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8 Steps to a Productive and Successful Year (2015)

By
Title Insurance with AmeriTitle

Here are some steps / ideas / planning to help you have the best year ever.

 

This is a re-cap of a live class that has quite a bit of commentary. Please feel free to get in touch if you have questions about any of the content. (Here is a link to the power point for more information.)

 

Step 1:  Analyze your business from the past 12 months.

Hopefully you've been tracking all year, but if not - utilize reports from your MLS. Here is your checklist of items to ponder...

  • How much business did you have?
  • How many buyers vs. sellers did you represent?
  • What was your average sales price?
  • Average days on market?
  • How many listings did you have?
  • What percentage of your listings sold?
  • How many face to face appointments?
  • Where did your business come from?
  • What marketing efforts worked?
  • What's getting better?
  • What's not working?
  • What needs more consistency?
  • What strategic adjustments need to be made?

If you didn't reach or exceed your goals for 2014, what was the gap? 

Coach Tom Ferry  believes it's one of these things:

  • Systems
  • Organization
  • Lead Generation
  • Selling Skills
  • Mental Toughness

Rank these segments 1 to 5. #1 being the area where you perform best. Whatever you need to improve upon, add that to your goals for 2015. If you are firing on all of these 5 cylinders, you cannot fail. 

 

Step 2: Focus on what clients want / need.

This report is full of information to consider… 

2013 Profile of Home Buyers & Sellers  (2014 is not out quite yet. This info is still helpful.) 

Every client has unique needs. Be sure to listen carefully to discover how you can serve them best.

 

Step 3: Create a plan.

Here are several tools / templates to help you get your plan down on paper. Reviewing your prior year and going through the SWOT process will help you identify your goals. 

Click here to link to these templates, tools, and the power point for the class. 

  • Business Planning Worksheets (A tool to track your income, lead sources, and business for the year.)
  • S.W.O.T Template (Identify your Strengths / Weaknesses / Opportunities / Threats)
  • 1-3-5 Goal Setting
  • 12 Month Plan (Balanced marketing activities for the year, at a glance.)
  • Social Media Content Plan (Ideas for consistent social media content / posts.)
  • Social Media Organizer (Prioritize and keep track of everywhere you have a web presence
  • *Note: Use the Social Media Organizer to review everything with your Principal Broker to make sure you're adhering to all of the State Advertising Regulations. 

 

Step 4: Lead Generation / Web Presence:

Remember the work you do today is the business you will see 60 to 90 days from now. Lead generation is a daily task. Your primary focus is on your sphere and core clients. 

Stay in consistent contact so they never forget who their REALTOR is: 

  • Visits
  • Phone calls
  • Email campaigns
  • Letters
  • Personal cards

Moving on to the web. Let’s increase your presence and help you connect with the goldmine of leads available.

First step is to create an outstanding bio and make sure you have a good, professional photo.

Then put on your expedition hat and get to work showing up where people are landing on the web.

Top Ranking Real Estate Sites (As of 10/2014 'Alexa Global Traffic Rank')

  1. Zillow
  2. Trulia
  3. Yahoo! Homes
  4. Realtor.com
  5. RedFin
  6. Homes.com

(Zillow + Trulia = an estimated 59 million unique visitors per month. There were 93 million unique visitors to these sites in the month of July. FTC enforcers are currently doing an investigation of a proposed combination of Zillow and Trulia. This investigation came about at the request of NAR.) 

With each of these top ranking sites, make sure you complete your profile, gather recommendations, consider investing in their leads (especially Zillow & Trulia), sign up for the question alerts and participate. Love them or hate them, these sites have a high volume of traffic and are full of potential clients. 

Some other places to ‘show up’…

 

Step 5: CRM (Client Relationship Management)

Now to manage all those leads (as well as your sphere and core clients) so you can turn them into happy, satisfied clients for life…

What are you using for CRM? Find something simple and functional that gets the job done.

 

Step 6: Productivity. Safety.

A useful tool or app is one that will increase your business or save you time and money. Here are some of our favorites…

Tools You Can Use...

 A few tools from AmeriTitle to help you get the information you need…

Safety apps and technology...

  • Cuff - Smart jewelry or key chain to help keep you connected. Discreetly call for help with the push of a button. 
  • Real Alert - A personal safety app.  

           - One click to call an emergency contact or 911. 

           - Sound an alarm

  • Life360 - Location tracker and communication app. Easily check in with groups or individuals when you've arrived safely. 
  • Guardly - Gives security operators the tools to track and locate emergency callers to specific rooms inside buildings as well as outdoors with GPS. 
  • Most important: Have an office PLAN for safety and dedicate yourself to adhering to it. 

 

Step 7: Stay motivated and informed all year long.

Education / Motivation

  •  AgentReboot  (Watch for 2015 event info)
  • The Paperless Agent (Excellent training and ideas to put your iPad to work, use EverNote in your business and more.)
  • ActiveRain (Start a blog or go here for a great source of industry information)
  • 1000 Watt Blog (writings about real estate, marketing, branding, media, & technology) 
  • Agent Genius (news, insights, tools for your real estate business)
  • Relator.com (news / stats)
  • Ben Kinney (IMSD) (internet marketing specialist designation - loads of excellent training)
  • Tom Ferry, Motivational Real Estate Coach (inspiring and motivating)
  • The Good Life Team (follow this innovative real estate team out of TX for ideas)
  • Productivity Junkies (increase your sales, increase your productivity, increase your profit)

Stay Inspired with Books

  • From Good to Great
  • Eat That Frog
  • Raving Fans
  • Crush It
  • Fish
  • Purple Cow
  • Who Moved My Cheese
  • How to Win Friends and Influence People
  • The Millionaire Real Estate Agent

 

Step 8: More important than anything...

Love what you do. We have the privilege of helping people during one of the most emotional, stressful, exciting, important decisions in their lives. Make it your number one goal to serve every client with compassion and energy. Listen carefully for their needs. Deliver the highest level of service in your power. This, above all else, will grow your business. 

 

Make it a great day. Thanks for reading. I love comments and conversation so please feel free to contribute a note. 

 

Some segments of this post were inspired by these thought leaders:

Garry Wise at The Paperless Agent

Tom Ferry, Real Estate Coach

Ben Kinney, IMSD

Chris Smith, Curator

Katie Lance, Consultant

Thanks to all of these people for their generous sharing of ideas. 

 

 

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