POWERED WITH LOVE MAGAZINE VOLUME 1

VOLUME 1

12/2021

FOUR ELEMENTS TO CUSTOMER SERVICE

GROW YOUR

BUSINESS

LIST TO LAST (OR YOU WILL NOT LAST!)

BE YOUR OWN DISRUPTER. DOMINATE YOUR MARKET Powered with LOVE Stephen Cromarty

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WELCOME WELCOME TO OUR FIRST EDITION OF POWERED WITH LOVE... ...WHERE WE HOPE TO BRING TO YOU THOUGHT PROVOKING CONTENT WHICH HAS BENEFITS FOR YOURSELF AND YOUR TEAM. The last 24 months, depending on where your office is positioned, has seen the domestic economy underpin the residential market with an oversupply of buyers and a sense of confidence in the residential real estate space.

Remember, nothing lasts forever. The best time to work on something is when things are going well, not when they are broken! We hope to share with you something that has you working on growth and improving your business now!

CONTENTS. 1. FOUR ELEMENTS TO CUSTOMER SERVICE

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2. NEW BUSINESS 2

3. GROW YOUR BUSINESS 3

4. LIST TO LAST (OR YOU WILL NOT LAST!)

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5. SUCCESS STORY 5

6. WHAT’S HAPPENING AT LOVE? 6

FOUR ELEMENTS

TO CUSTOMER SERVICE

There are four key elements to customer service and with any of these missing it leaves gaps which make it near impossible to the deliver CONSISTENCY IN EVERYTHING WE DO. Let’s look at the four elements to customer service: 1. YOUR WHY. This is why you do what you do. With your team members understanding this, it means as a company, you collectively understand what the intended benefit is of doing what you do, and it underpins how we turn up.

2. VALUES. These serve as a differentiator. They explain how we deliver our positional responsibilities and when we do, have us appearing to be different to anyone else.

3. COMPASS TOOL. This defines who your clients are and how to communicate with them on a level that is important to them.

4. STEREOTYPES. This is where everything you do is designed around fracturing stereotypes and in particular delivering your services in such a way it not only solves your clients problems, it drives customer satisfaction and creates team buy-in.

NEW BUSINESS IS YOUR RENT ROLL GROWING OR SHRINKING? WHAT’S YOUR NEW BUSINESS PLAN, WHAT ARE THE KEYS AREAS YOU HAVE IMPLEMENTED AS A BUSINESS TO SHOW YOUR RENT ROLL GROW? Remember, there are two sides to growing a rent roll.

1. Retention of current landlords 2. Your team’s ability to attract, sign and connect new business leads. As they say, “IF YOU FAIL TO PLAN, YOU WILL PLAN TO FAIL!” Before working on or growing your new business plan, you must consider.

Project eight weeks ahead in what managements are leaving you • Identify what net gain you are aiming for • Set new business target • Track listed versus retained • What’s your retention plan/owner contact frequency • How are you going to reward your team • Build, train, and track/measure your plan I am sure you have thought of some of these areas, and others.

These are just a few pointers to help set a course to finish 2021 strong and form the bases of a phenomenal season for 2022. 2

GROW YOUR

BUSINESS

YOU ARE EITHER SHRINKING OR GROWING. SURPRISINGLY MOST AGENCIES’ VOLUME IS NOT UP, YET THEIR FEES/REVENUE ARE. Don’t let this tool of measurement, turnover and profit give you a false sense of confidence. Soon the market will change, time on market will increase, and the most skilled agents will prosper!

With the end of the year near, this is a chance to get set targets for your teams to aim for between now and the end of the year. In addition, now is a perfect time for yourself to start planning for next year!

Some simple company targets/goals could be; 1. Listing numbers 2. Sales numbers 3. Settlements 4. New business (P.M) 5. P.M revenue goal 6. PM sales (landlord sales) 7. P.M net gain I tend to find company goals that involve everyone’s creative buy-in from the entire company, everyone has clarity around why they are turning up, what’s expected of the team and what is in it for them.

Businesses who involve their people in their planning sessions generally see their staff retention numbers improve, higher level of customer service and higher profits.

HOW MUCH BUSINESS HAVE YOU LOST? HOW MUCH MONEY HAS WALKED OUT THE DOOR? HOW MUCH MONEY HAVE YOU ALLOWED TO FLOW INTO YOUR COMPETITOR’S POCKET?

LIST TO LAST

(OR YOU WILL NOT LAST!)

IF YOU CONTROL THE LISTINGS IN YOUR AREA, YOU CONTROL THE SALES. PRETTY SIMPLE FORMULA! If it’s that simple, then why do so many people struggle? It’s simple really, today’s business is a direct reflection of what you have either done, or not done the days, weeks, or months previously! So, when is a good time to start? Now! Is the right answer.

AS AN AGENT YOU SHOULD WORK YOUR ENTIRE DAY AROUND PROSPECTING, AND AS A BUSINESS YOU MUST HAVE A COMPANY PROSPECTING PLAN, this way be your agents complement what you do, they are not the only thing you do. Meaning, you do not rely on their activity alone. Either one of these on

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their own is a go broke strategy.

Put simply, what’s expected of your agents and how is it rewarded, encouraged and measured?

Secondly, what’s your weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual company prospecting plan? How you answer these questions will be in direct proportion to what results your company is achieving.

FEE OBJECTIONS, NEVER DROP YOUR FEE!

Should you say “no” to business? Is all business good business? I believe you should say “no” to business and not all business is good business, however, I see so many agents say “no” to too much business not because of the clients, but because of their agent or agents. This level of thinking has seen us in 14 years only operate on the cash the company generates and has seen us never have a need for an overdraft, line of credit.

And we learn “not” to be the major producers of our results earned commercial income the whole time! Let’s look a little closer to why owners wont negotiate on fee and learn how your belief around this subject is costing you 100’s of thousands of dollars.

If a seller believes your fee is high it’s generally because you were unable to show value.

Ask yourself these questions:

How much training do you provide to your agents on fee objections?

Is what your agents are offering the same as what your competitors are providing?

The first place I have always started from is winning the business. I have always maintained it is much better to come from a position of winning than losing! Let me show you this equation: You list and sell 10 homes at $20,000 and I list and sell 20 homes at $16,000, You collected $200,000 in commission, I collected $320,000 in commission then I have twice as many signs, sold signs and buyers to generate more listings and landlord referrals.

Then from that point, I have a sales person who I can then help to work on their skill to increase their fees. I have never met an agency, who says “we never drop our fees” And which also makes huge profits. However, I think you should have a minimum fee in your organisation. But to lose business over a couple of thousands of dollars is absurd.

What’s good business to list?

1. Someone in your core area 2. Price within 10% of sale value 3. A good fee 4. Medium to high motivation 5. Willing to go on the market, nice people to work with

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SUCCESS STORY SOMETHING THAT HAS BEEN IN SHORT SUPPLY IS LISTINGS, YET FOR SOME LISTINGS SEEM TO BE PLENTIFUL. The saying in any Real Estate business is, LISTINGS CAN FIX ANY PROBLEM. So, what are the companies doing who have seen their listings numbers increased? It’s simple, they have increased their actions, and are across many areas, with a specific plan. We have looked at a number of success stories and cross-examined what they are doing, below is a list of the areas and their teams are working on.

1. Just listed/solds 2. Just appraised 3. Street campaign (Price drive) 4. Specific buyer prospecting 5. Testimonials (using them to generate listings) 6. Landlords Here is the blinding flash of the obvious: there are no magic bullets, listings are a direct reflection of consistent sustained effort, the person who speaks to the most people makes the most money.

So here is what you need; A plan, specific numbers you and your team are going to commit to listing, these 6 areas and how and what you intend to do, for instance: 1. Just listed/sold, one thousand drops per property, send monthly report to seller database/landlords and market on social 2. Just appraised drop 30 in the street appraised, phone the street in the seller data base(this could also go on social media).

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3. Use a specific buyer to advertise on social media, to the landlords and seller database monitoring the buyers(specific criteria) 4. Testimonials. This could be sent out monthly to your seller database, and daily on social 5. Landlords: you could be appraising all properties annually as well as communicating with them directly and around market changes 6. Street campaigns: letter box one street per day, call the same street in their database

WHAT’S YOUR PLAN AND WHAT HAVE YOU AND YOUR TEAM BEEN DOING CONSISTENTLY?

WHAT’S HAPPENING AT

We have all experienced high levels of success in the past six months. The stimulus packages/ government assistance has seen the complete opposite happening in our industry to what was predicted.

One of the key things we are doing at LOVE in encouraging the team, is to identify growth opportunities to increase market share and cash flow positive assets to be prepared for what will eventually return as the “normal” market.

Areas we are working on which will also strengthen our POWER WITH LOVE clients are, Love Where You Live (a new lead generation system, stay tuned).

And our new soon-to-be launch Members Platform.

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THE BREAK UP

OF A DOLLAR WHAT DO I MEAN BY THIS?

How well do you know/understand the costs associated to running your business?

How do you asses what expenses to take on and when to employ?

Whats your understanding of how the decisions reflect the bottom line?

First of all let’s start with understanding where each dollar goes in your business and break down in what percentage it is proportioned into.

These are the areas it is broken into; 1. Costs 2. Wages 3. Profit The percentage for each area is considered to be healthy is: 1. 33.3% to Costs 2. 33.3% to Wages 3. 33.3% to Profit HOWEVER, WAGES IN OUR INDUSTRY AS A RULE SHOULD BE NO HIGHER THAN SAY 37%. PROFIT, A HEALTHY REAL ESTATE BUSINESS SHOULD BE 30% OR GREATER, AND THEN COSTS WOULD BE THE BALANCE.

Having an understanding as to when and how the expenses are measured gives you a strategic approach to making the right decisions at the right time.

How often should you asses the metrics, the answer is monthly! You can use these to set a volume/income goal, plan for expenses, wages, and forecast what positive increases you would expect to see occur when making such decisions.

IN OUR NEXT EDITION In our next edition we will focus on ON PREPARING FOR NEXT YEAR NOW, provide marketing and DL examples, and look in to areas rarely considered when assessing the true value of a business.

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