If we’re doing our best to serve our clients, we may think all agents do as well. Not…

The recent survey by the California Association of Realtors shows some stunning and alarming trends about customer service expectations and delivery. In 2005, Internet consumers rated their overall satisfaction with their agent at almost 90%, while traditional buyers rated their overall satisfaction at 37%. However, in the ensuing years, the ratings have plummeted. In 2009, both Internet and traditional buyers only rated their overall satisfaction with their agent at 4%!  (The ratings of Internet and traditional buyers now are equal). In other words, consumer expectations of what an agent will do for them are just not being met. In fact, value received for what the consumer paid the real estate agent was at only 4% for all buyers.

Trends Collide: Consumer Expectations Rise While Agents’ Abilities to Meet Those Expectations Shrink

While consumer satisfaction levels are going down, the number of ‘dual career agents’ (I call them part-timers) continues up. What’s the result? Low customer satisfaction! I know. You’re going to tell me that you met a part-timer once that did a great job. Of course. But, as you and I know, that’s the exception, not the rule. And, let’s not think ‘inside-out’. The consumer’s satisfaction here is the only one that counts. They pay our commissions. And, commission rates are falling because they don’t feel they’re receiving value from what they are paying.

Time for our Leadership to Set some Standards

What’s your standard for work completed by agents in your office? Are you okay with “just turn in a couple of sales this year”? Or, are you concerned with the consumer experience? If we don’t start thinking about that, we will be replaced by something consumers can count on—those darned computers! (I hope not!). However, if the consumer is paying us, we must decide what he is paying us for (and it isn’t because we use technology……).

Here’s my list of valued services. What’s yours?

• Dedicated service throughout the transaction
• Prioritized knowledge not available just on the Internet
• Immediate communication and continued first-level service
• Exceptional negotiating skills
• Loyalty, putting the customer first, rather than another job first

The Internet and Agent Knowledge: Almost Neck in Neck on Consumers’ Minds

By the way, in the CAR survey, 54% of the consumers surveyed thought the information they got on the Internet was less useful than what they got from their agent. Does that sound good to you? To me, it sounds very bad. Almost half of the consumers think the Internet is just as good as your live agent! So, let’s get to cracking and get our agents performing past the standards we set. Why? Because the consumers have already set the standards—and they’re higher than what we’re allowing. Let’s put the industry back on track toward pride in excellent service. Let’s knock the consumer’s socks off with prioritized knowledge, attention to the transaction, and exceptional service. We can do it, and brokers must lead. Now.

Over 21,000 agents opened (and read) the article “Top Ten Negotiating Rules for REALTORS®.” from the Pacific Coast Highway to the Hamptons; from the Upper Peninsula to Corpus Christi; real estate agents are eager to improve their negotiating skills.  It makes sense since REALTORS® negotiate all of the time, yet get little or no formal training in it. Here are a handful of quick tips you can begin using immediately.

Stay focused on the goal of completing the sale.  In other words, don’t let the buyer, seller, other agent, or anyone else distract you from the goal.  And, when others get fascinated by some minor issue, encourage them to keep their “eye on the ball.”

Don’t let the buyers and sellers come to a place where they dislike each other.  It is usually best to say little or nothing personal about your client.  Too often, your well-intended information is misunderstood and used as ammunition against the interest of the transaction.

When you hit an impasse, settle the issues where there is agreement and come back to the areas of negotiation later.

Take time to think.  Give your clients time to think.  Unless their decision  is a quick yes, and even then take the time to reinforce their decision.  Allow the clients to consider the options and the consequences of their decisions.

Be honest.  Integrity and courtesy always win.  Exaggeration and dishonesty are costly at many levels, for a long time.

Finally, negotiators are made, not born.  Negotiating is a skill that is learned, then strengthened with experience, education, and application.

If you love negotiating, make a commitment to learn more and get better at it.  If you dislike or fear negotiating, then realize that many of your normal strengths, like integrity, commitment to the client’s interests, and ethics work in your favor.  In real estate, unlike some other venues, intimidation tactics don’t work.

I am proud to work in real estate.  You, too, can be proud to work in a profession where integrity works and integrity wins.  That is particularly true in your negotiating.

K.I.S.S., or keep it simple, stupid; or, the more polite version, keep it simple, salesperson. Or even, keep it short and simple. This has been used as an instruction to teach salespeople to avoid unnecessary complexity with prospects.

The simpler the salesperson can make the decision for the prospect, the more likely they are to take action. It makes complete sense, violating this principle is the reason most agent business planning does not stick.

Here’s a radical thought, any business plan that can’t be created in less than an hour is unlikely to be implemented. Take one hour to complete a plan for 2011 as if that is all the time you have; as if that is the plan that has to guide you for the entire year. And, it has to be completed in one hour.  Whether you complete your plan in that hour or not, that sharp focus motivates you to create a better plan because of its simplicity. Keep It Simple and Succeed!

My exploration into using videoconferencing as a marketing tool for real estate has taken me down many roads. There are many products out there, including  TokBox, DimDim, and Skype.

I like Skype. It makes me feel very “international!” Some of my clients are located overseas, and Skype is their product of choice.

In class, more and more of my students tell me they are using Skype to communicate with their clients across the country, and across the world.  But, what is Skype

According to Wikipedia, Skype (pronounced /ˈskaɪp/) is a software application that allows users to make voice calls over the Internet. Calls to other users of the service and, in some countries, to free-of-charge numbers, are free, while calls to other landlines and mobile phones can be made for a fee. Additional features include instant messaging, file transfer and video conferencing.

Speaking to some of my coaching clients, here are some business uses for Skype:
• Return long distance phone calls to clients
• Check your voicemail when you are traveling
• Make business calls from areas without cell phone coverage

What makes Skype even better is that it starts out free if the person you are calling also has a Skype account.

Video calls, like Skype-to-Skype calls are free, updating your clients is free, no matter where they are in the world. All you need is a webcam and software. You can start by downloading the software: www.Skype.com/download.

If we want to be successful with today’s buyer, we need to remember what is – and always has been – at the heart of the sale: People will only buy something from someone they trust. Only the methods have changed. If you can’t meet them face to face, webcam to webcam will have to do.

Skype options:

• Skype to Skype (free)
• Skype to Local or Long Distance
• Skype to International
• Skype with iPHONE (mobile)
• Skype with video
• Payment options: free, pay-as-you-go, or monthly

Skype-enabled audio and video are already infiltrating business settings, with users recording their Skype conversations and adding the recordings to their blogs as podcasts.

And the ultimate – the ability to see each others’ webcam, and, if necessary, to record the call. A great software at Pamela.org will enable you to do this.

A coaching client, a real estate agent, recently asked this question.  It is a common problem, and here is the solution.

The Question
I think I am missing the boat on some clients because I forget about them.  I lost contact with them and it is costing me thousands of dollars, maybe tens of thousands of dollars, every year.  I really need to improve my average in this category.  I need something to keep them in front of me.  I need some sort of physical chart to keep them in my mind.  I can probably make my own if I knew of three or four columns to use.  How should I keep track of these clients?

The Solution
I teach my clients to use their CRM (Contact Relationship Management) software to keep track of these clients.  This doesn’t work for some, in which case we pursue whatever system will work for them.  People are different from each other and need different solutions.  A good one is the whiteboard.  The board itself it is quite easy to put together; let’s go over how to do it.

Five columns
The five columns you should put on your whiteboard are:

1. Urgency, label this column with A or B, so you are aware of the urgency level at all times.  A, of course, is urgent while B is not. This will also prompt you to work on converting the B buyers to A’s.
2. The name of the buyer
3. The buyer’s price range
4. Location the buyer is interested in
5. Comments, anything specific they are looking for in a property
6. Optional information, such as phone numbers (before PDA’s agents would put contact information on their buyer whiteboard.  Now, the number may not be necessary, because you have it on your phone).

When you, your assistant, or anyone on your team hears about a new listing or you are pursuing a new listing, you can glance at the board.  Sell more, act more quickly for your buyers, and stop losing the leads that you already know are causing you to lose money.

Not too long ago I got a call from a very large franchise real estate company with a concern that I hear too often, “Our own agents are ‘stealing’ all our leads on the Internet.  What do we do?”  As is typical with large real estate companies and franchises, they are trying to be all things to all people.  They cover such wide metropolitan areas, and, in many cases, they cross state boundaries, that they get crowded out by their agents who are more nimble and use more targeted approaches to getting found.

The Target Concept

The Target Concept is simple: stop shooting one arrow at the target, hoping to hit the bullseye, rather, shoot as many arrows as you can at the target and try to get as many groupings as close to the bullseye as possible.  In other words, don’t try to get found by those tremendously competitive keyword phrases like “Denver real estate,” but by several minor keyword phrases that you can get on the first page of the search engines.

This is one of the few industries where the “worker” can actually take advantage of the boss by being smarter and more nimble.  Try searches in your area for “Location real estate” and see how many of the major players are on the first page.  I’ll bet there are a bunch.  Now, try more targeted keyword phrases like “Location luxury homes for sale,” “short sale Location condos,” or “Location foreclosure properties.”  You’ll find very few of the major players here, because they can’t cover it all.

Make Your Title STOP IT!

Did you know that there are many common words that the major search engines don’t even index because they are so common?  I’m talking about more than words like “a”, “the”, and “my”.  I’m also talking about numbers and words like “therefore”, “somewhat”, “Microsoft”, etc.

Why is this important to know?  Because, “It’s in your title, Stupid”

Your title is one of the most important parts of your website.  When you putgood keyword phrases into your title, they get picked up by those that are typing in a search term in any random order.  In other words, your title of “My Denver Real Estate and Luxury Homes For Sale” fits perfectly with at least 30 different search phrases including “All home sales in the Denver real estate area.”  Even though the words “all”, “in”, “the”, and “area” are not even in the title, they are “stop words” and not seen by the search engines.  Further, the words “home” and “sales” can be interchanged with their plural/singular counterparts.

Target Your Prospect Searches

So, how do you know what your best keyword search terms are?  Well, it would be helpful to know what your prospects are typing into the major search engines, and, of course, the largest search engine is Google.  Google is highly invested in knowing how many people are searching what phrases.  Best of all, they share this information with the public.  This tool, called Google Adwords Keyword Tool is free and will concoct all sort of various keyword search just by putting in simple searches like “Denver real estate.”

Focus on these effective targeted keyword phrases, and you will be taking out those big, old, beasty lions in no time!

Honesty is often interesting.  One of my coaching clients, an agent, Herb (name changed to protect the guilty) is having a mediocre year.  I thought I knew the problem so I asked him this, “Herb, what percentage of your leads do you simply not follow up on, or call once and not follow through on?”

He was honest, he said, “Sixty.”

“Sixty percent that you do follow through on or sixty percent that you don’t?” I asked.

“Sixty percent that I don’t,” he said.

Herb would double his production simply by following through on the leads that are already coming to him.  Honesty is interesting.

Another client, agent, Laurie (name changed), who hit a very slow period in the middle of the year answered the question this way.  “Well, I started out strong and then I got pretty sloppy, but now I am following up on nearly everything again.”

Considering that the period in which she “got pretty sloppy” following through on her leads was the spring and summer, she would have doubled her production as well, simply by following through on the leads already coming to her.

There are a many agents like Herb and Laurie, who have the skills and the knowledge, but they lack the motivation, focus, and commitment to follow up and follow through.

To what extent does this describe you?  What percentage of the leads that came to you this year didn’t get followed up on or followed through?

It is the perfect time of year to recognize this, and correct it with a four step process that I call “Breakdown Leads to Breakthrough.”

Breakdown Leads to Breakthrough
Step One: Acknowledge the error.  Simply admit it honestly to yourself.
Step Two: Forgive yourself.  This can be quite easy, just say to yourself, “I forgive myself.”  Can it be that easy?  Absolutely, as long as you do Step One honestly.
Step Three: Recommit.  Decide if you want to recommit to follow through on your leads more conscientiously for the rest of the year and through next year.
Step Four: Get into action immediately on your renewed commitment.  This is the critical step.

Honesty is interesting.  Self-honesty is even more interesting, because  it is the key to your personal and professional breakthrough.

1. Lines and Linework

These terms refer to borders, frames, and rules, and do not refer to pen-and-ink or pencil sketches. Yes, I am talking about actual lines here. Horizontal or vertical, thick or thin, regular or irregular, they help define and delimit spaces around various elements on your pages. Good linework increases both the readability and “directionality” (see #5, below) of the design as a whole.

2. Shape

Most people don’t think about this, but any enclosed area, form, or contour in your design is a shape. Shapes in most layouts are square or rectangular, but nothing says they must be, and circles are useful, too. You can also use images to create other, regular or irregular, shapes. In addition to shapes, I’ll include here “white space”, or the lack of shapes. White space can be just as effective as lovely graphics and shapes.

3. Texture

One thing that custom sites have over the typical template design website is the addition of texture. Texture imparts a “surface” feeling, and is tactile in printed matter, so choosing the paper stock — matte, weave, coated, etc. — is a design decision, too. Textures on layouts meant for broadcast or the Internet are visual only, but still key. Most textures do not add to the drag of drawing the website, as most textures are implemented in “chunks”, or in pieces that are fitted together.

4. Color/Branding

Color and branding go hand in hand. You need to know what your colors and thus your brand is ahead of time, before starting on your website. Color is probably the element that most designers are at least acutely aware of, if not schooled in. However, color is not a requirement in many designs, and some art educators suggest creating a design without any color first. The artist, in this view, should then add only as much color as needed to enhance or complete the design. Another school of thought holds that color should be one of the first elements determined. Experience and experimentation will help every artist develop a good color sense and strategy.

5. Direction

Effectively designed layouts, in magazines or on your computer screen, usually have a sense of motion. A good design will lead the reader’s eyes through the design deliberately, using color changes, shapes, linework, and copy placement direct viewers’ attention to what the designer wants them to see.

Here’s a good test for your website, as well as others’. Open up your website and close your eyes while it is loading. Now, open your eyes and pay attention to a couple things.

• Where did you eyes go first
• Where did they go second, third, fourth, etc.
• At which places did they not look

You’ll need to be very practiced in this as your eyes will tend to race over the website. You should only concentrate on 4 or 5 main focus points. More than this will dilute your effectiveness.

Finally, pay attention to what your competition is doing and improve upon their design. It’s amazing how many good ideas you can get from your competition, and your sites will not even look similar if you are changing up your design elements.

Today, everyone seems to beam about their ability to multi-task.  With the revolution of technology and communication going from simultaneous exchange (phones) to non-simultaneous exchange (texting) we continue to handle multiple activities in what appears to be one increment of time.

But is this a good thing or a bad thing?   A recent study from the American Psychological Association released in August suggests that not only do we get less done by multi-tasking, but it can be hazardous to our productivity!

Even though we think we are multi-tasking, according to reports by Vanderbilt University, we are still only able to process one activity at a time, but since we can do it fairly quickly, we have the illusion that we are in fact doing it concurrently.

Our “executive control center” is our decision making center, which takes significant amounts of time and, according to the report, several tenths of a second, which adds up when people switch back and forth repeatedly between tasks.  Where multi-tasking may seem more efficient, it may actually take more time at the end.  In this report, Dr. David Meyer pointed out that a mere half second of time lost to task switching can result in life or death of a driver operating a car using a cell phone.

Another survey done for small businesses revealed that 56% of the responders indicated that they often handle three or more tasks at a time, and reported that one in four business owners stated that multi-tasking does, in some ways, hinder their working ability.  The results from obsessive multi-tasking shows decreased quality of work, actually taking longer to complete a simple task, and eventual burn out.

So, what can we do?  Many of us will continue to perform master multi-tasking activities, and sometimes that can be done appropriately.

But here’s an interesting fact, did you know that by cutting back on multi-tasking for only 20% of your day, you have the potential to free up about 237 hours, or almost six weeks each year?

Chris Crouch, President of DME Training & Consulting and developer of the GO System Training course is a productivity expert and coach.  In his program, he asks his students to perform a simple exercise that takes less than 30 seconds for most people to complete, but found that on the first exercise, the multi-taskers took 61 seconds!

The bottom line is that multi-tasking is really an illusion.  Science Daily claims we can improve our multi-tasking timing, but in reality, we still can only process one rule or command at a time, maybe faster or slower, but our brains still process one at a time.

The bottom line is this, be aware that multi-tasking is okay in moderation, but know that you might not be getting as much done in less time as you thought.  But, by making a few small changes you can get more done and free up real time.  Crouch suggests that we perform “deliberate” practice of focus and block out 96 minutes per day.  To achieve and maintain this focused state of mind he suggests we use a behavioral ritual, or an anchor to help us stay focused on completing a task.  He tells us to practice blocking out 96 minutes every day for deliberate practice (20% of your workday) to stay totally focused on a high-priority, high-impact task and watch your productivity increase.

It’s all about mindful productive tasking versus unproductive multi-tasking driven by habitual behavior.  You don’t have to give up multi-tasking, just give it up for 20% of the day, and be aware of the fact that when you do multi-task, it may be costing you!

Practice your “right now” technique and become a master at mindful multi-tasking, and then figure out what you want to do with all that extra time!

According to NAR and other research we have done independently, 80% of leads generated by you or your company over the Internet are lost, marked as dead, or simply thrown out. But, why is this happening?

An online consumer contacts you by e-mail. They want an immediate response to their question. And, as we all know, the first one to contact the consumer has the better chance of engaging the consumer.  Speed matters, and the speed of the Internet has created this consumer need.

The reality is that the online lead many times is not ready to commit right way.
So, we give up, lose interest, or don’t have systems in place to keep track of them to convert them at a later date.

Today’s online consumer does not want to be captured by the real estate professional. They want to stay in control of the process. They feel that if they share their information, the agent will bug them until they buy or die.

The technology needs of a buyer-based marketplace are so different than those of the past five years that many real estate professionals find themselves back at square one.

Here are some of the challenges:

• Knowing who today’s consumer is and how they consume information on the Internet
• Having all of the tools to respond properly

In other words, the challenge today is to understand which values are desired, and retool our business around them.

What about the leads that you send information to and then they won’t give you enough information for you to qualify them as a lead?

One import fact to remember is that buyers are online long before they are ready to purchase. Try to eliminate the 45-day mentality we attach to leads. Remember? A buyer walks into your office, you speak to them, read their tells, and within half an hour you know if you’ll have a commission check in your inbox in 45 days. Ah, memories. Those days are gone forever.

Many buyers enter the real estate search arena up to four years before they sit at a closing table. This is the subconscious stage. When something triggers to them to the next phase they actively engage in pre-research. This is the thinking-about-it stage.

Another trigger sends them into active research. They are finally pre-qualified and they actively begin searching online for homes and neighborhoods.

The actual buying stage is when they need help writing an offer, negotiating, and closing. Keep in mind, the actual buying phase can last as long as four months, or more.

What are these triggers — job change, income change, family change? You name it.
Managing all these leads can be overwhelming; so, look through all the software programs you own, especially products attached to your website and see if there are any automated e-mail campaigns available to you.

Please note: I am not an advocate of pushing unwanted data to people. And, I NEVER recommend this type of product to your sphere and past customers.