What is holding you back?

I often look at my agents and wonder what really is holding them back. They have so much potential and business sitting in their database that just needs to be prospected. However, most of them do not do anything extra to convert leads to sales. If it wasn't for our software, they would most likely be struggling more than they already do.

Tonight I was looking at the leads in my system. I do this often, but right now my goal is not as much of what they are or are not working, but what is really holding them back. I've been talking about mindset alot lately. Mainly because I've had to adjust my mindset recently to get to a new place in my mind. Yes, even I can get down and negative sometimes. Luckily I understand the power of positive thinking and how that affects my daily life. I was able to change my mindset pretty quickly.

So what stops most people from succeeding? To me, the biggest part of this is the lack of confidence in themselves. Others don't feel they deserve to be successful as they never have been and think that is for others. Others are so afraid of failure that they figure if they don't try, they can't fail. Of course those of us who know, know that not trying is failure!

There is only one thing holding you back right now. Just look in the mirror and you will see that person. You have so much power in that brain of yours, that if you can unleash just a little bit of it, your business will rise dramatically. Become more positive and believe in yourself and your life changes...just like that! I like to say to people, "get yourself out of the way". Sometimes you are your own worst enemy.

So here is the answer: Set a Goal, Honestly Believe You can Accomplish This Goal, Work 80% of your time at revenue generating tasks and work Full Time! If you follow these steps your life changes. Does it take hard work to reach your goals? Of course it does! Go for it!

What can you do?

Whether you believe you can or believe you can't, you are right! Henry Ford

This is one of my favorite quotes! If you believe you can't accomplish your goals and make as much as you would like, you won't. However, if you truly believe you can, you will! What is the difference between yourself and the most successful Agent in your office? They Believe!

What good is a QR code?

The first thing we should cover is how to create a QR code. The easiest, best, and FREE QR code creator is at the ZXing Project. This page allows you to add some extra information and to perform differnt actions. For instance, one QR code may be on your printed material to take people to a specific page on your website that contains a call to action. These are called “landing pages”. Another QR code could be on the back of your business card. This allows people to enter your contact information just by scanning the code. Yet another may be used on a real estate flyer box. You know the always empty flyer boxes!! Well now it doesn’t matter. Your prospective customer can just scan the QR code and be taken directly to the listing on your website where they can view the virtual tour right on their phone. This should eliminate some nuissance showings… LOL!

Looking at the ZXing Project site, there are many options under the contents drop down box. I recommend using the contact information selection. You can enter all your contact information, plus a web address, and a memo. You can create a new QR code for each property, or item you wish to highlight. Just change the URL to direct the customer to the correct page on your website to learn more about the property or item for sale. Make sure you have a good URL to direct them to. If you don’t understand a good URL leave me a comment and I will write about that too! As for the memo section of your QR code, Make sure you have a call to action. Something like “Click here to learn more about xxxx and get your 10% off coupon!” Something enticing so that people will come see you.

Once you hit the generate button, you will see the code pop up. Underneath it you will see a link to download, and a small piece of code for embedding this on a website. Use what you need and start using them today!!

Here is what I created: Scan it to see where it takes you! :)

To call or not to call

I've received a bunch of calls recently about whether or not you should call your leads or not. I know you all know how I feel about this, but I wanted to comment. Here is what this company is saying. They believe that you shouldn't chase leads (prospect). They believe that when a lead is ready to buy, they will be contacting you.

Here is the reality. There are certainly leads that will contact you when they are ready to buy as long as you have been sending them listings and what they are looking to buy. However, the question isn't those leads, it's the leads (money), that you have left on the table because you didn't make any calls. Simple answer. My Agents (who no longer receive leads) who didn't make calls would get 5-10 sales per year without lifting a finger. Yup, it's possible. However, my Agents that make calls sell 20-30 homes per year from leads. The numbers don't lie.

Let's look at another scenario. You are sending someone listings and never call. You never have any conversation except maybe an email or two. They are on another website, which they are always, and that agent calls and has a discussion with them about their home purchase and continues to follow up. Who do you think they are going to use when it comes time to buy?

In the end, those who give great customer service and follow up will always sell more homes than those who just wait for the leads to call you. I know it sounds great...you never have to make a call and the sales just come pouring in. As long as you don't mind losing a ton of sales, I guess that's ok. Frankly, I spend much too much money on my Internet marketing, I'm not about to let them go if I don't have to.

Prospect your database, you have a gold mine sitting there, all you have to do is call!

When is the best time to call your leads?

We have tried several times during the days and evenings calling our leads to figure out the best time. We definitely talk to more people between 4pm and 7pm at night. The key of course is the contact.

I have seen so many Agents, mine included, who will call a lead once and then never call again. What a waste of a potential sale. One Agent said to me once, "if they don't call me back, they must not be really interested". Another said, "I'm not going to chase anyone to work with me, they should be happy that I'm going to work for them". I said, "REALLY?!"

The key to success in Real Estate, or any sales industry, is prospecting. This means picking up the phone and calling your leads. For those of us who have chosen the Internet path, this makes life very easy. You have a database, you have leads in your database, you are sending them listings, then call them...it's a warm call and they will be happy you called! What a concept!

If you call someone during the day and it is a home number, then you need to call back at night. If you call and it's a cell phone during the day, you might need to call at night. Most people aren't Realtors and don't have access to their phones all day like we do. If you call at night and it's a work number, you need to call during the day. This isn't rocket science (I say that too much these days), but if you look at yourself in the mirror, are you doing it? Are you calling your leads more than once. I believe you should call and leave a message at least 3-4 times before you stop trying. Then, after a week or so if they are active in the system, call them again. Do we like to chase leads? Of course not, nobody does, but those who prospect (chase) sell more homes.

To see the report, go to: http://www.leadresponsemanagement.org/lrm_study

Have a great day!

Lead Conversion Agent - The Name has changed, the position is the same!

I know lately I have been talking a lot about the LCA position. I've recently changed the name of Lead Conversion Administrator to Lead Conversion Agent. Why you may ask? Well we recently ran into an issue with the IRS because they believe that mainly because of our name of our LCA (and because we were giving them a base pay), that they are administrators not Independent Contractors. This of course has major tax implications so we decided to change the name to better describe what an LCA is in reality. We continuing to discuss this with the IRS, but why leave things to chance.

Why am I so committed to the LCA program? It's quite simple, I know that the more people we contact, the more loyalty we earn. The loyalty we earn will turn into more sales and more customers for life. In reality, our Agents are only making money if they are out in the field showing homes, taking listings and writing offers and contracts. Our LCA position is the future of our business. It will eventually take the Agent out of the lead conversion role and more into the Realtor role. After all, most of our Agents are great Realtors, but that doesn't make them great lead converters.

Recently we have been able to really start refining the program. Once we started with our new phone calling system, the MOJO system (you can check it out at www.resnphonecalls.com), in November, we knew we were taking the LCA position to the next level. Now we know we can contact the volume of people needed to generate more showings which in turn means more sales. However, we were still not converting the number of showings I wanted. This past week we figured out another piece of the puzzle. We realized that it wasn't the volume, but better deciding which leads to call.

Our LCA's were spending most of their time calling our Good phone number no contact leads. We had thought that if we can contact these we will be able to save a ton of leads. The program worked well. However, we realized this past week that this category, our prospecting category, should be just called 1 week per month. We also realized we have two categories that really are our most active leads, our shown property leads and our calendared leads. These are the two categories with the most potential to get people in our Agent's cars today.

So here is our new calling schedule for an average month:

Week 1 - Calling our Good Phone/No Contact

Week 2 and 3 - Calling our most active leads that have yet to schedule a time to come see homes.

Week 4 - Calling our shown property did not buy and our calendared categories. This is done the 4th week of the month confirming those leads who booked for the following month first, and then the shown property leads. Recently we added the ability to search our database based on leads that have saved listings along with opened their emails in the last 30 days. In the last 30 days we had 801 leads that have opened their emails and saved at least 1 listing. We can also search those leads by price range they saved. This is a huge step in building our business.

Is this the final step? I doubt it! Most of you who know me know that I'm not going to rest until we are able to convert at a 10% clip. We are actually a lot closer to that than our numbers show. I believe with more refinement of the program and better use of our 100mph marketing program, we will be able to really take the next leap. We are almost there and I know you will be watching!

How to deal with short sales as a buyers agent

If you ar a buyers agent and have a large short sale market as we do here in Melbourne Florida, you are waiting much to long when dealing with short sales. Yes, they are a major part of our market. However, you can show your buyer the benefit of buying a resale or foreclosure over a short sale and you will enjoy commissions soone than later.

One of the main problems I see with short sales is that we may be giving the buyer false hope without realizing it. For instance, how many of you say, "It's's going to take 4-6 months before we have approval"? Even though that doesn't sound bad, it's realy giving the buyer false hope. We are currently averaging 25% approval rate on short sales. The reality is, most of these do not go through because either the bank rejects the offer, the buyer ends up not wanting to wait (and blames you) or the bank wants the seller to hold a note and the seller refuses.

When talking to a prospective buyer, this should be your conversation.

"I understand that you have heard that short sales can be a great deal. In reality, they are not any better deals than foreclosures and resales. In the end, the bank is going to require you pay market value or they will not move forward with the short sale. Here is the problem, you are going to wait 4-6 months and have a 75% chance that the offer will not be approved or that the seller is required to hold a note in which they won't.

I have pulled these homes, which are similar to the short sale you have inquired about both in price, size and condition and based on my experience, buying one of these homes will save you a ton of stress and frustration."

In the end you can say this however you want. But, if you accent the positive, that is what they hear. If nothing else, just say "You are going to wait 6 months to not get approved or the seller walking way because they are asked to hold a note. Whether buying a short sale, foreclosure or resale, you are going to pay market value."

This should help some of you convert your short sale customers to buyeres today! If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. Remember, it's all in the meaning we give things. Change the meaning and you can change the outcome!