Are you ready to become a top producing agent? Today on the show we have Super Agent Lance Woodley, who skyrocketed his business after finding a mentor who taught him how to build a real estate company that worked for him. Are you prepared to do the same?
Turning Your Business Into a Company
Most agents will spend their lives on a hamster wheel chasing after clients day in and day out. By building a company, you will allow yourself the freedom and income you need to enjoy your most valuable asset- your time. Here are some tips and reasons for starting a company:
- Spend Money To Make Money: It is hard to build a volume of business if you are afraid to spend money on marketing. Test out different lead sources for a minimum of 6 months and focus on the ones that give you the most ROI.
- Be Systematic: Just because you have people working for you now does not mean they will know what to do. Have systems in place that run the business first and then hire people to run those systems.
- Get Ready To Have Fun: When you finally start operating like a company, you’ll find yourself enjoying your time and business more.
The Team
People are the most important part of your business, and you should treat the creation of your team with great importance. When you have team members in place with specific duties to perform, you’ll find yourself generating more clients and dominating every aspect of your business. Here are some useful tips from Lance on putting together your team:
- Put Down Your Ego: Many people think they are great at everything, when in fact, they’re not. When you get ready to hire your first team members, push aside your ego and honestly evaluate yourself as a real estate agent. Find out where your strengths and weaknesses lie and hire agents and administrators to cover your weak spots accordingly.
- Find Out What Your Culture Is: After you add a few members to your team, you will begin to see a certain workflow and culture emerge. Your team will begin to work together in specific ways. Keep this culture in mind when hiring new members and don’t accept people that will negatively affect the culture of your team into your business. In the long run, it will poison your productivity and production capabilities.
The Operations
It is important to have all the operational systems in place before you grow your team. If you don’t, you will have great people on your team with nowhere to shine, and this will decrease the amount of business you can produce. Here’s how to build a strong company:
- Break It Down: Break down the different areas of your business (marketing, operations, sales, customer relations management etc.) and create a systematic approach to carrying out each process. This ensures that your business can run without you and still grow.
- Tracking: With your systems in place, you can now effectively track the work of your team and the corresponding ROI. This will allow you to make any necessary adjustments to your system or team down the line.
For Lance, his operations systems are set up so that he has a listing and closing coordinator. Every lead goes into a contact manager where he/she is then converted into a listing. After the deal is closed, this listing moves into a past client system where they then become lead generators for the team using specific marketing techniques.
The Marketing
Your investment in and the execution of your marketing plan will often determine the amount your company will grow. If you want to have a killer marketing strategy, try this:
- Strong Value Proposition: Make sure your marketing strategy involves a strong value proposition to potential leads. With multiple competitors, you want to stand out and capture majority of your market. Lance offers a guaranteed sale program to bring in leads.
- Have A Formula: If you want to be the best, you can’t just throw a property on the market and expect it to sell. Like every other aspect of your business, make sure you have a proven system in place for home selling and marketing. Lance uses the following system to sell properties at top dollar:
- Marketing: A proper marketing plan that gets a clear message out about the property.
- Merchandising: An effective plan of how the property should be displayed to produce top dollar.
- Pricing: An appropriate starting price that will get the seller the most money. Tip: Overpricing a home in order to have bargaining room is a terrible strategy. It starts as a disappointment to the buyer and seller.
Golden Nuggets
The Improvement vs Allowance Debate
When confronted with the question of making home improvements or giving the buyer an allowance, Lance recommends always making improvements for several reasons:
- Buyers Are Very Visual: A buyer isn’t just looking for somewhere to live, they are looking for a place to call home. Thus, they are often scoping properties as if it were their own and making improvements helps them visualize themselves in your property more easily.
- You Can Earn More: By making improvements to your property, you will be able to charge more than the costs in your starting price.
Books For Agents
Mastering the Rockefeller Habits by Verne Harnish get a free copy of this book using our audible link www.audibletrial.com/superagentslive
Join the Conversation on Twitter
Tell us what you thought of this episode using #unpackthatidea!
Our Sponsors
Discover Publications will create a customized, branded 12 page newspaper you can send out to your farm and sphere.
Find A Mentor
We’ve partnered up with Bob Corcoran and his team to get you a free coaching call. E-mail bubba@corcorancoaching.com and let him know you listen to the show!
