In this workshop, we will cover:
- The difference between lead generation, lead follow up, and
lead conversion
- Why it’s important to do all three
- Learn how to plan and schedule these activities into your
calendar for maximum effectiveness
- Learn at least 10 different ways to generate leads
- Develop an action plan for the next 30 days to generate
more leads and more sales
- Team up with an accountability partner to help you stay
focused and on track for those 30 days so that you’ll hit
your goals

file is called lead_generation_ seminar.mp3

- What goals are, where do they come from, and why it’s important to have them
- Identify what stops you from setting and achieving your goals
- At least 7 different goal categories and why it’s important to have some in all categories
- How to write powerful SMART goals
- A 7 step process to help you identify what’s missing from your plan for accomplishment
- The 5 Step Planning Process to make sure your goals get turned into action steps every week
- Develop a 30 day action plan to move your goals closer to being achieved

Play Audio: Goal Setting and Accomplishment Workshop

Audio: Goal Setting and Accomplishment Workshop

How to avoid closing real estate deals sporadically and infrequently and learn how to generate a steady flow of leads and sales every month.

Greetings! My name is Brad Warren, and I am a real estate business coach and seminar leader. I have been successfully self-employed since 1978 and have been coaching entrepreneurs and business owners for a good portion of that time. Starting in 2003, I shifted my focus to coaching real estate professionals (agents, brokers, loan consultants, etc.) and noticed something interesting. Many of them had a pattern of being paid only every other month, or even every third month, rather than having a “regular” paycheck every month (or even several paychecks per month). I began to look into this, and discovered that the pattern seemed to be this: they’d do some lead generation, they’d get a hot lead so they’d stop lead generating, they’d stick with that one and work it and work it until it closed (hopefully), got paid, and then they had nothing in the pipeline, so the whole pattern started all over again. The missing piece seemed to be that they didn’t continuously lead generate so that they’d have leads in the pipeline in various stages of development on an ongoing basis, and therefore they’d only get paid every other month or once a quarter. With that observation in mind, I developed the 5 Step Planning Process for Goal Accomplishment, of which you’ll learn Step 4 (Lead Generation) by reading and implementing what’s in this report. At the end of the report, you’ll find out about a special offer I’m making to teach you the other 4 steps of the process for FREE!
But mind you, you must read this report in its entirety and implement the lead generation process I’ll teach you in order to qualify for the rest of the training. And trust me, through a series of questions I’ll be asking you, I’ll know for certain whether you have read and implemented this report. So if you’re up for it, read on!

There are really only a few reasons why, in my opinion (and that’s the last time I’ll say “in my opinion” in this report. This whole report is my opinion!) that people don’t generate leads on an ongoing, consistent basis:

1. They confuse lead generation with lead follow up
2. They don’t understand the many different ways there are to generate leads
3. They don’t schedule lead generation time into their planner
4. If they have scheduled the time into their planner, they don’t treat that time
as sacred and they let other tasks (and people) intrude upon that time

Step 4 of the 5 Step Planning Process is all about how to powerfully schedule lead generation time into your daily activities, and how to treat it sacredly so that you’ll actually do it. But before I get to that, I first want to cover the other two points I’ve made above, namely confusing lead generation with lead follow up, and teaching you 8 different ways you can lead generate.

The difference between lead generation and lead follow up, and why you must do both!

I define lead generation as any activity that generates a lead. Yes, I understand that’s a somewhat lame definition, but it’s true nonetheless. And let me be clear about the difference between a lead and a referral (all referrals are leads, but not all leads are referrals). A referral is when someone says to me, “Brad, my friend Sally mentioned to me yesterday that she’s looking for a business coach. I told her a little bit about you and she said she’d like to talk with you about her situation. Here’s her contact information, and I told her you’d be calling her today or tomorrow at the latest.” That’s a referral, and a hot one at that! Sally has expressed a specific need for a service that I happen to provide, and my friend has confirmed that Sally’s OK with me contacting her. Referrals are great, and I’m sure we’d all like to get as many of those as we can. There are other people who teach classes on how to build a referral-based business, but that’s not what I’ve written about in this report. This report is about lead generation. A lead is more like this: “Brad, I know this realtor named Sally over at the ABC Realty Company, and she’s a great person, but I think she’s struggling right now in her business. I know you can help her, here’s her contact info, I think you should give her a call. And you can use my name when you call, but I haven’t spoken with her in a couple of months, so I’m not sure if she’ll remember me.” Better than cold calling, right? But not that much better. So I’m going to discuss at least 8 different ways to generate leads, and hopefully they’ll be better ones than what I’ve just described.

OK, so lead generation is the activity or process of generating or creating the leads. Lead follow up is the activity or process of getting back to and following up with those leads that you’ve already generated and moving them through your pipeline until you convert them to paying customers. I find that many people do lead follow up and they think they’re doing lead generation. Please don’t confuse the two. And remember, you must do both! The amount of time you spend on one or the other will vary and fluctuate, depending on how many leads you have. If you have a lot of them, and more are constantly coming in, then maybe it’s time to focus more on following up and converting them into business. If you find yourself following up and calling people back a lot but not much is happening, then maybe you need to spend more time on generation and putting new people into your pipeline.

So what else do you need to know about lead generation in order to be more effective at it? You need to clearly define your target market. Who is an ideal client for you? And please don’t say “Anybody!” That’s just not true. My coach (bless his soul) worked with me at the start of 2009 and helped me re-brand myself as a real estate business coach rather than just a business coach. And then he asked me to define my target market. When I said, “Any realtor, I guess,” he immediately said “Not!” He then helped me narrow my niche down to the following: “Real estate professionals who make at least $100,000 or more per year, have been in business 5 or more years, and aspire to make a lot more money.” Much more clear and precise, yes? This doesn’t mean I won’t work with other real estate professionals, but it does mean that the vast majority of my time is spent looking for places and events where my target market is likely to be. So my speaking engagements are now geared to larger, more affluent audiences, with more experience, and who are more motivated to earn more income. The events I attend, the mixers I go to, the additional skills I’m learning, are all geared towards helping me find those kinds of clients that more closely fit my target. You must do the same in defining your target market.

Next, as you’re doing your lead generation, you need to keep track of your numbers. How many calls or dials do you need to make in order have how many conversations? How many of those conversations result in an appointment? How many of those appointments are kept? Of those that are kept, how many sign a listing agreement (or buyer/broker agreement, which I highly recommend you always get)? And how many of those listings actually close and/or how many of those buyers actually purchase a home through you? It’s very important to track all of these numbers so you’ll be able to pinpoint where you need to improve. If you’re making lots of calls but not having lots of conversations, then you probably need to choose different times of the day to call. If you’re having lots of conversations but not getting appointments, then you probably need to improve your communication skills and/or ask for the appointment more assertively. If you’re making appointments but people are canceling or forgetting to show up, then it’s most likely a scheduling problem. If the appointments are being kept but you’re not getting the listing, then you need to work on your listing presentation. And if you’re getting the listing but it’s not closing, then it could be a pricing issue, a marketing issue, or something else. In any event, knowing your numbers and your conversion rates will help you pinpoint where you need to improve. And one last thing. Notice I made a distinction between dials (or calls) and conversations. You want to measure both, but obviously, conversations are much more valuable than dials. You want to actually be talking to people in order to generate more leads. Just dialing the phone all day gets you nowhere.

One other distinction, and this one comes from Neil Rackham’s book Spin Selling. He called it a continuation vs. an advancement. A continuation is when the lead says something like “Yeah, that’s great, why don’t you call me back next week?” whereas an advancement is where you get them to say “Yeah, that’s great why don’t you call me back next week and what I’ll do is talk to my wife and kids and our financial planner and we’ll be able to give you a more accurate picture of the kind of house we want to buy.” One just continues the conversation at the same level, whereas the advancement moves the conversation forward to the next level. It’s OK to occasionally have a continuation, or even a series of continuations, but just be careful that that’s not the only thing that’s happening. Some people are just too polite and would rather string you along than say no. You must advance the conversation to the next level, or it may be time to tell the client, “Next!”

OK, so now you know the difference between lead generation and lead follow up and why it’s important to do both. What’s next?

The many different forms of lead generation

I’m now going to give you some ideas about the various forms of lead generation. This list is not meant to be exhaustive, but merely to get you thinking. I also recommend that you become proficient at two or three of them, rather than try to master them all. It’s OK to experiment to find the ones that you most like to do and are most adapt at, because obviously you’re more likely to do it if you both like it and are good at it. And you can even hire someone to do the ones that you don’t like or aren’t good at, if that works for you financially. But in any event, you’ll most likely need to roll up your sleeves and get to work doing these yourself. I heard Gary Keller of Keller Williams say many times that as a real estate agent, you have two businesses. One is the business of selling real estate, and the other is the business of lead generation. If you don’t have leads, you don’t have listings (or buyers). And if you don’t have listings (or buyers), you don’t have a business!

1. Phone calling. This is perhaps the easiest and least expensive of all the forms I’m going to talk about. Pretty much everyone has a phone, they’re very portable, you can call pretty much any time and anywhere, and it’s relatively inexpensive with the unlimited packages that are currently available. Now keep in mind that most Americans have a love-hate relationship with the phone. When it’s ringing off the hook, we’re annoyed that we’re being interrupted. When it’s not ringing off the hook, we’re nervous that nobody loves us anymore! So with that little observation out of the way, I still believe that phone calling is one of the fastest and easiest ways to generate leads.

How to do it: first, you need a database or sphere of influence. I’m going to assume that everyone reading this report has a database of some sort (whether you’re currently using it or if it’s up to date is irrelevant at this point). Let’s just assume you have one.

The next thing you need to do is decide on a purpose for making the calls. If you haven’t called your database in a while, your purpose might be to update the information you currently have. Or if you have been calling periodically, it might be to update everyone on the current market conditions, or tell them about the trends in interest rates, or impart something of value to them. But have a reason, or purpose, for making the call, even if the reason is “Hi, Bob, it’s Brad. I’m just calling to touch base and see how you’re doing. Have you got a few minutes to talk?”

Next is a script. Scripts and dialogues could be another whole report in and of itself, so I’ll only touch on it briefly here. You need to write out your script, practice it over and over and over again until it’s part of you, until it’s second nature. Then when you actually call, you can put the script aside and just be yourself. At that point, it becomes more of a guide rather than something you read from. As an example, it might sound like this:

“Hi, Joan, this is Brad Warren over at the ABC Realty Company. Did I catch you at a bad time?” (Note: notice I didn’t say, “Is this a good time to talk?” In Neurolinguistic Programming language, this would be referred to as Pattern Interrupt, where you’re purposely interrupting the expected way of speaking and forcing the recipient to actually think before they respond).

If they say no, ask “When would be a good time for me to call back?”
If they say yes, then continue with “Great! This will only take a few minutes of your time. The purpose of my call is to update my database, just to make sure I have all of your current information. You’re still living at…, and your phone number is…” and so on.

After that, maybe a little chit chat, and then close with “Joan, would you like to be added to my ezine list? I’ll be sending out an electronic magazine once a month, with articles and recipes and …Can I add you to that list?”

“Great! And I’d like to stay in touch by phone on a regular basis. Would it be all right with you if I called you back once a quarter, just to touch base?” Obviously, if they say no, then ask how often they would like to be contacted, and make sure you add that into your notes.

And finally, close with “Thanks for your time on the phone, Joan, I really appreciate it. Oh, by the way, have you heard anybody at your church (bowling league, kid’s school, quilting class, etc.) that’s mentioned that they’re looking into moving, or maybe considering investing in real estate, at this time?” This is where you’re generating the leads. And be specific, don’t just say “anybody” without giving them an example of who they might have talked to. Otherwise, it’s too general.

Remember, this is just an example of a script. You must create your own based on your database, how often you’ve called them in the past, how recent the last contact was, etc. Again, remember to take notes and enter that information into your database. The bottom line is you’re creating a system, a repeatable, ongoing system for getting back to people again and again to keep asking for leads. And yes, for some of you I know this seems scary. I’d venture to guess that mostly it’s a little voice inside your head that’s yammering away, telling you you can’t do this, it’s too intrusive, what will people think of me, etc. All I can say is, get over it!

2. Door knocking. Another great way to generate leads is to door knock. And since I rarely see anybody doing it, you’ll probably stand out from the crowd if you choose this method. Like phone calling, it’s inexpensive (unless you wear out your shoes and have to buy new ones) and in fact, it can save you money…by not having to purchase a gym membership! Think how many calories you’ll work off if you go door knocking every Saturday and Sunday for a few hours.

Like phoning, you’ll need a purpose (such as adding people to your mailing list, or providing something of value, like information) and a script (for example, “Hi, my name is Brad Warren and I live on Walnut Street, right around the corner. I’m a real estate agent, and did I catch you at a bad time? I’ll only take a minute of your time to introduce myself, and leave you with this community calendar of upcoming events in our city. I’d also like to add you to my mailing list and send you my monthly newsletter. Here’s a form to fill out and a self-addressed, stamped envelope, as well as my business card. Just fill out the form, send it in, and I’ll enter you in a drawing for a $50 Starbucks card. If you have any real estate related questions, please give me a call. Have a great day!” Again, that’s just a simple example, you’ll want to craft yours to fit your situation.

And keep in mind, you want to dominate your farm, one block at a time. I recommend going up and down your own block until you’ve met every single homeowner, and then go to the next block until you’ve met all of them, and then the next block, and so on. Keep doing this every weekend until you’ve met everyone in your farm. Decide how often you want to touch base with people (like you determined for the phone calling) and then do it all over again. I’m guessing that within one year, if you did this every weekend (OK, almost every weekend) you’d be known throughout that entire neighborhood and you’d be the person of choice for those homeowners when it comes time for them to list their homes.

A few more tips. If you have a moving truck, make it available to the farm for their use. Or if you own a popcorn machine, or a margarita mixer, or some other appliance that you know others can use, make it available as a loaner. You can also hold community events, like one of my former clients did. He bought a bunch of pumpkins in bulk for Halloween, saturated the neighborhood with fliers, and then one Saturday, he set up a booth on one of the busier street corners and gave away the pumpkins for free. I think he also had coupons from local merchants (that didn’t cost him a dime) and he gave those away as well. He’s now very well known, and very well liked, in his neighborhood. And his phone is ringing with referrals from his neighbors!

3. Hold open houses. These can be your own or for other agents. You’re looking for buyers who aren’t represented by another agent, as well as sellers who are looking to move from their current location.

If possible, have them sign in to a guest book so you can capture their name, phone number, and email. This is also good for security reasons (though if they’re coming to case the house and try to steal something, I doubt they’ll sign in with their real name). Remember to watch all valuables, have refreshments, work with a partner so one of you can show people around while the other watches the door, and just be alert. I also recommend bringing your cell phone with phone numbers to call, so during the down times you can be calling people and generating leads that way. Keep in mind that you’re working, not watching TV!

Another option if you can’t or don’t want to hold open houses, is to sponsor an event or throw a party. Many Chambers of Commerce need monthly sponsors for their mixers, so you can host the monthly mixer at your place of business (or team up with another Chamber member and co-host it). Or just throw a party at your office and invite all the people on your mailing list (and ask them to bring a friend or two).

4. Attend live events where potential clients are likely to be. Examples include Chamber of Commerce monthly mixers, ribbon cutting ceremonies, leads groups (such as LeTip and BNI-Business Network International; check your local newspaper for when and where these groups meet), and other events that you can find in your community. Join the Kiwanis, Rotary, Lions, Soroptimists, and other community service organizations. Attend a place of worship (and I don’t mean just for the networking opportunities! Make sure you’re also going to pray, give thanks, celebrate, and worship). Become a volunteer (the possibilities are endless). Have a booth at a local faire. Search online for other groups to join and/or visit (try www.meetup.com and type in Real Estate or Investors and see what shows up). These are just a few examples. Just looking at my own calendar, I’m attending the following events each month: every Wednesday and Friday morning I’m at a real estate marketing meeting, once a month I attend my leads group, once a month I attend the Chamber mixer, once a month I go to a MeetUp meeting, and at least twice a month I attend an educational event, either at the local Association of Realtors office or at a real estate or mortgage company’s office. All of these events are places where my target audience is likely to be (remember, for me it’s real estate professionals first and foremost, but other business owners are also good leads for me as well. Your target is going to be different, so adjust your attendance accordingly).

5. Using the Internet. This is an area that I am just beginning to tap. I am reading more and more about agents who use the web and the Internet to generate leads, and do so very successfully. I am not going to attempt to try to teach you about all these possibilities, you’ll need to seek out other professionals to help you here. But here are just a few of the basics I recommend.

Have a website! A good one, too. I invested about $2,000.00 to have my new site totally redesigned, added video, offered a free e-book if they give me their email address, posted recordings and articles and more if they join as a member, and so on. Please visit me at www.acceleratedcoachingandtraining.com (and oh, by the way, please sign up for the free e-book on time management, and take advantage of the 30-day trail membership for only $1.00! I couldn’t resist that little bit of shameless self-promotion).

Learn all you can about the capture page (also referred to as the sales page, squeeze page, or landing page). Take a class on social media and social networking. Join every social networking site that you can, and link them all together (again, this is out of my area of expertise, so I have my webmaster teach me all this stuff. And in the words of my 17-year-old daughter, who calls me “technologically challenged,” if I can do this stuff, I know you can, too). There’s LinkedIn, Plaxo, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Ryze, Twitter, ecadamy, Zing, and probably a whole lot more that I’m not aware of (or that get created every day). If you’re having trouble with this, just ask any teenager for help; they seem to live and breathe this stuff. But trust me on this one- the Internet is the way that many people will (and already are) find a house, find an agent, do research, and much more. So please don’t ignore this possibility for lead generation.

Oh, one more thing. Respond in seconds, not minutes or hours! The attention span of most Internet users is about equal to that of a mosquito in a nudist colony. They are jumping from one thing to another at lightning speed, so if you delay in getting back to them, they’re gone to the next website or the next webpage in a heartbeat.

6. Traditional print advertising, post cards, newsletters, etc. Again, I am not the expert here, especially when it comes to advertising. I’ve sat in on Craig Proctor’s free mini-seminars, where he teaches you the very basics of his system on how to write advertisements that get the clients to call you (and then he gets you to sign up for his full 3 day training if you really want to learn all the tricks). From what I’ve heard and read about him and his system, he’s very successful at teaching you specific language and wording to use that gets your phone to ring. And many people testify to the success that they’re having using his methods. So if that moves you, go take his class and implement his system. You can also mail out Just Listed/Just Sold post cards to your farm whenever you have a listing or a closing. Or you can advertise in your local newspaper on a regular, ongoing basis. Or send out a monthly newsletter, full of tips and ideas, recipes, market research, real estate trends, mortgage rate changes, and so on. Just be sure your information is timely and accurate. Obviously, there are costs involved with each of these methods, so work up a budget ahead of time before you dive into any of these ideas. And do some research, too. Ask other agents whom you trust what their experience has been with advertising, which class they took that really delivered value, which post card company they use, and so on. Do your homework!

7. Electronic magazines (ezines), email blasts, fax blasts, recorded message blasts, etc. If you have the expertise, or just prefer the electronic mode over printed materials, then try sending out a monthly ezine. Similar to a monthly printed newsletter, it’ll have articles, information, useful websites, trends, and so on. Obviously, it’s much cheaper than a printed version, and less taxing on the environment. Just make sure that your target market will read it, and be careful of viruses that you might inadvertently send to your mailing list. If you don’t want to put together an entire ezine, then just send out periodic email blasts, with timely updates and tips that your clients or potential clients will find useful. I’ve also heard of fax blasts, where you program in a whole bunch of fax numbers and then send one fax to everyone at the same time. Same for recorded messages, similar to the ones my daughter’s school uses to send a recorded message to all the parents. Again, you must weigh the time, energy, and cost of each of these methods.

In a somewhat similar vein, you can write articles (kind of like what I’m doing here) and disseminate them not only to your target market, but to a wider audience as well. There are several websites where you can post your articles, and then they get distributed out to thousands (maybe even hundreds of thousands) of people. www.submityourarticles.com is one of them (I think that’s the correct url). Again, there may be costs involved, so do your research first. You can also write a column for your local newspaper with a real estate focus, and become known as the local expert. Hopefully people who read that paper will call you when they have a question, and may even become a client.

8. Teleclasses and webinars. I have had some success in generating leads by conducting teleclasses (a class taught over the phone). The typical length is one hour, and you’ve got to have valuable content and be a good enough presenter to hold people’s attention for that long. Most teleclasses are really a lecture, and then at the end, the presenter offers you a chance to enroll in his/her seminar, or buy his/her book, CDs, etc. You might want to think about what you could offer at the end, such as a free CMA, or a half hour consultation, or a free report, etc. You can also modify the presentation to be more interactive by posing questions to your audience, or opening up the call to questions from the participants. Another way to do a teleclass is to conduct an interview of an industry expert or famous person. If you don’t feel like you have enough content to conduct your own class, or you just want to get your feet wet, this is a relatively easy way to get started. Again, you must have some good questions to ask your guest that are relevant to your target audience. And by all means, record the class. For one, it’s good to go back and listen to yourself so that you can improve your performance. For another, you can turn your recording into a product to sell, either as a CD or as a downloadable MP3 recording. I use InstantConference (www.instantconference.com) but there are many of these services available, so check them out to see which one works best for you.

9. Educational seminars and speaking engagements. Another way to generate leads is to put on your own educational seminars. This requires a fair amount of time, energy, and money, as you have to design the content, print up a handout or workbook, book a venue, advertise, fill the room, then be a great presenter, and so on. But if you can “put butts in the seats” and then deliver valuable information, you should wind up with high quality leads. You could also team up with a loan consultant, or an insurance provider, or someone else who also goes after the same or similar target audience that you do, and split all the expenses. Plus you get to meet all of the new people that they bring to the seminar, and they get to meet yours. I’ve had some success with my banker. He approached me to do the speaking, but he did the majority of the advertising, paid for the lunch, got the room filled, and I did the presentation. Of course, he got to speak for a few minutes about the bank and what it could offer the attendees, but it was a win-win. I’ve also had quite a bit of success just speaking in front of audiences that were my target market. I did the research, found out the websites of the groups I wanted to speak in front of, contacted their educational chairperson, got myself booked as the presenter, they did all the advertising and filled the room, and I got to present for 45-60 minutes on a topic of interest to their members. At the very end, I collected the business cards of all of those people who were interested in finding out more about my coaching and training, and then I moved into lead follow up with them.

10. Write a book. Much easier said than done. But if you have something to share with the world, writing a book is a great way to both get the message out and generate more leads, especially since they call you! Plus you become known as an expert in that particular subject, which could lead to more speaking engagements as well. If you think of all the real estate gurus that you can, you’ll realize that almost every one of them wasn’t a guru until after they’d written a book and gotten it out there. Writing a book and getting it published also builds your credibility and reputation. Plus, if done right, you can actually make some additional money selling it. Or use it as a give away with potential clients. Now, if the little voice inside your head is saying “But Brad, I couldn’t do that. I don’t know enough, I’m not disciplined enough, etc.” then try this: write one page per day. Just sit down for 15-20 minutes per day and start. At the end of the year, if you do this every day, you’ll have 365 pages written, more than enough for a good book. Then hire a ghostwriter or copywriter or editor or whomever is the appropriate person and let them polish it up for you into the final version. I’ve heard numerous people say that everyone has a book inside of us just waiting to be written. Your job is to get it out there.

OK, so if you’re still with me, we’ve covered my first two points as to why people don’t do enough lead generation (they confuse lead generation with lead follow up, and they don’t know the many different ways to lead generate). Now let’s cover points 3 and 4, namely: scheduling lead generation time into the planner, and then treating it sacredly so that nothing interrupts you and gets you off track.

Scheduling lead generation time into your planning system.

This next section assumes you have a planning system of some kind, and that you use it. Your system could be Top Producer, Outlook, a pen and paper planner, a calendar, a Blackberry or other phone system, even scraps of paper, Post-It notes, and the backs of table napkins! I don’t care what kind of system you use, but you must have a system and you must use it every week.

Now remember, at the end of this report, you’ll have an opportunity to contact me to receive a FREE, 30-minute coaching session on the other 4 steps in the 5 Step Planning Process for Goal Accomplishment. For now, let’s just concentrate on Step 4, Scheduling Lead Generation Time into Your Planner.

Every week, when you’re working ON your business rather than IN your business, you’ll need to schedule lead generation time into your daily activities. By this I mean literally blocking the time into the planner to do lead generation. It’s as if you were scheduling an important meeting with the most important person on the planet – YOURSELF! You’ve got to schedule it into your planner as if it were a meeting (and a very important meeting, at that) and then you’ve got to keep the appointment. I know you schedule lunch appointments, and business meetings, and listing presentations, and so on. So you must also schedule lead generation time in the same manner. But in fact, these lead generation appointments are even more critical than those other appointments, because without lead generation, you won’t have those other appointments!

Many people ask me, “Brad, how much lead generation time must I schedule each day?” And the answer is, “It depends.” What are your goals for the number of sales you want to have? Where are you currently at with regards to those goals? If you have big goals, and you’re behind, then you need to schedule more time to lead generate. If you are on track to hit your goals, then schedule enough time to maintain the necessary pace to hit the goals by the end of the year. If I had to make a recommendation, I’d say 3 hours per day. One hour to prepare, rehearse your scripts, assemble the phone numbers (if you’re doing phone calling), and get ready, one hour of calling, and one hour of follow up (sending out CMAs, following up the leads and giving them a call, entering notes into your database, etc.). If you’re door knocking, then at least 2 hours every Saturday and Sunday, and more during the week if possible. If you’re attending live events, then 3-4 per week, depending on how many leads you generate at each event. There are no hard and fast rules about how much time to devote to lead generation. I guess the rule of thumb is that you have to devote as many hours as is necessary to generate the number of leads you’ll need to hit your goals. And you should know that number because you’ve been tracking your numbers, right?

Now if you’re new to this whole idea of scheduling your lead generation time into your planning system, you may want to start out easy and add more time as you get more comfortable with the whole process (kind of like going to the gym. If you start out with big weights right at the start, you’ll hurt yourself and probably not return to the gym again. So you start with lighter weights until you’ve built up some strength, then gravitate to heavier weights over time). So start with one hour per day, Monday to Friday, and try that for a week or two. Then go to two hours per day for another week or two, then increase it to three hours per day, and so on. Also, make sure you’re scheduling in at least 2 or 3 different types of lead generation, until you find the one(s) that is most effective for you.

Treating your lead generation time as sacred.

By this I mean nothing should take the place of your lead generation time. I understand that emergencies may arise, or a unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity may present itself, and you just have to stop your lead generating to deal with it. But I’m willing to bet those instances are few and very far between. Most of the time we let other people interrupt us, or a ringing phone takes us off-track, or the pull of “You’ve got mail!” tugs at us so hard that we stop our lead generating and get off purpose. I liken it to being the driver of the bus (I mean this metaphorically, of course) or becoming a passenger on someone else’s bus. Being the driver of your bus (the bus of life) means that you’re in control, you determine what you’re going to do each day, each hour, each minute. Becoming a passenger on someone else’s bus of life means letting their desires and their requests for your time take precedence over your own. Yes, sometimes it’s appropriate to get on their bus. But most of the time it’s not.

Here’s an example. Let’s say you’ve scheduled phone calling lead generation time from 9 to 11am on Monday morning. You get to your office at 8:45, you turn on your computer to bring up the phone numbers and your notes, you get your morning coffee or whatever else you drink, and you start calling right at 9am. Now the phone rings at 9:20, and you have a choice to make: ignore it, let it go to voice mail, and keep calling, or answer it. If you ignore it, you’ve stayed the driver of the bus. But let’s say you answer it. You still have a choice to make. It’s one of your buyers, and he asks you to drop everything and meet him at 123 Main Street to look at a house. If you respond by saying, “Harry, I know that house, it’s just come on the market, don’t worry, we have plenty of time to look at it. I’m very busy right now, so how about we meet there at 11:30?” then great, you’ve stayed the driver again. But if you drop everything, race to the door and jump in your car to go meet Harry, then you’ve just become a passenger on his bus. If that’s the case, here’s what you need to do: it’s called Erase and Replace. You erase that lead generation time from your planning system and replace it somewhere else in time. In other words, you must reschedule that lost hour and forty minutes and replace it somewhere else in your week. This will only be possible if you haven’t blocked up every minute of every day with activities. Hopefully when you did your weekly planning in advance on Sunday, you left some “white space” on your calendar (i.e., you didn’t block up all of your available time with appointments, activities, etc.). So always keep the Driver/Passenger concept in mind when accepting or declining other people’s invitations and requests.

A special offer!

So you’ve mastered the distinction between lead generation and lead follow up and you know you need to do both, you’ve chosen a few of the lead generation ideas to implement, you’ve blocked your lead generation time into your planning system, and you’re treating it sacredly and sticking to it. So what’s next? As I promised earlier, here is your opportunity to learn the other 4 steps in the 5 Step Planning Process for Goal Accomplishment.

Contact me by email (brad@bradwarren.com), mention this report, and I’ll schedule a 30-minute, complimentary training session with you to teach you the other four steps. Step 1 is all about goals, Step 2 is about looking back one week, Step 3 is about looking ahead one week, Step 4 you already know (blocking lead generation time into your planning system), and Step 5 is about planning all the rest of your activities, including personal goals and objectives (hopefully you have some of those and it’s not all work and no play! If not, I’ll show you how to “balance” your life with some personal perspective). Do this now! Don’t delay, as learning this 5 Step Process could be the most important training you’ll ever receive. I am absolutely convinced that the key to achieving your goals is to plan out your activities on a weekly basis, rather than by happenstance or serendipity. So please contact me now and schedule your FREE training session today! And thank you for reading my report and taking action. You won’t regret it!

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

THE QUALITIES/CHARACTERISTICS OF:

A GREAT PRESENTER

WHICH ONES ARE YOUR GREATEST STRENGTHS?

WHICH ONES ARE YOUR AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT?

PLANNING A POWERFUL PRESENTATION

I. KNOW YOUR PURPOSE

A. WHY ARE YOU THERE?

B. WHY ARE THEY THERE?

C. WHAT’S THE BOTTOM LINE?

II. CREATE THE CLOSE

A. WHY DO THIS FIRST?

B. SOME TIPS

C. MOVE THEM TO ACTION

III. DESIGN THE OPENING

A. CAPTURE THEIR ATTENTION

B. USE QUOTES, STORIES, QUESTIONS, ILLUSTRATIONS

C. NO APOLOGIES; START ON TIME

IV. OUTLINE THE BODY

A. BRAINSTORM MANY POINTS

B. THE RULE OF THREE

C. STRUCTURE

V. ADD SPICE

A. ENGAGE THE AUDIENCE

B. EVERY 6-8 MINUTES

C. EXAMPLES

VI. VISUAL AIDS

A. TO ENHANCE

B. BIG, BOLD AND SIMPLE

C. WHEN NOT TO USE

VII. TAILOR TO THE AUDIENCE

A. SEEK FIRST TO UNDERSTAND, THEN BE UNDERSTOOD

B. ASK QUESTIONS

C. TAILOR YOUR MATERIAL

VIII. MAKE CONFIDENCE SHEETS

A. HELPS YOU FOCUS

B. “FAST FOOD” FOR THE EYES

C. BIND THEM IN ORDER

IX. REHEARSE

A. OUT LOUD

B. LOGISTICS

C. VIDEOTAPE YOURSELF

DEALING WITH ANXIETY AND NERVOUSNESS

SYMPTOMS OF NERVOUSNESS

STEPS TO RELIEVE THE TENSION

1. IT’S ONLY NATURAL

2. WHAT’S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN? HOW LIKELY IS THAT?

3. QUICK AND EASY THINGS TO DO TO RELAX YOURSELF

4. MORE THINGS TO DO

5. EVEN MORE THINGS TO DO

CONTROLLING THE ENVIRONMENT

I. MAKE A CHECKLIST

A. VISIT THE SITE

B. DESIGN YOUR LIST

C. USE IT!

II. DISTRACTIONS

A. ON-GOING VS. SUDDEN

B. YOURS

C. THEIRS

III. HANDLING QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

A. SET GROUND RULES IN THE OPENING

B. SOME TIPS

C. WHAT IF THERE ARE NO QUESTIONS?

BUILDING AUDIENCE RAPPORT

I. APPEARANCE

A. WHAT TO WEAR

B. COLOR

C. STYLE

II. BODY LANGUAGE AND VOICE

A. SMILE, WATCH FOR HABITS

B. TONE, RATE, VOLUME, AND PITCH

C. CHOICE OF WORDS

III. KEEP THEM INVOLVED

A. ASK QUESTIONS, TELL JOKES

B. INVOLVE THEM IN ACTIVITIES

C. CALL THEM TO ACTION

Negotiation Skills Audio

Delegation- The Fine Art of Giving It Away

     I once heard Stephen Covey say, “There are only two ways to get work done.  Do it yourself or get someone else to do it.  Masterful delegation is a major leverager of time.”  Now we may not be as good as Huck Finn when he got those others to do his fence painting for him, but there are some specific strategies that you can employ when it comes to delegating appropriately.  And by the way, technically Huck did not delegate, which the dictionary defines as “…to assign responsibility or authority.”  He actually influenced, persuaded and convinced (one might even say tricked and manipulated) rather than delegated.  So let’s see what would be useful and powerful if we were truly to delegate to others.

     In my workshops on time management, the first thing I ask my audiences to do is to list the barriers and benefits to delegating.  The barriers go something like this:

“I don’t have the time to train them.”

“If you want something done right then do it yourself.”

“I don’t have anyone to delegate to!”

“It takes too much time to keep following up on them.”

“They’ll want more pay if they learn new skills or take on more responsibilities.”

“How can I be sure they’ll keep the information confidential?  If I do it myself, at least I’ll know our company secrets are safe.”

“I’ll lose control.”

“I won’t be recognized and acknowledged for the job anymore.  They’ll get all the credit.”

     On the flip side, here are some of the benefits:

It frees you up to do those aspects of the job you were hired to do (and love to do as well).

It increases team morale, job satisfaction, and teamwork.

Cross-trains people to fill in when someone is out sick or out on vacation.

After the initial investment of time to train somebody, you recoup that time over and over again whenever you delegate that task to them.

It demonstrates that you trust and believe in your people.

It forces you to define the task.

And best of all, you get acknowledged for the results! (Be careful, though, because you might also get blamed for the results if they mess up!).

     What it comes down to is this: what’s more important to you-that you do the job or that the job gets done?  If you answered that the job gets done, here are 7 tips for delegating appropriately:

1. Think through your decision very carefully.  Have I chosen the right person for this job or did I just pick the person closest to my office?  Or the one who I knew would offer the least resistance?  Do they have the time, resources, desire, etc.?  Are they trained?  What will they not be doing while they’re engaged in the task I’m delegating to them?
2. Think through possible training needs.  If they do need training first, can they self-instruct, either through a class, video program, observing others, etc.?  Can I delegate the training to someone else?  If I have to do the training myself, how much time will it take and by when will I recoup my investment?  For example, if it takes me eight hours to train someone for a task that they will do weekly and which will then save me ½ hour per week, I’ll recoup my time investment in 16 weeks.  After that, I’m saving that ½ hour per week of time.
3. Clearly define the task or project.  Put it in writing, with the objectives, the results you want, by when, etc.  Also let them know how important this task is, how it fits in with the overall company objectives, and how it will impact their career.  People are much more willing to do something if they know why they’re doing it.  And list out their scope of responsibility and authority.  Holding someone responsible for doing something but denying them the authority to get it done is self-defeating.  Be very clear about the level of authority as well.  Full authority is very different than make decisions and keep me informed which is different than check with me first before you do anything.  Just be clear about how much authority you’re willing to give them.
4. Continue to supply resources and support.  Be available, be on call, have an open door so they can check in for guidance and support.  Answer their questions (within reason; after all, you’re trying to empower them to think on their own), provide direction and coaching, but resist the temptation to do it for them.
5. Allow for maximum flexibility.  Focus on the results, not methods; ends, not means.  Let them do it their way.  They will make some mistakes, but that’s part of the learning process.  After the project is over, then go back and debrief, talk about what they learned and what they’ll do differently next time. 
6. Follow up.  Check in periodically to see how they’re doing.  Have specific milestones and deadlines to mark progress.  And I’ve noticed that follow up and trust are inversely proportionate: the more you trust them to complete the task, the less follow up is required.  
7. Acknowledge them.  Be sure to encourage, stroke and validate your people as they take on these new tasks that you’ve delegated to them.  A pat on the back and sincere praise will do wonders for their self-esteem and morale.  A final debriefing after the project’s over listing what you liked best and what they could do next time to improve will make them much more willing to take on new assignments in the future.

     Finally, here’s a great question to ask yourself periodically throughout the day: what’s the best use of my time right now?  If it’s to do the task yourself, then don’t hesitate and begin it.  If, however, the best use of your time is to do some other task, then see if you can appropriately delegate that other item to someone else.

Section 1: Mission Statement (WHY) and Economic Model (WHAT)

Why should you have a Mission Statement or Big Why for your business?  What does it do for you?  What does it do for your clients?

Writing the Mission Statement:

    1.  What do you do?

    2.  For whom do you do it?

    3.  What value, benefit, or end result does that produce?

Now combine these three into one unified statement:

Writing up your Economic Model: Setting SMART goals for 2009 

Section 2: Marketing/Prospecting Model (HOW)

What is the difference between marketing (passive) and prospecting (active)?

“In a seller’s market, you are marketing based and prospecting enhanced.  In a buyer’s market, you are prospecting based and marketing enhanced.”  Gary Keller

What does that mean to you?

Let’s brainstorm together now.  What are some of the ways that you (or other agents that you’ve heard of) currently market your business?

What are some ways that you (or other agents you’ve heard of) currently prospect for leads?

Let’s begin to design your marketing/prospecting plan.  Get out two pieces of blank paper, label one of them Marketing and the other Prospecting, and begin to dump out of your mind all the possible things you could do to market and prospect.  Take a few minutes to do that.

Now go back and pick the top 3-5 ideas from each page and put a star next to them.

Now for each idea, get a separate sheet of paper and begin to flesh out your plan.  What specifically will you do, how will you do it, by when will you do it, and so on.  Take a few minutes to complete that, or at least get started.

Section 3: Budget Model (HOW MUCH)

Why is it important to have a budget?

What is Red Light, Green Light?

What are the options for writing up a budget?

What are the main categories you want to keep track of?

How often do you track your expenses?  How often do you revise your budget?

How do you calculate your estimated expenses for 2009?

In order to help you get started, write down your top 10-15 budget categories for 2009, with subcategories if appropriate, and estimate your total expenditures for 2009 in each category.  Take a few minutes to do that now.

Section 4: Organizational Model (WHO) and Time Management (HOW)

What is leverage?

Why is it important?  What can it do for you?

What are some of the ways you can leverage your business?

How do you go about hiring staff?  What are the steps?

How do you delegate appropriately?

What is the distinction between working in your business and working on your business?

What is Time Blocking and how does it work?  What is Erase and Replace?

The Five Step Planning Process for planning a week at a time:

Deciding where to start:  Why do we do what we do when we do it?  What criteria do we use for allocating our time?  We have many different ways of deciding what we are going to do at any given point during the day.  Following are twenty-one of the most common criteria we use to govern our time:

1.    We do what we like to do before we do what we don’t like to do.

2.    We tackle what we know how to do faster than we tackle what we don’t know how to do.

3.    We do the easy jobs before we do the difficult jobs.

4.    We do the quick tasks before we do those that require a lot of time.

5.    We do activities we have the resources for.

6.    We do things that are scheduled (for example, meetings) before we do nonscheduled things.

7.    We sometimes do things that are planned before we do things that are unplanned.

8.    We respond to the demands of others before we respond to demands from ourselves.

9.    We do jobs that are urgent before we do jobs that are important.        

10. We readily respond to crises and emergencies.

11. We do activities that are politically expedient or those that advance our personal goals.

12. We wait until a deadline approaches before we really get moving on projects.

13. We do things that are interesting before we do uninteresting things.

14. We do things that provide the most immediate closure.

15. We respond on the basis of who wants it.

16. We respond on the basis of the consequences to us for doing or not doing something.

17. We tackle small jobs before we tackle large jobs.

18. We work on things in the order of their arrival.

19. We work on the basis of the squeaky-wheel principle (the squeaky wheel gets the grease).

20. We work on the basis of consequences to the group.

21. We do things by habit, without thinking about the best sequence.

This month’s touch comes from The One Minute Millionaire, by Mark Victor Hansen (of Chicken Soup fame) and real estate guru Robert Allen.  It’s the 23^rd Aha, called Destruction is Creation:

“After you have made the decision to become an Enlightened Millionaire, you may, like many people, run up against the phenomenon of “hysteresis” (pronounced hiss-ter-EE-sis).  Technically, the term describes the tendency of materials to snap back to their original shape once the pressure being applied is removed.  For example, when a piece of steel is heated, it expands.  Stop applying the heat and the steel returns to its original condition as it cools.  Hysteresis has taken place.

Something similar takes place with human beings.  Often an individual returns to his or her original state when a new force is no longer being applied.  It “remembers” where it was before the new force arrived and it returns to that familiar place. 

To create permanent change within a material or a human being, a force must be applied that is strong enough to exceed the “elastic limits” of the object or old conditioning of the individual.  How do you transcend your old habits and move to a new level in your life?”  (Emphasis added for effect by me!)

I say get a buddy, a coach, a mastermind group, a mentor, etc.  Someone outside yourself to whom you can be held accountable.  Rarely have I ever made any lasting change in my behavior without the help and assistance of a friend, coach, or partner.  If you’re planning on building your business to the next level, you can’t do it alone.

And oh, by the way, if you or someone you know is looking for a consultant and coach who knows the KW ways and systems, please have them give me a call.  Thanks!