as you can get. There are people that ascertain over 30% of their income to the kiosk leads that they meet. If you have a scheduled shift, please show up for it and make sure that you attend and if you cannot make it then make sure that it is covered by another REALTOR in the office.
•B) OPL - Other Peoples Listings - If you haven't any listings yet then use other peoples' listings to market and offer to do Open Houses for them. Anything that you can do to attract a phone call or an opportunity to meet Buyer's is what you need to be focussing on. There is no reason that you cannot do an Open House in a strategic area from 4pm to 7pm when people are driving around or on their way home from work. You don't have to limit yourself to weekends although that is a good time. Any extra work that can be done to sell a listing is great for the REALTOR that has that listing. It is encouraged in our office. They will probably even allow you to advertise their listings in your own Ad.