On today's 192nd episode of my Monday Morning Pep Talk, we continue with our journey through Take Flight V4.0 and hit on an incredibly important topic: the power of the multiplication of your time. Super achievers and ELPs deeply understand the value of time and know that one of the best ways to improve time efficiency is to build processes for tasks that are done over and over in your business. As real estate brokers/advisors, the steps in a transaction are relatively the same (depending on your market) with slight differences based on the property and your client.
The idea of "multiplication,” a term I picked up from Rory Vaden while reading his book Procrastinate on Purpose: 5 Permissions to Multiply Your Time. "Multiplication" states that by building out a process once and executing it consistently over time, you will pay yourself back the original time invested with the time the process saves you. Once the original time invested is paid back, you benefit from time savings moving forward for the life of your business. This is how super achievers and ELPs leverage time. The next step in the maturation of your business is to hire people to execute those tasks that fall below your average profit per hour so that you keep your focus on lead generation, database management, negotiating offers and other strategic efforts.
The benefits of adopting "multiplication" strategies in your business:
- It saves a significant amount of time over the life of your business by not having to reinvent the wheel each time you start a new transaction.
- It improves the overall quality of the professionalism your clients will experience.
- When you build transactional processes, you have something "to train to" when your team grows.
- It drastically decreases stressful and embarrassing moments caused by "dropped balls.”
- If built out right, using tools like Monday.com, ClickUp or Trello, you can get a quick snapshot of your transactions and eliminate the "did that get done's?"
There are 9 different transaction types that need a well thought out process:
- Pre-Listing Process. Create a process for everything you need to do between first client interaction and the signing of a listing agreement. This would include your listing presentation.
- Listing Transaction and Marketing Process. Build out and document your strategies needed to bring a property to the market.
- Initial Consultation Process - Buyer. What is your step-by-step process of educating a buyer and introducing them to the buying process for the current market (setting expectations)?
- Buyer Search and Transaction Process. You'll need a process for how you roll out the search process for a buyer and a step by step, contract to close process.
- Post-Closing Process - Buyer. How do you transition a buyer from the closing to a lifetime of follow up?
- Post-Closing Process - Seller. How do you transition a seller from the closing to a lifetime of follow up? It's a much different process than buyer post-closing process.
- Referral Process - Incoming. What is your process for handling incoming referrals from other broker/advisors?
- Referral Process - Outgoing. How do you stay on top of referrals you've sent to other broker/advisors in different markets?
- Referral Process - Clients. How do you recognize and show gratitude for introductions made by clients in your Top 100?
If you can't answer these questions, you've got some work to do.
To document these processes, you can simply start by using Excel, a Google sheet or a more advanced process-based app like Monday.com, ClickUp or Trello.
Here are some simple tips you can use when building out your processes:
- Each task in a process should have an owner. As your business grows and you add support to your business, you can re-bucket those tasks.
- After each transaction, take 15 minutes to look for areas where you can improve the process. Processes improved consistently elevate your value.
- Be as specific as possible. Sometimes it's the tiny details that are the most memorable for your clients.
- Build out a library of template emails that you can "cut and paste" to support tasks (as needed).
- Start by getting your processes in Excel or a Google doc first before you decide to invest in transactional software. Getting it out of your head is the most important first step.
Building out these processes and systems is a wise investment, not just in time saved but also because they will increase your commissions earned. You will become more referable because your clients will "feel" the professionalism. The level of your transactional processes = your standards for client care, and these processes will become a significant part of your value proposition.
"Mr. and Mrs. Seller, I have 131 steps that I perform between the contract being executed and when we close. The value of using me as your broker/advisor is that I understand that the most difficult part of my role for you is getting the contract to the closing table.” This type of verbiage should be used in your listing presentations as a differentiator.
I predict that there will be incredibly few successful brokers/advisors remaining in 5 years who are "hobbyists.” You cannot expect to win if you just put up a sign, put the listing on the MLS and hope for contracts and wing it from there. Likewise, you cannot execute based just on your experience alone and "what's between your ears.” The industry is getting more sophisticated and baseline entry into being competitive is and will be what I've discussed today.
My questions for you: What truly is your value? What sets you apart? What type of business do you want to run? How stressful do you want it to be? What is your growth strategy?
What I've covered today would be a terrific quarterly initiative for your next 12 Week Year quarterly goal. While you’re at it, you might just want to bookmark this episode. It's that important.
