So many businesses are stuck on tradition. What happens to your agency or brokerage or factory or freelance practice when you make the unit of measure bigger? smaller? Why are you assuming that your scale is correct? – Seth Godin

In the previous posts we “got” “content”, “stickiness” and “attention” .

The 4th (and final) distinction is the distinction of “Scale”.

Scale refers to our system’s capacity to adapt to changes in the marketplace.

Scale does not refer to size or growth. It’s not about how big we are. In many cases, being small is the better option.

Scale is about leveraging resources (activities, time, skill, money) to produce an outcome that is greater than the sum of it’s parts.

How can you apply the distinctions of “content”, “stickiness”, “attention” and “scale” to add value to the prospect and client experience in your unit?

If you can’t make money from attention, you should do something else for a living. – Seth Godin

The result of “content” coupled with “stickiness” is our third distinction: “Attention”.

Not much needs to be said here – all valuable transactions in our business require it.

Without “attention” we have no prospects, no leads, no appointments, no clients, no closings.

End of story.

We have become, in our society, overwhelmed by people clamoring for our attention. This information age has created a stickiness problem. – Malcolm Gladwell

We’ve talked a lot about how to keep potential prospects “stuck” on our site. So it probably comes as no surprise the second distinction is the distinction of “Stickiness”.

The notion of “stickiness” moves beyond our website and, like content, touches every level of our business. It’s here, in generating a “visitor” (Metric #1) and keeping them “stuck” that the battle is won.

And just how do we create a situation where our brand keeps visitors “stuck”?

Simple – we deliver dynamic, engaging, hyper-local content. We couple that content with effective calls to action. And we take those visitors through a repeatable, step by step process that converts them to ready now business.

Simple … but not easy.

What comes to mind when you think about “stickiness”?

“Content is King” – Anonymous

Before I get started with assigning specific tasks for the “hyper-local neighborhood marketing plan” (that’s a mouthful) we’ve been talking about… I wanted to outline the four key “distinctions” our plan is based on.

If anything it helps clarify the vision and helps outline how we capitalize on the resources available to us.

Over the last 5 years, marketing and sales has shifted from an “outbound” to an “inbound” paradigm.

Lead generation/conversion, as it evolves online (and within the real estate industry), is content driven and will increasingly rely on “inbound” methodology.

Which leads us to the first distinction of our plan … the distinction of “Content”.

Content works for us at every level of our business.

So what does that mean, exactly?

Put simply: When it comes to the work we do … we are a content delivering machines.

Think about that for a moment and see what shows up.

When we’re acting with the intent of generating a lead – marketing, prospecting, lead fu, appt setting, etc – we are delivering content.

When we are presenting a service – buyer interview, listing presentation – we are delivering content.

When servicing a client (listing, showing houses, price reductions, etc.), negotiating a contract, coordinating a transaction (contract to close) or generating referrals from your sphere of influence, database or past clients – we are delivering content.

It’s touches every metric.. Influences and informs every step in our process.

Content, taken as a whole, is what makes our business what it is.

So what types of content do you deliver?

And what can you be doing to increase the quantity, skill and pace of delivering content?

I found this video and it’s a great way to kick off the discussion of our BEFORE unit.

Before getting into the BEFORE unit … it’s important to get connected to the experience of the prospect.

Because sometimes we get caught up using “business speak” (ie, “leads”, “contacts”, “capture”, “conversion”, “metrics”, etc) and we aren’t present to the reality of these terms referring to real life human beings – each with their own unique needs, desires and experiences.

This video does that brilliantly, in my opinion.

All organizations are hierarchical.
At each level people serve under those above them.
An organization is therefore a structured institution.
If it not structured, it is a mob.
Mobs do not get things done, they destroy things.

I’ve been thinking and studying a lot lately about the structures that support a successful Real Estate Teams (or successful teams in general), and what would be the optimal organizational system.

I’ve been watching closely as I see Realtors building teams of assistants and sometimes just creating more confusion in the process.

Here’s what I’ve discovered.

A simple way to think about our team, and its needs, is to break it down by the periods of our relationship with your new prospects from the time they first enter our system, all the way to the time they become advocates.

This model is based on the premise that we can’t do all things at all times, and a way to divide our team up into three individual Operating Units, based on the function they provide along the timeline of our relationship with a new prospect.

The simplest way to think about these units is as the Before Team, the During Team, and the After Team.

In this model, the ideal situation would be to have separately run units that serve their function completely.

The reason I’m suggesting separate teams like this is because of what I see happening in teams that don’t have independent roles. The priority is ALWAYS on the urgent transactional things that are going on “in the business”, and consequently marketing, after-sale service and nurturing lifetime relationships take second priority.

If we have a “team” who’s sole function is to do one thing, it can become very efficient at doing that thing. There is no prioritizing, no juggling or compromising, it can focus 100% on performing its best.

The BEFORE Team

The BEFORE team is responsible for everything that happens to get NEW prospects, and create new business. It’s the division that runs our marketing, delivers our message to the market and converts prospects to clients.

The Before Team is constantly testing and refining our marketing. Its focused single mindedly on one purpose: to deliver buyers who are ready to buy and sellers who are ready to sell.

The product of this independent unit is measured in the number of these people it yields, and the cost to deliver them.

Think about how focused we could be if we had a team whose only purpose was to generate leads, and that team didn’t have to get bogged down in serving those leads, or get caught up in the details of a transaction that’s falling apart, or putting out fires.

The DURING Team

Imagine what it would be like if we had a team whose sole purpose was to deliver world class value during the actual transactional process of helping someone find a home or sell their home.

Wouldn’t it be great if every time the Before Team converted a qualified buyer or seller to a client, they had a team waiting to devote their whole attention to the needs of the client? Think about how relaxing that would be.  The During Team takes a buyers or seller already committed to working with us, and all they have to do is find them the perfect home and negotiate the contract.

This team needs to be very operationally excellent. They need to be organized and systematized so that all the details get taken care of, and everything gets done efficiently and every aspect works together to create a WOW! experience for our clients.

The AFTER Team

The function of the AFTER team is to pick up from the point that someone has a contract on their home, and is preparing for the move. The goal is to provide an outstanding level of after sale service, make sure the clients have a smooth transition into their new home in the first 90-days and then focus on building advocates.

This would be like a concierge service, and an advocacy service. The measurement for this team is the number of referrals we generate – the YIELD from our portfolio of clients. I say yield because our clients (aka database) are really our biggest assets. If we manage this asset well, we can yield a constant stream of referrals and new relationships every year.

Think about this; If we manage a “portfolio” of 300 clients for a 20% annual return, that would be 60 new transactions each year. That’s certainly worth having someone who is responsible for making that happen.

The best part is, to get a 20% annual return on each client means that they would have to either refer ONE person, or move themselves again in the next 5 years.

How easy is that?

What if we could get 30% or 40%? The potential here is huge, and if we have a division of our company, an independent UNIT who is singularly focused on this one task we can see how profitable it could be.

So how do we get started?

The important thing is that we start differentiating the roles of our business, and start holding each unit accountable for it’s own results.

The next thing is to realize that an Independent Unit operates interdependently.

Not a hard concept to grasp but a difficult one to master.

Think about it this way — the quality of the leads generated by our Before Team is reflected in the quality (and number) of clients being serviced by the During Team.  In turn, the quality of the service delivered by the During Team impacts the production of referrals by the After Team.

If, together, we start thinking about our business like this, and notice how simple actions can make a big impact I believe the future will be totally different.

Questions to be asking along the way…

• How many leads is the Before team generating and what does it cost?

• How many transactions is the During team able to handle? How much does it actually cost to sell a house or find someone house?

• How many referrals is the After team capable of generating each month? How many advocates (people who are referring 2 people a year) have can they develop?

Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan,
In which we must fervently believe,
and upon which we must vigorously act.
There is no other route to success.

WARNING: This website requires your feedback, your input, your involvement and, yes, ACTION from the entire team.

You’ve been warned.

So I’m sure you’re sitting there thinking to yourself, “What’s this all about?”

Right?

Well…here’s what’s it’s  about…

I created this website for two reasons:

Primarily as a living document to help me … help us … get better organized and in action toward the future of our business.  And secondarily as an experiment in business development and web stategy – more on that another time.

I think better on “paper”.

I’m in action when there is a plan in place and I get that what’s possible must be shared to make it real.

Consider this website an act of sharing.

Consider it a proposal.

Inspired ramblings on “where we go from here”.

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Another Fucking Email?
Not so fast …
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I know how much you enjoy long, involved e-mails that sit and fester in your inbox for days, weeks, months….years, even.

So I’ve decided to try something different this go ’round.

I’ve created a website specifically to engage you in a more “active” learning and implementation process.

Something different, something (shiny) new and, hopefully, something that inspires and teaches.

I figured a website can’t get lost in an email box or buried by more important tasks.

It’s more concrete.  More permanent.

What next?

Set aside some time from your busy schedule, click some links and engage with an open mind.

This is ain’t yo momma’s website.

Bitch.

More to follow…

Every day you may make progress.
Every step may be fruitful.
Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path.
You know you will never get to the end of the journey.
But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.