Well yes, it's certainly been a while since I've written here. This has been an interesting year for me businesswise and in August I decided to take a break from The Real Estate Success Network. Even I get burned out after a while. I've still been helping our current members as needed and they are now grandfathered into our membership of the new site that will be launching in the next month or so.
In the end, I love teaching and helping others succeed in Real Estate, especially using the programs that I have developed. I'll continue doing the coaching which is very fun. Right now I'm full as I only work with 5 Agents at any one time.
A few of the things we have been working on during the break:
1. We have been making significant changes to our LCA program in the way be drill down our searches and the transitions from Agent to LCA and back to Agent. So far it looks good, but I'll hold judgement until after the first of the year.
2. When looking at our numbers, it made sense that we are going to average 1.5 sales per agent per month. Yes, I have Agents that are averaging up to 3 sales per month, but I have to look at the averages when running a brokerage. For that reason we have decided to go out and recruit more agents and bring our total to 30.
3. Recruiting of course is a challenge but I have been working with my LCA's in our recruitment efforts. Since I have never recruited before, this is new territory for me. Luckily, it has worked out better than I could have expected. We started interviewing the first week of October and interviewed 20 Agents. Out of the 20, we found 4 that we thought would fit our team. Our LCA's will be continuing to set up appointments and we have scheduled another training session for new agents in mid November. My goal is at least 6 more Agents. We should hit 30 by the end of the year.
If all goes as expected, and we average 1.5 sales per month, then we will hit our goal of 45-50 sales per month in 2013. We shall see.
4. Rebuilding The Real Estate Success Network - This has been a goal of mine for a while. We are building more of a shopping cart platform where our members will have access to a lot of free content, and will be able to purchase webinars based on their needs. I felt this might be a better way to increase the business and keep in affordable to all our future members. We have run into a few problems with the platform we are using and I'm hoping to resolve these shortly. My goal would be to get the new site up and running by mid November.
5. Listings - With the Real Estate Market in Florida changing quickly, and inventory at a 6 year low, I have started testing a few different campaigns to generate listings. Right now I'm testing an online program (so far nothing good to report) and we are getting ready to do something I know most Realtors won't do...list homes for free in specific neighborhoods we want to dominate. This is very exciting and once I test it the first week of November, I'll be putting together a webinar on the subject.
6. Mindset - I've realized, well I've actually known, that for me to excel at all my businesses, my mind has to be in the game at all time. Coaching has really helped me to focus more on my most important aspects of each company. The hardest part of this is time management, which I know all of you can relate too. However, it also has to do with keeping a very positive attitude, treating people with respect, having a genuine desire to help others, and constantly be growing. If you stop growing you are dying.
With that said, even if I'm not on here very often these days, I'm still here. I'm still tweaking our lead conversion programs and still coming up with new ways of generating real estate customers. If you need me, just drop me a note. Have a great night and keep on smiling!
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Year End Stats - 2011
I’m putting together stats from the past year and have come across two important stats that I wanted to share with everyone. Hopefully it will show the importance of building relationships quickly.
Stat 1
2008 or earlier - 15%
2009 - 22%
2010 - 27%2011 - 37%
Look at the numbers from 2010 and earlier, 63% of our sales are because of our systems of listing updates and follow up phone calls. This is all that matters. If we did nothing with those leads, we would get exactly that from them....nothing!
Stat 2
This one is based on the 37% of our buyers this year that bought from leads in 2011.
41% bought within 90 days
38% bought within 180 days
21% bought within 365 days
What does that tell us? To me it looks like most buyers are buying within 90 days even though our average has been consistent at 233 days the past couple years. This means if we do a better job of getting hold of our leads sooner verse later, we can turn sales quicker. Also, for those Agents that only try to get hold of a lead once, this should show you that you need to be on top of your leads and call multiple times to earn their business because if they are going to buy in that 90 day window, you don't have much time.
Suggestions
As much as follow up with leads is crucial for long term conversion, be sure that you are calling your new leads at least 3-4 times to get hold of them. The stats above say we are probably missing a ton of sales by not getting hold of these leads quickly and building a relationship with them.
If you have an LCA, once you know the Agent has made contact, follow behind them and give the lead a quick call to introduce yourself and let them know that you and your “assistant” will be doing everything we can to help them find their home. Ultimately they have to like you, the Agent, if they are going to use you. If there relationship is just with an LCA, then you have not built any trust or relationship which will lower their loyalty level to you.
Stat 1
2008 or earlier - 15%
2009 - 22%
2010 - 27%2011 - 37%
Look at the numbers from 2010 and earlier, 63% of our sales are because of our systems of listing updates and follow up phone calls. This is all that matters. If we did nothing with those leads, we would get exactly that from them....nothing!
Stat 2
This one is based on the 37% of our buyers this year that bought from leads in 2011.
41% bought within 90 days
38% bought within 180 days
21% bought within 365 days
What does that tell us? To me it looks like most buyers are buying within 90 days even though our average has been consistent at 233 days the past couple years. This means if we do a better job of getting hold of our leads sooner verse later, we can turn sales quicker. Also, for those Agents that only try to get hold of a lead once, this should show you that you need to be on top of your leads and call multiple times to earn their business because if they are going to buy in that 90 day window, you don't have much time.
Suggestions
As much as follow up with leads is crucial for long term conversion, be sure that you are calling your new leads at least 3-4 times to get hold of them. The stats above say we are probably missing a ton of sales by not getting hold of these leads quickly and building a relationship with them.
If you have an LCA, once you know the Agent has made contact, follow behind them and give the lead a quick call to introduce yourself and let them know that you and your “assistant” will be doing everything we can to help them find their home. Ultimately they have to like you, the Agent, if they are going to use you. If there relationship is just with an LCA, then you have not built any trust or relationship which will lower their loyalty level to you.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)