Coach Dan Foster | Purpose Driven Broker » Training

Running a Low Risk – Profitable Business

Dan Foster — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 19:46:47 +0000

This morning I had the opportunity to interview Lee Dunn, Vice President/Principal Broker and Risk Reduction Manager for Prudential Northwest Properties. The interview was for my monthly webinar series in which I interview leaders and sales professionals in the real estate industry about best practices and success.

Lee is an amazing leader and has a wealth of knowledge and experience in the real estate industry. He has managed branches, owned companies, and served in many leadership positions across the nation on behalf of real estate broker associations.

This month Lee and I discussed how to run a low risk and profitable business in today’s real estate market. Lee provides us with his Top 10 Risk Reduction Tips and answers audience questions.

If your reader does not show you the video, you can click here to watch and listen to my interview with Lee.

Make it a great day!

Coach Dan

Running a Low Risk – Profitable Business is a post from: Purpose Driven Broker

8 Tips For A Successful Open House

Dan Foster — Thu, 27 May 2010 04:17:54 +0000

Let’s be honest, holding an open house is more for the benefit of a real estate broker than it is for a home owner. The 2009 National Association of Realtors® Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers reports that only 46% of home buyers used open houses as a means of searching for homes. Most articles that I have read tell me that only 1-2% of home buyers actually purchase a home they visited during an open house. I encourage you to share these stats with your seller and be completely honest with them about the probability of an open house leading to a sale of their home. If they still request an open house or allow you to hold one for your own benefit, than consider these eight tips for holding a successful open house.

Walk the neighborhood before the day of the open house inviting other home owners and renters to attend the open house. Make sure you stop by all non-owner occupied homes (rentals) to invite the potential buyers to the event. This is a great opportunity to meet potential future clients.
Send an open house postcard to various move-up neighborhoods. You should consider walking this neighborhood as well. These home owners or renters may be looking to move-up in this type of market and your listing may be the right home for them. Again, it is a great opportunity to meet future clients.
Advertise a give-away in your Open House ad. Make sure you use social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to get the word out about your Open House. I recommend giving away a nice bottle of wine, dinner for two, or movie tickets to a lucky visitor. Try to create a “buzz” around your open house and draw as many people in as you can to provide you with feedback.
Arrive early to prepare the house for visitors. Turn on lights and prepare the home to have guests. Make sure the counters are clear, the rooms are tidy, and the house smells good. Many brokers arrive late, scramble to get things setup before someone arrives, and come across flustered to guests that arrive early. Make sure the home is inviting and that its best features are “showcased” to visitors.
Have some type of light food and drink for your guests to enjoy. Place a label with your contact information on a water bottle and tell your guests to take a few for the road.
Bring relevant materials for potential buyers. I encourage you to have comparable homes, including active, pending, and sold homes for buyers to review in comparison to your listing. If you are priced ahead of the market then highlight this as a strong selling point for your listing. Provide market stats on the city you are in and information on the general real estate market. The helps you to demonstrate your knowledge of the area and market.
Be able to articulate your value and offer solutions to prospective buyers. Prepare for your open house by going over common objections and questions from buyers. Review the features, benefits, and data on your listing so you are prepared to answer your visitors’ questions. Be able to demonstrate why not all Realtors are the same and that working with you is in a buyer’s best interest.
Engage your visitors and ask for feedback. While the likelihood of an open house leading to the sale of a home is very small, it is a great opportunity to get feedback on the price and condition of the home from visitors. Ask the guests what they are looking for in a home. If they say your listing is not the right fit, ask them why and give this candid feedback to your seller. Don’t just sit on the couch while people walk-through the home. Remember you are in sales and you have something to offer them no one else does, YOU. Engage them so that you can learn about their needs and wants and potentially deliver a solution for them.

What techniques have you found to be helpful in holding a successful open house?

Make it a great day!

Coach Dan

8 Tips For A Successful Open House is a post from: Purpose Driven Broker

Webinar: Handling Client Objections & Questions

Dan Foster — Wed, 26 May 2010 22:21:12 +0000

Do you wish you knew exactly what to say and how to say it when your client asks you to reduce your commission or to hold an open house every weekend? The answers are on the way!

Our next webinar, Thursday May 27th at 10AM, will feature a panel of experts discussing how they handle client objections and questions in today’s market. Join us on Thursday to learn from the best of your peers and walk away with the key talking points and scripts that will help you win more listing and make more sales.

Click here to register for this FREE webinar and training experience.

Webinar: Handling Client Objections & Questions is a post from: Purpose Driven Broker

6 Steps to Better Decision Making

Dan Foster — Fri, 07 May 2010 19:34:38 +0000

Helping clients make decisions is one of the most important responsibilities of being a real estate broker. Our clients view us as a trusted advisor; someone that can provide them with objective advice throughout their real estate experience. However, even the most seasoned brokers can find themselves caught up in the emotions of a transaction and have difficulty walking their clients through a rational decision making process.

In his book, Decide and Conquer, author Stephen P. Robbins lays out a decision making process that helps people make consistent value-driven choices that lead to the achievement of their goals. Below, I’ve outlined Robbins’ six steps to better decision making and encourage you to use this process the next time your client turns to you for advice when facing a tough decision or problem.

Step 1: Identify and Define the Problem: Problems exist when a gap occurs between what our clients want (their goals) and their current reality. Helping your clients articulate exactly what it is they want to achieve or experience is crucial in this beginning step. You don’t need to criticize or evaluate their response here, rather try to gain some clarity around what it is they are after.

Step 2: Identify Decision Criteria: Next you must help your client discover and write out what is most important to them when making their decision. Have them write out their interests, values, goals, and personal preferences. When they list these criteria you will begin to have a better understanding of what is driving them and what factors play a role in their final decision.

Step 3: Weigh the Criteria: After their criteria is laid out and the client agrees there is NOTHING else that will play into his decision making, have the client rank each of the criteria in order of importance. Remember if everything is ranked the same then nothing really is important and it will be difficult for you to analyze all factors and choose the best next step.

Step 4: Generate Alternatives: After helping your client define the problem and set criteria it is time to generate a list of solutions that will allow the client to achieve their desired end result. The client may not like all of the alternatives that are discussed so try to keep an open objective mind and list out all possible alternatives.

Step 5: Evaluate Each Alternative: After the potential solutions are noted you and your client need to go back to the criteria that was listed in step 3 and analyze, evaluate, and rate each alternative option.

Step 6: Select the Choice that Scores Highest: The process concludes when you have ranked each alternative and the client is able to objectively and rationally choose the alternative that scores the highest. From a rational standpoint this would be the best choice.

From Experience: From experience I know that people often prefer to go with their gut and make a decision based on what feels right at the time. This will occasionally end up being the right decision in the long run but from the standpoint of being someone’s trusted advisor and a professional; I encourage you to use the six steps to rational decision making whenever possible. When helping someone through a major or life changing event, such as buying or selling a home, the rational approach to decision making is your best course of action.

Question: Do you have a system in place that you use to help people make decision based on their values and goals rather than gut feelings or emotions?

Here is a Rational Decision Making Tool to use the next time you need to help a client with a major or life changing decision.

Choose to make it a great day!

Coach Dan

6 Steps to Better Decision Making is a post from: Purpose Driven Broker

9 Key Areas For Qualifying Leads

Dan Foster — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 15:31:27 +0000

Have you ever spent valuable time with a prospect only to find out they are not qualified or unable to use your services? This can be one of the most frustrating experiences in a sales professional’s day. Yet, this seems to happen over and over again regardless of the personal cost and outcome. Regrettably, in a down economy many of us use just one test for working with someone; the “can they fog a mirror test”. Having a system in place to help you pre-qualify potential new clients is essential to the success of everyone working in the field of professional services. Faithfully using that system will produce a higher level of success each time it is implemented.

I train my team to use a set of pre-qualification questions during the initial interview with potential clients. These questions have two purposes. First, they demonstrate that they are serious about their profession and the clients they serve by showing they care enough to ask questions to learn about their client and their goals. Second, these questions help you decide if this potential relationship is a good match for you, your services and your business vision.

I encourage my team to consider the following key areas before deciding to enter into a professional relationship with a client:

Area of Interest – Are they asking for your services in a geographic area that is within your market knowledge and expertise?

Time Frame – Do they have a realistic time frame for making a selling or buying decision? Will they be making that decision in the next 30-60 days or longer? What are the milestones that must be reached in order to make the key decisions?

Ability To Perform – Are they in the “right place” mentally, financially, and situationally to make a decision?

Willingness to Perform – Do you get the sense that all decisions makers are ready and able to make a decision? Is there an actual desire or is it just an interest?

Decision Maker – Are you certain that you are working with all parties that will be involved in making the decision?

Market Comprehension – Are their wants/needs realistic with the price they will charge or pay? Are they aware of the current market conditions and willing to use that knowledge to make objective decisions?

Values Match – Are they “discount consumers” always looking for the cheapest deal, at the lowest cost, without an appreciation for a full-service firm?

Loyalty - Are they someone that you can build a relationship with? Are they willing to sign a service contract with you for a reasonable amount of time?

Experience – What is their past experience with sales professionals? What are their concerns, hesitations, expectations? What did they like about their past experience and what did they dislike?

There are many additional questions that you can ask in each of these key areas. The answers you receive will help you to decide whether this is the right client relationship for you to pursue. While many professionals might be tempted to boil these questions down to just a few relating to finances, job status, and decision time frame - when your goal is to build relationships for life; you need to dig deeper. If you are someone that wants to turn suspects into prospects and prospects into clients that will become referral partners, you must go the extra mile and learn as much as you can about your potential client.

Take the time to qualify your leads and you will save time, money, and valuable resources. This will allow you to focus your time on those you can best serve and those that will in turn help you to achieve your goals.

Question: Are you qualifying your prospects before you make them clients? If so, what is the process you use?

Make it a great day!

Coach Dan

9 Key Areas For Qualifying Leads is a post from: Purpose Driven Broker