SALES CLINIC

Productivity
5 Questions to Ask Before You Try a New System

An orderly way of doing your daily work can improve your efficiency and help you make more money.

BY WALTER SANFORD

When you look around your office, you see three-year-old software with the cellophane still intact and untouched notes from the speaker who came to town two years ago. Let’s face it—it’s hard to implement new systems in your business. But having established procedures for handling incoming buyer or seller phone calls, marketing new listings, or closing a transaction—are important to ensure the best service to your clients. And ultimately, how efficiently your systems work determines how productive and profitable you are.

Knowing the critical questions you should ask before implementing a new system will not only help you select the best systems for you but also allow you to reduce your costs.

1. What system will have the biggest payoff?

Everyone has an opinion on what systems you need to achieve your business goals. The choices can be mind-boggling: time management, forms, hardware, software, training, and a myriad of other systems. There are even systems for ways to choose the right clothes or the right car to achieve optimal success.

I believe that the decision is easy. Until every day of your workweek includes a working with a motivated buyer or making a successful listing presentation to a seller, I make acquiring a lead-generation system my first priority. These systems identify and draw motivated buyers and sellers to you by giving them services that separate you from the competition. Look to systems that cultivate potential buyers and sellers that have been proven to have a high conversion rate from potential customer to closed client. Systems on managing your database, expireds, FSBOs, and soliciting absentee owners are examples of lead-generation systems.

2. How much does it cost?

Whether your new system involves buying software or books, or attending training, you always incur costs in time and money putting a new system in place. After you have chosen the system you want, look for ways to make your choice more affordable.

• Look for bargains. Today on eBay, you can buy great training materials for a fraction of their retail price. Just put some of the top trainers’ names in the eBay search engine, and see what comes up.
  
• Also watch for people leaving the industry. Some have an infrastructure of materials that may be available at a fraction of the cost.
  
• Take advantage of your in-office resources. Brokers all over the nation tell me that they buy speakers’ wares, but those resources just sit on the shelf because no one in the office is using them. Local REALTOR® associations and large franchises also provide a variety of resources at no cost.
  
  3. What do the winners do?
  
  Don’t reinvent the wheel. Look around you to see what top performers in your markets are doing. Then ask them to share their secrets.
  
  When I started out in real estate 30 years ago, I took top real estate salespeople out to lunch and tapped their brains. I asked questions like, “What is your lowest-cost, highest-producing form of lead generation?” You would be amazed at how top producers love to talk about themselves and exactly how they implemented their systems. Go out, meet the original system implementers, and copy them. If competitors in your market are reluctant to share, seek out top performers in other markets (that you meet at conventions or read about in the Nation’s Top Sales Teams and Solo Artists at REALTOR® Magazine and e-mail them for advice.
  
  4. How difficult is the system to learn?
  
  The learning curve in implementing any new system can be time-intensive. Time-draining options include reading the manual or taking a class. To implement a new system most efficiently, consider the following strategies.
  
• Find a mentor. A mentor who has experience using the system you want to implement can walk you through the process and save you time. Having a mentor also is a great way to become successful in real estate.
  
• Get one-on-one coaching. This option is increasing in popularity today. A professional coach can teach you a new system much the same way a mentor can.
  
• Hire an assistant. Hiring a part-time assistant—either in your office or virtual (link to Ask Mr. Internet’s VA column for November) gives you the chance to benefit from a program without the need to spend time learning it yourself.
  
  5. Does the system pay off?
  
  Once you have a new system in place, it’s time to determine if you are getting the payoff you expected when you chose it. To evaluate whether a new system is doing that, you should determine if every client is being helped by the new system and if you are saving time.
  
  You also need to choose a system where you see a proven return. I believe that my gross commission from a system should be at least five times the approximate cost of overhead and the time I spent implementing it. The money value I put on my time is figured by taking my total earnings from last year divided by the total number of hours, which gives me a rough estimate of what I make an hour.
  
  As you can see, implementing any new system in your daily work is no easy task. However, if done well, systems can enhance your work, help you become more efficient, and improve your bottom line. But before you rush out to buy the latest hot moneymaker, remember that new systems cost you time and money. So choose wisely and make sure they make you money.
  
  
  How To Reach Walter:
  Walter Sanford is an international speaker and author of 14 books for real estate salespeople, including The Book of Real Estate Checklists. You can reach him at walter@waltersanford.com or at Sanford Systems & Strategies, 800/792-5837.
  
  Previously by Walter Sanford:
  Sales Clinic: Keep Energy Wasters in Check
  20 Questions to Ask Sellers Before the Listing Presentation
  Sales Clinic: How to Get Your Sellers to Work for You
  Build and Keep Your Leads
  
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