Special Message for Realtors Who Want to Get and Stay in the Top 5%
Has There Ever Been More Uncertainty, Despair
and Fear in the Economy and Real Estate Industry?
Let's face it... we really don't know what's going to happen next. Amazing, isn't it, that only five short years ago everything seemed so much more predictable. As a real estate agent, you'd work hard, treat your clients well, provide good advice and service, and you'd be well rewarded for it.
Sure, there'd be buyer's markets and seller's markets, as real estate has always gone through normal cycles, but what we're in now is not anything near a normal cycle. Who could have predicted the near collapse of the financial system in the United States and the impact that it would have on the real estate industry? Interesting times indeed!
Two Words Can Summarize the Reality of Being in the Real Estate Industry Today... Turmoil and Opportunity
Let's start with the turmoil. The real estate industry has never seen anything like this, and I do mean never. Yes, there was the Savings and Loan crisis of the early 90s, sky high interest rates of the early 80s, and the Great Depression in the early 30s, but as it relates to real estate and house prices, the financial crisis has outdone them all. And how has this impacted real estate agents?
See if any of the few ways listed below sound familiar to you:
Plummeting house prices mean that even if you manage to sell the same number of homes as before, your income is 30-40% lower than before.
Sales are harder to put together, with financing and appraisals playing a key role in the difficulties.
You may have tried to avoid dealing with short sales due to all of the difficulties and uncertainty involved, but you have come to the realization that this is far too big a segment to ignore, and it isn't going away anytime soon.
The weak agents got weeded out in the first couple years of the downturn. The agents who remain provide you with some formidable competition—either as mega-teams, discount brokers or through their great skills and tenacity.
A very high number of realtors had a disproportionate part of their wealth in real estate. It’s devastating to build a portfolio of carefully selected income properties over the course of a 10 or 20 year career, only to see all of your equity wiped out in two or three years. And if you're in your 50s or 60s and were relying on those investments to provide for you in your retirement years, what now?
As if the Economy Wasn't a Big Enough Issue,
Let's Throw Social Media into the Mix
Do you wonder what role social media should play in your business? It all looks like an interesting way to generate business, but aren't you already busy enough? How are you going to find the time to figure out all you should be doing and what you can ignore?
The reality is, change is occurring faster than at any time in history and this provides a new set of risks for you, as a realtor. You need to be very careful with how you allocate your time... to know what you can't afford to get distracted by and what you can't afford to ignore. Time is your most valuable resource... nobody gives you a paycheck for just showing up and working hard.
So once you get clear on how social media can help you do more business and the market returns to some level of normalcy, things should be OK again, right? Actually, no.
The Sobering Reality
NAR reports that the median income for realtors has declined every year since 2002, and is now $34,100.
Declined every year since 2002! So this actually has nothing to do with the downturn at all. Since peaking at $52,200 in 2002, the median income for agents nationwide is down 34.7%. This steady decline has occurred during the greatest real estate boom in history, followed by the greatest crash.
Can it really be true that there is absolutely no correlation between the market and agents' incomes? So then, what has caused median incomes to decline for 10 straight years and what can you do about it? The solution is something that I have studied for almost 30 years and it leads to the second part of what I'm outlining.
Great Sales and Communication Skills Are No Longer Optional
Having great sales and communication skills are no longer optional. You must commit to being the best that you can be, or watch your sales and income slowly erode year after year.
How often does this happen… you generate a listing appointment, go through all of the preparation, go on the appointment, do your absolute best, leave without the listing but you’re sure you’ve nailed it because the seller thanked you for a very impressive presentation and that they just need to sleep on it. You follow up the next day only to find out that they’ve already listed with someone else. How much fun can that be?
You can do almost everything right and still not get the listing. It’s like having a six digit combo lock and getting five of the numbers right. How much good does that do you? How much do you get paid on the listings you almost get?
So what does having great sales skills mean? What it is NOT is a means of manipulating the client through a series of verbal maneuvers and tricks. That would be a seriously flawed assumption and would yield the pathetic results it deserves.
Great sales skills start with a great intent. The only way that you can truly prosper in this business for any length of time is to put the best interest of the client first. Having great sales skills simply means being able to powerfully communicate a message to a client or prospect and having them take the actions that will help them to accomplish their goal of selling or buying a home in a way that best serves them.
Do you know why this is so critical in selling real estate? Two reasons... first, the right thing for a client to do is very often counter-intuitive. Here are a couple of examples: to get the most money for their home, they need to list for less than they usually expect. To net the most money, they need to hire an agent who charges them a higher commission. If their home isn't selling, it's all about the price. Do you think some skill is required to effectively communicate these?
The second reason why having great sales skills is absolutely critical for agents is because the prospect is never comparing apples to apples. Every home they look at is different, every agent they interview is different, and every transaction is different. As a result, they constantly need to make value judgments as to what the best course of action is. When you can assist them through this minefield of decision making with powerful, clear and honest communication in a way that serves them, you will be extremely well rewarded with loyal clients and a strong base of referral business.
Develop an In-Depth Knowledge of Your Market
Another area of your business that demands great mastery is developing an in-depth knowledge of your market. I'm always amazed at how few agents are truly experts in their local market. The data's all there, and even if you aren't a numbers person, there are clear systems that will allow you to become more knowledgeable than almost any agent in your marketplace.
Being a Realtor is the Ultimate Free Market Business
Despite all the turmoil, there has never been a greater time of opportunity for those who understand the seismic shift that is taking place.
Being a realtor is the ultimate free market business. The better your skills, the more satisfied your clients are, the more enjoyable your business and the higher your pay… simple as that. When I say skills, I’m not just talking about having some scripts memorized. What I mean is the skill of getting your prospective clients to feel comfortable and choose you over the competition.
How I Can Help
For more than 25 years, I have been totally immersed in the business of real estate and what it takes to succeed at a high level. For 14 years, I was a top producing realtor, ranked as one of the Top 10 producing agents out of 23,000 agents in my marketplace.
Since 1998, I have personally provided sales performance coaching to more than 1,000 realtors in 37 states and seven Canadian provinces. This has been an incredible learning experience and I feel honored to have worked with such a wonderful group of clients. For the past 11 years, I have also founded and built a land development company with several projects in the Pacific Northwest, comprised of more than 1,000 home sites at various stages of approval and construction.
One thing I can assure you of is that I have certainly made a lot of mistakes and learned an immense amount from all three of these businesses. We're never going to be perfect... we just want to keep pursuing excellence through lots of action, effort and constant learning. Don't be concerned about the past... the question is what are you going to do from this day forward.
Here’s the simple picture… if you aren’t as skilled as you can be, then you’re choosing to spend vast chunks of your work life speaking with people who aren’t going to do business with you, going on appointments that aren’t going to list with you or taking listings that are not going to sell.
This is robbery!
You have an infinite amount of hours in every day and you’re spending them on being inefficient instead of being with your family, your friends or just relaxing and enjoying your success. Fortunately, you don’t have to go through the same grind and years of frustration that I did to master the skills that are becoming an absolute necessity in this business.
Here’s the Solution
I’ve designed a coaching program to transform your business, refine your skills and have you be in love with the business of real estate.
Let me be clear on what this coaching program is about…
There will be a strong emphasis on refining your sales skills far beyond your current levels. This will apply regardless of your current skill level. Though my coaching is really geared to the top 5% of producers in the industry, those who want to get there but aren't yet may also apply.
This is not a program for everyone. Please don’t apply if you’re high maintenance or negative.
This is not a program that is only about selling skills. This is a mentally demanding business, so we also take on the topic of how to thrive mentally and attract business and wealth to you in a way that flows.
You may not be ready for the coaching program yet. If that's the case, visit my Products and Resources to check out the options available to you. Just remember though, I have a very limited number of spaces available as I do all of the coaching personally.
It doesn't matter who we are... we will always perform better with proper coaching and solutions. So, the only decision left for you to make is how fast you want to break through to a new level of sales performance and client satisfaction.
Inner Circle Membership is if you’re highly committed to escalating your sales to a level that is far beyond what you dared to dream of before… a business that you leap out of bed in the morning to get to.
Success Stories
In a year where real estate sales in my market were 43% lower than the previous year, my business increased 44%, and commissions went up an amazing 82%! I can only attribute this to the expert coaching of Ender Ilkay. Ender is a genius at creating dialogues and scripts that are so conversational and so powerful that I went on many more listing appointments; made more effective presentations; and handled objections more confidently. Ender’s approach just “makes sense” to Sellers. His teaching and demeanor are unequalled. I am grateful to Ender for making my business more profitable and for giving me the tools to grow and have fun with this business, despite the market. – Tom Wartha, Re/Max Xecutex, Oakton, VA
There is no one that I would trust to guide me through the challenges of today’s marketplace more than Ender. Not only is he highly experienced as an agent, investor and coach, he also has an amazing skill for providing a simple to follow roadmap that inevitably leads to personal-best levels of success for his clients. – John Furber, Canadian Director, Keller Williams Realty, Toronto, ON
What You’ll Get
The Inner Circle Membership coaching is from me personally. I’m not interested in managing a team of coaches, nor am I interested in having the quality of your program vary depending on who your coach is.
Your Inner Circle Membership will include:
Two half hour one-on-one calls per month, focused completely on your business and how we can help you move forward to new levels of breakthrough.
Two one hour group calls per month filled with clear, easy-to-apply techniques, systems and ideas that will transform your business.
CDs with audio recordings of all group calls will be mailed to you because you’ll want to listen to these more than once.
Online, simple-to-use business plan and numbers reporting on a weekly basis. Quite simply, we will always perform better when we are being watched. You complete the simple form and send it to me weekly.
Half-price admission to any events. The learning, mind expansion and networking will make these events you cannot afford to miss.
“Superb Value” Guarantee
Your investment is $1,000 per month, with no pre-set contract period.
Apply to Join the Inner Circle Membership Today!
Superb Value Guarantee
At any time during your involvement, if you feel that you are not getting excellent value for the money that you are investing, not only will we cancel you immediately with no further charges from that point forward, I will also pay you $1,000 for having disappointed you with the content.
Why would I offer you such a guarantee? Because I know the value of what you’re getting far exceeds what you’ll be investing. So apply today and let’s get started.
I look forward to assisting you with your breakthroughs.
Ender
