The most common complaint of real estate agents is that they don’t have enough listings. But it’s impossible to be short of listings when you have good prospecting systems in place.
In our Real Estate Agency Management Program, https://pittard.com.au/blog/wp-admin/post.php?post=525&action=editwe show attendees how to implement Permanent Listing Enquiry, which is one of the Six Essential Elements that are necessary to make a highly profitable real estate agency. Permanent Listing Enquiry requires total team commitment.
There are three main ways that sellers are located.
- The first way is when sellers walk into or phone your office and say that they want to sell – we call these P.I. (Phone In) Listings. In far too many offices, these are the only sellers that are found.
- The second way is the Solo Seller Sources that we examine in our sales program, Winning Ways. About half of the listings that come into your office each month should be generated by team effort – prospecting, hunting, actively seeking out business.
- Management Systems, the third way, is where management promotes the business to sellers by way of Leaflet and Letter prospecting systems and by employing permanent prospectors – we call them HomeFINDERS.
Leaders expect their teams to find listings, to actively work the Solo Seller Sources. Too few leaders, however, have the same expectation for themselves. Either they do not have management systems for promoting the business to sellers, or what systems they do have are not consistent.
You cannot afford to be haphazard when it comes to promoting your business.
Some leaders have said, “My team won’t prospect. Until I see some improvement, I’m stopping all leaflets and letters!” Not smart. Ceasing office-generated listing enquiry to ‘punish’ the team is like killing Santa Clause. Instead of punishing the team this way, wouldn’t it be better to give the incoming inquiry to those on the team who do prospect, and to counsel those who won’t – and fire them if there is no improvement? Why punish those who do prospect along with those who won’t?
Short-sighted leaders cannot see that total team commitment to Permanent Listing Enquiry means that both the team and the leader have jobs to do. The team’s job is to work the Solo Seller Sources. The leader’s job is to get the Leaflet and Letter prospecting systems in place and to hire an effective HomeFINDER.
Leaders who expect their teams to eliminate excuses should begin with themselves. If the team is expected to find people who are selling now, leaders have a moral responsibility to get the Leaflet and Letter prospecting systems and at least one HomeFINDER up and running.
Total team commitment is the key. Salespeople who want to enjoy incoming enquiry are crazy if they don’t make sure that at least 300 letters leave the office each week signed by the salesperson and hand delivered by the office’s walkers. Once they have some letters working for them, it’s time to get out and speak to people. Salespeople who speak to fewer than 800 potential sellers per month are not working hard enough.
While the salespeople are taking care of their part of the bargain, leaders work on promoting the business to every seller in the office’s service area. A database needs to be set up. With determination, you can find the name of almost every seller in your service area and see that each of these sellers hears from your office by letter at least four times per year.
This is not easy, I agree. But instead of looking at the reasons why it cannot be done, find a way to do it. Winning leaders have databases that work. You can too.
Next come leaflets: sellers in your service area need to receive your leaflet every month. To do this effectively you should consider getting rid of those contractors, who drop your leaflet into a letterbox along with ten other advertising messages, and employ four or five walkers to deliver your material, reliably and every month.
Sure, it costs more. But we show you how to pay for it at our Real Estate Agency Management Program, so those of you who have attended have no excuse for not setting this up and making Permanent Listing Enquiry a reality in your offices.
We also show you how to employ and train HomeFINDERS and to make sure they are working effectively. In spite of this, I find it frustrating that still so many leaders do not have HomeFINDERS.
This is even more difficult to understand when you consider the potential loss to Johnson Real Estate in Birkdale, QLD, had it not employed HomeFINDER Adam Horth, who single-handedly sourced listings that produced over $500,000 in fees this past year. Had two HomeFINDERS produced as much their wages would still have been a bargain and yet, knowing this, many leaders still refuse to hire HomeFINDERS. Fascinating!
Permanent Listing Enquiry means just that: all sources, both management and solo-generated sources, must be activated and kept activated every month. Homeowners should hear from your office monthly, in a combination of leaflets, letters, face-to-face, or by voice.
It requires dedication, persistence, systems, and total team commitment. And one more thing: an understanding of the huge income that Permanent Listing Enquiry generates. This also works in reverse: don’t activate the sources and you give this huge income to your competitors.
Ignorance of this fact causes many uncommitted leaders and teams to give away income that could be theirs. With total team commitment, Permanent Listing Enquiry can be a reality in any office, but it’s not going to happen without action.
Think about this little gem:
“None of the secrets of success will work until you do.”