Survivor

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Dirk Zeller

Dirk Zeller is a sought out speaker, celebrated author and CEO of Real Estate Champions. His company trains more than 350,000 Agents worldwide each year through live events, online training, self-study programs, and newsletters. The Real Estate community has embraced and praised his six best-selling books; Your First Year in Real Estate, Success as a Real Estate Agent for Dummies®, The Champion Real Estate Agent, The Champion Real Estate Team, Telephone Sales for Dummies®, Successful Time Management for Dummies®, and over 300 articles in print. To learn more, please visit: http://www.realestatechampions.com/.

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Survivor

Written by Dirk Zeller

When it first came out, the nation was fascinated for a whole summer by the hit show, Survivor. Upon reflection, there are many similarities between the show and real life. There are also many parallels between real estate sales and the game of Survivor. I was particularly struck by the slogan of Survivor: “To Outplay, Outwit, and Outlast!” Let’s look at each one of those components.

TO OUTPLAY:
To outplay, you must know the game better than your opponents. Do you know the game of real estate better than the other Agents? To outplay, you have to master the necessary skills in the game you are playing. Knowing the game well means having supreme knowledge of your business and the ability to know and track where your business is coming from daily. I am amazed at how few Agents really track their business. Most Agents don’t know how many sign or ad calls it takes to guarantee a lead or how many leads are needed to get a buyer appointment or how many buyer appointments are needed to gain a buyer commitment or buyer agency agreement or how many buyer commitments it takes to generate a closing. If you knew these ratios, you would be able to outplay the competition. You would know what is necessary to win the game—each and every time.

To outplay, you must possess masterful sales skills. This arena can make the difference between incredible income and unbelievable poverty. How are your skills in selling? Do you practice your listing presentation weekly or even daily? Do you know how to handle the major objections in the real estate process? Can you effectively convert the ad call, sign call, or referral call? Are you practicing your skills on a daily basis? The biggest barrier to mastery in sales is lack of practice. The practice arena is where most Agents fall short. Resolve to block in 30 minutes of practice time each day to improve your skills.

OUTWIT:
To outwit, you need to know the marketplace. You must track the market results, as well as your own results. What is your average list price to sale price verses the market’s average? What are your average days on the market verses the market’s average? Using these statistics will help you illustrate the difference between you and your competition. You will be able to clearly demonstrate to your client that, when the market’s average list price to sale price is 94%, and yours is 97%, they will net more money by listing with you. If the market’s average days on the market is 65, and yours is 28, you can show how your client will end up making one less payment on a home he no longer wants to own. The frustration he might experience of living in his home while selling it will be reduced. Outplaying and outwitting your competition lead into outlasting.

OUTLAST:
Having an effective lead follow-up system is clearly going to help you outlast the competition because most Agents lose more leads than they keep and convert. The reason for this problem is they have never set up a strategic lead follow-up system. They have not invested the time needed to understand the differences in lead quality or developed a way to systematically follow up on those leads. If you define at least three categories of leads based on motivation and time frame, you can reduce the amount of time you spend with the less motivated leads and increase the time you spend with highly motivated leads. You will have a clear picture of where your business stands.

Your business is only as good as the number of hot leads you have right now. Leads who want to buy and sell right now have the greatest value. They also provide the greatest net profit in terms of time invested by you and your staff. They limit the cost of marketing and follow-up techniques. This type of lead will allow you to spend the bulk of your time finding new leads or working on the hot leads, which will help you outlast the competition.

Real Estate is a game for survivors. Preparation and knowing the game well are the key elements of success. If you truly want to learn how to outplay, outwit, and outlast the marketplace, a coach is the answer. A great coach has already learned to outplay, outwit, and outlast.

Dirk Zeller is a sought out speaker, celebrated author and CEO of Real Estate Champions. His company trains more than 350,000 Agents worldwide each year through live events, online training, self-study programs, and newsletters. The Real Estate community has embraced and praised his six best-selling books; Your First Year in Real Estate, Success as a Real Estate Agent for Dummies(r), The Champion Real Estate Agent, The Champion Real Estate Team, Telephone Sales for Dummies(r), Successful Time Management for Dummies(r), and over 300 articles in print. To learn more regarding this article, please visit http://www.realestatechampions.com/SuccessasaRealEstateAgent/.

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