The look on the face of the first one (who had 31 years in the business) was priceless. After composing himself he shares that he’s in the office every day at 8:30am and returns all his phone calls in a timely manner. No really, that’s what he said.

Then we asked “What is your marketing plan that will make this home stand out from all the others and give us the highest value in a reasonable time?” At that, he points to his very nice (customized and hard-bound even!) presentation package and says: “It’s in there, read it –or do you want me to read it for you?” At which point we quickly (yet politely) ended our meeting.

The second one wasn’t much better. He was quite a bit younger and more hip to technology yet he still stumbled all over the question as to why he should be chosen over anyone else. When asked about his marketing program he started rattling off his budgets for print and online advertising, yada, yada yada. When asked why he spends so much money on print when most people use the Internet he said: “I only do the print to satisfy the sellers and to promote my company, we’ve actually never received any business from it.” When we requested that he put together a comprehensive marketing plan for my mother-in-law’s home, he nods at the folder in his hand then gives it to us. Unlike the first agent, it was not customized, had only examples of mostly print advertising and no formal plan whatsoever. We’re still looking…

Granted, most consumers are not going to be quite as, well, thorough as we were. Never-the-less, if they can’t quite articulate the question, they are thinking it: “Why should we chose you over everyone else?” If you can’t answer that in a powerful and straightforward way (while avoiding the typical bromides of “I work hard!”, “I already have buyers interested in your home!”, “I have tremendous experience?”, etc.) then you are working way too hard and earning far too little.

You already have your answer if you are specializing in a niche. Otherwise, take the time to come up with a powerful response. Take it from someone who has just experienced it first hand from the consumer side, you will quickly appear to be head and shoulders above your competition within the first five minutes of any listing appointment.

How you answer this question is a measure of your professional depth and commitment.  Given that Kevin Tomlinson doesn’t even have to look at the Miami MLS to tell you which South Beach condos are for sale, under what terms and what unique features each offers speaks volumes about his depth.  One that his competitors can’t hope to match because they are far too busy trying to be everything to everyone.

The same with Linda Jefferson of GoArmyHomes.com who can give you every nuance of working with relocating army families.  Like it or not, real estate sales is no longer just about sales.  It is also very much a function of how well you serve and stand out from your competition as evidenced by your passion and depth of knowledge.  It doesn’t matter if your experience spans hundreds of square miles if it’s only one-inch deep.

This reminds me of something my Dad said something to me when I was in my teens that I’ll never forget…

There are those with years of experience and those with experience in their years.

Max O. Russer (Mr. Internet’s Dad)

Guess which one prospects will be attracted to and to whom clients will refer others.  If you call yourself a professional it is incumbent upon you to maintain and grow the depth of specialized experience and knowledge implied by that moniker.  Anything less is just posing.

Dave Ramsey was the keynote speaker at the recent STAR POWER conference in Murfreesboro, TN. He spoke about the tortoise and the hare. According to him, the tortoise always wins —eventually.

If you look at the behavior and personality of the two it’s not hard to see why. Hares are quite often undiagnosed ADHD, Ritalin-deficient go-getters that are constantly looking for either a) their next adrenalin high, or b) the next bright-shiny object / silver bullet that will promise to deliver it. They confuse the distinction between strategic and tactical, and a well-defined “process” is something that gets in the way of all that sense of urgency they literally thrive on.

The tortoise however focuses on measured steps that will eventually take them to their objectives. Their path is strategically well planned and they are comfortable with the fact they will not get there overnight. “Slow and steady” is their motto as they put blinders on to avoid the glint of all those bright shiny objects that promise quick results.

Tortoises stay focused, calm and resilient. Hares are easily distracted, get tired and often don’t read (RDR)…

It is my contention that Aesop was writing for the tortoise market. Hares have no time to read.

Anita Brookner

Now you may protest that the hare has a lot more fun. Well… that depends upon how you define “fun”. Chaos can seem like fun for awhile, until it isn’t any more. A long-term consistently growing, financially profitable business —now that’s what I call fun :0)

The E-Myth Enterprise: How to Turn a Great Idea into a Thriving Business

You are either going to love this book or hate it.  First of all if you haven’t read any of the E Myth books yet, DON’T start with this one!  I suggest going with The E-Myth Revisited and first have your world rocked about what it means to be in business.

The subtitle of The E-Myth Enterprise is almost a misnomer because it is so much more than just having a thriving business.  What Gerber refers to as “E-Myth Enterprises” are rare gems indeed, that we can only hope to aspire to but very few indeed will achieve (bummer –sort of…)

The author (who is a very powerful and compelling 70+ year old speaker as well) waxes absolutely philosophical and even existential in bravely exploring how important one’s business needs to be in alignment with their purpose in life.  And that ultimately the only hope for us as a species will be if more of us realize this and act accordingly (told you this was different ).  While he does give some specifics of what constitutes an “E-Myth Enterprise” (even if only of a company consisting of one person —you.)  They tend to be high level concepts and not much more meat than that.

I give this book a mixed review: 6 out of 5 for inspiration, 3 out of 5 for content and writing style.  I was profoundly inspired when I realized that here was someone who so powerfully articulated the vision I always had for my companies and providing clues on how I might reach this vision.  On the other hand, his last chapter rant makes me wonder if the editor that allowed this kind of disjointed thinking to make it to the printing press still has a job.  He almost builds into a rage and then stops abruptly with a self-serving suggestion to contact him on how to create an E Myth Enterprise.  I’m afraid that last chapter will hurt his otherwise great reputation.  Everything else before it is very much worth the read.  This is not Gerber’s best book, but in some ways it may be his most profound.

(**** Four Stars – reviewed 8/1/09)

We are proud to announce Valerie Fitzgerald as our next Guest Expert as she shares how she started out in this business making as many (or more mistakes) as anyone and not selling a single thing her first nine months.  She will then cover what she did to radically turn this around to become a multi-millionaire sales professional, corporate executive, philanthropist, speaker and coach all while raising her daughter as a single mom.

There are so few opportunities to experience “the real deal”, and this is one of them.  If you want real world experience on how to change challenge into opportunity and build a business that serves you, DO NOT MISS THIS SESSION!

IMPORTANT: You must register to view the live Webinar. Just go to the following URL: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/448680696 and complete the registration form. The registration confirmation e-mail will give you instructions on how to login to the Webinar.

When: Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 – 7:00pm (EDT)

Call In: Will be given at time of registration

NOTE: This Webinar is part of the regular Online Dominance Live Group Coaching Guest Expert series which is usually for Online Dominance members only.  However, since Valerie is a personal friend of mine I have decided to open this up to Mr. Internet News subscribers as well.

Heart and Sold recounts Valerie’s personal journey from unemployed single parent to entrepreneur, philanthropist and renowned corporate executive.  The book is a must-read for anyone in business looking to take their game to the next level.  It’s a practical and illuminating guide with tips and strategies that are remarkably easy to implement.  Leeza Gibbons says, “Heart and Sold is inspirational for any woman–or anyone–struggling to build a business of their own.  Valerie’s personal triumph will make you feel like you can do anything.”

To order the book, simply go to: http://www.valeriefitzgerald.gesprojects.com/promo

A Special Gift From Valerie to You 

In celebration of the book launch on May 19th, Valerie is providing a free Heart & Sold reflective workbook to anyone who buys the book.  This workbook is a compilation of summaries and reflective questions for each chapter in Heart & Sold.  To order, click here: http://www.valeriefitzgerald.gesprojects.com/promo.

Please forward to anyone you believe may benefit from hearing about Valerie’s amazing story of re-invention and her guidance on how to attain lasting fulfillment and success.

Giving a Ritalin deficient sales force yet one more thing to distract them from the disciplines of doing real business, is like giving a crack addict a brand new pipe.  Social media is not some kind of silver bullet that will solve all their problems.  In fact, for most of them it will substantially add to their frustration and probably hasten their exit from the business. “RDR” (Realtors Don’t Read) is common refrain.  And if you believe that is true, consider the natural sequitur “RDW” (Realtors Don’t Write).  Social media certainly can complement one’s marketing efforts, if (and this is a big IF), one is a very good writer with some semblance of a unique and engaging “voice”.  Out of the million or so Realtors still in business I wonder how many fit that profile.

This is just one more example of how typical real estate management responds to desperate times with desperate Hail Mary, spaghetti-on-the-wall measures, rather than with something so few seem to exhibit —leadership.

The Real Crisis in Real Estate

Imploding housing values, constricted credit markets, skittish consumers and an overall deep recessionary economy are simply part of a cycle.  A nasty one for sure, but just a cycle.  Barring an extinction level event, people will always buy and sell real estate.  Currently, sale volumes may be lower and the methods of how we help them with the process certainly change, but business will continue.

There is indeed a crisis in the residential real estate industry, but this current cycle does not define it —it instead has revealed it.  Boom times tend to mask flaws.  And as Warren Buffet so aptly put it, “It’s only when the tide goes out that you learn who’s been swimming naked.”  This market has made it very clear that skinny dipping has been a favorite pastime for the management of most residential sales companies.

Getting caught with your pants down during a market down turn is due to one primary factor —lack of strategic leadership.  Having been intimately involved with residential real estate for over 33 years, it has always been clear to me that this is one of the most reactionary industries there is.  Strategic thinking and execution are so rare that it almost takes my breath away when I am fortunate enough to witness it.

The very foundation of successful strategic thinking and its execution in this industry is sales force accountability.  It doesn’t matter how brilliant your ideas or how shiny the new objects you provide your people.  If you don’t hold them strictly accountable to implementing your strategic vision you will fail, every time.  Yet accountability is the anathema to the body-shop model of hiring and managing sales associates found in the vast majority of companies.  And it is precisely these companies that find themselves in dire straits and most likely to name the economy as the source of their woes.

It was interesting that one of the brokerages I spoke to actually bragged about how they hold their salespeople accountable and explicitly denied providing “bright shiny objects”.  Yet when I asked them how they expected social media training would convert to new business for their people, or how they would even measure it, they responded with “We don’t know.”  Hey, if it glitters…

The current market cycle is an incredible once-in-a-generation opportunity to take significant market share if only because so many are frantically reacting.  To do that requires strategic thinking, superb execution and holding your salespeople accountable.  They need to understand that this is a serious business, not a pastime.  You can give them that perspective and the means to thrive even in the worst of today’s market.  However, if you fall into the trap of providing solace through the glitter of bright shiny objects, you are merely forestalling the inevitable.

First, let’s define what we mean by effective training.  Effective sales associate training occurs when their behavior permanently changes to align with what is being taught.  Based on this metric, most real estate sales associate training fails miserably.  Either your training efforts are a frustrating exercise of “talking to a wall” or at best, you have information transfer but little or no implementation.

Kids Are Easy, Grownups Not So Much…

Training adults has never been easy.  Unlike kids, most adults abhor change and long-term behavioral change is the very essence of effective training.  And, the accelerating pace of technological innovation and procedural complexity within the real estate industry makes this task that much more formidable.  Yet the increasingly competitive environment makes effective training a top strategic priority.  Without it, your company is not likely to make it through the current tough market cycle intact.

There is a very powerful and proven way out of this mess.  And to best understand how and why it consistently works requires that we first examine how most training is done today.

There are three basic categories of training for real estate sales people:

1. Licensing – for the purpose of obtaining or maintaining a license to help people buy and sell real estate for compensation.  Real estate schools, brick and mortar as well as online, currently fulfill this need.  It should be noted that the word “training” in this context is a bit of a stretch.  As the purpose of this kind of instruction is not so much to change one’s behavior as it is to help them achieve the objective of becoming and remaining legally licensed.
    
2. Basic Skills – to help new sales people a) work effectively from a procedural standpoint (i.e. understanding listing and sales processes, forms, procedures, regulatory requirements, etc.) and b) develop fundamental sales skills that will enhance their ability to generate new business and see it to fruition.
    
3. Strategic Skills – to help experienced sales professionals develop attitudes, skills and behaviors that will maximize their long-term business growth and success.  This kind of training can include team building, marketing, business planning, use of technology and the Internet, etc.

It is with this last category, Strategic Skills training, that the industry struggles with the most because it requires the greatest amount of behavioral change from the students.  Yet until a sales professional’s long-term strategic behavior changes in accordance with what is being taught, no training has occurred.  It is the change of the sales person’s behavior, not the passing of tests that determines the efficacy of any training initiative.  And most strategic skills training initiatives fall far short of this goal.  The stakes are very high because effective training of strategic skills will also have the biggest impact on your company’s competitive positioning and bottom-line.

The Power of Collaborative Training

There are currently three approaches to training strategic skills being employed.  Perhaps it is best to think of them as hierarchies, with each subsequent approach subsuming the previous one and adding something extra to enhance training results (i.e. long-term behavioral change).

Training 1.0 (Immersive Curriculum)

All training requires a well thought out curriculum with specific learning objectives.  Many large sales organizations and franchises invest heavily in this type of strategic skills training.  Delivery can be both in the classroom or online, synchronous (live instruction) or asynchronous (self-paced), or a combination of both.  While this kind of instruction can measure whether a student understands what is being taught, it does not enforce the ongoing implementation of what was learned.  Therefore, given most adults’ proclivity for avoiding change, the impact of this training model is very limited (just ask any trainer).  It is akin to throwing information at a wall and seeing what sticks.  What is sorely lacking here is ongoing accountability that will ensure what is being taught is also being used.

Training 1.5 (Immersive Curriculum + Accountability)

This is the model used by most of the coaching companies that work independently of the sales organizations.  In addition to teaching strategic skills, these groups (Brian Buffini, CKG International, Mike Ferry, Tom Ferry, etc.) provide a means by which the student is held accountable for implementing their new strategic skills.  While an effective means of achieving long-term behavioral change, this training model has some serious drawbacks.  These include expense (often $400 – $1000 /mo or more) and lack of scalability.  Even the largest of coaching organizations have been able to attract barely 1% of the REALTOR population.  And, in times of down-cycle markets, substantial student attrition occurs when high-cost coaching is one of the first things to be let go as budgets are squeezed.

Training 2.0 (Immersive Curriculum + Accountability + Exclusivity + Collaboration)

This emerging training model addresses all the limitations of earlier ones by leveraging typical sales person behavior rather than fighting it.  It accomplishes this by incorporating the following:

Exclusivity – Not all sales people are ready to be trained.  There are three kinds of “cats” in any sales organization…

• Cool Cats – these are the ones that see today’s challenges as opportunities, are committed, coachable and willing to collaborate and share ideas with others.  They are much more interested in having a career selling real estate rather than just a job (represent only 5% – 10% of the sales force);
   
• Tom Cats – these are the “fence sitters” who tend to blame everything and everyone for their problems.  They are not coachable or committed to a real career and think of their business as simply going from one transaction to another (represent about 85% – 93% of the sales force);
   
• Fat Cats – these are the “old-timers” who are typically very successful but not at all coachable and probably will retire within 3 – 5 years (represent 2% – 5% of the sales force).

The key to success in the Training 2.0 model is to work only with an organization’s elite group of “Cool Cats”.  Sales people want what they can’t have and this type of exclusivity leverages that behavior.

Collaboration – This is where all the “Cool Cats” collaborate, brainstorm and support each other to succeed in the implementation of what is being learned.  This innovative approach allows each individual to tap into the collective IQ and creativity of the entire group.  What emerges is an esprit‘d corps that powerfully enhances the ability to change student long-term strategic behavior.  It is also a way to quickly generate and implement strategic solutions that simply would not have emerged from any one individual.

Accountability – Each “Cool Cat” signs an Accountability Agreement that stipulates the special privileges, responsibilities and accountabilities (including specific consequences) as being part of the elite group.  Any member that fails to hold themselves accountable is removed from the group without hesitation.

Immersive Curriculum – To achieve true scalability, training must be provided online both in synchronous (live group coaching) and asynchronous (self-paced video lessons) formats.  It must also provide a way for students to prove that they have implemented what they learned in each lesson.  Implementation is the first step toward long-term behavioral change.  This approach also allows the curriculum to be disseminated for far less per person than a typical coaching program.

My company has used variations of this Training 2.0 model for the benefit of many real estate sales organizations since 2000.  I developed an “eTEAM” training protocol that involves forming elite groups of sales professionals that are the “Navy Seals” of doing business online within the brokerage environment.  A company’s “Cool Cats” are given a chance to self-identify and apply to join the eTEAM.  Each application is scored by measuring the commitment level of the applicant and their willingness to work with others.  Accepted applicants must then sign the eTEAM Accountability Agreement and pay for their own training.  Once formed, a broker’s eTEAM meets once a week and is facilitated by an eTEAM Leader whose job is to make sure the group works collaboratively and each member is held accountable for implementing what they learn.

The eTEAMS grow over time since some of the “Tom Cats” within the organization that see the success and benefits of being an eTEAM member will eventually seek to join.  Perhaps most importantly however, this Training 2.0 approach turns the typical sales person entitlement mentality into one of commitment and responsibility resulting in long-term positive behavioral changes in a highly scalable manner.

Traditional methods of strategic skills training clearly do not work well if at all.  And, there are no silver bullets.  The industry needs a model that addresses these issues and leverages the power of collaborative networks (both online and off), enforceable accountability and use of the latest online training platforms.  This emergent Training 2.0 approach incorporates these capabilities and provides a proven way to get sales people to change their long-term strategic behavior (for any kind of training) while adapting to rapidly changing competitive environments.

Then again, you could stick with the way you are doing training now and expect different results —but we all know where that leads to.

A friend of mine who works with sales professionals told me about a Realtor who was bragging about how “busy” he was. My friend wisely offered to relieve this person’s cell phone from him for two days and handle all his calls for free. The next five words that came from this person’s mouth, well… said it all: “What will I do now?”…

Most people confuse busyness with business. Busyness is something that enslaves you, while a real business is something that will faithfully serve you whether you are in the office or not. — Mr. Internet

This economy will turn around eventually. The biggest risk is that you fall back into a frenzy of “doing” that keeps you busy, yet prevents you from ever having a real business. Take this time NOW to work on your business so that it works for you when you need and want it most.

Just when you think things can’t get much tougher, they sometimes do. If you panic, well… you’re dead.

On the other hand, if you keep your head about you and apply basic success principles, you’ll land in one piece. (your heart may be racing a bit -but that’s part of the fun )

There’s no disaster that can’t become a blessing, and no blessing that can’t become a disaster.                                                                                  — Richard Bach

Always expect the unexpected and anticipate the unforeseeable. And the best way to do this is to practice, practice, practice those things that consistently work for you. So when the unexpected happens, you won’t even have to think about it, you will just do what it takes to handle it. And that is what being a true professional is all about…