Boost your production/Texas Realtor

September/October 2003

Boost your production

Five disciplines to increase your income.

by Dirk Zeller The world of real estate is continuing to evolve. Even with all the mergers, sales, and consolidations in the industry, there is one constant: Agents who learn to be better business and salespeople will be more successful. Agents who learn the five disciplines of increasing production will have a thriving business.

Discipline number one: Create a schedule

That schedule should encompass your whole life. Your personal life must be factored in to create balance. I have seen far too many agents sacrifice their family to achieve a production goal or certain amount of commission earned. When they finally reach their goal, they have no one to share it with, or they realize what little importance that goal has compared to their family.

I have a friend who tragically lost a child and now is reflecting on the years of decisions made for the sake of a few plaques and personal production goals. Those plaques or even the money earned are little comfort to her at a time of great sorrow. What a hollow feeling for that highly successful agent!

The schedule should encompass the "time block" system. By time blocking, I mean to schedule specific time for each daily activity in real estate. Schedule time to prospect, qualify buyers and sellers, negotiate contracts, return phone calls, make listing presentations, and show property. The better you time block, the more effective you will be.

Remember to allow for a little playtime or flex time. You will need 15 minutes or so every two to three hours to relax and decompress. This relaxation enables you to stay focused and sharp during the "up time."

Discipline number two: Prospect daily

There are as many ways of prospecting as there are people. The key is that you must do something daily to bring in the business. You can prospect via the phone (subject to do-not-call rules) or in person. You can prospect expired listings, FSBOs, apartments for buyers, investment properties, your sphere, and out-of-area owners. The list is truly endless. The truth is, if you are not spending a minimum of one hour every day prospecting for new business, you will have difficulty during stretches of your career. Even calling your past clients and asking for referrals is an excellent way to prospect.

Often when agents get busy, prospecting is the first discipline to be shelved. Their theory is: I am busy–I don’t need to prospect anymore. The truth is, this is the time to pour it on. You have momentum, so keep going.

The analogy I like to use is if a plane is on the runway, it takes a tremendous amount of energy to climb to 20,000 feet. Once the plane is at 20,000 feet, it can throttle back a little and easily maintain its cruising altitude. If the plane throttles back completely, it will soon be back down on the runway. Do not throttle back your prospecting or you will find yourself on the runway quickly. Consistency in your prospecting leads to consistency in your paydays.

Discipline number three: Qualify the potential client

This one is crucial to success. I see more agents make mistakes in this area than any other. They are afraid to qualify people to the point of excluding them. The whole goal in qualifying is exclusion of the unmotivated. If you do not become skilled at excluding the unmotivated buyers and sellers, they will waste your time. They will eventually drive you out of the business, both emotionally and financially.

The most valuable commodity you have in life is your time. We all have a finite amount of time here on earth. We do not even know how much we have left. If we choose to work with unqualified, unmotivated, unloanable, unable-to-sell people too often, we are out of business. Spending five hours showing people property only to find out that they are working with another agent, unable to buy due to bad credit, have no money, or are unrealistic about the value of homes today is a painful experience. Any one of these people causes us frustration and leads to macaroni and cheese for dinner. Do not allow these people to control your business.

The majority of agents in our industry need to strengthen this discipline dramatically. They allow their clients to be the CEO of their real estate sales company.

To all of us, leads are like security. If we have them, we feel secure and we do not have to find new ones. The truth is, a lead by itself has no value. What is the true value of your leads? What would someone pay you for all your leads? Why not make them worth something by qualifying them well, then set an appointment or throw them out if they are of no value (which includes most of them). Leads have little value stored in your computer. If you are not following-up on them, chuck them. You can always create more leads. You can get more than you can handle. Why not pick only the best ones?

Discipline number four: Understand your business

By understanding, I mean know where it comes from. What are the top three income-producing activities you do? Where do you spend your time daily? Compare those two answers.

What are you worth per hour? Take your gross commissions and divide by the number of hours worked. Take that per-hour dollar value and determine the activities you can do to earn that amount per hour. Then do those activities the bulk of your day. I’ll give you a hint: it is not putting up signs and lockboxes unless you want to make less than $10 an hour. You are a business owner of a company that sells millions of dollars a year in product. You need to know about your business.

Discipline number five: Develop a philosophy

By philosophy, I mean guidelines for doing business, both personally and professionally. If you understand your value per hour and your average commission check, you can determine the type of people you are willing to work with. You may not be able to work in a certain price range or with certain types of people. When a buyer does not give you the exact answers you need, you can refer him to another agent or drop him because he does not meet your philosophy. We were not put on this earth to help everyone. There are people we cannot help. This does not make them bad people. That also does not make you a bad person. It just makes you a business person who expects a reasonable profit for the time invested. (Just make sure you follow all fair-housing laws.)

Once I was clear on my philosophy of who was a client and what I expected of a client, I did not have to deal with people who did not conform to my philosophy. You need to concisely define your world of business. This definition will enable you to better select the people you work with. We have all selected the wrong people, softened our standards, spent large amounts of time and money working with people we should not have, and felt awful afterwards. Then we never were paid or appreciated for our efforts. You will feel much better turning them down before you invest your time, energy, and money in a losing cause.

By learning the value of control in your life, you will be able to create a growing, thriving business. You will also be creating a thriving life.

Dirk Zeller, president of Real Estate Champions, is a top coach in the real estate industry. His coaching systems are built around his success in the ‘90s as one of the top agents in North America.

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