Okay. You have your business plan done. But, have you built into your plan the adjustments you must make for those upcoming trends? Do you know what they are? If not, they could come up and hit you ‘up side the head’ (as my dad used to say….). So that won’t happen, I’m going to help you look at those trends and figure out what to do about them.

In their new book, Game Plan, How Real Estate Professionals Can Thrive in an Uncertain Future, Steve Murray and Ian Morris name the ten top trends for 2012 and beyond. In this article, I’ll tackle what I think is the most important trend, because it’s immediate and it greatly affects your earning potential..

Want to hear the two other huge trends and what to do about them? Take a look at my complimentary recorded webinar Beyond the Basics of Business Planning. Click here to see it.

Trend #1: Commission rates pressure

Commission rates pressure continues. It’s not going to lessen in the near future. In fact, a recent survey by the California Association of Realtors shows how consumer satisfaction levels have plummeted in the last few years. Take a look:

Overall Consumer Satisfaction with their Buyer Agents

Isn’t that rating shocking? It’s actually 4% overall satisfaction rating. That means to me that consumers were so dissatisfied that they will not willingly pay ‘generous’ commissions gladly in the future for that level of service. Yet, unfortunately, few in the industry are talking about this as a stunning and disturbing trend. However, if we can’t make a living through our transactions, while we’re spending much more time than ever on them, what’s the point?

What Consumers Said They Wanted

Interestingly, it’s not hard to actually satisfy consumers, if you know what they want. Below is what those California buyers said they wanted from their buyers’ agents:

• A better understanding of direction of market
• An improvement in the agent’s negotiation skill;   82% were dissatisfied
• More assistance in mortgage approval process
• A good understanding of purchasing distressed properties
• A faster response time from the agent.

What does it sound like to you? It sounds like to me the agent wasn’t educating. They were just selling. It also sounds to me as though agents have not figured out what pleases—and enrages—clients.

Strategies: What to put in your Business Plan

Generally: Plenty of educational back-up for what you know to be true, or what you tell people. Remember, seeing is believing (not just all that verbal blah/blah/blah). Also, we remember only 10% of what we heard three days later! So, if you’re just talking through all this information, you’re shooting yourself in the foot.

Now, let’s tackle exactly what you must do to get a high rating from buyers.

How to handle ‘a better understanding of the direction of the market’: Create a ‘trend sheet’ for buyers, showing what’s happening in the market (number of homes available, number of sales, days on market, % of list price to sale price, etc.). You’re supposed to be the expert. Take the time to fully educate buyers so they can make a great decision when they make that offer.

If you haven’t already, create a ‘trend’ sheet (click here to get mine). I’ve left it in Word so you can customize it to fit your needs.

How to handle improvement in negotiation skill: Look at the number of clients who were dissatisfied. I think that comes from two areas. First, the client hasn’t been educated about what the agent can and can’t control. Unfortunately, we agents want a client. And, to get that client, we make promises we can’t keep (especially concerning the banks’ control of offers these days!). So, be sure NOT to make promises you can’t keep. In addition, take a negotiation skills course, and let buyers know you have done so in your biography. You’ll be far ahead of most agents.

How to handle more assistance in mortgage approval process and a good understanding of purchasing distressed properties: From these consumer dissatisfactions, you can deduce that agents just aren’t explaining these processes. Take a role-playing course where you must explain these processes in detail, along with the supporting checklists and documents you need to really be their expert of choice. Don’t settle for ‘just good enough’. Become a ‘killer’ presenter!

Managers: Have you built in skills-based training in negotiation, explanation and documentation of the mortgage approval process and distress properties? Do you expect excellent presentation performance from your agents?

How to handle ‘a faster response from the agent’: This one is so easy, yet, a study from a major Northwest real estate firm showed that only ½ of agents EVER responded to an Internet inquiry. And, those who did respond took 52 hours longer to respond than the consumer expected! So, to avoid great customer dissatisfaction here, build a response mechanism and standards to assure you will get back to that consumer within 2-8 hours.

Tip: During your client interview, ask your client when he would like a response. If you can’t satisfy him in his time frame, explain why and promise your time frame. Remember:

A promise kept builds trust. Trust is your most valuable ‘commodity’.

What You’ll Accomplish

What ‘score’ of customer satisfaction do you need to retain your desired commission levels? What ‘score’ do you need to keep your marketing costs down by working with repeat and referral clients? Decide now, and implement these strategies in your business plan to reflect the excellence in business practice that you want to convey.

Leadership: I’m doing a special complimentary webinar for you Jan. 30, at 1-2 PM, PST. I’ll discuss 4 major real estate trends, their impact on you, and what to do about it. To register, click here. 

Want to hear the two other huge trends and what to do about them? Take a look at my complimentary webinar Beyond the Basics of Business Planning. Click here to see it.

To get an example of the kind of educational tools you’ll want to use to set yourself apart and create clients for life, click here.

Thank you for your dedication to our industry!

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