Carla Cross, CRB, MA, International Speaker

How effective is your ‘phone voice’?
We are so focused on technology today, that we are in danger of forgetting to effectively use that technology. Here’s an example. When I phone an agent today, I have no idea where that agent will answer his or her phone-or from what phone the call is being answered. And, I don’t really care. Technology allows the phone to follow the agent. That’s great. But, there’s much more to it than that.

Dull, or Delightful?

Many times the agent’s message is so dull, powerless, or mumbled that it doesn’t sound as though the agent wants to talk to me. Or, the agent’s message is so long, that I’m impatient by the time I get to leave the message.

What Impact Do You Want to Make?
Surveys show that consumers want their agent to be enthusiastic. So why do many of the agents’ (or managers’) phone messages sound as though they are terribly tired or uninterested in the caller?

Here’s the principle. We use our senses to make snap judgments about people. The less senses involved, the more important it is that we communicate properly. On the phone, there is only once sense involved–that of hearing. You have no ability to communicate your warmth, your interest, etc. visually on the phone. You have only your voice.

Decide What You Want to Communicate

What conclusions do you want your caller to have about you? Write down the five most important judgments you want your caller to make about you and your business approach. Now, listen to your own voice message. Do you believe you are communicating your ‘best self’? Ask five other people to listen, too. Decide what you like and what you want to change.

Research your Competition

Don’t listen only for your own communications. For three days, listen carefully to the tone, intent, and messages you hear on answering machines or voice messages of other agents and brokers. Listen carefully to how agents answer the phone at their offices. What do you think those agents are communicating? Do you believe they are communicating the kind of qualities they want to communicate-and think they are communicating?

Note to managers: Listen to your staff. Do they sound friendly, eager to hear from someone–or put out because they have to answer the phone?

More on communication skills:  On June 9, I’ll be a presenter for NAR’s huge Webinar Summit. Get more information: Click here.

Four important tips to remember when recording your own message:

• Stand up-you’ll sound as though you have much more energy.
• Write out your script first-and be sure it’s not too long. I don’t really care where you’re going to be all day!
• Modulate your voice pleasantly. Try to get some resonance.
• Sound as though you’re looking forward to hearing from me!

These simple tips will improve your phone voice, increase your trust rate and elevate your business. Get to ‘hearing’ today!

Carla Cross, CRB, MA, is an international speaker, performance coach, and resource provider for the real estate industry. She specializes in maximizing performance. A former master level CRB instructor, Carla is author of 6 internationally published books and 20 resources for real estate professionals. Recently, she was named one of 50 most influential women in real estate. Contact Carla at www.carlacross.com.

It was session three of the seven weeks of our S.P.A.R.K. Course and one Agent after another approached me at each break.  Each comment or question had the same theme.  It was weird. 

Each Agent said something along the line of, “I can see how this is really going to work for me but here is the problem.”  Or, “This is great stuff and it would really work for me except here is what I face.”

There are over a hundred people in the class and over a dozen of them expressed this type of sentiment.  The problems ranged from other jobs that took their time, taking care of children, to not enough experience and more.  It was clear that the problem had nothing to do with the issues that they were bringing up.  Something else was going on…

Driving away from the conference center I realized what it was.  As these Agents began seeing and feeling that they were capable of achieving and exceeding their business goals, when they were sincerely confronted by the prospect of their own success, then the psychological barriers that have prevented their success began to come to their consciousness.  Their mind perceived their most desired future for their business and their psyche was finding the reasons that it was not likely or possible to achieve it.

This is the definition of a limiting belief; a thought that is perceived as the absolute truth by the person having it; when in reality it is a false barrier.  So, at the following session I led them through an exercise to identify and eliminate limiting beliefs.  The response was overwhelming.  One after another was experiencing a breakthrough they knew was possible but couldn’t previously quite reach.  Now it was happening.  The skills were there and the barriers were not.  

They described it as powerful.  If you would like a copy of the exercise, it is just a few steps in a couple of pages, e-mail me at Rich@RichLevin.com.  We’ll get it right off to you and then I’d love to get your feedback on your experience of it.

When I was a senior in High School, I had the opportunity to see Zig Ziglar, Tom Hopkins and a few other great motivational speakers. I was so inspired from what I heard that day and knew that I wanted to be a speaker & coach like those amazing people I saw on stage. They shared many great stories that day, but one story stood out in my mind. Even years later, the story Zig Ziglar told has always resonated with me.

Zig tells the story of two guys driving through the south Alabama foothills and they got thirsty. They pulled behind an old farm house and found an old fashioned water pump. One of the men started pumping, but nothing came out. He told his friend to go down to the river to get some water to prime the pump and then the water flowed easily. The principle is that you have to put something in to get something out.

It is such a simple principle, but so many of us never master that concept. We want results without putting much, if anything, at all in. We show up every day and hope for success, but we don’t do the work, or prime the pump, that will soon produce the much needed water.

An example of priming the pump is prospecting. The effort we put into prospecting every day seems like priming a pump without getting any water for a while. But as we stick with it consistently over time the results will flow at a steady rate. What are you doing every day to prime your pump? What are the activities that are producing the reward?

Here are a few things you can do every day to keep the water (money) flowing:

• First decide that you are going to prospect! This non-negotiable decision is critical
• Create a plan. Are you going to work FSBO’s, Expireds, Short Sales, First Time Home Buyers, beef up your web strategy, your Database, or a Geographic Farm? Decide what you are going to do and break it down to daily tasks that put you in front of real buyers and sellers
• Time block! This is critical to your success. You must find 2-3 hours a day that you focus on prospecting– nothing else but prospecting! You can’t allow yourself to be distracted by other clients, email, social media or family. This is sacred time that you have set aside to do one thing, PROSPECT!
• Work your database! Your most profitable business will come from people who you know. Build and work relationships like the golden nuggets that they are. Call three past clients every day and update your client records, connect with friends on Facebook, and comment on their posts and activities.
• Don’t fool yourself into thinking that farming on Facebook is prospecting. Use this time to really work on your business. While social media can be a serious lead generator, it can also be a huge time waster, so be careful and stay focused.
• Track your results each day, and celebrate your victories

Each of these activities are “prime the pump” activities. As you get into the habit of doing this each day, your business will thrive and you will find yourself a lot more productive and profitable.

Whenever I’m talking to people that are thinking of becoming clients of ours, I always get this complaint: “I can’t find my website on the search engines (substitute Google)”. I never know how to react to this. It’s the constant real estate SEO conundrum. It’s like when my wife says: “I can’t find my purse”. Is that enough information to be of help? Of course not. You’ll have to say “well sweetheart where have you looked?”. Thus to those that I speak with about getting found on the major search engines, I have to ask what they are typing in to try and get found. The answer is almost always the same. If they live in Denver, they’ll say they typed in “Denver real estate” or “Denver homes”.

Let’s recognize your problem here. There are as of this writing about 24,200,000 other websites trying for that very same keyword phrase, with 30,500,000 trying for “Denver homes”. What do you think your chances are of making it to the first page with this many competitors? You’re like a minnow in the ocean. Does this make you want to give up? Au contraire my good friends. While you are learning how to actually get that first page ranking with the very competitive keyword phrases, why not kill your competition with the “minor” keyword phrases?

A “minor keyword phrase” is a phrase that one of your prospects might type in that would be either an exact match or close match using a longer string of words. Here’s a simple example. We know that “Denver real estate” has 24,200,000 competitors and almost impossible to get found on the first page of Google quickly. However, have you tried “Denver CO real estate”? There are only 3,320,000 competitors trying for this one. And the best thing is that it still contains the words Denver real estate within it.

Here’s the bottom line. Until you get into a position where you can get highly competitive keyword phrases on the first page of Google, build up dozens of “minor keyword phrases” that you can dominate the market on. Just the fact that you dominate the market will increase your rankings for the more competitive keyword phrases and eventually get you found for them as well. Getting found on the first page for dozens of “minor keyword phrases” will yield much more visibility and income than trying for the highly competitive keyword phrases.

This “pocket presentation” will give you more information as to why this is and how you can enrich your search engine rankings by following this advice.

My self-appointed mentor, Albert Einstein, once said…

“The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”

I am a big fan of both the man and the message.  And here’s why…

Simply put…our own unwillingness to accept ourselves as creative beings bogs us down.  I happen to believe we are ALL creative in one way or another.  However, I also know that most of the time we don’t feel that way, especially when we’re working on marketing campaigns and other promotional endeavors in our work.

For example…

How many times have you sat in front of your computer screen and willed a brilliant ad to materialize?  If this sounds familiar to you, then I have a question:

How big is your marketing antenna?

What I mean by this is that creativity is simply being open to inspiration, and, if you have your antenna up – that is to say that if you are paying attention to other good marketing out there – you WILL learn the secrets of the master marketers. 

And I’m going to share one of those secrets with you right now!  Do you have your antenna up?  Well, get ready folks, this is a good one…

It is better to edit than to create!

Now you may be saying, “Just what does that mean?’  Well, let me explain… 

Creativity is driven by curiosity.  Pay attention! Ask questions!  Get inspired!  Success leaves clues, my friend!  Have that antenna up and you will find inspiration in the most unlikely places.

If you need to create a postcard, for example, you may find something really juicy you can use on the back of your grocery receipt, or in the way a dish is described on a menu.  Or your teenager might actually say something incredible that you can use!  Perhaps you can even justify reading that tabloid because the ads in the back have amazing copy that really gets your own writing juices flowing.

The National Enquirer is one of the most expensive magazines to advertise in, so those ads in the back HAVE TO work!

By taking an existing marketing piece and editing it as your own, all the work is done for you! You just have to breathe it all in and then make it our own –

what a relief, huh?!

Einstein was absolutely right… 

Creativity is being mindful enough to be stimulated by your environment.  You then simply edit and mold that environment to fit your needs.  We don’t need to reinvent the wheel every time we have to create a new ad or marketing piece – we simply have to let our surroundings illuminate our own wheels turning inside our heads. 

That Einstein was onto something. Maybe he was so in-tune with his environment that the theory of relativity was something he creatively lifted from him own surroundings! 

If we sharpen our own antennas, we could ALL be little Einsteins…

changing the world one postcard at a time!

For the past two decades, Jennifer Cummings has been one of the most sought-after marketing experts in the nation.  Her “out-of-the-box” approach to marketing has won her the respect of advertising agencies and the adulation of entrepreneurs and business owners from all over the world in over a dozen unique markets. 

Using the same strategies she now teaches, Jennifer transformed her life from being a juvenile delinquent at 15 to a millionaire by age 30.  With her practical, no-frills approach to marketing and revenue generation, YOU can now join the thousands of other agents and brokers who have been excited and empowered to get back into the driver’s seats of their businesses!

Jennifer Cummings ~ www.PotatoChipMarketingTools.com ~ 888.208.2309

[***To get a $50 discount off of Jennifer’s Potato Chip Marketing Tools’ plug & play marketing pieces, simply enter the code “basb” when you join at www.PotatoChipMarketingTools.com!***]

Carla Cross, CRB, MA, International Speaker

In my resource, The On Track to Success in 30 Days System for Experienced Agents, I introduced a concept called the ‘Career Life Cycle’. I learned this concept as a CRB (Certified Real Estate Broker) instructor. Simply, the concept says that real estate agents (and managers, and companies), go through four career phases:

1. Introduction
2. Growth
3. Maturity
4. Decline
   

Each of these phases has its own opportunities and challenges, which I discuss at length in the On Track resource—as well as provide best practices for each phase. In this article, let’s tackle the unique challenges of the ‘mature’ agent.

The Mature Business and Agent

If you have been in the business for over five years, chances are you have enjoyed a ‘mature’ business. When the market was on fire, you were getting most of your business from repeat and referrals (and some happy ‘accidents’). You have built up a strong enough business that you do most of your business based on pre-built trust and confidence. You are admired in your office (and perhaps your whole company) for your leadership and mentorship.

The market changes…..

All of a sudden (at least it seemed sudden), your referral business dried up. You are searching for other means of business. But, you’re relatively unprepared, since your business had been repeat and referral. You didn’t have to prove your professionalism. Now, you do.

Competition raises its ugly head. Because the mature agent gets most of her business from referrals, she may not be prepared to compete against more aggressive agents—or agents trained with the latest presentation methods. This happened with one of my mature agents in my office, Martha. She was referred to George and Betty Smith, who wanted to sell their home. But, George and Betty also were referred to John Schlock, of ABC Realty.

Martha knows John Schlock, and she thinks his last name is appropriate…… Of course, though, she can not say this to George and Betty. Martha’s in kind of a bind here. She relies on word-of-mouth for her business, and she relies on this word-of-mouth building her credibility to the point where she has no need to build it herself. This works fine when she is not competing with another agent, and the sellers already think she is the best thing since sliced bread. It does not work so well when she is competing with another agent—especially one who will tell the client whatever they want to hear!

Martha relies solely on her ‘known’ reputation. Martha has no testimonials in writing, no Professional Portfolio, no visual marketing presentation, and no statistics systematized to teach George and Betty the principles of how real estate works. Why not? Because, Martha did not need these credibility-builders very often, like those newer agents need. And, when she does, it is too late to create them.

This ‘mature business’ attitude and practice results in lost listings or over-priced listings. This makes Martha mad, but, to do anything about it, Martha would have to admit she needs to quit acting like a ‘mature’ agent and push herself back into the growth phase. Just like the Ford Taurus, she needs to ‘re-tool’ herself. You, dear reader, may be like Martha. Congratulations on taking the risk to even look at your business today. Many ‘Marthas’ in real estate are just waiting out the inevitable–their descent into decline.

In my next blog, I’ll give you eight methods to decide if you’re in the ‘mature’ phase of your business—and what to do to push yourself back to ‘growth’ to revitalize your business—and yourself.

Carla Cross, CRB, MA, is president of Carla Cross Seminars, Inc. and Carla Cross Coaching, specializing in real estate sales productivity and management profitability. One of her most popular presentations and webinars is Seasoned but Stuck. Cross, an international speaker and coach, is the author of 6 internationally published books, 20 productivity programs, including On Track to Success in 30 Days System for Experienced Agents (and its coaching companion for managers) Carla is a winner of the National Association of Realtors’ National Educator of the Year award. Contact her at www.carlacross.com or 425-392-6914.

Technology Strategist, Speaker, Trainer

The Mid Year meetings are over, but lots of good ideas and content were generated. I had the opportunity to present to the Education Directors and was asked to share “success stories” in Social Media.

A few months ago I sent out an email asking for their stories and I received some amazing responses.

If you would like a copy of the slides or white paper I wrote regarding this please visit my blog to download the Social Media Success Stories by clicking here

I love being a Dad, and with six children I guess I better! As a familny we often take trips with all the children that require long drives in the car. As we travel we play mind games, sing travel songs, and even watch movies in the Suburban. On a recent trip one of my younger kids loudly asked midway into the trip if we were having fun yet. I thought we were having a great time, but it must not have been clear to everyone else in the car.

I believe we should love what we are doing, not just some of the time, but all of the time. Our non- verbal communication speaks so much louder than our verbal communication. What I mean by this is can people tell that you really love what you’re doing by watching you and interacting with you? Our love of life, family and even our job can be communicated by the way we interact with people, the smile on our face, the pleasant greetings, and the skip in our step. When interacting with your clients, do they know you are enjoying the process of helping them? Can they feel your enthusiasm? Or will they be wondering if “we are having fun yet”?

Sometimes the realities of life cause us to lose focus on what is really important. I believe in the quote from an ancient prophet that states “Men (and women) are that they might have joy”. Finding the joy in our lives and focusing on the things that make us happy is one of the most important things we can do to live life at the highest level. Those people who find joy in the small things will communicate that to everyone around them. Have you ever noticed someone who has that special glow? They project happiness and joy and their countenance lets everyone know that they are having fun now.

Just a couple of things we can do to make sure people know we are having fun now:

• When people ask how you are doing, answer with an enthusiastic “GREAT!”, or “AWESOME!” or “Unbelievable!”
• Put on your game face. We all have problems and issues, but when we interact with others, especially clients, we need to be able to put on our game face and project how we feel about helping them at the moment. I sometimes have to think about what really makes me happy, like my family, or boating, or maybe a recent vacation before meeting with clients
• Find that place where you were really having a great time and focus on that before your next interaction with a client
• Listen to motivational or inspirations CD’s or talks on your iPod or MP3 player. If positive messages go in, then you will project a positive message to those you interact with
• Read books that inspire you to do and be better
• Exercise daily. This is not easy, but exercise makes you feel better about yourself, and when you feel good about yourself others will feel better about you as well.
• And last –Have FUN now!

Love what you do! If you truly love what you do, you can deal with any problem that is thrown your way. Love the challenges that arise in your life and business, enjoy overcoming them and conquering the tough ones, celebrate your victories and dwell on the positives in your life.

___________________________________________________________________________

Verl Workman is a leading national speaker, coach and consultant. Despite his busy speaking schedule, and role as co-founder of Pinnacle Quest Consulting Group, he still sells real estate so that he can test and stay abreast of the latest tools and techniques that maximize results. He uses that knowledge to assist individuals and companies in building effective business strategies, implementing powerful technology solutions, and establishing strategic competitive advantages through coaching, seminars and private consultations. To contact Verl visit www.verlworkman.com or www.PQPipeline.com or email him at AskVerl@verlworkman.com.

Follow Verl on Twitter:  http://twitter.com/VerlWorkman

Connect with Verl on Facebook  www.facebook.com/VerlWorkman

Very successful people make certain decisions in certain ways.  The following six choices of success will lead you to greater success.

 1. Choose what you want and why you want it.  At first no rules, just decide, “What would I love my Real Estate career to do for my life?  And then ask, “Why do I want that?  What would it do for my life, my loved ones, my health, my happiness?”   Then answer the question, “What amount of sales production or other measurable over the next 12 months would be a clear indication that you are the path to achievement.

2. Choose to take responsibility for obtaining what you want.  Decide that it is completely up to you.  It is not dependent on the market, on your Broker, or anything else.  Choose whether your world and circumstances dictate your life or does your WORD, how you say your life will go, dictate your life. 

3. Choose to turn your desire, what you want, into a plan for achievement.  Your desire, your WORD is simply fantasy without a plan.  A plan has structure to it.  It has actions to take.  Structure and action create attitude.  Your attitude is dependent on your structures not the other way around.  Waiting for the motivation is like waiting for the train when you are not at the train station.  You have to take some action to get on the train. 

4. Choose to continuously learn and improve.  The best source of knowledge is from your own experience, from the feedback and the measurable results.  That is why you want to reduce what you want to a measurable and why you want a plan which includes looking at your progress.  You also want to learn from people, books, webinars, and seminars, coaches and every other source that attracts you.

5. Choose to control your mental and emotional state.  Motivation, attitude, mental and emotional strength, all of these things are built like the other muscles in your body.  When you work on them they strengthen, when you don’t work on them they atrophy and weaken. 

6. Choose mentors and coaches that provide unconditional, intelligent support.  Consider this carefully.  You want people who give you two things.  First they provide unconditional support.   That means like a mother’s love, they believe in your ability unconditionally.  Second they provide intelligence in the areas you wish to achieve.  So their support is valuable to you personally and professionally. 

Talk to a very successful person.  Take them for coffee or just take a moment to ask what it is they work so hard for; whether they blame others for their setbacks; what is their plan; how they continually learn; how they keep their attitude; and who they consider their mentors?   You will strengthen the pass to your success as you gain the respect of a valuable peer.

Possibly because we do more real estate SEO than any other company, I am always asked “What is the beginning step in optimizing my website to make it work for me?” The answer is simple. You have to do the research for what the best keyword phrases are for your website. Said a different way, you need to find out what those phrases are that your prospects are typing into the major search engines. By finding this out, you’re half way home.

In researching your best keyword phrases, you’ll want to know two things:

1. What are the keyword phrases that my potential clients are typing into the major search engines, and
2. What specialties do I have such as foreclosure sales, short sales, farms and ranches, etc., that I would want to also include to lead my prospects to me?

This short “Power Presentation” will start you down the right path to give you this information and lead you to a free webinar with rich information in this area.