Keller Williams Realty’s Rick Geha Talks About New Commercial Real Estate Division

TWELVE TACTIS FOR REAL ESTATE AGENTS IN TOUGH TIMES

TACTICS(4-6)

Tactic #4. Find The Motivated

• Know the Numbers - Your Numbers and the Market Numbers
• The Minute Key Signs Show Up:  Ramp up your lead generation and change your messaging!
• As leads become fewer you must:  Attract more, get to them first and convert them faster!
•  Your messages must be appropriate to the conditions.
•  Make more direct offers that will attract responses.
• Do the sellers you are talking to really need to sell? Will they price their home to sell? Will they get it in the proper condition?
• Do the buyers really need and want to buy?  Are they going to listen to you? Do they understand that there are good buys in every market?    

Own The Outcome:

• You can never be sure what it will take to find enough motivated clients to achieve your numbers.
• Be willing to do whatever it takes.
• The easy business will have disappeared.
• Start with no spending.
• Play ‘red light, green light’
• Hold lead generation expenses accountable.

Two Truths:

• Lead generation does not have to cost you money!
• Offer-response messaging will get the best results in the shortest time.
• Get proactive with direct prospecting.  First to those you know, second to those who have indicated a need and third, to those who have contact you.
• GIVE THIS EFFORT AT LEAST THREE HOURS A DAY!!!

Your Message Matters:

• People respond if there is some direct benefit to them.
• Give them a reason to call.
• This is offer-response lead generation.
• Make an offer - response can either be direct or indirect.
• Make offers for immediate response.
• It is a numbers game!

Get in the Path of Business:

• Don’t cocoon.
• Don’t stay in the office.
• Get out of the house.
• Take it to the streets.
• Ask, seek and knock.

Tactic #5. Getting to the Table That Matters - Lead Capture and Conversion

• The bigger truth about lead generation is that it is actually ‘lead conversion’.
• Leads are scarce-so conversion becomes critical.
• It is a 3 step process: Capture-Connect-Cultivate.

The Two Battles:

• The Battle to get to the listing table
• The Battle at the table to get the listing
• Lead conversion  requires more than just winging it.

Capture:

• Your capture system will insure that you get enough information from the lead that you can contact them.

Connect:

• Your connection system will generate a timely, scripted response, which will naturally lead to a conversion, which then allows you to assess their needs and establish a relationship.

Cultivate:

• Your cultivation system will record your follow-up contacts, assure the building of relationships, and keep you on the path to appointments.

The Conversion Process:

• The three C’s of conversion - Capture, Connect and Cultivate - deploy both scripts and systems.
• The only question will be which comes first.

Tactic #6. Catch People in Your Web - Internet Lead Generation

• If people visit your websites and you never know who they are, what has it gained you?
• Many agents get caught up in the internet excitement and don’t really think clearly about their strategy.
• They become frustrated at what it is costing them and how little business they are converting from it.
• If they don’t leave any trail you can follow, they’re just a ship passing in the night.
• Be sure your site has a way for the consumer to register and a reason to do so.

Baiting The Hook:

• You have to give them a reason to register.
• Your site must have ‘thin bait’ that attracts people to your site and keeps them there for a while.
• Then you must offer something more, the ‘fat bait’ for them to want to register.
• Once they have registered, fast response is critical.
• You ca use email and text messaging.

Long Term Cultivation:

• Today’s buyers begin their research early.
• Your systems will need to be able to retain and grow these relationships with a sustained effort.
• But, don’t assume that it will always take a long time or many contacts.
• Check their pulse and get them started on the active search process.

Return on Your Lead Generation Investment - The Truths:

• The cost-per-lead converted is not very different from most of the fundamental lead generation approaches.
• Internet lead generation does not cost less.
• Technology and the internet are no longer a choice.
• Their relative importance, position, and cost in your lead geneeration program is a choice.

Tactics 1-3: Get Real Get Right, Re-Margin Your Business & Do More with Less

***TACTICS #7-12 COMING SOON***

Excerpts From SHIFT:

Dear Keller Williams Family,

There is a success story in today’s real estate market despite what you may be reading in the headlines. Keller Williams Realty is more strongly positioned than ever to fulfill our destiny of becoming the #1 real estate company in North America! 

Take a look at how we are outpacing the industry!

• While the National Association of REALTORS® has shrunk by 6 percent, Keller Williams has only experienced a 2 percent adjustment in agent count!
• While other companies and offices are selling out or closing their doors, we opened 25 offices in the last 12 months!
• While other companies are raising fees and charging their agents more in order to keep the doors open, the vast majority of our offices are profitable!
• And, while agents with other companies worry about their financial security, we have given back more than $32 million in profits to our agents over the last year!
  
  

As we watch our competitors, particularly those that answer to Wall Street, take on billions of dollars of debt, we are proud to say that our company has not one dollar of financing debt and we remain strongly, soundly profitable. 

Our strategy is no secret. We faithfully follow the sound financial model of leading with revenue – the same model our market centers follow – and we are experiencing the unprecedented payoff this discipline delivers! 

We urge each of you to do the same in your real estate business. If you zero in on building your lead generation skills and reducing expenses, you WILL power through this market and experience greatness and expansion while others experience contraction and fear. 

Remember that the 12 tactics outlined in Gary Keller’s book, SHIFT: How Top Real Estate Agents Tackle Tough Times, are crucial to your business. Implement each of these tactics right now! We ask that you commit to sharing SHIFT and the Keller Williams opportunity with as many people as possible! Show others how to get the skills they need and the environment they crave. Bring them home…to Keller Williams Realty! 

Not a day goes by that we do not receive emails and phone calls from many of you across North America concerned about the state of the real estate industry and the state of our company. We want to assure you that Keller Williams Realty is thriving and we will continue to power through this shift in the real estate market. 

As always, we admire your spirit, your tenacity, and your dedication to your businesses and this company. It’s because of you that we are succeeding and we thank you for all you do. We are honored to be in business with you. 

Yours in seizing this opportunity,

Gary Keller Chairman of the Board	Mo Anderson Vice Chairman

Mark Willis CEO	Mary Tennant President and COO

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