The Mike Ferry Organization Blog

Mike Ferry - "I REALLY DON’T UNDERSTAND THIS ONE"

Mike Ferry (The Mike Ferry Organization) — Fri, 17 May 2013 12:18:28 -0700

As the market heats up (and in most parts of North America it has) things keep changing in a positive manner … and yet a lot of things remain the same. The agents that are good are doing better than ever, and the agents that aren’t any good are complaining more than ever. If you’re good, you’ve got to be happy with this market and if you’re not any good … get good.

Here’s what I don’t understand … we’re fortunate enough as an organization to work with agents from almost every major Real Estate franchise company. Re/Max … Century 21 … Prudential … Keller Williams … Coldwell Banker … Realty Executives ... Exit Realty, etc. The majority of the major independents have agents that are customers of ours, as well as a wide variety of great agents that work in their local Real Estate companies.

At our Management Retreat earlier this week, Keller Williams Brokers said the following to 175 other Brokers. I’ve heard this quote that I’m going to give you repeated by Keller Williams Brokers time and time again … so if somebody chooses to get mad … find out who within the organization keeps saying this and chastise them - not me. “Keller Williams is a Real Estate training and coaching company that is disguised or acting like a Real Estate sales organization.” I’ve heard this comment made time and time again over the last couple of years, and what’s interesting to me is that, now, I’m told by a person that interviewed with Keller Williams to be a coach … that they are going to take their coaching company and make it a public coaching company … meaning Keller Williams is going to move beyond coaching just their Brokers and agents to now start coaching all of you.

This is an interesting thing for all of us to think about. First of all, they believe they can be a competitive coaching company in what has become a very highly competitive industry. Second, they seem to believe that Real Estate agents that do not work for Keller Williams will be delighted to feed money to the Keller Williams bank account, while at the same time Keller Williams is competing with that same agent for listings and sales every day. Interesting, isn’t it? Now, obviously I don’t have inside information as to whether this will actually take place or not, but the person who shared this with me said this was a direct quote from Keller Williams headquarters in Austin, TX.

I think all of us recognize that at times our industry is an unusual one and I’ve said at times that the basic methodology in how Real Estate is being handled is, at best, an unusual methodology. I’ve said that the Brokerage industry appears to be broken and I’m not sure if it can be fixed in a manner that makes it a viable industry for Brokers, as we know it today. However … to think that the agents within all the major franchises and major independents will sign up and pay coaching fees to an organization owned by one of the largest competitors … really makes no sense. However, after doing the work I’ve done for as long as I’ve done it, nothing would surprise me. There are some things I just don’t understand.

Mike Ferry
CEO - The Mike Ferry Organization
800-448-0647

Mike Ferry - "It's 2013 ... What I STILL Don't Understand" PART FOUR

Mike Ferry (The Mike Ferry Organization) — Fri, 10 May 2013 15:36:45 -0700

I was invited to speak to a group of 30 independent Brokers several years ago. About an hour before I was to start, I was called by the leader of the group and was told that they had changed their minds and decided not to have me speak. I said, “Fine. Please send the check for my speaking fee and expenses up to my room.” The man said, “Well, we’re not going to pay you if you’re not going to speak,” to which I said, “We have a signed contract and I am here in New Orleans, so therefore, you are going to pay me whether I speak or not, as I have delivered on my half of the contract by appearing.” He then abruptly said he’d call back in 5 minutes and, when he did call back he said, “We’ve changed our minds. We’ve decided to have you speak.”

I then threw my notes away for the 3-hour seminar I had prepared and wrote across the top of the paper in caps “I JUST DON’T UNDERSTAND” and then I made a list of about 35 things that I don’t understand about the Real Estate business. I must admit, after doing the work I’m doing now for the last 38 and a half years, I certainly understand a lot less than I used to. So here’s one that I really don’t understand.

Agents demand extremely high commissions (whether they are productive or not) and Brokers give in to those demands (whether the agent is productive or not.) Then I hear nothing but complaints from the agent about the lack of service offered by the Broker in the office, to which I always respond, “How do you expect the Broker to give you any service at all when you’re demanding 80% … 90% … 100% of all the commissions?” There has to be a margin of profit for a Broker to provide service.

Then I hear Brokers complaining … “My agents don’t participate, they don’t attend, and they are not involved in my company,” to which I always say, “Why would they? They’re so independent with the high commission you pay them, and they believe they know everything about Real Estate, so why would you expect any participation?”

What I don’t understand is … why we have allowed this industry to throw itself into such incredible turmoil, where the agents become more demanding of the Brokers and the commissions they receive, and the Brokers can’t tell the agents what to do because they’re independent contractors.

For the majority of all agents in Real Estate … “Do you actually believe that because you get a 90% split, that makes you real smart? … Do you actually believe that?”

For the Brokers throughout the industry … “Do you actually believe that if you pay people these high commissions, that you’ll have enough income to survive and do the job that is necessary for agents to make money?”

What I don’t understand is … why we keep thinking that this is going to work. The system as we know it is broken, and it’s time that somebody stood up and said, “Let’s work to fix it.” That is not going to happen until Real Estate Brokers and agents develop a higher level of common sense and good business sense. Something for your consideration.

Mike Ferry
CEO - The Mike Ferry Organization
800-448-0647

Mike Ferry - "It's 2013 ... What I STILL Don't Understand" PART THREE

Mike Ferry (The Mike Ferry Organization) — Fri, 03 May 2013 17:23:31 -0700

"The training in Real Estate is designed for the stupid, the dumb, and the ignorant."

Boy, did I get in a lot of trouble for that statement ... which was actually made to 4,000 people at a convention in New York in 1986. The people that hired me were furious and banned me from ever speaking again at one of their conventions. What I don't understand is that the 4,000 people I was speaking to for 4 hours gave me a 5 minute standing ovation. How do you get a standing ovation that lasts 5 minutes in front of 4,000 people and then get banned at the same time?

Welcome to the wonderful world of Real Estate sales and Real Estate leadership. When word got out that I'd been banned by this major organization, almost every other Real Estate association and organization banned me within 6 months. What I don't understand is why this industry insists upon telling people that you can actually make a reasonable living without working ... that you can make a reasonable living without knowing how to sell ... that you can make a reasonable living without having sales skills ... that you can make a reasonable living without being a salesperson.

Have you ever wondered why the per-person productivity in Real Estate is so incredibly low? Have you ever wondered why the turnover is so high? Do you think it's because we're making so much money after being in Real Estate a couple years that everybody can retire? The turnover is high and the per-person productivity is low because Real Estate people do not want to hear the basic fundamental truth about what it takes to succeed in a sales business. Here's a fun one for you ... 400/500 people will buy a $400 ticket to attend a Mike Ferry event. I'll spend 4 days laying out a very simple ... direct ... straight forward business/sales systems for an agent to follow. This system will bring great results to any person that works it. Yet, of the 400-500 people ... 40 or 50 will actually do the things we say. I simply don't understand this type of thinking ... maybe you can help me.

Is it a lack of motivation on the part of the individual agent? A lack of initiative? A lack of business sense ... a lack of common sense? There has to be something within our industry that keeps attracting people that don't want to produce ... won't produce ... and won't do what it takes to produce ... when we're in a commission only, production-based industry.

The good news is, after doing the work I've been doing for 38+ years, I still don't understand why people don't do the activities that bring production ... but what I do understand is that small percentage of people that do what we say not only produce at incredible rates, but also make large incomes, and are able to keep a major portion of that income for themselves. I don't understand why you think you have to spend all the money you earn to keep earning more money. Look at your business and how you operate and simply ask yourself ... are you actually achieving what it is you want to achieve in this business in terms of productivity and income? If the answer is no ... then we have to do something about it ... today.

Mike Ferry
CEO - The Mike Ferry Organization
800-448-0647

Mike Ferry - "It's 2013 ... What I STILL Don't Understand" PART TWO

Mike Ferry (The Mike Ferry Organization) — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 12:37:07 -0700

Everybody tells me that the answer to all Real Estate problems revolve around social media. "If you're not involved in social media at a high level, you're not in tune with the market ... not in tune with business today ... and you're never going to grow or succeed." That comes from my competition.

WHAT I DON'T UNDERSTAND IS WHY PEOPLE ACTUALLY BELIEVE THIS. Let me give you a couple of examples ...

In the last 12 months, we've averaged over 10,000 people a week watching MikeFerryTV through the web ... we've had 1,743,441 total visitors to MikeFerry.com ... I have 17,500+ connections on LinkedIn and they link to 19,275,210 professionals. In fact, the Mike Ferry profile, per LinkedIn, is in the top 1% of most viewed profiles. We've had 196,000+ views on our YouTube videos ... over 16,000 likes on our Facebook corporate page ... and our ads have appeared on the Facebook network over 115 million times. Our MFO pay-per-click Google search ads have resulted in 3.6 million views ... over 3100 people have downloaded our MFO mobile app in the last few months and our blog has been viewed over 157,000 times.

Here's what I don't understand ... as I said last week ... my competitors (the people that some of you listen to) will say you don't have to talk to people. They tell you to blog ... email ... tweet ... twitter ... and everything else under the sun ... except be in communication with people.

Do you honestly believe you can do 50+ transactions a year with that kind of thinking? If you do ... you may be the only one in North America that does.

Last year I spoke at a major convention. The convention had 2,000 attendees and their entire marketing revolved around social media. A few months later we had our annual Superstar Retreat and we had over 5,500 people attend the July and October events. They attended because we had actual conversations with prospects and customers about attending, and they did. Okay, I'll grant you "social media people" this ... for the last two years we averaged about $30,000 a month in income off people going to our website and purchasing either downloads, CDs, DVDs, or some of my books. To date ... we can only find one or two actual coaching contract sales that have come off the millions of supposed contacts we've had through all of the above. My sales department can't clearly identify more than a couple of sales per month resulting from all the above. Understand ... we sell thousands of tickets per month to our events.

If you want to do 5-10 transactions a year ... blog and tweet. If you want to do a lot of business ... talk to people. If you don't want to talk to people ... I REALLY DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU'RE DOING IN A SALES BUSINESS.

Mike Ferry
CEO - The Mike Ferry Organization
800-448-0647

Mike Ferry Asks ... "Do You Really Believe You Can Do This?"

Mike Ferry (The Mike Ferry Organization) — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 15:53:37 -0700

I had a very interesting and long conversation with a potential client this past week. He didn’t call so much asking for advice … he called asking me to approve what his plans were for becoming a 50+ deal a year producer. I asked him what methods he was using for creating business now, which would allow him to do 50+ transactions in the next 12 months. His answer was very interesting, as he told me that he really didn’t like talking to his Past Clients and had very little communication with them. He wasn’t one of those types of agents who contacted For Sale By Owner and Expired listings, because he let those listings go to other people. He had never done any Just Listed or Just Sold calls, or knocked on somebody’s door seeking a listing. I asked him specifically, “What DO you do?” and he said, “I hold open house each Saturday and Sunday, I do that four weeks a month, and I take as much floor time as the company will allow me to take throughout the week. I really believe that by doing this, I can do 50 transactions a year.” I smiled and said, “How many transactions did you do in 2012?” and his answer was … 11. So I said to him … “Do you really believe that you can go from 11 transactions to 50 by doing the same things you’ve always done and not adding anything to your lead generation or prospecting efforts?” He then said, “Well, I’m also now spending a good solid hour a day on social media and I think this should take my business to a much higher level.”

You know the sad part of this conversation … for those of you reading this message … I think the guy actually believed that he could add 40 transactions a year by doing the same things he’s always done that produced 11 transactions a year! One of the hardest parts about being in Real Estate is having good common sense and good business sense. Without being overly critical of this man, it seems that he had neither. Now, I’m sure this will bother some of you … but let’s get real here. To close 50 transactions a year, you’re either going to have to take 75 to 80 listings … which requires talking to a lot of people to get those listings … or you’re going to have to take 25 to 30 listings that all sell and have 25 to 30 buyer controlled sales. Both of these require talking to a lot of people. If there is a 3rd alternative, I’m not sure what it is. All I can say to each of you is … “Do you really believe you can improve your business dramatically, even while the economy gets better, without changing some of your work habits?”

Just a thought.

Mike Ferry
CEO - The Mike Ferry Organization
800-448-0647

Mike Ferry Asks ... "Are You Worthy of a Large Income?"

Mike Ferry (The Mike Ferry Organization) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 17:14:15 -0700

Probably sounds like a dumb question, but the truth is, it's a very important question. The majority of most people have very strong preconceived beliefs as to what they feel they are worth, in terms of income. These beliefs come from our family upbringing ... our education ... our religious training ... what we have fed into our minds over the years ... who we hang out with presently ... and your entire background prior to this moment. What I've discovered is that it takes a tremendous amount of work on an individual's part to get a clear picture in their mind that they can earn a lot of money and that they are worthy of the money they earn. Watch this example ...

I've seen thousands of agents over my career go out in a 30 to 60 day period of time and have astounding production. They take 5 or 6 saleable listings that all sell immediately, they have 7 or 8 closings in 60 days and make $60,000 to $70,000 and then their limiting beliefs set in and they do nothing for the next 60 to 90 days to keep their income and production "where it's supposed to be" or back to the "averages" that they're used to or, even worse, so they don't get too far ahead of the goals they've set.

I had a great client a couple years ago who's goal was $600,000 in income for the year. She called me on June 30th and had earned a touch over $400,000 in paid commissions. She could easily have done $800,000 to a million in commissions for the year if she could have kept her mindset working in the direction it started in. Believe it or not, between July 1st and December 31st, she earned exactly $200,000, or almost 100% less than what she was on track for, because her "mind" said she's never earned more than $600,000.

I wonder what limiting beliefs you have in place that are keeping you from making the money you want and more importantly, what are you doing to get rid of those limiting beliefs and replace them with stronger and better beliefs? Give it some thought.

Mike Ferry
CEO - The Mike Ferry Organization
800-448-0647

Mike Ferry Defines Motivation

Mike Ferry (The Mike Ferry Organization) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 13:12:43 -0700

I was asked recently to define the word "motivation" for one of our clients. Obviously, it's a word that has probably 100 different meanings and probably means something different to everybody. Here's what I told the client ...

"Motivation ... motive ... to ... action ... motivation." In essence, how I see the word is ... if a person has a strong motive (goal) they are more willing to take action and go out and do what it takes to succeed. At the same time, if a person does not have a goal of any type, they are less apt to take the actions required to succeed. Common sense, wouldn't you agree? The question, of course, is ... do you have goals that really inspire you, make you get out of bed in the morning and go to work, help balance out the ups and downs we all experience every day, keep you going on the days when you've been rejected a lot ... or do you have simpler goals like trying to make sure you make enough money to pay your bills? Earl Nightingale said, "Without specific goals we wander aimlessly though life." If your goals are strong, exciting and inspirational ... you will do more. If your goals are fear based, you'll still do something ... but with no goals at all ... we'll never see a lot of greatness coming from your direction. Which category are you in?

Mike Ferry
CEO - The Mike Ferry Organization
800-448-0647

Mike Ferry Asks ... "Can You Get Business Without Talking to People?"

Mike Ferry (The Mike Ferry Organization) — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 17:18:21 -0800

Over the last 18 months to two years, more and more agents are in the habit of complaining bitterly about the fact that they actually have to talk to people. Whether it be prospecting … lead follow up … or any phase of the sale … it seems that too many Real Estate people actually agree that technology is a good substitute for conversation. Yes, I’ve addressed this before, time and time again. I guess we have to think about it from a different perspective. What are the odds of an attorney representing you without being in a lot of conversations with you? What are the odds of a doctor doing a true evaluation of a physical problem, without conversation? Even the accountant … who is going to be a high analytical and not prone to conversation … is going to have a conversation with you. Yet, at the same time, here we are handling the largest investment that the majority of all people will ever have in their lives … buying or selling a home … and we think we can do the entire transaction from beginning to end through technology. Let’s take a different position on this. If you want to sell 4-5 homes a year, or even 7-8 homes a year, you can probably do it through technology. The people we work with all have a goal to do 50 transactions or more per year, and they know the importance of conversation.

On a second note, one of our clients who closed over 100 transactions last year, following the Mike Ferry Sales System, was criticized by an agent in his company doing 10 transactions a year, because the 100+ producer didn’t get involved in technology, and was just involved in conversations. The 10+ a year producer told the 100+ person … “You may do more, but you’re out of touch with today’s society.”

At least our client is in touch with production and income. Give it some thought.

Mike Ferry
CEO - The Mike Ferry Organization
800-448-0647

Mike Ferry Asks ... "So You Want to Become a Superstar?"

Mike Ferry (The Mike Ferry Organization) — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:09:27 -0800

I hear this almost every day from somebody … and then they ask me what they have to do to become a top producing agent, I then spend 15 to 20 minutes on the phone telling them what I believe has to be done, and 90% of the time I never hear from them again. Here’s a synopsis of what I tell them. First, you have to have a tremendous desire to accomplish something that is way above your comfort zone, knowing that if it was in your comfort zone, you wouldn’t have to do anything out of the ordinary to achieve it. This desire has to be strong enough to keep you motivated on the days you don’t feel like working or the days you are discouraged. Second, you have to be willing to write out, in detail, a plan for making this goal or dream come to reality … by what we refer to as a business plan. The more details you put in the plan, the easier it is to accomplish the plan. Third, you have to spend a tremendous amount of time working on developing the skills to accomplish those plans. Skills are the basis of the knowledge and confidence that an agent needs to build their business. Fourth, you have to understand the importance of discipline and how that discipline, applied daily, can lead you to the goals that you’ve set. Fifth, you have to accept the fact that people aren’t going to like you as much as they used to, as you grow and become more productive. Sixth, you have to step back every 6 to 8 weeks and take a careful look at what you’ve been doing to make sure you’re on track. In most cases, once I’ve gone through some of these thoughts with an agent, they will say something like, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” That’s when the conversation comes to a peaceful end. The truth is, this is just a partial list of what has to be done to become a top producing agent in Real Estate. I hope that you make the decision to do it … we need more top producers since there are so many that never produce at all.

Mike Ferry
CEO - The Mike Ferry Organization
800-448-0647

Mike Ferry Asks ... "Real or Not Real?"

Mike Ferry (The Mike Ferry Organization) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 17:08:56 -0800

So much of what we do in Real Estate revolves around what is real or what is not real, in terms of how to produce business. The good news is, there is no one way to create business in Real Estate, because there are as many ways as there are people telling you what to do, and there are a lot of people telling you what to do. The hard part is deciding what makes the most sense and if it will be productive and profitable for you. In reading through the print material that the majority of the big companies produce … in looking at the material that all the training and coaching companies produce … you would begin to believe quickly that selling Real Estate is a piece of cake and something anybody can do and make a lot of money doing. Question … do you actually believe that is real? We’re in a business that offers the opportunity to make anything from zero income, to virtually unlimited income annually, based upon the skills we have, the work habits we have, the discipline we have, the desire to do something extraordinary and about 10 other attributes that top producers have to have.

Why do I ask if it’s real or unreal? If you’ve read anything I’ve produced in the past or listened to anything I’ve said in the past, I keep repeating that we have 3 choices. We can wait for business to find us … we can go out and purchase business … or we can go out and earn business the old fashioned way. Most people, unfortunately, are looking for a way to get a lot of business without having to do anything and, quite honestly, that really isn’t real, is it? Are you getting the amount of business you want? Are you getting it as often as you want it? Are you behaving in a manner that causes others to look at you and say, “There is a great salesperson!”

If the answer to these questions is yes, then hopefully you are doing something that is not only very real, but also very duplicateable … predictable … and most importantly … productive and profitable. If we can get real about the business we’re involved in, we can get the real results we want.

Mike Ferry
CEO - The Mike Ferry Organization
800-448-0647

Mike Ferry asks What's getting in your way of earning a lot of money?

Mike Ferry (The Mike Ferry Organization) — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 15:36:41 -0800

One of my favorite topics is talking about how to earn money as a professional Real Estate agent. When I talk about this topic, people go one of two ways. They either get real excited or they get real mad. The people that get excited … get excited because they are listing and selling homes … creating a good revenue stream for themselves and enjoying their career. The people that get mad are the ones that are not listing and selling homes, and usually decide that people like me are the reason why they can’t succeed. The truth is, money is only earned based upon the contribution we make to others and the service we give. The higher the level of the contribution, the higher the quality of the service … the more money we make. Quality service and earning money go hand in hand. The problem is most people have enormous hang ups about making money. Those hang ups usually come from things we don’t like to talk about or admit to. For example, if we came from a family background where there was never a lot of money involved, we don’t have the thoughts in our head that money is a good, worthwhile thing … because we have no experiences with it. Or, what’s worse, we came from a family background where we were told that “money is the root of all evil” and that being poor is okay. Next, of course, is our educational background. If you remember carefully in your grade school and high school years, there weren’t a lot of classes designed around teaching a person how to earn a substantial income. Then we go to our religious training. I don’t know your preference, but going to 12 years of Catholic school, it was made very clear that we should always work to help the poor. I agree with that and believe the best way to help the poor is not to join them. We also have to look at the affect of the people we hang out with today and how it affects our thinking about making a lot of money. When you’re hanging out with people that make money, you start to believe that you can do the same. When you believe you can do the same, better things start to happen. It would be good if each of us took a few moments and addressed this issue of earning money to see if there is anything getting in the way of earning what we could be earning.

Mike Ferry
CEO - The Mike Ferry Organization
800-448-0647

Mike Ferry is asked ... "Are You Out of Your Mind?"

Mike Ferry (The Mike Ferry Organization) — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:15:44 -0800

At times I wonder what some of the people in Real Estate are actually thinking about. I had an agent call me yesterday who has not been involved with my company or what we teach … ever. He asked politely for 30 minutes of my time, because he wanted to do something now to build his business. This particular man is a 20-year veteran who does 8 to 10 transactions a year and earns between $40,000 and $50,000 a year. He kindly said to me, “If you will give me a plan to build my business and get it to a minimum of 30 transactions a year, I would be forever thankful. Tell me what to do.” Among the things that I suggested were … setting a specific production goal that he could clearly see himself actually doing … setting up a strict schedule working 5 days a week that would lead him to that. Third, commit to talking to 12-15 people a day about buying and selling Real Estate, doing it every day, five days a week. Fourth I asked him to preview property so he could become familiar with the market and pricing, if he wants to become a strong listing agent. Next, I said to him, “You’re going to have to start practicing and role-playing what you’re going to say to the prospect so you can raise your closing rate to get deals done faster.” At this point, he interrupted me and said … “ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?” I actually laughed out loud and said, “No, I’ve been checked.” And he repeated, “Are you out of your mind? Do you actually expect a 20-year veteran to do the activities of a brand new licensee?” I then said, “Thank you for calling me, I hope that whatever you do in your career, you do it well, and good luck.”

His last mumble, as he hung up, was saying out loud to himself ... “This guy Mike Ferry is out of his mind.” Well … I may be out of my mind, but the majority of the top 5% of the agents in North America follow this crazy guy’s teachings … how about you?

Mike Ferry
CEO - The Mike Ferry Organization
800-448-0647

Mike Ferry - In The Top 1%!

Mike Ferry (The Mike Ferry Organization) — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 08:25:15 -0800

I guess the terms … “out of touch” and “the old dinosaur” … just don't apply the way they used to with the name Mike Ferry. I received a notification from LinkedIn this morning saying, “Congratulations! Of our 200 million members you are in the top 1% of the most viewed profiles in the entire system.” I've been on LinkedIn for less than 18 months and have 17,000 connections in the Real Estate industry. I guess the "old dog" still has some attraction. My company, much to my dismay, started a Facebook page last June. As of today we have over 14,000 likes. “What's going on here? Is the world changing right before my very eyes???”

Today, in Glendale, California, we have 700 agents who bought a ticket for our 4-day Productivity School. Of the 700 tickets sold, about 25 were purchased online through our on-line presence. 31,000 connected online, tens of thousands viewing my website monthly and 675 tickets sold the "old-fashioned way” … conversations with people on the phone and in person.

QUESTION ... do you want more listings and sales? TALK to people. Just a thought from your old-fashioned Sales Trainer/Technology guy.

Mike Ferry
CEO - The Mike Ferry Organization
800-448-0647

Mike Ferry asks "Are We Purposely Putting Our Broker Out Of Business?"

Mike Ferry (The Mike Ferry Organization) — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 15:44:34 -0800

There are certain advantages and certain disadvantages of doing the work I’ve done for the past 37+ years. One of the disadvantages has been watching the incredible “greed factor” grow and grow each and every year in the Real Estate sales business. I simply don’t understand it … I’m probably too old fashioned … it doesn’t make any sense to me … and to a certain degree we as agents should be somewhat ashamed of ourselves for the fact that the demands we place on the Brokers for higher commission splits are completely out of control and getting worse by the day.

On the other side of that we have Brokers playing the same “greed game” because they are willing to give away 100% of the commissions with the thought in mind that they can run a viable business through collecting a variety of different fees.

I tell Brokers every single day, “Sit down with your agents and tell the truth about what it takes to run a Real Estate office today. What are the real costs?” What is the rent? What are the franchise fees? What is the cost of all the technology … the cost of marketing and staffing? We, as agents, think that because we are the ones generating the business we should receive all of the money from the transactions … and yet, at the same time, if we didn’t have a Broker that had an office and we didn’t have a place to function from, in most cases our income would be reduced, and if we keep demanding higher commissions, the Broker’s income is reduced … and eventually he will fail and go out of business.

I know what some of you will say, “I don’t need a Broker, I don’t need a company to succeed,” and I know that a lot of you are right, you don’t … but the majority of this industry does need to have a place to work, a system to follow and some type of organized operation that is designed to help them. The challenge we face as agents is that, as top producers, we represent 75% or more of the gross revenues of the office and we’re getting 95%+ of all the commission, so the Broker’s margins are too thin to allow them to succeed.

Here’s a fun one for your consideration … we’ve actually had several agents start the New Year by negotiating their commission splits down a little bit to allow the Broker to actually make some money. Are we putting our Brokers out of business by demanding everything? Just a thought.

Mike Ferry
CEO - The Mike Ferry Organization
800-448-0647

Mike Ferry Asks ... "Which Behavior Do I Change First?"

Mike Ferry (The Mike Ferry Organization) — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 15:27:41 -0800

This is always a difficult question to answer for a Real Estate salesperson. The reason it’s hard to answer is because we don’t have anybody monitoring what we do or what we say. So, as a result, when somebody critiques or criticizes us, we don’t know how to respond in a businesslike manner.
There are so many sales behaviors that an agent has to develop, that sometimes it can be difficult to be critical of yourself and be fair to yourself at the same time. If we break the Real Estate sales process down to its simplest form … it comes down to prospecting, lead follow-up, prequalifying, and negotiating contracts.

With that being said, we have to look at how we’re being seen by the public, as well as how the public will respond to what they see.
In addition to knowing when to say, “When do you plan on moving?” … we also have to work on the mindset side of our business. This may be the first behavior pattern we have to work on.

Mindset is simply understanding what is going on inside your head in either a positive or negative manner at any given moment. Think about this question … how much does a positive or a negative mindset affect your ability to be productive? The answer is … a lot. How do we go about strengthening our mindset? The answer is … commit to understanding how important mindset actually is, commit to understanding the importance of feeding positive thoughts into your head, and commit to setting up a schedule or routine to keep putting those positive thoughts into your head. We recommend that agents take mindset breaks every day, two or three time a day. You stop whatever you’re doing, relax and spend 15/20 minutes putting as many positive thoughts into your head as possible … read several pages of a good, positive book … listen to some positive CDs or call somebody in your mastermind group, an accountability partner, or simply call a positive Past Client. By doing this 3 times a day, you are putting strong, positive thoughts into your subconscious mind, which will result in a positive change in your mindset.

Let’s start with this change in our behavior to improve our results.

Mike Ferry
CEO - The Mike Ferry Organization
800-448-0647