Eliant bob mirman

EXECUTIVEAGENT MAGAZINE

Bob Mirman

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By Shannon Hartsoe - Ian Wiant Photographer

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The Four Masterminds of Eliant (L to R): Guy Walker, VP of Technology; Jex Manwaring, VP, Client Improvement; Bob Chapman, Director, Eliant Certification; Bob Mirman, CEO

hether it’s counseling emotionally disturbed children or providing motivational counseling to businesses, Bob Mirman’s career has always been about helping people improve their lives.

Today, as CEO of Eliant Inc., Bob’s mission is to help real estate professionals get the absolute best results they can. “My specialty is showing sales associates how to make a sale today and a referral sale tomorrow,” he says.

“The customer experience during the sales process is what drives referrals to your doorstep, not your product.”

Based in San Clemente, Eliant is a leading provider of customer experience solutions for hundreds of North America’s top homebuilders. The company Bob started in 1984 is considered the nation’s largest customer experience management company that caters exclusively to the real estate industry. Eliant conducts more than 100,000 homebuyer surveys annually.

What Does That Mean To Clients?

“With Eliant’s consumer-tracking tools and training, Realtors® and builders get timely, actionable information

and strategies to improve the customer experience, and dramatically improve their sales from referrals,” Bob explains.

“We recognize that a Realtor’s® lifeblood is referrals.

The impact of the mortgage and closing experience on the buyer’s evaluation of the Realtor® is immense! That’s why firms like imortgage, Chicago Title, and Fidelity National Title have retained Eliant to train their representatives to deliver extraordinary customer experiences, with Realtors® and builders benefitting from an impressive gain in referral business. The imortgage partnership with Realtors® is based on more than just great products.

In fact, the new imortgage slogan is “We want to help you sell more homes…from referrals!”

From Counseling To Surveys Born in the Bronx, New York City, Bob earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Vermont then did a two-year clinical psychology program and internship at Western Michigan University. While working on his Ph.D. at the University of Kansas, Bob was offered a job from the consulting company run by NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Fran Tarkenton.

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The Eliant Management Team After 18 months, his consulting client, General Mills, offered Bob a full-time job as staff psychologist for their 1,100-person sales team, where he led sales training, motivation programs, sales incentive contests and performance evaluation. The beginnings of what would be the core of Eliant began during this time, as Bob used customer surveys to evaluate the performance of General Mills’ sales people, which he calls “a novel concept in those days.”

“I found that I enjoyed business consulting more than psychological counseling,” Bob says. “Why? I could see more immediate changes.” In 1984, after eight freezing Minneapolis winters, Bob decided to move to sunny Irvine, Calif. He started National Survey Systems on his dining room table, specializing in conducting customer satisfac-

tion surveys for BMW, Pontiac, Toyota, IBM, Beckman Instruments and others.

“I started this company because I have always liked working for myself,” Bob recalls. “Even when working for General Mills, I worked it out so I was totally independent (in a tightly structured traditional business). I had an idea to use customer surveys as a tool to improve future sales; I wanted to use the customer surveys to hold sales people accountable for delivering an extraordinary customer experience.” He changed the name of the firm to Eliant in 2002 to underscore its expansion from just doing surveys to using surveys as a tool in monitoring customer satisfaction and help clients use the survey information to improve the customer experience.

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Bob Mirman and Bob Chapman with two ‘Eliant Silver Certified’ Executives: Marlene Veal, imortgage Branch Manager; and Kelly Nuno, Fidelity National Title The company grew to 48 people in 2006, contracted during the recession, and is experiencing dramatic growth once again. “From the purchase experience through years after move-in, Realtors® and builders follow Eliant’s proven blueprint for creating referral-based sales,” Bob says.

Bob credits his staff for making the company such a success. So much so that 90 percent of Eliant’s new business comes from referrals, including from home builders, resale sales people, escrow officers, tract sales people, design associates and customer service professionals.

Eliant uses its surveys to figure out what it took to create large number of referrals from a group of homebuyers. “We have created a ‘secret sauce’ for driving referral sales, and it really works,” says Bob. “How do we know? Because when we survey new homeowners, the first question we ask is ‘Were you referred to this builder (or Realtor®) by a friend or relative?’”

The result: Many of his home-builder clients are averaging 45-50 percent “Yes” to this question, which is extraordinary considering that the national average percent of sales from referrals in the new home industry is 6-8 percent. “Our clients averaged 26.8 percent for 2013,” he says.

Eliant Certified Sales, Lender, And Escrow Firms Since homebuyers’ experience plays such a critical role in their willingness to refer their Realtor® or builder, Eliant offers an opportunity for firms to become “Eliant

Certified.” This includes a half-day customer experience workshop, a Certification Exam, and Bronze, Silver, or Gold Certification of each agent based solely on ongoing customer survey ratings. One highly rated Eliant Certified firm, imortgage, has recently become the nation’s #1 ranked lender for customer satisfaction.

That’s Welcomed News To Clients Marlene Veal, Anaheim Branch Manager of imortgage, an Eliant Certified lender, says “Eliant Certification has created a way of differentiating ourselves from other lenders.

It also provides a motivational edge for each of our Loan Consultants: they all want to get high survey ratings to become GOLD Certified!” (See article about Laura Neves, one of imortgage’s GOLD Certified Loan Consultants, on page 4 of this issue).

As president of Brookfield Residential, Adrian Foley has been using Eliant’s services for over 10 years. “Eliant’s surveys and training have helped us deliver a Nordstrom-like customer experience, and highly motivated, customerfocused team members. Hands down, Eliant is the best annual investment we make in creating customer referrals, now over 32% of our sales!”

Today, Eliant is actively assisting over 125 real-state clients in the U.S., Canada, Dubai, and Saudi Arabia. “We have ongoing ‘Customer Champion’ training programs with sales agencies, escrow and design firms, lenders, builders, and property management companies,” says Bob.

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The Customer Experience Another popular offering is the Eliant Homebuyers’ Choice Awards, given to North America’s highest-rated builders on the basis of survey ratings collected by more than 75,000 new home buyers each year.

Hard Work, Long Hours, Great Rewards.

After more than three decades as a successful businessman, Bob still loves using his psychological training coupled with an innovative business sense to move Eliant, his staff and their clients forward toward higher levels of achievement and satisfaction. And he’s the first to tell anyone – staying on top is a demanding existence that requires discipline and a willingness to prioritize every day.

“I am an early riser, usually start working about 6:30 a.m. and sometimes will work until midnight or 1 a.m.,” Bob reveals. “You can’t own a business and not be on top of things, DRIVE actions, don’t just let things happen. I love coming up with new ideas, presenting them to my staff and then let them expand and own the concept. All of our programs have started this way! And with my psychological background, I am able to include much of what I have

learned about human behavior into our training, our survey questions, our consulting, our certification programs, etc.”

While Bob may sound like he’s all business, he does have hobbies: piano, golf, skiing, writing and making speeches.

He has also put two kids through college (including law school), with a third child now attending college. He also has two grandchildren and another on the way. His favorite books are “The Source,” and “Grapes of Wrath.” Bob says his favorite authors range from Vince Flynn to a “little known guy named Hemmingway.” Looking back over his career, which also includes more than 100 published articles and speaking engagements around North America and the Middle East, Bob cites three highlights: -- Starting Eliant, coming up with its unique concept for the building industry; -- Keeping it alive during the downturn, “When all around us were going down,” he says. -- Eliant’s annual national conference, National Roundtable on the Homebuying Experience, which occurs for the sixth time at Disneyland, October 23-24, 2014.”

“We began working with home builders and building industry-related firms in 1986. It’s the best decision I ever made,” he says, adding: “I love this industry and the people in it.”

Bob Chapman is Eliant’s Humorist and Trainer Extraordinaire ExecutiveAgent Magazine

Eliant Bob Mirman

638 Camino de Los Mares Suite H130-457 San Clemente, CA 92673 Tel: 949.753.1077 RMirman@eliant.com www.Eliant.com ExecutiveAgent Magazine