I’m going to ask you a really weird, but simple question: Do you have a name badge?

If so, do you wear it?

I was thinking the other day back when I was selling real estate full time and I would often almost every month list 15 homes and sell 15 homes.

I worked hard and prospected a lot of hours and there was one lady in my office that would always run just slightly behind me in terms of production. She would be 12 or 13 transactions and you know what though…I had no children and she had 5. How did she do that?

That’s a huge household to take care of and to still be producing at a very high level.

Well at the time we worked for Century 21 and she wore her gold vest and name badge everywhere. She wore it to PTA, the grocery store, to the soccer field and you know people love to talk about real estate. They approached her!

When they would approach her she was very engaging, great personality and she would ask questions and guess what, she would pick up prospects.

There was a grocery store by our office and I think she sold every employee in 10 years a house, everyone that worked there. Of course she has a great personality and was looking for those opportunities, but I wonder how many opportunities are you missing by being a secret agent?

I don’t care what your price point is. Why not put on a name badge? Just a thought. I am sure you all could use an easy deal!

If you are a real estate agent or broker that is looking to for more insight and direction on how to get more listings, sell more homes to your investors, and work with more buyers, then this podcast is just for you!

Today we are going to talk a little bit about mastery.

As I think about who most of you are, you would be consider masterful, experienced in your industry.

Yet I am always reminded of the Olympic athletes. You know how every year in whatever sport or category someone just does a phenomenal job of breaking the record.

They think, "Wow. The record could not be broken, it could not happen, no one could go any faster or climb any higher or do anything better than this particular athlete just did to break that world record."

Yet every year, someone breaks it.

Because you see there is always that next level of mastery. And you know the phrase, “Don’t rest on your laurels”; each and every one of you could get better.

There is a skill that you could develop that would help you close more buyers and sellers more quickly, that would help you increase your commissions or profits, that would help you covert more of your calls to actual appointments.

So what is it that you should spend time practicing on each and every day? What is it you should be having us coach you to do better so that you can actually work smarter not just always working harder.

I also read something the other day and it said, “Somewhere someone is practicing. And if your not practicing when they meet you, they just might beat you.”

Let's set aside some time this week to practice. Determine what skill you would like to take to the next level. Time block and create a practice plan and lets get to work taking you to that next level of mastery.

If you are a real estate agent or broker that is looking to for more insight and direction on how to get more listings, sell more homes to your investors, and work with more buyers, then this podcast is just for you!

Today we are going to spend a moment on handling objections.

If there was one skill and an agent mastered this skill they would have so much more confidence in every area of their business, what would that one skill be? I really think it would be handling objections.

If you knew with confidence that no matter what someone said to you, you would have a terrific response and way of handling that, I think you would prospect more, put yourself out there in front of more people, you would close more of the listing appointments you go on, and everything would be easier.

There’s only about 12-13 buyer objections and 12-13 seller objections that even exist.

How easy would it be to put those on a flash card, have a great response on the back and practice? We have all the scripts for you. The scripts audio or full script book if you are a client or would like to purchase one.

Think about this, how many years have you been in business? Why have you not yet mastered all of the objections? Doesn’t it make sense? If it would make you so much more money, wouldn’t it be worth the effort?

Now I would suggest you start with the 3-5 that are the most common in your market. You can begin there. Once you have those covered then you can expand.

If there is one you need some help with send me an email. Remember out there somewhere, someone is practicing. If your not practicing too, when they need you, they just might beat you.

If you are a real estate agent or broker that is looking to for more insight and direction on how to get more listings, sell more homes to your investors, and work with more buyers, then this podcast is just for you!

I had an email yesterday that said, “Can you give me a few of your favorite books? I would like to have some books to read and I would like some recommendations.”

In no particular order...

A favorite of mine is Sales Versatility by Larry Wilson. It’s a terrific book on mirroring and matching and building rapport as well as understanding the personality styles of those people that we work with.

Another good book that I really like is The 7 Powers of Questions by Dorthy Leeds. I read something that the average 3-4 year old asks about 300 questions in a week and the average college student asks only one. Because of this we have really lost our art of asking great questions. As a salesperson, that is the magic in what we do: to understand and persuade. This is a very good book to help you recapture that art of asking questions.

Another terrific book is Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott. In this book Susan talks about when you have to have very pointed and direct conversations with a client, staff member, or family member and how to structure it and do it in such a way that that outcome is accomplished. It doesn’t blow up into emotion and drama. Absolutely phenomenal book!

So there’s three for you. I would love to have you read them. Send me an email and tell me what you think.

Last but certainly not least, Strength Finders 2.0. What I really like about this book is that it embodies everything that we believe in here at Excelleum, which is each of you are unique and have some amazing strengths and talents and if we utilize these to the fullest you will achieve great things even faster. When you read Strength Finders 2.0 you will take a short test in the back and it is going to give you back your top core strengths. I think you will find it very interesting.

So again if you have comments about the books, go to our Excelleum Facebook and let us know what you think!

If you are a real estate agent or broker that is looking to for more insight and direction on how to get more listings, sell more homes to your investors, and work with more buyers, then this podcast is just for you!

A question that comes up a lot when I am out doing meetings and speaking to groups of agents, what is really the difference between a super star agent achieving amazing things and the average agent.

Well obviously it could be their time management, their spending more on marketing, or it could be their skill, could be a lot of things. But as I look at the amazing people I coach and agents I have met over the years, something is always very clear. It is the commitment that shines through.

What do I mean by that?

Well do top producers have problems in their life? Of course they do! Are they ever sick? Absolutely. Are they ever worried? 100%.

And yet they get in their car, drive to the office often being the first one in, they put their game face on, and they do what has to be done.

In fact, I read somewhere that great sales people do what others know they should do and just simply won’t. Lets make this year the year that you are 100% committed. That you are going to keep your commitments, follow your plan, and just like a real job you are going to show up everyday and do what you need to do.

Because think about this, would you pay out the amount of money that you want to earn? Lets be that person that we need to be to earn that income that you want to earn.

Make it a powerful day I will talk to you very soon!

If you are a real estate agent or broker that is looking to for more insight and direction on how to get more listings, sell more homes to your investors, and work with more buyers, then this podcast is just for you!

Debbie De Grote interviews Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Agent Cecelia Fuentes on this episode of the Elite Agents Podcast.

Cecelia’s office is in Long Beach, Ca. You can reach Cecelia at (310) 341-6641. 

If you are a real estate agent or broker that is looking to for more insight and direction on how to get more listings, sell more homes to your investors, and work with more buyers, then this podcast is just for you!

Everest Escrow has 10 locations throughout Orange, Riverside and San Diego counties and is rapidly expanding across Southern California.

They meet the needs of their customers from individuals to larger entities with a full complement of escrow services to guarantee the orderly transition of property.

Many times it is the Escrow Officer who can make the difference in closing a transaction and their expertise and experience is trusted to ensure personal and professional closing services.

You can reach Faith Hamer at (714) 366-5177 or by going to: http://www.everestescrow.com

If you are a real estate agent or broker that is looking to for more insight and direction on how to get more listings, sell more homes to your investors, and work with more buyers, then this podcast is just for you!

On this episode of the Elite Agents Podcast, listen in as agents that attended this week's Marketing & Listing Bootcamp spill the beans on the biggest takeways that they got.

If you are a real estate agent or broker that is looking to for more insight and direction on how to get more listings, sell more homes to your investors, and work with more buyers, then this podcast is just for you!

I Have Contactitus

I thought about something the other day that I haven’t heard for awhile. Someone said to me, “I have contactitus.”

I knew exactly what they meant because I have been guilt of having contactitus in the past.

So what is contactitus?

“Well if I would just make my calls, if I would just do the numbers good things will happen.”

Well maybe that is possible, but wouldn’t it be a lot more likely for good things to happen if we really dug in and if we were really focused on what we are doing and really doing that at a very high level?

I don’t want you to just blow through the numbers, instead I really want you to think about how many appointments do I expect to set from my prospecting session today. I don’t know if this would work for you, but something used to do when I would find myself slipping into contactitus is I would make a game of one week.

Just one week I would say OK if my goal is to set two appointments in this prospecting session, I am going to give myself permission that I am going to work hard and as soon as I set those two appointments I get to quit!

Here’s what I mean by that…Maybe I have set aside 3 hours to prospect, but I tell myself if I set two appointments and that only takes me 30 minutes, fantastic I am done! I get to quit! That really inspired me to dig in and try hard.

We all know the best time to set an appointment is just after you have set one. I would only do this for a week or so. It was almost like a reboot of my mindset.

So if you find yourself slipping into making a lot of contacts without a lot of result, it might be a fun thing to try.

Just try it for one week and let me know how you do.

If you are a real estate agent or broker that is looking to for more insight and direction on how to get more listings, sell more homes to your investors, and work with more buyers, then this podcast is just for you!

Attitude, Approach and Expectation

I would like you to write down these three words: attitude, approach and expectation.

As you begin your day to day what is your attitude about your job and the activities that you have to do?

Lets talk about prospecting for a moment. What is your attitude about prospecting?

What is your expectation? What are you expecting to get? Are you expecting to just go through and make contacts or are you expecting to actually set an appointment?

What do we mean by approach? Approach is your tonality, energy, your power of persuasion; it’s the scripts and the words you use.

So I want you to think about today not just blowing through the contacts, but really focusing on result. Attitude, approach, and expectation.

Expect to succeed.

If you are a real estate agent or broker that is looking to for more insight and direction on how to get more listings, sell more homes to your investors, and work with more buyers, then this podcast is just for you!