Are you ‘Wringing your Clients Dry’ for Leads?

We all love it when some seminar guru tells us we just have to take care of our present and past clients and we’ll get rich. The first part of that statement is true. We DO have to take care of our present and past clients, and that’s an important part of re-creating our business. And, the sad truth is, many real estate agents do a very poor job of that. So, we do start there.

Real Estate Agents May not have enough Clients to Get the Leads they Need

Here’s where the difficulty comes in. In many instances today, a real estate agent, even a seasoned one, does not have enough past clients to provide the necessary leads to grow his business in a challenging market. My experience, having been a top salesperson, and directly managing hundreds of salespeople, has taught me that the truth is in the numbers. You must have at least 100 active, identifiable past clients, in your up-to-date database, to drive your business upward. And, in some markets, that may not be enough.

Other Exceptional Sources of Leads for the Experienced Agent

In my new resource for the experienced agent, On Track to Success in 30 Days System for Experienced Agents, I’ve worked really hard to help experienced agents see where they’re ‘missing the boat’. Too many get stuck in a career rut. Or, they may put barriers in front of themselves that keep them from reaching that next career level. Besides helping them put their careers under a microscope to find solutions, I’ve also provided solutions that work in this challenging market.

In the new On Track, I have identified 5 sources of leads for you that most agents never think of. They are especially good for experienced agents, because you have been in the business and you have a wealth of knowledge and experience. Putting these sources of leads into your lead generation and marketing plans will dramatically increase your business. In this article, let’s talk about the first source, the ‘client orphans’.

In this article, we’ll explore how to contact the first course, the client ‘orphans’.

The Good and Bad News about those Orphans

What are client ‘orphans’? These are buyers and sellers who closed transactions with an agent in your office. The agent has left the business. Now, the client has no one to turn to. You can step into this breach. If you need business, and are willing to create and implement a marketing plan to reach out and communicate or time with these ignored people, you can ‘adopt’ them. Who is keeping in touch with those ‘orphaned’ buyers and sellers? No one.

Orphans May be Unhappy with the Company

Be aware, though, they may not be too accommodating when you first talk with them. They are disappointed that someone has not cared enough about their interests to keep in touch. (This is a great lesson to all of us. Never, ever, love ‘em and leave ‘em!).

Note: A recent survey showed that less than 1/3 of agents who closed transactions went back to the buyers and sellers they worked with AFTER the transaction closed. No wonder clients think we love them and leave them. We do!

How to ‘Adopt’ Those Orphans

When someone leaves your office, go to your manager and get a list of their 'orphaned' buyers and sellers. Call those people, and explain that the manager has asked you to keep in touch. They will be thankful and appreciative. You will gain another source of business, and the industry's image (and the company’s image) will be maintained--or raised.

Manager’s tip: Create a system to re-assign those orphaned buyers and sellers to an agent willing to form a relationship with them. If you do this regularly, you will save lots of marketing dollars (remember, it costs 6-9 times more to get a new customer), and you will increase your company’s reputation as a company who cares. Also, you will provide lead sources regularly for your agents.

Building your Business AND the Reputation of the Company and Industry

You and I both hate it when a client says the agent didn’t get back to them or keep in touch. Many times, that’s because the agent was either an uncommitted part-timer or out of the business. By adopting client orphans, you can prove that real estate agents care more than just a commission. This not only raises your image, but the image of your company and of the industry. Plus, it provides you another source of ‘leads’ who learn to love you.

Carla Cross, CRB, MA, is president of Carla Cross Seminars, Inc. and Carla Cross Coaching, specializing in real estate sales and management. Cross, an international speaker and coach, is the author of 6 internationally published books, 20 productivity programs, and is a winner of the National Association of Realtors’ National Educator of the Year award. Contact her at www.carlacross.com or 425-392-6914.

What Mode are Your Agents In?

Noted author and speaker Seth Godin posted the following on his blog today:

“You can have grand visions for remodeling your house or getting in shape, but if there's a fire in the kitchen, you drop everything and put it out. What choice do you have? The problem, of course, is that most organizations are on fire, most of the time.”

An interesting point that Godin brings up, and for many real estate professionals and agencies the statement is true. Yet, most agents tend to spend the bulk of their time thinking about what they’re going to do, and telling their selves the market is going to turn around soon, then I’ll get busy with my real estate plans. The reality is, there’s a fire in your kitchen, and you need to put the fire out now! Case in point, my own business www.RealEstateSalesMeetings.com is a new venture I started where I provide weekly sales meetings, audio interviews and more to brokers around the country. One way I thought to help build my business was through blogging, podcasting, and other free promotional ventures on the World Wide Web. I started out in full speed, posting, recording, adding new twists and turns everyday through these “free” electronic mediums. The results were amazing, but like most normal business professionals I began to pile more “to do’s” on my plate, allowed myself to be pulled into other directions, and the fire which was once under control and remodeling that was off to a “great” start quickly died. I lost my focus and my sense of urgency to continue with my task at hand.

So I have two options with my new business venture:

1. Tell myself that the plans and drawings for my newly remodeled kitchen will be awesome, “someday.”
2. Fix it!

As real estate professionals if you want to succeed, you must always be in mode #2, (fix it). Telling yourself what the outcome will be like is okay, if you’re busy and hard at work fixing it, however if you’re just sitting there dreaming and thinking about it, the project will never get finished. Listen to how Seth Godin finishes his blog on this subject of “Managing Urgencies,” and follow his advice:

“Add up enough urgencies and you don't get a fire, you get a career. A career putting out fires never leads to the goal you had in mind all along.
I guess the trick is to make the long term items even more urgent than today's emergencies. Break them into steps and give them deadlines. Measure your people on what they did today in support of where you need to be next month.
If you work in an urgent-only culture, the only solution is to make the right things urgent.”

To read Godin’s entire blog, click here!

How to Demolish your De-motivators—and Achieve your Goals

Excerpted from On Track to Success in 30 Days System for Experienced Agents,

Carla Cross Seminars, Inc.

Carla Cross, CRB, MA

It’s a tougher market out there. It can get you down. We all need tools right now to demolish those de-motivators. In other words, we must not only manage our business, we must manage our attitudes.

Why is managing attitude important? Because it determines how well you do.

Ability is what you’re capable of doing.

Motivation determines what you do.

Attitude determines how well you do it.

-Lou Holtz, famed former Notre Dame football coach

In this article, I am going to give you methods of organizing your thoughts so that they support your roadmap for success. You will be able to recognize when your thoughts sometimes order you around. You will get strategies to get control of your attitude--and order it around--to create greater success.

Much of my insight did not come from the experience of being a real estate agent, manager, and trainer. It came to me from all those years I spent as a musician, honing my performance skills so I could obtain a bachelor’s degree in piano performance. From the time I was four, I was in front of people playing the piano. I had to learn to manage my attitude to conquer the performance anxieties and uncertainness that accrue from tackling very difficult piano pieces in front of demanding audiences. So, much of what I will share with you here is a result of mastering musical performance. I know how to get better, and I will show you how to manage your attitude so you can get better, too.

I have identified eight challenges that sabotage us from reaching our desired results:

1. Not being mentally tough

2. Thinking it’s someone else’s job to manage our attitude

3. Blaming someone else for our failures, which leads to loss of power

4. Underestimating what it takes to do the job

5. Mastering negative ‘self-talk’ until it determines our attitude, beliefs, and outcomes

6. Believing that the first time we do something is as good as it will ever get.

7. Thinking that our ‘inner manager’ is always working in our best interests.

8. Always ready with a reason why we don’t have to get into action.

Are you tough enough?

Let’s tackle the first component here: mental toughness.

You and I both know keeping a positive outlook is a very important component for real estate success. Yet, I have found that very few of the agents who go into real estate have the ready-made mental toughness to withstand the disappointments and rejections of the business. Sometimes they fail simply because they let their attitude manage them! It seems to me that most agents (and managers) could benefit from some additional skills in learning to manage attitude. I think these skills can be learned. Just listen to great athletes talk about their failures, injuries, and disappointments. They simply never give up!

Managing your attitude is part of your job. In interviewing hundreds of agents after they have been in real estate several months, most of them tell me that they did not know real estate would be so personally challenging. They did not know how easy it was to 'get down'--or how quickly they could lose that excitement, that enthusiasm they felt as a new agent.

Think back to when you were a new agent. How long did that initial excitement, enthusiasm, and hope last? According to my survey of agents new to real estate, they expected to make a sale their first thirty days in the business. Most of them do not accomplish that. So, if their expectations are not met, they lose that enthusiasm.

Most agents tell me it only took them about a month to start questioning themselves about whether they should be in this business. Since they did not realize they would have so many ups and downs, they were not prepared to deal with the 'downs'. Unfortunately, then, they talk themselves out of the business--and do not even know they're doing it! Knowing and applying what is in this section, then, can make the difference between success and failure in your career.

Manager’s tip: The best way for you to help your agents stay ‘up’ is to start them in an aggressive start-up plan so they get a sale fast. That is motivating!

Put a Plug in that Negative Self-Talk!

Remember when you were a kid. Did you ever want to take part in a sport, or learn a musical instrument? Or, did you want to start a venture or an adventure? Why did you want to do it? What did your parents say when you told them what you wanted to do? How strong was your motivation to do it? Did you convince your parents? Did you actually start? Did you keep going? What happened when, to get better, you had to devote more energy, time, and interest to it?

Looking back at your life in this area will tell you a lot about your intuitive sense about yourself. It will tell you how much belief you have in yourself, how much tenacity, how much ability to take direction from someone else to get better. It will tell you how willing you are to take risk and to change.

Now, fast forward to real estate. Have you taken your intuition, body, and soul into the business like you did in this youthful venture? If not, you need to have a serious talk with your inner manager. He may be stopping you from 'acting naturally'. That talk might sound like this:

"Now, Joan, I know we've been together a long time. You've done a good job overall giving me advice. However, you're kind of in the dark ages about me now. I want to be successful in this new adventure, real estate. Remember when you supported me as a kid as I (fill in your adventure). Well, I need your support now. Quit that negative talk about failing, risk, and change. I'm not as scared as you think I am. Give me some pep talks and some laughs and some real positive strokes, like you did before. I need your positive support, Joan."

Exercise: The next time you catch your self talking negative self-talk, counter it with 20 repetitions of positive self-talk. Do this exercise at least 5 times a day for 1 week. You are retraining your mind to respond in a way that supports your goals.

When we go into real estate, we think that learning the inventory, grasping the technology, and attending risk management courses will assure our success. But, as we progress, we find out there’s a whole aspect of real estate that entails our managing more than just the technical parts of the business. You’re on your way, now, to that mental toughness you need to success at a higher level each year.

For more strategies on demolishing your de-motivators and get the emotional support you need to tackle these market challenges, see On Track to Success in 30 Days System for Experienced Agents, Carla Cross Seminars, Inc., www.carlacross.com.

Carla Cross, CRB, MA, is president of Carla Cross Seminars, Inc. and Carla Cross Coaching, specializing in real estate sales and management. Cross, an international speaker and coach, is the author of 6 internationally published books, 10 productivity programs, and is a winner of the National Association of Realtors’ National Educator of the Year award. Contact her at www.carlacross.com or 425-392-6914.

Avoiding Hiring to a Match NOT Made in Heaven

Have you ever hired someone you thought would be a great staff person? And, then, when the person had been in the job anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, you discovered that person wasn’t doing the job you wanted him to do?

This happened to one of my coaching clients. I’ll bet variations of this story have happened to every reader—and, they’ve happened to me. Here are my client’s five major mistakes, and how to avoid them. It’s so important, because a bad hire costs you not hundreds, but many thousands of dollars!

My client runs a mid-sized real estate company, and, right before starting to coach with me, had decided it was time to hire an office manager/administrator. As we started working together, she revealed she was having trouble with the office administrator she had hired a few months ago. Here are the five mistakes she made in that hiring process, which assured a wrong hire:

1. Not finding out what that person did—exactly—in his last job

Never assume that your new staff person knows the job you are asking him to do.

2. Not hiring to a detailed job description

Both parties, the new office manager—and the owner—assumed they knew the job description. But, unfortunately, the owner found out that the new hire obviously didn’t know the right job description—because he was doing only a part of the job—the part he had done in his prior employment.

Caveat: Create that detailed job description before you start interviewing. DO NOT ask the new hire to create the job description! If you do, you will be stuck in an adversarial position fighting about the job to be done. It’s your job to hire. You create that job description! (See The Complete Recruiter and Blueprint for Selecting Winners for detailed interviewing processes).

3. Not getting mutual expectations in writing before hiring

The new hire in this ‘case study’ went blithely about doing what he liked—when he liked it. The time to get mutual expectations agreed upon is prior to hiring—and get them in writing. It’s funny how people forget what the boss expects!

4. Not explaining standards vs. goals

Employees will tell you they have goals—what they want to accomplish. You are impressed! After all, you want someone who has goals to accomplish. You are so impressed, you forget to draw that line in the sand (well, it’s not really a line in the sand—it’s a line in concrete). That line in the concrete represents your standards—what you will and won’t put up with. Those are your minimum expectations. This is the Fear Factor.

The principle: We all work past minimum expectations. In the absence of your stating any, you’re letting your employee name his own—which are probably lower than yours—unless you’ve hired a very exceptional worker!

5. No schedule for daily accountability for the first two weeks

“I don’t want to be ‘micro-managed’.” Having someone accuse us of “micro-managing gets us in the heart. And, that is exactly what the low-achieving staff person will say. You are paying too much attention to the detail. Well, guess what? If you don’t pay attention to the details in the first two weeks, that staff person is going to do the job any darn way he pleases! And you won’t like it. So, don’t think of it as “micro-managing.”* You are training that staff person to do the job the way you want it done. Your goal is to see enough training progress that you can stop the daily reports and go to weekly reports.

Armed with these 5 principles, you can make much better hiring decisions and grow your company with confidence. Remember, as Jim Collins in Good to Great says, ‘getting the right people on the bus’ is the most important decision you’ll make to be more productive and profitable.

Carla Cross, CRB, MA, is president of Carla Cross Seminars, Inc. and Carla Cross Coaching, specializing in real estate sales and management—the people issues. Cross, an international speaker and coach, is the author of 6 internationally published books, 20 productivity programs, and is a winner of the National Association of Realtors’ National Educator of the Year award. Contact her at www.carlacross.com or 425-392-6914.

Full Coaching Scholarships Just Announced For Newer Agents

Agents under 2 years in the business: Do you believe you can be ‘best of the best’, brightest of the brightest—that future super-star—but you just need a boost in the right direction? Is this challenging market showing you more than you thought it took to succeed? If this is you, we’ve been looking for you!

Managers: Do you have a great newer agent (under 2 years) who you would like to support by nominating him or her for a full coaching scholarship?

The Up and Running Small Group Full Scholarship

During the first three weeks of March, we’re taking applications for 5 full scholarships we will be awarding to five fortunate agents under 2 years in the business. This is a $795 value—and we’re doing it to give back to our industry—and help those best and brightest succeed at the highest level—fastest. The scholarship includes 12 coaching sessions with a professional real estate coach, plus $470 worth of training materials and services.

Click here to read the full description of our Up and Running Small Group Coaching program.

To Win a Full Scholarship

1. Complete the application (click here) and email it to us by March 21, 2008 (must be complete to be considered). The application includes the scholarship guidelines.
2. Your broker must also nominate you by completing this nomination form (click here) also by March 21, 2008. The nomination form includes the scholarship guidelines.

The 10 finalists will be chosen and personally interviewed (both the agent and the nominating broker) by our coaches and Carla Cross by March 26, when winners will be announced via email. Your coaching program will start the week of April 14, 2008, so you must be available to be coached starting that week.

Click here to read the rules of Small Group Coaching's Scholarships

Partial Scholarship Finalists

Only 5 great newer agents can win, but, even the 5 non-full-scholarship finalists will receive a $100 scholarship from Carla Cross Coaching when they register for the 12-week program (Regularly $795, a $100 reduction).

Brokers: You Win, Too!

If one of the agents you nominate is chosen as one of 10 finalists, any other agents you register into the program prior to April 15, 2008 (to take part in the programs beginning either April 15 or May 1, 2008) will receive a tuition reduction of $100 (they will register for $695 instead of $795). What a great recruiting tool you can offer agents thinking of joining! So, start recruiting right now!

Don’t hesitate. Complete your application NOW.

Brokers: This is your opportunity to provide the kind of support your agents love from you, and see additional sales and profits from those new agents.

Don’t hesitate. Complete your application NOW.

Brokers: This is your opportunity to provide the kind of support your agents love from you, and see additional sales and profits from those new agents.

**Agent Applications: Grab one at www.carlacrosscoaching.com.

**Broker Nomination Form: Grab one at www.carlacrosscoaching.com.

**Rules of the Scholarship Program: Grab one at www.carlacrosscoaching.com.

Or, call us at 425-392-6914 or email us Debbie@carlacross.com and we’ll email you all the information!

Click here for a printable version

We want to give away $5000+ in scholarships RIGHT NOW to re-energize our industry!!!!!

Leadership: It's Changed, but Who's Going to Tell the Real Estate Industry?

The guidelines of effective leadership have changed dramatically in the last thirty years. Top-down decision-making is out; participative leadership is in. Having no standards is out; standards-driven leadership is in. Everyone doing their own thing is out; mutual accountability and teamwork is in. Yet, as I look at real estate offices nationally, I see most leaders still leading as though it was 1970—or earlier. (Specific strategies for real estate leadership to use to switch from hierarchical to participative was the topic of my presentation for the 2007 National Association of Realtors’ Convention).

Compare and contrast. Let’s look at four principles of effective leadership today. These principles have been proven effective again and again by huge companies internationally. They should be embraced by the real estate industry, which badly needs effective leadership in this challenging time:

Vision-lead: Few companies have an articulated vision that’s shared by all in the company. Fewer yet have leaders who have the fortitude to ‘do the right thing’ (as stated in their vision), even if it means turning down a deal. Example: When is the last time you saw a manager fire a top producer who acted unethically? How do managers treat customer complaints—especially if it’s against a top producer? (Ask agents if they feel managers unfairly favor the top producers. Boy, will you get an earful!) In too many cases, the ‘leader’ isn’t leading. The big loser long term: The company, because agents are de-motivated when they feel there is not a level playing field, and consumers will seek out new companies if they feel their complaints are not handled seriously. (read Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, Porras and Collins, for stunning examples of vision-integrated companies.)

Everyone is involved in the decisions: This is participative leadership, and it’s the leadership style that is best suited to our real estate industry. After all, with independent contractors, we need strong organizational structures to pull people together. What percent of real estate companies have effective leadership councils, one of the attributes of participative leadership? In my teaching, I’ve found about 2%. What this means it that the vast majority of agents don’t feel it’s ‘their company’, they don’t feel empowered, and they aren’t very loyal.


Leaders will be those who empower others. Empowering leadership means
bringing out the energy and capabilities people have and getting them to work
together in a way they wouldn’t do otherwise.
—Bill Gates, fellow Washingtonian, founder of Microsoft

As you read articles and books on leadership, you will find every successful company today has turned its hierarchical leadership upside down and/or flattened it to become inclusive, participative, and as some people term it-- ‘spiderweb’. (read The Female Advantage, Sally Helgesen).

Standards-driven: During my presentation at last year’s National Association of Realtors’ Convention, I asked attendees if they had productivity standards (minimum expectations) in their companies. Out of 200 attendees, three raised their hands. No wonder agents don’t believe they must be ‘on the team’, pulling their own weight in production.

In a recent study by The Ripple Effective of Negativity Leadership IQ, 87% of the 70,305 executives, managers, and employees interviewed said working with a slacker actually made them want to change jobs; 93% said it hampered their development or decreased their productivity. So, without standards, real estate leaders are de-motivating their good performers!

Here’s what Roy Disney says about effective leadership, from the New Leadership Paradigm:

Leadership is the ability to establish standards and manage a creative climate where people are self-motivated toward the mastery of long-term constructive goals in a participatory environment of mutual respect compatible with personal values.

Mutual accountability: Creating a participative environment suggests that everyone must be accountable to their goals. It’s just amazing that managers are frustrated by agents’ lack of business plans and accountability. Yet, as I coach managers, I find that many in each organization don’t feel they need to be accountable to their recruiting goals. (In fact, only about 2% have written recruiting plans!). In addition, owners have not hired and coached them to standards, so the managers just want to ‘leave that part out’!

What is the result of this leadership paradigm switch? A real team, a team with a common goal. Why is it in the real estate industry’s best interests to adapt to this participative leadership style? To preserve the industry, maintain commissions, add ‘pride in belonging’ back to the real estate company, and, most important of all, put the consumer first, where he belongs!

Note: The Virginia Association of Realtors this year invited me to present my 4-day, clock-hour approved ‘people management’ series for real estate owners and managers. The fourth session is an in-depth symposium on how to implement participative leadership strategies for greater productivity and profitability. For information on providing this high accountability, action-based series to your association or company, contact me at 425-392-6914 or Carla@carlacross.com.
I will help your company or association make the necessary leadership adjustments to pull people together into a real, supportive business team.


Carla Cross, CRB, MA, is president of Carla Cross Seminars, Inc. and Carla Cross Coaching, specializing in real estate sales and management. Cross, an international speaker and coach, is the author of 6 internationally published books, 10 productivity programs, and is a winner of the National Association of Realtors’ National Educator of the Year award. Contact her at www.carlacross.com or 425-392-6914.

Increasing Production

For most brokers, managers and team leaders, associate production is the Number 2 problem after recruiting. After many years of requiring a yearly business plan from each of my associates, I changed tactics in 2007. The simple and disturbing result of the yearly business plan is after the obligatory meeting with management, the plan lays dormant in the associates file drawer. The broker/manager moves on to the thousand other things needing attention, and becomes concerned with associate business plans one year later. Now, every associate meets with me to present their monthly work plan, an example of which is shown below. Of course, there is nothing very original about a monthly plan, the key is use and accountability.

I forward a copy of the plan document to every sales associate about 4 days before the end of every month, with the same instructions to complete and return their plan to me in person before the end of the month. 75% of the group shows up at my office door without prodding, the rest take a little effort, but everyone meets with me, every month. The advantage is plain, accountability at least monthly with the entire sales staff, with the added bonus of having the opportunity to counsel each associate regarding prospecting efforts, educational needs, and whatever is important to both of us at the moment. After only 6 months the increase in individual production has been striking. The disadvantage is time spent, about 15 to 20 minutes each month with every associate. If your sales staff is large, say over 40, you may not have the time, and will have to delegate. Considering the time most broker/managers spend recruiting and training, it may be worth trading some of that time and improving the production from the existing staff.

Monthly Work Plan

Associate Name: _____________ Plan Month _____Yr_______

Strategy (That which I am trying to accomplish, direction, a Big Goal:

Tactics (What I will do to accomplish the strategy):

Goal 1: Daily Weekly Monthly

Prospecting Time: ______ ______ _______

Contacts Desired ______ ______ _______

Social Networking: ______ ______ _______

Goal 2: What I will do increase my knowledge and capability in the next 30 days:

Last months results:

Listings taken: ____________

Listings sold: ____________

Buyers taken: ____________

Buyers sold: ____________

Total time Prospecting: ____________

New contacts made: ____________

Yearly Goal:

Closed Sides Expected:_____ Closed to date: ______

Desired Income: $________ Income Booked to date: $_____

Formatting issues aside, please feel free to copy or edit the work plan document in any way that works for you.