I’ve worked in real estate since I was 15 years old. One of the main reasons I wanted to open my own agency at the age of 21 was that I was aware that not all real estate agents are equal. Some are dreams, some are nightmares and many are in the middle. I get asked all the time – “how do I find a dream agent to sell my home?”, so this is what I’d look for in trying to find my dream agent.

An agent who can SHOW me why they’re saying they can sell my home for a certain price. The way they would need to show me would be by showing me what comparable properties had sold within the past 3 – 6 months (I’d want to see addresses, photos and sale prices).  Even better if they have personally or at least their company have been responsible for some of these sales.

I don’t want an agent who:

• Finds out and then tells me the price I want to hear
• Finds out the other agent quoted prices and then quotes a selling price higher to get the business
• Plucks a price out of their head
• Bases their price on properties that are not comparable to mine

I want to look at your website, your property presentations on real estate portals (like realestate.com.au), your brochures, your sign boards, your newspaper advertisements and see:

• Consistency of branding
• Quality
• Readability
• Descriptive eye catching wording

I want options and I want to know why you recommend that marketing option for my property, not a one size fits all approach.

Their presentation is question based and they take time to find out about me and what I’m looking for. They know their stuff, but they find out what areas I’m most concerned about before launching into a recorded message-like presentation.

The nightmare agent talks at me

Their presentation is said at me and they speak more than 80% of the time.

I can test this out by asking them to drop their commission (if they don’t negotiate hard for their money, what are they going to do when it comes to negotiating for mine?). I can also test their negotiation skills if I’ve ever bought from them before – did they get top dollar out of me then?

The other agent offered you 20% off? Well we can offer you 25%... The other agent said they’d do that? Well I can do better.

I can test this out by showing up 10 minutes before one of their scheduled open homes and watching them arrive, set up and conduct the open. I can test it by taking note of any promises they make (they’ll call me Monday, they’ll find that information out by Wednesday) and see if they live up to it.

The nightmare agent talks at me

The nightmare agent screams in at the last minute for an open home, doesn’t tell me their name and doesn’t follow up.

And they’re more than happy to let me know about their fans by showing me testimonials (lots of glowing ones) and by allowing me to contact people they’ve sold houses for in the past month.

(to complain)

Long after the sale.

As soon as they get paid.

Kirsty Dunphey is the youngest ever Australian Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year, author of two books (her latest release is Retired at 27, If I can do it anyone can) and a passionate entrepreneur who started at age 15 and opened her own real estate agency at 21. Currently Kirsty heads up www.reallysold.com the premium online copywriting site for real estate agents and is a co-director of Elephant Property www.elephantproperty.com.au Launceston, Tasmania's only boutique real estate agency purely for investment property owners. Kirsty's other ventures are outlined at her website www.kirstydunphey.com where you can also sign up for her newsletter.

Friends and I were chatting recently about our favourite places in the world to shop. Paris, Berlin, London, Thailand all got a mention along with one of my favourites Mexico.

I’ve only spent half a day in Mexico (so far!) – but it was one of the most enjoyable shopping experiences of my life.

Why?

Firstly, I love to bargain – and so did the shop owners I met in Mexico.

Secondly, the entertainment value was immense. To prove to me that it was real gemstones, leather or silver I was being sold, every merchant we met in Mexico whipped out a lighter and burnt their product saying that real gems don’t melt and plastic burns but leather doesn’t etc (highly entertaining especially after a few daiquiris).

In having this discussion with friends however I was told what may be an urban myth about shopping in Tijuana, Mexico. The myth being that when you purchase something you’re given a plastic bag that corresponds to your strength as a buyer.

As an example, a yellow bag may mean you’re a complete push over and will pay way over market value but a blue bag may mean you’re a hard negotiator who’ll drive the price down and bargain til you’re blue in the face.

Is it true? I have no idea. But I must admit – I think its genius.

Imagine if we could do this in other areas of life. If your employer were to send you out to the marketplace secretly colour coded say with red meaning you were a world class invaluable employee, how do you think that would impact the next job interview you went on? What secret colour coding would you have if your clients were secretly rating you? Your boss? Your family? Your friends?

Kirsty Dunphey is one of Australia’s most publicised young entrepreneurs and is the founder of www.reallysold.com - the ultimate tool to help real estate agents write amazing advertisements. The youngest ever winner of the Australian Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year award, Kirsty started her first business at 15, her own real estate agency at 21, was a self-made millionaire at 23 and a self-made multi-millionaire at 25. For more information on Kirsty or either of her books – Advance to Go, Collect $1 Million and Retired at 27, If I can do it anyone can, or to sign up to her weekly newsletter head to: www.kirstydunphey.com

What's easier: marketing, advertising or cold calling to get a new client or having a new client call you directly? Most people would intuitively and correctly say - having the client call directly. What could be more simple than having the business walk right up to you and say "take me!".

The next vital steps when a potential client calls you directly should be:

1. Ask how they found out about you. Many times these people will have been referred by someone to you. The referrer could be a previous happy client, a friend, a family member or simply someone in your sphere.

2. Acknowledge the referral. I don't particularly care how you do this, just make sure you do it and do it immediately! If someone has taken the time to favourably speak about you to someone then the least you can do is pick up the phone and say thank you. Perhaps you might send a thank you card. If the referral warrants it - maybe a small token of your appreciation like a gift.

Take real estate agents for example, a referral of a client to them can mean thousands of dollars. Don't be the person who doesn't bother to find out where the referral came from. Even worse, don't be the person who knows but does not acknowledge it.

The call you should always try and avoid is the one where a referrer has to ask you if you received their referral. It's insulting to the person who referred the client that you haven't thanked them and it's no way to ensure they'll continue speaking in such glowing terms about you!

Reproduced from Kirsty Dunphey's weekly email - subscribe by heading to www.kirstydunphey.com

You've done it! You're in the meeting with the client - you've done the hard part, getting the actual appointment, so why are your palms sweating, why have you spent the last 10 minutes in the car out the front of the house double checking paperwork and rehearsing your opening lines and ruing the fact that the powers that be have chosen today for you to be having a bad hair day? Chill out! You really have done the hard job already - how just use the following tips to put your listing plan together - this should be the fun part!

These tips work equally well for real estate sales or property management and - I think in most sales based industries where you have a pitch meeting with a client.

If you're talking more than 50% of the time - you're talking too much! Clients don't want to be simply "spoken at", treat this meeting like a conversation rather than a presentation.

Ask open questions. Sounds simple right - but do you know what your first questions are going to be? What about these as ideas: What would you say are the three main reasons you decided to call me (or my company) out today to chat with you? What are say the three most important things you're looking for in an agent / property manager? Not should this give you the basis for your presentation structure but by asking for three - you'll typically get 2 or 3, if you ask it without specifying a number you'll usually only get one answer.

There will always be a small percentage of people who you present to who are crazy analytical types. These people, and I'll admit I can be one of them, will have their entire focus shifted with a simple typo on your presentation. No longer will they be thinking about what you're saying - they just won't be able to get it out of their heads that you wrote "a lot" as one word!!! Always have one of these lovely analytical types (we all know a few!) proof read any of your handouts before you test them on clients.

I recently shared a stage with a great speaker by the name of John Shackleton - he said his philosophy on sales was simple and two pronged. Make friends and ask for the business! I couldn't agree more. So many people do a presentation but never ask for the sale. If you're in sales (and property managers you are too when going for a listing) you have to be able to close. Most of us however are brought up in an environment which actively allows us to be afraid of rejection or failure - which contributes to the fact that most people don't like to close (or ask for the business)! Think about it - in school, failing a test was never rewarded and yet even Bill Gates first business venture failed. How did you feel the first time you asked someone out and got rejected - yet James Dyson inventor of the Dyson vacuum was rejected by every major manufacturer in the UK and yet has now sold over $10Billion worth! Get over this fear of failure and rejection and practice closing every day.

End memorably. I don't care how you do it - but be memorable. Maybe it's that you drop a pre-written thank you card in the letterbox as you leave, maybe you've taken a photo of the kids at the house and you drop it back on a height recording chart, maybe you drop back a dog biscuit with your written presentation (provided they have a dog!) Find some way to stand out in this client's mind, some way to show you care. It doesn't have to cost a million bucks - it doesn't actually have to cost anything, it should simply show you cared enough to be different.

Copyright/Reprint Info - The contents of this article written by Kirsty may be copied, reproduced, or freely distributed for all nonprofit purposes without the consent of the author as long as the author's name and contact information are included. Example: Reproduced with permission from the Kirsty Dunphey weekly email. To subscribe to Kirsty Dunphey's weekly email, go to www.kirstydunphey.com

Customer surveys are a fabulous way to do research on a highly specified portion of the market and a way to improve your future service to customers and clients. To follow are some of the questions and details I highly recommend you consider including on your next survey.

1. Contact details. Ask for email address so that you can add them to your email database and confirm mailing and phone so that you know you're up to date for the future. Also ask for permission to email to them in the future.

2. Rate 1 - 10. I like to ask clients to rate their overall experience on a 1-10 scale (10 being the best experience they could imagine). This allows for more flexibility and honesty - anything other than a 10 you know you could have done better - now you just need to find out how. You can also ask them to rate certain other aspects (such as your website, marketing, office, administration, individual salesperson etc) with this same method which allows you to ask a lot of questions in a way that isn't very time consuming to the person filling in the survey.

3. Method of attraction. If you aren't already aware of the reason the customer first came to use your services, these surveys are a great spot to find out how your clients found out about you. This gives you an opportunity to either thank the person who referred them or find out what method of your marketing is working best (ie great shop front, smiling staff, excellent advertisements etc.)

4. Marketing / testimonial statement. Always ask your clients for a statement or testimonial about your service and ask for permission on the survey to use any of their comments and their name for future marketing purposes

5. Improvements required. Ask what you did right - but also ask what could have been better (it's as important to get this information.) Consider phrasing the question: Describe three ways we could have looked after you better, or list three things we could have improved upon. By asking for three things - you often get more than by not specifying a number. (Don't forget you can use this technique with finding out what they liked as well.)

6. Memorable moments. Consider a question such as: "What was the most memorable part of dealing with XYZ company?" A customer can be satisfied or happy but they won't rave about you to their friends and family unless you are memorable in some way.

7. Recommendations. I personally like to ask if they would recommend your services to friends / family and then to leave a spot on the survey asking the client to leave details should they know anyone else who could use your services. (You may even want to consider mentioning some sort of a reward if they do successfully refer business or providing a special introductory offer for friends / family of this client.)

8. Future service. Don't lose out on potential business staring you in the face by forgetting to ask them if there's any way you can be of further service now or in the future.

9. Follow up. If you're going to ask the questions on this survey - be prepared to get some negative responses that's a part of life, but ALWAYS let the people who fill in your surveys know what you're going to do to either fix the issue, or ensure it doesn't happen again in the future. Always follow up surveys with a thank you for a completed survey in some way (email, phone call, card etc)

10. Look wide. Surveys aren't just for the clients who have done business with you. Consider surveying potential clients, your current suppliers or clients you've pitched to but who have decided to go elsewhere as well.

Happy surveying!

Copyright/Reprint Info - The contents of this article written by Kirsty may be copied, reproduced, or freely distributed for all nonprofit purposes without the consent of the author as long as the author's name and contact information are included. Example: Reproduced with permission from the Kirsty Dunphey weekly email. To subscribe to Kirsty Dunphey's weekly email, go to www.kirstydunphey.com