Category Archives: Business Planning

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The 5 Most Effective Things YOU can do to Sell MORE Homes Now

Real Estate Agents the Real Estate Market is Improving! Are You Ready?

After you have been in real estate for a while you begin to see that any business development, marketing and prospecting you do will take 3-6 months to bear fruit. This means the things you do today, if effective, will start to give you results and commissions in 90 -180 days. The following is the process that has worked for me and my team multiple times over the last 25 years to shift my business to the changing market or to refocus on where I want my clients to come from.

#1 Decide where you want to go –   (aka: Know Your Numbers) This is your #1 assignment grasshopper! What do you want? How much money do you want to make. How many homes do you want to sell this year? Once you know what you want, you can design a plan to get you there.

#2 Specialize – You may have heard the term get rich in your niche. This is the secret of the top producing Realtors. They have a niche. They focus intensely on the niche and they blow away their competition because of it. Decide Who YOU  Want To Work With!

#3 – Develop a Scripted Buyer and Seller Presentation – This is a game changer! The prepared agent is the winner. Plain and simple. A lot of agents like to wing it on the first appointment. Sort of ease into it…just get to know the prospect. NO, not you! This is not effective. Especially if another agent comes in after you with a scripted well researched and planned out presentation. You may be thinking “That sounds like a lot of work!” And it is, the first time. My goal is to teach you how to build a Perennial Sales System. Create it once and then use it time after time.

#4 – Set up Automated Systems that support your business goals. I am a big learner and I love to figure out how things work and then implement them…But only the FIRST time! Once I know how it works I want to hand it off to someone else and I am on to the next idea. Most Real Estate agents are social people and don’t want to be behind a desk all day! This is where systems come into play. It is important that you document all your processes and procedures so once you are busy you can hand them off to a rock star assistant.

#5 – Surround Yourself with a Mega Rock Star Team – You may not be in a position to hire anyone right now and that is OK. You can still have a team. My first team was made up of strategic partnerships. Find a competent and hungry loan officer. You only need one and you need to commit to each others success. Then move on to finding a great title company, inspector, insurance agent and other home service vendors to bring on to your team. Make sure they understand that this is to build both of your businesses. Some of them won’t understand they have to refer you business too. Keep searching until you find the right strategic partners.

This is just the tip of the iceberg to real estate sales success in my Perennial Sales System. In my system I have step by step how to guides, instructions to implement systems, worksheets to figure out your ideal client/niche, tracking and measurement spreadsheets, and additional resources along with online classes. I would love to share more with you. If you are struggling with figuring out any of the above such as, what is your best niche, who your ideal target market is, how to track your numbers, ideas for a scripted presentation, automating your systems or building your Mega Rock Star team, I would love to help. On my website www.perennialsystems.com you can sign up for a free 30 minute strategy session where we can brainstorm any one of these items and get you where you want to go! I look forward to connecting with you

 

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Are You Riding A Hamster Wheel?

hamster-wheelThe most challenging part of selling real estate or any sales for that matter is keeping your lead funnel full. In a perfect world while you are working with your clients selling them what they need there would be a process in place attracting new clients to you.

I used to feel like I was out of business after the closing of a transaction because I would be out of clients and need to start pounding the pavement again to find one. It can be so hard to stay motivated to “start over” after each and every sale. Then I figured out the secret solution.

The trick is to have a way to attract the people who are not yet ready to buy before your competition does by giving them something they want. I learned that my best and most favorite clients want information. They are learners. They want to research before they buy. They want checklists and information so that is what I provided. This is my tribe. The people I best fit with.

Once you figure out who you like to work with it gets easier to narrow down your marketing to find them.  I would love to brainstorm this with you. Set up your free 30 minute strategy session with me here and we can get you off the hamster wheel!

 

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Let’s talk Change

let's talkEvery October our school district takes a couple of days for teacher enrichment classes and gives the students two days off from school. It is almost like an extended holiday weekend here in Minnesota because we all are anticipating the long winter that is coming and so we squeeze the last bit of outdoor fun we can into these few days.  Normally we will try to go “up north” and have some family time hanging out and making pumpkin pies, but this year I have the privilege of accompanying my daughter on some college visits. She is our youngest child and the last to leave the nest. I have been through this before a few times but this time it is very different. It is exciting and nerve racking to watch her make decisions that could affect the next 40+ years of her life. There is the college choice, the degree program, the housing options and the debt… But what is getting to me the most is watching her as she is listening to the presentations. She has such excitement and anticipation in her eyes and I am so happy for her but am also realizing that when she goes to school next fall things will be really different for me. I will still be a Mom but there will be no one home to Mother. I don’t want to let her go. I want to grab her and somehow squish her back down to a little girl again. I want a few more years of helping her and loving her and the truth is I don’t really want my life to change.

Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher,  said that “Change is the only constant in life” and usually I have embraced that change. The president of the brokerage I worked for for 25 years called me the Queen of Reinvention and that really was true. With each shifting market I would adapt my business strategy and figure out how to find clients and thrive.  In business this comes easy for me. It is fun and challenging and my gift. My goal over the next few months is to figure out how to make this a positive transition as I navigate the waters into emptynesterhood.  Today we head down to Iowa to look at another school and I am going to share with her lots of jokes about Iowa since they are our rivals. There are some really good ones about cheerleaders and grazing. She will love that.

If you are struggling in your business and need to make a shift or small course correction in navigating your lead generation and follow up systems I invite you to download my freebie course designed to fill your funnel. You can find it under the tools and downloads tab or by clicking here.

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Attract – Sell – Wow!

Have you ever asked yourself… why aren’t more people interested? Why aren’t they buying from me? Why don’t my customers tell their friends about me?

Attracting customers starts with focus because, let’s face it, most consumers aren’t actively looking for your company. More often than not they’re looking for a solution that satisfies a particular need they have and will discover you either by accident or because you have a great Attract strategy in place.

Getting noticed in this noisy world is critical for the success of your business, but it’s not always easy to get the word out. The best way to get noticed is to start with a narrow focus. Define your ideal target by researching their demographics, attitudes, behaviors, motivations and favorite places to hang out, both online and in person. Then, start engaging with them in a helpful way, but be sure to have a way to follow up with them before they leave.

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Happy New Year!

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The First day of school feels like a new beginning of the year for me. I start with a new notebook for my to-do lists and I plan out how I will spend my weeks to come.

One of the most effective tools I have used is a form I put together called “Plan Your Perfect Week”.  I adopted this system about 20 years ago and it had been a huge help in time management for me. It is a week at a glance calendar layout. The first step is to determine my time OFF! This may sound counter productive but I am a little bit of a workaholic. My family gets irritated because once I start to focus on something I am gone… I plan out the family schedule first so I can be present when they want me to be.

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Plan Your Perfect Week

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Here is a great article by Michael Hyatt

You have a choice in life. 

You can either live on-purpose, according to a plan you’ve set. Or you can live by accident,…

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The first approach is proactive; the second reactive.

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Sure, you can’t plan for everything. Things happen that you can’t anticipate. But it is a whole lot easier to accomplish what matters most when you are proactive and begin with the end in mind.

One of the ways I do this is by plotting My Ideal Week. I was first introduced to this concept by author Todd Duncan in a series of audio recordings he made that eventually became the book, Time Traps: Proven Strategies for Swamped Salespeople.

The idea is similar to a financial budget. The only difference is that you plan how you will spend your time rather than your money. And like a financial budget, you spend it on paper first. Building Champions, the executive coaching company I recommend, refers to this as a “Time Block.”

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What is the best way to attract a steady stream of clients?

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Think of your ideal clients. The people in your niche. Your target market. Now think of all the people who fit into that group. There are likely a lot of them.

But here’s the bad news.

97% of your ideal clients are NOT looking for your product, program or service right now.

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3% are actively looking for your solution. They’re googling it at 3 am. They are super, actively looking for a solution to their problems and everyone is marketing to and fighting over this 3%.

It’s not that this kind of marketing doesn’t work. It does. It reaches and works on that 3% of your ideal clients. But it’s ignored by everyone else. This means your marketing might be being totally ignored by 97% of your target market.

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What’s Your Perfect Customer Lifecycle?

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There are seven distinct phases to the Perfect Customer Lifecycle:

Attract Traffic
This includes all of the work you do to generate interest in your business, like website traffic, foot traffic, etc. that comes from online/offline advertising, partners, etc.
Capture Leads
Smart businesses are very intentional about capturing contact information for interested leads as well as permission to follow up. As a real estate agent you run a small business. You can’t follow up if they leave your site or store, open house or showing appointment without giving you their info! What thing of value can you offer in exchange for their contact information.

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Who Is Your Perfect Target Market?

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Success in real estate sales involves constant evolution and adaptation to the ever changing market. Over the last 24 years I’ve been fortunate to have found success in a few different verticals within the real estate industry. Looking back I see a common series of steps that were taken to get to the point where the leads were coming in to my team at a steady pace and our sales cycle was even and profitable.

The first step is to determine your target market. This is really important. You cannot be everything to everybody. The more narrow your focus, the more accurate your marketing message will be for your targeted audience. You will have success in generating the right leads that will be seeking you out because you are a specialist in their particular need and you will have more sales as a result.

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Get Your Free Download of Think and Grow Rich

Receive a free copy of Think And Grow Rich by clicking here

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I am an avid reader and I can honestly say that of all the books I have read, besides the Bible, this book changed my life. I read it in 1992 while pregnant with my daughter Maria. I have had a handful of defining moments and this was one of them. I remember clearly the moment I took responsibility for my own life and career. The moment I realized that I would take care of my daughter and provide for her and that it was it was up to me.

Please download a free copy of this classic on me.

Here is a great synopsis of Think and Grow Rich by published on Business Insider.