www.StrategyBox.net

I am making a commitment to inspire 1000 real estate Agents to have their “Best Year Ever” in 2012.

Success in real estate is about hard work, determination and discipline. It isn’t about some magical website or social media tool that you can set up in an hour that delivers a stream of Zombie Consumers directly to you who are ready to buy or sell. Don’t get me wrong, websites and social media are PART of the answer, but they aren’t THE answer. It takes more than that to build a real business today.

The “New” Consumer wants to work with experienced, capable Agents who know how to handle their transaction. You must be experienced and capable with what they will be doing. It’s no longer enough to have years of experience, you must be experienced in their kind of transaction, and they can find the right agent for them in minutes on the web. You must compete in this “marketplace of competencies” on multiple levels to win the day.

My commitment is to deliver the strategies and skills to the Agents of today that will help them compete in the “New Normal”, and I want to inspire 1000 Agents this year to have their “Best Year Ever”!!

Will you be one of them??

Are you ready to have your “Best Year Ever”?

Competing in the “New Normal” takes a clear and effective strategy. The “Seven Styles” system helps Agents understand the different profiles of success in real estate, and then choose the one or two strategies that are best for them. The wonderful part is that all of the Seven work! It’s a matter of choosing those that are a great fit for who the Agent is as a person, or will work in the current market. Once the Strategy is chosen, then the business plan makes sense. All of the elements and activities of the plan make sense, as do all of the elements that are NOT part of that plan. Great clarity is achieved for the Agent! They can then move forward with confidence to implement their plan without guilt!

My training this year is focused on my commitment to inspiring 1000 Agents this year, and includes these classes:

• The Seven Styles Class: 2 Hours of review of the Seven Success profiles for Agents
• The Seven Styles Workshops: 4 Hour business plan writing workshops by “Style”. We set goals, establish business “Metrics” to monitor our progress, analyze the strategy in depth, choose the strategic prospecting and marketing elements, identify projects to grow the agent’s business, creating a weekly time block of income producing activities, and then scheduling everything out for an entire year. Agents leave the workshop with a road map for success that they wrote, and one that they can implement right away. There is nothing else like it available anywhere.
• Achieve 2012! Four Hours a Day to 100k!: 2.5 Hours of specific business building activities designed to jump start an Agent’s business now and deliver a 6 figure income this year
• Breakout 2012! Your Best Year Ever!: 3 hours, a review of changes in our industry, what works today, generating leads from the internet, mastering market knowledge and more.
• Re-Invent! How to Succeed in the “New Normal”: 1.5 hours of great ideas to understand what has changed and how to succeed in the “New Normal” of our industry. This is the presentation that was delivered to the NAR Convention in Anaheim in November 2011.
• Buyer Mastery and Seller Mastery: 4 hours each of great skills based training on working with Buyers and Sellers. 4 CE credits each.
• Super Sales Skills for Realtor’s: 4 hours of sales skills to help Agents learn how to move their Clients forward through the buying and selling process easily and naturally without pressure. Learn the “Consultant’s Formula”, the “Trade”, “Permission Based Selling” and more!

Once an Agent has built the skills required to succeed, and has defined their strategy, then they can build the structure that they need to move forward. Now we can create a website and build the other “web assets” that support and enhance their strategy. All elements work together to create a profitable and successful business.

My goal this year is to help 1000 Agents get to this place of clarity, focus, engage in the right activities and build the skills that they need to make it all happen.

Will you be one of them? Are you “In It To Win It?” Will this be “Your Best Year Ever”?

Then let’s get this party started!

This has been the year of technology!

I have attended multiple industry events this year where the buzz was all about technology and especially new technology like the iPad.

It would be easy to be seduced by the idea that all an agent had to do to be tremendously successful would be to acquire and implement a bunch a new tech tools. Is that all it takes? Or is all of it like small shiny objects that distract us from what’s really important?

It all reminds me of the conversation from a couple of years ago when Social Media was the panacea that would save our industry. Countless agents rushed to create a LinkedIn profile, start a FaceBook fan page and a blog with the expectation that new business from unknown Consumers would just flood in. It didn’t work that way then, and it won’t work that way now.

Technology and Social media and have one thing in common: they are tools. Tools that allow us to be more efficient, more productive with our time, more connected to people we know and establish connections to people that we don’t know. But they aren’t silver bullets that deliver a 6 figure income in real estate by flipping the appropriate switch. They can be lots of fun, and tremendous time drains, but they don’t generate leads or income alone.

If you don’t have a clear idea of your business strategy and a plan to implement it, then all of the new technology you buy and the social media efforts you make won’t matter much.

But when you do know your strategy, and have a plan to implement it, then how you can and will use technology and social media make perfect sense. If you know who it is that you want to do business with, then you know what information and resources belong on your blog, and how to position all of your other web assets.

If you want to build a real business in real estate, then decide first what your business strategy will be, write a real business plan for that strategy, and then choose the technology tools that fit your plan. Position your web assets to support and enhance your other business building efforts. Use social media to connect with and communicate your message to your contacts, prospects and clients. Choose and implement the marketing and prospecting activities that fit your plan. Practice and refine your interactive skills and presentations that convert leads into prospects, prospects into clients and clients into closings.

This organized and logical approach will create a business of alignment, and power you into the world of very successful agents who succeed in any market.

Without this structure and intention, technology becomes just a fascination with small shiny objects.

Check out the Upcoming Events page for details on all of our 4th Quarter 2011 classes! We’ve got a full slate of Mastery classes, Strategy Workshops and Re-Invent classes. Get ready for the new year by building your skills and sharpening up your strategic plan for 2012!

There are so many tech toys and tools for us to choose from. Would you like a great list of fun stuff that has been vetted by one of the best tech guru’s in the real estate world?

Check out this great list from the MyTechOpinion website: www.mytechopinion.com/resource-list

How important is an agent’s business strategy? Great question, especially since our industry doesn’t really address that question.

Forgive the obvious pun, but an agent’s strategy is like the foundation of a house. Without a good foundation, we can put in a lot of work and still not have shelter from a storm. The result of our efforts can be worthless. It’s the same with an agent’s career: no clear strategy, then no consistent results. Lots of effort but no momentum.

The other option is to choose the strategy first, then build the business on it. A much better result. In fact, once the strategy is defined, then writing the business plan is much easier. The activities that fit the strategy become rather obvious, just as the activities that don’t fit become obvious too.

The bottom line: choosing a strategy first is essential to success. In our work, we have identified seven basic strategy types, or “Styles”, hence the name of the book. When we work with an agent to help them to develop their careers and business, our first priority is to determine the agent’s strategy and then build from there. We’ll define the elements of the strategy and the income producing activities, and how to position an agent’s web “assets”. We also consider if the chosen strategy is a fit for that agent’s personality profile based on the DISC® system. Other considerations include whether or not there appears to be a sufficient market to support the strategy, and whether it’s likely that the strategy will work in the current real estate market. This comprehensive approach works with an agent launching their career with authority, and for an agent seeking to re-invent success in a changed world.

If you analyze the career of a successful agent, you will find that they have a clear strategy, and it will be a strategy that fits them as an individual. The last element is that their strategy works well in the real estate market cycle that they exist within. If you examine the career of an agent who is struggling, these elements will be missing.

Our goal is simple: change the way that our industry has the conversation about how to succeed, empower agents with the tools that they need to become successful and stay successful in the face of a market change, and open the door for genuine success for more real estate agents.

Our strategy is to help you find your strategy.

Soon, my newest book, “SEVEN STYLES. How to Design Your Real Estate Career of Success and Significance” will be here, and the discussion about strategies for real estate agents will begin here.