Companies are made by individuals, not the other way around.
Today (2017) the real estate industry is lead by individual top producers. These individuals understand that they're solely responsible for their outcome, not their company or company brand.
How top producers become top producers?
Nationwide and worldwide top producers understand success leaves clues. They don't just wing it. They follow other successful people who achieved what they strive to achieve.
Shortly after I started my real estate career in NJ, I went to a Mike Ferry training event. Right from the beginning I understood, the ones who made all the money in our industry, the top producers, are all following a specific system focused on improving their sales skills and sales language. They were all practicing scripts & dialogs, they all role play on a daily basis, they all read books instead of watching TV, they understand they can only be as good as their skills, they all follow similar daily schedule consisting similar activities. It's very similar to performing arts & sports. The amount of time they invested in practicing their sales language is what made them top producers. When I understood that, everything changed for me. I met top producers who make 100, 150, 200, 300 and over 500 sales a year. They were all following the same plan, same schedule, same mindset. All I had to do is follow their path. It was very simple, but for someone like me who loves to reinvent the wheel it was challenging at first.
When I came back from this event (in 1999), I signed up for 1 on 1 coaching and started practicing scripts and dialogs, I had more than 10 role play partners (2 for each day, just in case one of them bailed out). At the beginning it felt very weird, reading from a script and staying on a script. But after 12 months of following my action plan and a strict daily schedule including role play time and practicing my presentation script and handling objections, I started getting a consistent stream of appointments which automatically lead to getting a consistent number of listing appointments, converted into 8-12 listings per month and shortly after I started closing 8+ deals a month, every month. It was magical. (I cover how to do that in my language mastery camp).
Back in the year 2000, nobody in NJ knew who Keller Williams was. When I called FSBO's and Expired listings, when I door knocked, when I did listing presentations, the: "I never heard about your company" objection always popped up. So, I practiced that objection over and over during my role play time, until handling it became second nature. Actually I turned it into a benefit and showed the seller how my company name had nothing to do with the sale of their home, it was all my determination, motivation and willingness to do what it takes to sell their home that got me the listing, my company brand had ZERO to do with it. (I go over in detail how to handle objections in my accelerate your production program and bootcamp).
If you are an agent contemplating to change companies, remember, companies don't sell homes, individual agents do. So when you hear a seller object that they don't know you or your company, they're only testing you to see how good you are by handling their objection. If you are prepared, if you practice handling the objection ahead of time, you will automatically disarm it and get the listing. Remember, a company brand can not and will not save you from getting objections. After all, if you rely on a brand name, you are always competing with other agents from your company, who can easily get the listing by performing better then you, by handling objections better. There are many brand names out there. But the one who gets the listing, is usually the most prepared agent and the one the sellers trust the most.
So why agents tend to rely on a brand name?
A better questions is, why most real estate associates (80%) aren't making enough money?
Only 20% of agents follow a specific schedule and less than 15% of these 20% who make money, actually role play and consistently work to improve their sales skills. These are the elite of top producers who make more than 80% of the money in our industry. These are the superstars. They get it. They understand that just like sports, or acting, a performer can only be as good as their practice. Practice makes you who you are. So if you suck at getting listings, it has nothing to do with your company brand, and vise versa, if you are good, it has nothing to do with your company brand.
So instead of looking for a brand name, choose a company you feel comfortable with, a company that focus on servicing you (instead of you servicing them), choose a company to hold you accountable to do what it takes, to stay on schedule, to push you to do better, to grow, to build your own brand and of course, a company that pays you what you believe you're worth.
When I created Circle100, I did it with one thing in mind: Servicing top producers and help creating more top producers. Thats why we pay 100% commission split to our agents. We believe agents who do what it takes to become successful and follow our system, agents who aren't afraid of accountability and understand its necessary, deserve to keep 100% of their commission. Don't you agree? We prefer when our agents invest the money back into their business to grow their business and grow their own brand, to pay for coaching, to go on seminars, to improve themselves.
Remember, if you tend to rely on a brand name, its an indication that your skills are not where they should be. So stop running away from improving. Do what it takes to become what you deserve.
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