Great Expectations

In this short leadership session, real estate agency profit consultant, Gary Pittard, explains that a team will never exceed its leader’s public expectations of the team. If the leader aims high, the team will do likewise. If the leader has low, or no, expectations the team will almost certainly be mediocre.

Great expectations lead to great results.

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The Impossible Gap

Agents who inflate the likely selling price with sellers in order to win the listing – who ‘buy the business’ – might get away with it during a boom market, but in a down market this horrible practice no longer works. Many agents paint themselves into a corner.

In our sales program, Winning Ways – A Smarter Sales Career, we teach real estate salespeople that when an agent quotes two figures to buyers by way of a range, the lowest price in that range becomes the de facto list price. Continue reading The Impossible Gap

Before the Close

In this short sales session, real estate agency profit consultant Gary Pittard explains that closing is not like a Wild West gunfight, with six shooters at ten paces and only one walking away. There is nothing adversarial about closing. In fact, it’s the opposite.

Closing is the simple act of helping somebody make a decision. But before the close, there are important things that must be covered if you want to lead the client to the right decision.

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Four Steps to Turn Around Struggling Salespeople

Struggling salespeople – we’ve all had them. They can be frustrating, and they can cost your company a lot of money. So how do you know whether to persist with them or fire them?

In 25 years as a real estate agency profit consultant, I have seen entire teams of strugglers who fail to reach an acceptable performance.

Why do leaders keep such people? Some leaders wrongly believe that inconsistent or poor performance is just the way it is in Sales. But I can show you many Pittard clients who have incredible teams of happy, peak performers. Continue reading Four Steps to Turn Around Struggling Salespeople

Great Leader or Pretender

In this short leadership session, real estate agency profit consultant, Gary Pittard, points out the difference between great leaders and great pretenders.

If you want quality results, you need quality people. You don’t put your head out of your office window and whistle for winners: it takes hard work, over the long term, to find them, develop them, and to weed out those who do not fit the team.

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Doomed to Fail

In this short sales session, real estate agency profit consultant, Gary Pittard, says that salespeople who will not train are doomed to fail.

There are no new objections in Sales. It is possible to learn every likely objection and learn how to prevent it from becoming a barrier to a sale.

Training can be expensive. It might cost $2,000 to attend a seminar to learn how to overcome these barriers. But have you ever calculated the cost of incompetence?

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Talent Scout and Coach

To maximise profit, two of the leader’s most important roles are Talent Scout and Coach.

Gary Pittard

In my 25 years as a real estate agency profit consultant, one of the greatest ‘sins’ I’ve seen leaders commit is holding onto the wrong people for too long – often despite their better judgment.

When an underperforming team member leaves, or is eventually fired, I’ve lost count of how many times the leader has said, “I should have done this long ago”. Continue reading Talent Scout and Coach

Leadership: Not Just Bossing People About

In the 21st century, employees work with leaders, and not for them. “Generational differences have changed the face of employment” says real estate agency profit consultant, Gary Pittard.

Respect must be earned. In this short leadership session, Gary discusses how leaders can achieve this.

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Pipeline of Prospects

“The 30–Day Rule states that the prospecting you do in this 30 day period will pay off for the next 90 days. It is a simple, yet powerful universal rule that governs sales. Ignore it at your peril. When you internalize this rule, it will drive you to never put prospecting aside for another day”

Jeb Blount – Fanatical Prospecting

Where is your next listing coming from? If you don’t know, you’re heading for a performance slump. All salespeople should have a full pipeline of prospects – warm leads that will soon germinate into listings, then into sales, then into income. Continue reading Pipeline of Prospects

Price and Time

In this short sales session, real estate agency profit consultant, Gary Pittard, discusses the danger in allowing sellers to stay on the market overpriced for too long. Gary believes you have two weeks to get your listing priced to sell. Fail to do that and you risk losing the best buyers.

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Marketing

When the market turns down many agency leaders wisely cut expenses. But there is a right way and a wrong way to do this. Cut the wrong expenses and you will quickly lose profit.

Some expenses can be cut without affecting your income. We call these ‘fat’ expenses. Things like publications you don’t read. Stop expenses like this and you will be more profitable. Continue reading Marketing

The Forgotten Rookie Syndrome

Many salespeople either become sales managers or move into a leadership role as owners of their own real estate businesses. Gary Pittard, CEO of the real estate agency profit consultants, Pittard®, believes that author, Chris Lytle, is correct in calling these people, ‘the forgotten rookies’.

Leadership and Sales are different skills. To think that a great salesperson can lead a team without any leadership training is just as stupid as presuming that a great Flight Attendant can pilot the plane.

For salespeople-cum-leaders, the sales habit is hard to kick. But if you’re too busy selling and don’t spent enough time leading, you are on a fast track to low profit.

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Hard Tasks Pay

In 30 years I have interviewed countless winners, and have noticed one big difference between winners and their mediocre counterparts:

Winners do the hard tasks. Winners understand that the hard tasks pay.

In truth, the ‘hard’ tasks aren’t hard at all. Simply, salespeople don’t like doing these tasks so they avoid them. In their minds, they make these tasks seem harder than they really are. They invent excuses for not doing them. When asked by their leader, “How much prospecting have you done this week?”, they reply, “I’ve been too busy”. This is nonsense, and a fundamental cause of low results. Continue reading Hard Tasks Pay

Make the Most of a Golden Opportunity

“This is truly a great career. I wonder how many real estate salespeople actually appreciate the golden opportunity their real estate career offers them” says real estate agency profit consultant, Gary Pittard.

Gary believes that when you landed a position as a real estate salesperson, you won the lottery. Are you making the most of your winnings?

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Succession Planning All Talk or All Action

In this short leadership session, real estate agency profit consultant, Gary Pittard, discusses Succession Planning. Many agency leaders talk about it, but when questioned about what they have done with their succession planning, Gary finds that often very little has been done.

Selling Rent Rolls is a relatively straightforward process, but sales departments can be a little trickier, mostly because outside buyers do not expect them to be profitable. Therefore, you don’t have people queuing up to buy them. So, what’s your plan?

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Short Attention Spans

A common complaint from leaders is that their salespeople lack focus. It has a been constant theme in my 30 years as a real estate agency profit consultant.

One leader said his salespeople had the attention span of a gnat.

A short attention span is not a problem for most people. Watch people doing leisure activities – things they love to do. They have no trouble giving these activities their full attention. Continue reading Short Attention Spans

Ask for Price Feedback

Property sellers need accurate information from the market if they are to develop an understanding of the correct market price at which their property will sell.

According to real estate agency profit consultant, Gary Pittard, the way our industry goes about helping sellers understand the market is all wrong.

Many in our industry indulge in the disgusting practice of conditioning. Sometimes called ‘educating’.

There is a better way. It’s called honest coaching – passing on price feedback elicited from genuine buyers.

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Hiring Do’s and Don’ts (Part 2)

This is a two-part article on the Do’s and Dont’s of hiring. Last month, we discussed the Hiring Don’ts. This month we look at the Hiring Do’s.

The Seven Do’s of Hiring

  1. Hire for attitude

If you hire somebody with a bad attitude, this will poison your team. Author of Winning the War for Talent, Mandy Johnson, says that people with bad attitudes are hardly likely to suddenly develop a good attitude once they join your company.

Frame your questions around testing attitude, for example, “Can you give me an example of what you think is a good work ethic?”

Continue reading Hiring Do’s and Don’ts (Part 2)