Jan O'Brien - Real Estate Coach

Create a Powerful Referral System with these 7 Action Steps

SOI/ Past Client Referral System

There are 3 basic reasons why many agents fail to conquer the most important real estate system to implement – your Sphere of Influence (SOI) and Past Client Referral System.

1. They never decide on a contact management or software solution.
2. If they have a solution, they don’t enter the contacts, sort and categorize them.
3. They over-analyze or never decide what to do or send out each month – thus, ultimately doing nothing for months on end.

So, let’s break it down step-by-step, get this critical system in place and generating business and referrals immediately.  The key to implementing this system is to commit to the process and set a deadline to complete each action step, one at a time. 

 

Action Step 1 - Create your list of past clients and sphere of influence.  If you have started a list or have it scattered in 2 or 3 places (MLS client, Outlook, other email program, scraps of paper, transaction folders, etc) get it all together in one place.  Make sure you have all the vital information on your contacts – names, address, emails, phone numbers, IM names or other social networking contact info.  Try these two tools to help you with creating or adding to your SOI list:

• Download Discover Your Sphere
• Download Do You Know?

Set deadline for completion: __________

Action Step 2 - Decide on a contact management /real estate transaction system.  You can choose a program like Outlook to get started and always upgrade to a more comprehensive, real estate-specific program.  The important thing is to choose something and just get started!  When researching and deciding on the right Customer Relationship Management software for you… consider these features to compare…

• Accessibility (Mobile access, cloud-based, desktop)
• Easy of use
• Price (One time cost vs. monthly subscription)
• Import/Export capability
• Auto drip email campaigns
• Transaction management
• Listing management
• Contact/Client management 

REST – Real Estate Success Tracker  (www.GetRESTnow.com )  ($399 for single user license)

http://www.realestatesuccesstools.com
REST is my personal recommendation.  In my opinion, REST is the best real estate software on the market.  Easy to use, more intuitive, not as complicated as many programs. 
Single and multi-user options available.  You install REST on your desktop/laptop but you can also remotely access from your PDA or another computer.

REST_Assured, hosted option for $34.98/mth

Top Producer, http://www/topproducer.com ($ 39.95/mth)

Top Producer is a cloud-based CRM (Customer Relationship Management), real estate transaction management system.  Virtual assistant.    

Realty Juggler  http://www.realtyjuggler.com   ($99/yr   Free 90 day trial) Cloud-based CRM, mobile access, re flyers, activity/taks plans, team support 

Respond – a real estate specific application to use with Microsoft Outlook  ($399) available through Pat Zaby’s website: http://www.patzaby.com/products/respond/

Other CRM solutions

Real Estate Website – Your Back Office of your real estate website solution may have a CRM component

Email newsletters and email list management options:

• Constant Contact  http://www.constantcontact.com
• Mail Chimp  http://mailchimp.com
• Aweber  http://www.aweber.com
• Happy Grasshopper  https://happygrasshopper.com/
• iContact  http://www.icontact.com/

Research the solutions and make a decision.  Set deadline for purchase, installation and familiarization/training: _____________

 

Action Step 3 - Input all contact information into selected program.  Set aside a few hours and get this task done!  If you aren’t going to get to this task any time soon - hire someone to get this job done for you.  Computer-savvy people (teenagers, family members, your colleagues’ family members, agents in your office, local high school or community college students) are everywhere – find someone and hire them for this project. 

Set your deadline: ________________

 

Action Step 4 - Sort and categorize your database.  Optimally, complete this step simultaneously with the data entry of Step 3.  I recommend using the technique taught by Brian Buffini (www.buffiniandcompany.com) to sort your database:

• A+ Multiple transactions or multiple referrals
• A Referred at least one client
• B Haven’t referred yet – probably will when you remind them/show them how
• C You know them/just met them – haven’t sold them a home yet
• D Delete - Not going to mail to them

You can also group your database by other specific categories or contact types (sellers, buyers, farm, past clients, newsletter, prospects, vendors, investors, short sale prospects, etc).

Action Step 5 - Create an Introduction or Reconnect letter with a deadline to mail out.

• The letter should outline what the recipient can expect from this point forward; what services you provide; your client appreciation program; local market updates; annual market analysis of their property; business-to-business resources to name some possibilities.

• If you are a New Agent, ask your broker for an endorsement letter from your Broker – company.  The concept here is the SOI member knows that the agent is new and may not have a high level of confidence in their ability or experience yet.   The letter reassures the potential client that not only do you get the agent but a team of professionals and support staff.
• For those of you who have not done a great job staying in regular contact with your database, write a “reconnect” letter. Here is a sample letter: Download ConfessionLetter.doc - Brian Buffini calls it a “confession” letter.

Bonus Action Step:  Call the people in your database and ask this qualifying and sorting question (Mayor Campaign from Brian Buffini program):

“Oh by the way, if you were buying or selling a home or had a friend or family member who was, am I the Realtor you would refer them to?”

“Who is the next person you know who is interested in investing in real estate?  …could benefit from a foreclosure alternatives consultation?

This one extra step will help you immediately sort your database and the major side benefit…you will more than likely generate business either directly or by referral from the activity of all the calls you make.

Set deadline for completion: __________

Action Step 6 - Decide on what you are going to mail or email each month.  This is the step many agents get stuck on.  They can’t decide on what to send or procrastinate about it or waste time creating their own newsletter or mailout.  Here are some suggestions to get you started.  Just pick one and do it.  You can always modify and refine later.

• Referral Systems for Real Estate
  • Brian Buffini http://buffiniandcompany.com/
  • Joe Stumpf  http://www.byreferralonly.com
    
• Current Market Data
  
  • Local or State REALTOR Association
    GLVAR has a Consumer Newsletter
    CAR has Client Direct – online newsletter
  • Most local Title Companies provide excellent market condition reports.  This is the information people are most interested in – what is happening in your local market.  Be the provider of that information!
  • Altos Research  http://www.altosresearch.com
  • Market Snapshot  http://www.topproducer.com/products/market-snapshot.aspx

• Other Resources
  • Lowe’s REALTOR Benefits https://www.lowesrealtorbenefits.com/Default.aspx
  • NAR House Logic  http://members.houselogic.com/start/
  • Send Out Cards  https://www.sendoutcards.com/
  • Impact Marketng http://www.solutionsbyimpact.com/
  • XpressDocs  http://www.xpressdocs.com/
  • Prospects Plus  http://www.prospectsplus.com/
  • eNeighborhoods  http://www.eneighborhoods.com/
  • Personal Marketing Company http://www.tpmco.com
  • Real Estate Marketing Products  http://www.reamark.com/
  • Realty Times http://realtytimes.com/
  • TMA Farmnet http://www.tmafarmnet.com/
  • Quantum Marketing http://quantumdigital.com/real-estate-marketing-printing

 

Action Step 7 – Systemize it!  This is the final step and a key to the overall success of the system.  It simply means deciding on a day or week of the month that you will actually prepare and send out your monthly mailer or email.  Schedule it.  Place it on a visible calendar and make it happen.  Hire someone to get this task complete for you if you don’t want to do it yourself.

Read more Real Estate Business System Articles

Creating a Saleable Asset & Designing Your Real Estate Career Exit Strategy

The primary focus of much of the coaching I conduct with real estate agents is how to set-up, operate and ultimately exit from their successful real estate business.  In this multi-part series I want to discuss some of the key points and strategies for making that happen.  In my experience as a broker-manager and coach for the last 16 years, it amazes me how many top-producing agents are unbelievable rainmakers and not always the best at managing their finances or their team, setting up and utilizing effective systems and running the business like a business.

As an industry, training is primarily focused on basic sales skills, prospecting and how to generate and convert those leads or build referral business.  Of course, all these skills are critical to a successful real estate career.  In my opinion, what's missing is effective training and coaching on the basic and advanced business and financial structure and systems that any successful business uses on a daily basis.  Where is that training?

At Prudential Americana Group, I've been fortunate enough to be part of the development of a model     that does just that - assist the real estate professional who wants to start-up, operate and eventually exit from the real estate business.

Here's what I will be covering in this series:

• Determining the value of your real estate business
• The Essential Real Estate Business Systems
• Real Estate Team Building Systems - an overview
• Establishing metrics to measure your business health
• Exit Strategy - from training your replacement to buyout considerations

Factors in determining the value of your real estate business.

Without a strategic action plan and clear exit strategy, an agent desiring to leave the real estate business generally has this as an option:  Find another agent to takeover their client database and give them a referral on any business generated.  Some agents have negotiated a "purchase price" for their database.  But here's the issue - how do you determine the value of your database?  Does the agent who's "taking over your business" have the rapport and relationship with your database?  Later in this series I'll share some ideas for finding and training your replacement as an exit strategy which if leveraged with other strategies can result in a much higher purchase price or residual income agreement.

Here are some considerations to help determine the value of your real estate business:

• The quality and size of your database. 
  
  What kind of historical data do you have on your clients?  Is it more than just their names, addresses, phone numbers and email? 
  
  Do you know....

• Favorite Restaurants?
• Favorite free time activities?
• Children's favorite activities?
• Children's schools/grade levels/ages?
• Where did they move from?
• Do they have plans to relocate to another city in the future?
• Place of worship?
• Favorite charities?
• Investment wants?
• On-going information requests?
• Where they like to shop for clothes and food?
• Their passions? Hobbies?
• Where they vacation?
• Marital status?
  
• Place of employment?
  

• What software program do you use to maintain your database?
  
  A better question may be...Do you use a system to maintain your database?  And if the answer is no, then this is a critical first step to handle ASAP.  Stop procrastinating already!  Make a decision on the software and/or system and hire someone to get all the contact data loaded.
  
  Read my post:  7 Action Steps to Creating Your SOI/Past Client Referral System for some guidance and suggestions on software programs and implementing your SOI system.
  

• Have you categorized and sorted your client database? 
  I recommend the Brian Buffini system for maintaining and building referrals.  This is the category description from Buffini:
  
  A+    Have given you multiple referrals and you love working with them
  A      Have given you a referral and you want to receive more referrals from them
  B      People who would refer you, if they were asked and shown how
  C      People who might refer to you in the future
  D      People to be deleted from your database
  
• Do you have lead generation systems in place that can easily be transferred and taught to a replacement?

• Have you implemented effective and duplicatable real estate systems?  Listings, Buyers, Escrows, Lead Generation & tracking, Business Plan, Personal Branding & Promotion, Advertising & Marketing, Referrals

• Do you know your numbers? Can you clearly show your track record for production currently and in the past to include income, expenses, sources of transactions, return on various marketing venues and target markets? 

•  Do you have a real estate team in place? Do you know what the team members contribute to your bottom line?Do you have accountability systems and production tracking set-up?
  

Next in the series, I'll get in to more detail about the essential real estate systems and share some ideas for implementing those systems in your business.

How to Design Your Exit Strategy

On my Active Rain Blog, I started a series of posts on how to Create a Saleable Asset and Design Your Exit Strategy. 

Here's what I will be covering in this series:

• Determining the value of your real estate business
• The Essential Real Estate Business Systems
• Real Estate Team Building Systems - an overview
• Establishing metrics to measure your business health
• Exit Strategy - from training your replacement to buyout considerations

Visit this first post for some ideas on how to determine the value of your real estate business.

Review of Group Coaching Sessions 1 & 2

Here's an update on Our Group Coaching Session & Discussion Forum series.  In our first session, we covered Keys to Success in Team Building, the components of a successful business, and business & financial basics.  Outlined below are the key points on business & financial basics.  See the specific blog posts for details on team building theory and components of a successful business.  I am currently editing the audio of the second session on Real Estate Systems and starting a series of blog posts this week to cover each system individually.

• The five successful components of any business
  1. Know Your Desired Outcome
  2. Measure & Track Your Results 
  3. Take Action
  4. Operate from a Physiology and Psychology of Excellence
  5. Ask for Help
• Business & Financial Essentials
  • Establish yourself as a corporate entity (including your license)
  • Begin establishing routine financials (Profit & Loss; Balance Sheet)
  • Utilize a recognized software package (Quickbooks, Peachtree, etc.)
  • Utilize a financial consultant (CPA preferred)
  • Establish a separate business banking account and credit card
  • Create a dashboard of metrics measuring your operations health

In the second group coaching held on April 23rd, we had an excellent small group breakout session on 4 of the key systems:  SOI/Past Clients; Farming; Listings; Buyers.  Download GroupNotes4_23_07.doc  for the best ideas from the discussion groups.

Team Building Systems Overview

Over the next several weeks, I will be completing a series of posts on how to establish effective team building and real estate systems.  The focus will be on how to first implement the system for your personal business. This information will benefit all real estate agents whether you are or plan on building a team.  I will also discuss how to create a team version of each system.  One of the keys to success in building a team is to have easily, duplicatable real estate systems that your team associates can simply plug in to - plug 'n' play - don't reinvent the wheel. 

Here are the major systems we will be focusing on (one by one) over the next several weeks:

1. Business Systems Assessment & Financial Essentials
2. Team Vision, Mission, Values & UVP
3. Team Branding, Marketing & Promotion
4. Team Organizational Chart 
5. Team Building Admin Basics
6. Team SOI/Referral System
7. Team Listing System
8. Team Buyer & Escrow System
9. Team Farming System
10. Team Business Plan & Goal Setting
11. Lead Generation & Follow-up Systems
12. Recruiting/Affiliation System

Top 10 Real Estate Team Leader Best Practices

1. Mindset Adjustment – You Are Your Team!
2. Hire and retain a compatible, qualified Team Manager (TM) or be prepared to be the TM
3. Hire talented office support staff and delegate effectively
4. Use clear, concise Team Associate & Manager Contracts
   * Commission structure
   * Separation policy
   * Expectations
5. Implement team policies and procedures (create a written operations manual for your team)
6. Implement effective team building systems
7. Communicate regularly with your team members (Scheduled team meetings)
8. Attend office sales meetings to stay up-to-date with office, company policies, events and market conditions
9. Review all contracts and paperwork for sales and listings
10. Continually Educate Yourself and Your Team
    * Office and company training programs
    * Team training
    * Leadership training
    * Broker Training Courses
    * Obtain the Risk Reduction Graduate (RRG) designation

The 5 C's of Team Success (RISMedia article review)

I enjoyed this article by Paul Rutter from RISMedia today entitled, "The 5 C's of Team Success.".  The article adresses teamwork from the perspective of a company and how the management team can build a winning team using the 5 C's.  Of course, these principles apply to building success with your team - your own brokerage within a brokerage.

1. Build COMMUNITY - This starts with the leadership team always.  A new member to the team/company must feel welcomed and feel a part of the group immediately.  Do you have a system of welcoming and acknowledging a new team member?  Some ideas:  a welcome card mailed to their home: get their bio and background and publish it in your next meeting agenda: introduce them at a sales meeting.  Assign a transition buddy to help with questions and orientation to the office.  Conduct a formal branch/team orientation.
2. Encourage COOPERATION - Do you have common goals for the team/office and is everyone aware of them?  Do you encourage participation in meetings?  How about asking a team member to run the next team meeting or conduct a training class?  Do you have a feedback mechanism in place - suggestion box, advisory board, forum?
3. Support COORDINATION - Ensure everyone is clear about expectations, job performance and specific roles and responsibilities.  What are your methods of communication?  Team/sales meetings, email, website/blog/intranet, written documents?
4. Promote COMMUNICATION - Clear, open, two-way communication is vital to any realtionship and organization.
5. Offer continuous COACHING - Everyone benefits from ongoing coaching and training.  It's more than accountability - it's a way to relate to your team members and show how much you care about and support their individual success.

Revised dates for “Building Your Own Brokerage” Group Coaching

Adjustments to the schedule for April and May.  Please note:

Monday, 16 April 2007 from 1:00pm – 4:00pm (How to Implement Effective Team Systems) has been rescheduled to Monday, 23 April 2007 at Equity Title from 1:30pm – 4:30pm. 

Monday, 14 May 2007 (Recruiting, Hiring and Retaining the Right Team Members) has been rescheduled to Monday, 7 May 2007 at Equity Title from 1:00pm – 4:00pm.

“Building Your Own Brokerage”
Group Coaching, Training and Networking Sessions
for Team Leaders and Team Managers

Coach/Facilitator: Jan O’Brien

Location: Equity Title Training Center
(4035 S. Tenaya Way - 2nd driveway north of Flamingo, behind Equity’s main building)
www.JanOBrien.com (Real Estate Coach Blog)

Register online www.CareerRealty.com or
RSVP to Strategic Growth Division at 318-4043 to reserve your seat. 

Three Types of People and How They Fit in the Real Estate Business

This is my 15th year in the real estate industry.  During this second career, I have been a successful listing and sales agent and served as a sales manager, broker-manager, trainer and coach.  During my early management days I used to think I could ”fix” people.  I would hire 10 new agents to my office and just know that because my company had the best tools, training and support and that I cared and was a solid manger – I could get most of these new agents to be successful in the business.  Here’s the reality – you can’t fix people.  They are who they are!  Each person comes with their own degree of self-confidence, personality traits, behaviors and success characteristics. 

Now they all have the dream and wish to be successful in the real estate business.  Success for many first year real estate agents is to earn $100,000.  Whenever I teach a business plan class and ask how much money do you want to make this year, inevitably the response is $100,000.  It is possible to earn this in your first year if you are willing to get out of your comfort zone and get in front of enough people who need your service – to buy or sell real estate.  It also requires sales skill, inventory (market) knowledge, and technical expertise.  This business requires constant, ongoing education and training.  And, as always, experience is the best teacher. 

So, why do so many fail in this business?  Why are approximately 75% of agents out of the business within the first two years of being licensed? 

Team Building Article from RISMedia

This article entitled "Team Realities: After Advertising, Compensating and Training, Can You Stay Profitable?"  is about how one top agent thrives managing a team of 23.

"Burnout was what nearly caused Leigh to quit real estate six years ago at just 30 years old. Deals were coming in non-stop; he was a new parent and something had to give. It was either get out or get help. Leigh chose to dig in and form a team to help him balance his book of business, and today he reports a team volume on the order of 320 units and $152 million in sales volume for 2006. "

Ashley Leigh answers questions about:

• Why he built a team
• How he remained profitable
• How he compensates his team agents
• How he presents the team concept to his clients
• What he gets out of his investment in coaching and training
• Best ideas for holding an effective team meeting