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Protecting Your Brand From Other Agents and Brokerage!
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Protecting Your Brand From Other Agents and Brokerage!Daniel Dobbs2022-03-30T13:05:35-07:00
“Nobody works anywhere forever, especially in sales positions.“
This post is a post about protecting your database of clients (both past, present, and future) from anyone that’s not YOU.
That includes your teammates, group leaders, and especially your corporate broker.
Your job is to build yourself a “book” of real estate clients whose data (phone numbers addresses etc; that only you control, so when you change brokerages; you take your book of business with you!!!!!
Eighty percent of new agents don’t pay for their first licensing renewal. The corporate group/team business model puts the corporation first and agents second.
“Your database is your business. Your list is the most valuable spoke in your business.”
If you’re a veteran of real estate sales, you already know “how the game is played; you may want to skip this post and go directly to:
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Protecting Your Communication Chain to Contacts
First, Always back up your communications on your personal computer, and when you leave your communications, erase everything from any corporate computer that is your or is related to private conversations. The corporation will have a backup on their computer, but it will slow them down!
Second, all of your cards, letterheads, and sales materials should have your private email address; after all, once you leave your current office, any data in their system will be combed over by a “conversion specialist,” as they hope to co-opt any of your past sales efforts. Then they’ll the data to solicit your clients by using the top producing sales agents at your (former brokerage).
Trust me on this as I’d worked (briefly) for a big box lending mortgage team. I was asked to forward any information on departing sales agents’ “marketing efforts” – which I then stalled the manager for over a month, closed my pipeline and held off opening any new loans, and was canned shortly after that, BUT I kept my agents and my own client base.
Mission accomplished;
My agents’ worked too hard to have their efforts co-opted for a corporate lackey to take over. I worked for those agents; they were my team, my referral source, NOT the big box lender. I already had a book a business when the big box lender hired me. They hired me to bring in loans, not to transfer my client base to them (despite their best efforts to do so).
My point is 80% of new(er) agents don’t pay for their first licensing renewal; there are reasons for that including one primary reason.
Let me show you the “big reveal,” and I’ve got a better way; if you are interested, keep reading for 3-4 minutes…tops! The 80% of agents who fail have simply been “missionary salespeople”.
BTW: I’m the managing broker for Mutual Home Mortgage; we are an independent loan brokerage with the same lending for 38+ years. Here’s my bio. And our reviews. Yelp Google and Fb. My team and I have an average rating of 4.999 with a combined total of 120 reviews on all sites. Enough about me-this is about you!
Measuring Success On Your Terms
Success is a term that only you can define. It may be selling a hundred homes a year or three a year while raising your children and tending to a sick relative.
Which Business Model is Best for YOU?
Depends on where you are at in your life?
How much time you devote to your career will determine whom you hang your license with.
If you do not/cannot work full time, and you probably are not a candidate for the Corporate “big box” brokerages. And you are probably not a candidate for a team/group business model either.
Most require 40-60 hour weekly commitments (and there is nothing wrong with that). But, it’s not for everyone.
If you have concluded family commitments or want to get a J-O-B (heavens forbid-lol) while you work towards your agent career, you may want to sign with a smaller office or go to a simple desk rental – high commission – transaction fee office model.
A smaller office, where you have a broker who helps close the transaction in return for a commission split, and that model is an excellent fit for many agents.
Another option: A monthly desk rental fee ($50 approx.), high commission, broker fee paid (per transaction) is an excellent fit for experienced agents who don’t need the structure of a full-time office (and irritating sales managers).
These agents want to have a professional office space to meet clients and remain in the real estate mainstream; while also having the camaraderie of an office.
Many newer agents (disillusioned by the corporate sales model) may also find the desk rental, high commission, fee-based, office model, can also be a good fit, as these larger offices may have mentorship programs that act as a brokerage hybrid model
I only know of one (I’m sure there are others you can Goggle do your diligence.) is HomeSmart Realty.
I don’t have “a dog in this fight” (they have their in-house lender), but in the interest of full disclosure, I’ve known HomeSmart’s Director of Marketing & Recruiting Sarah Piazza professionally for several years. You can check out their program on YouTube video for more info.
The Corporate Business Model
So, when you first got your new DRE license, you got an education (essentially) from your broker on how to keep you both from getting sued. And that’s a great starting point.
And there are many valuable pieces of training by your local real estate board; also a GREAT starting point. You have to learn to walk before you run, pay your dues”, and there are countless more metaphors-(I’ll spare you any others)!
All of that is in some part is true, but plan to start being successful from the start? Or you’ll most likely be part of the 80%.
Corporate Marketing Plans:
Success or Madness?
Corporate marketing plans are based on a business model that puts the corporation first and your desire for a specific success level ….second. And although these plans “feature you”, no one tells you the back story. Some of the stories are good, and some; “not so much.”
So, after signing on with your broker, you probably found out there’s no apparent (sustainable) marketing plan (paper neighborhood with flyers? Notepads?) and you may have been told to attend an introductory training” seminar with a sales trainer (pay big bucks) to get you “fired up”!
“Fired up,” But, No emotional swing, is sustainable
Positive thinking is Great
AND it only lasts so long –
You need a REAL plan!
Sales trainers are great at motivational speaking and provide a starting point for immersing yourself in the real estate culture and making contacts. And getting fired up is a good thing!
Note: Trainers and motivational speakers count on a steady stream of big box corporate brokerage referrals to maintain THEIR business model and the hefty fees their agents pay, so they have a symbiotic relationship.” “That’s not good or bad; its just is what it is”
I know because I was interviewed to teach sales training by an OC local real estate educational and prep licensing company, during the very first (and only), interview, they didn’t “take” kindly to me exposing “the back story just like I’m doing here in this post!.”
FYI: It was NOT the Duane Gomer company, just in case you are guessing. There is NO better education company and no one with more integrity personal and professional than Duanegomer.com
So, coming back to my main point!
You’re having to already pay big money from your sales commission for transactions fees, admin fees, advertising fees, etc., etc. At what point is enough..enough?
And your broker wants YOU to pay for your own marketing training? You already share your commission, does your corporation share in the training fee. FYI: I’ve never met an agent who worked for a broker who shared this training expense.
Cold Calling/Burnout Alert!
Some “marketing plans” promote the only way to be successful is to meet every morning with a sales trainer (Zoom call) to contact 20, 50, 100(?) people a day (or explain why you didn’t), that’s “cwrazy.”
I don’t call that plan for success (it does work for some agents); I call it a recipe for madness. Oh, BTW you will pay for the privilege of hassling (“holding accountable) also?
Accountability is good, viability is better, and trying to succeed with that corporate marketing plan is rarely a sustainable effort.
“It’s all About the Numbers –
Jack ’em Up and Boot em’ out the Door!
And it’s why 80% of agents, don’t renew their licenses at the end of their first licensing; they’re simply a commission-based “missionary sales force”.
Why is it Termed Missionary Selling?
“When salespeople educate people who influence purchasing decisions on the benefits of their offering, their connections can also be “missionaries” for their products, leading to sales in the future.” Future is the operative word!
But 80% of the agent’s efforts themselves have been wasted as they go on to another career.
However, they did for (up to 2 years) promote their corporate structure. Incurred expenses, lost time from family while pursuing a failed career.
Some persons, despite their enthusiasm, are not cut out for sales, that’s fast, but that doesn’t account for anywhere near the entire 80%.
Missionary sales models don’t happen by accident; it’s part of an overall corporate sales model. The corporate sales manager knows the stats (80% failure rate); as a new agent, you probably didn’t.
I have a better way if you are willing to read on by clicking on to this link!
“Nobody works anywhere forever, especially in sales positions.“