Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, opens the conversation with three words: people, strategy and execution. To dominate, get the right people, employ the strategy and get known for execution. Let’s get strategic.
Layers Of Influence
There are 6 layers of influence:
Face to face. It always wins. You can read body language and receive live feedback as the conversation progresses. If someone commits to time in the calendar, they’re committing to you and what you can do together.
Video call. Not as good as face-to-face, but still time committed to the calendar, and they can’t be doing anything else.
Phone call. Fast and highly efficient. Live conversation that moves at speed. If they take the call, you’re halfway there.
Voice note. A quick way to gauge sentiment, to lead with emotion, and now with transcripts, to let you get the gist of the conversation. Highly efficient.
SMS. A great reminder and thank-you tool.
Email. A great tool for anything that requires a legal trail.
‘Can I get you to call Hannah, and see if she’s in or out on Smith St?’ An hour later, ‘How did you go with Hannah?’, ‘Oh, I emailed her and haven’t heard back yet.’ I didn’t know this was a choose-your-own-adventure. Why would you use the lowest level of influence with the most important opportunity of the day?
If you want to make a lot of money, stay face-to-face or over the phone. Use SMS and email as reminder or thank-you tools only.
Be careful you don’t automate all the opportunities into digital tools that allow no live back-and-forth.
Leverage Strengths
Right now, you have more past clients, market appraisals, market knowledge, relationships and data than you’ve ever had in your career.
Most people are far too short-term, looking for a listing today rather than multiplying the relationships they already have to build layered, compounding momentum.
Write out a list of:
Your top 100 clients of all time. Think of those who’ve done multiple transactions with you in your career.
Your Favourite 50. The best 50 clients that you’ve enjoyed working with. Turns out, if they liked you, they’ll refer you.
Your Top 10 Referrers. If they already refer, they’re likely to do more of that.
Open up the contacts section of your phone, choose Lists, and create those lists. Then call them. Anytime you have a spare 20 minutes between appointments, or you’re looking for something constructive to do, hit the phones.
Add structure.
The most efficient call session in any real estate business is a Monday morning, doing open home callbacks. It’s the same dialogue over and over in a compressed 45-minute window. Use that skill. Then, on the first Thursday of every month, call every past client who has ever bought (as they’ve got something to sell) and every past client who sold (as hopefully they bought a more expensive home in the next market you want to build market share). Same call over and over, with a change to generate a lead or a referral.
Easy to do, millions to make.
If you’ve got the list, the discipline, and you build the relationships, you’re hard to beat.
Build New Strengths
The digital world moves at pace. 1 hour and 48 minutes a day on social. What are you watching? Video or static images. Video dominates in short form - think 8-12 second reels. It’s time to emerge. You’ve got choices.
Think 5 videos now for every listing. One for the portals in landscape, circa 60 seconds or less.
Then 4 x 8-12 second reels. Launching soon, open this weekend, auction this week and now sold. If you list 5 a month, that’s now 25 videos you’ve got in the digital world. Some love presenting to the camera, others don’t. Build a brand. Have your personal brand, agent name, and property address appear as a light white text overlay 3-4 seconds into the video. The music you use and the way you have your videos cut develop your brand.
It’s time to go there.
Develop two style guides, one with you in the video, one without. This allows flexibility as you build momentum, and time becomes the commodity for scale.
Volume As The Driver
For most, transaction volume is the biggest factor in income growth. The first strategy is to get to 5 opens every Saturday. Then 5 opens every Saturday in a core market, then 5 opens every Saturday in a core market, with less than 28 days on market. Then 5 opens every Saturday in a core market, with less than 28 days on market, an equal spread below, at, and above your average sale price, so more opens, more opens, bring trade-ins.
If you’re at one or two opens, it’s hard to build a database. An agent in momentum is a great thing to watch. Let your campaigns be your flywheel for database growth.
When you sell one, list one. Stay listing consistently. If your target is 4 listings a month, you need to list 1 by day 7, 2 by day 14, 3 by day 21, and 4 by day 28. The skill here is to always be prospecting and building your pipeline. Pipeline sellers are easy to progress if you know their problem. A seller who needs to sell for a job relocation is a fast mover. A seller who could sell because they are looking for an aspirational home is slow to move unless you ask the right questions.
‘Is there anything missing in your current house?’, ‘ Anything else?’, ‘How much would you spend for something like that?’, ‘Why’s that?’. All great questions. ‘So you’d like an extra living area, with more natural light for an extra $1m, because you’ve been in your current home for 10 years and you want the feeling of life progress again, is that correct?’ ‘Hannah, it’s Josh, I know last time we spoke you wanted that feeling of progress in life, I’ve just listed a home, with more natural light and a second living area, humour me, what would it take for you to come and see it?’ Bang. Listing and a sale right there.
It’s not that people don’t want to transact; it's that sometimes they need to see, feel, or experience something first to have the confidence to do it now.
Getting Strategic With Average Sale Price
Let’s assume you have an average sale price of $1,000,000. Now, every Saturday, I want one open at $500,000, one at $750,000, one at $1,000,000, one at $1.2m, and one at $1.5m. The goal is the buyer who walks through the $1.5m open, comes with a $1.2m trade-in. And the buyer who walks through the $500,000 is either a first-home buyer whose parents own an expensive principal place of residence, or an investor who also owns an expensive principal place of residence.
The crazy thing is, you’re already sitting on all the data. When every past client sold through you, where did they move to?
If they stayed local, chances are they bought in the next suburb from a competitor with market share at the time. Stay with those relationships. If you sold for them once, why can’t you do it again? At the time of every sale, get the forwarding address of your sellers.
Where do all the Landlords and Archived Landlords live? If they live locally, they are likely to own an expensive principal place of residence.
Find out where they live, and what they own, i.e. 3br 2 bath 1 car, so when your firm lists or sells something similar or something they could trade up into, you’re a phone call away from listing.
Where are the expensive streets in your area? Saturate - physical mail, Id4me calls, and social targeting. If they call, then hang out at a local coffee shop early, pay for their coffees and have a QR code sticker applied to the coffee cup.
Think, where does the customer hang out before they need us?
Video Brands
We build brands through incredible experiences. To modernise a brand, use the power of video. The music you use, the way your videos are cut, and the reels you produce all lift and create your brand experience. Video is not an option; it’s a requirement to dominate in the digital world.
Structure & Discipline For Risk Mitigation - MTWF
Monday - Buyer hitlist. Who are the buyers we know need to transact? Think of those who have bid, made an offer, need to buy by a certain date, or sold last weekend. If you know there’s plenty of demand for 3-bedroom, $1m homes, then prospect for more of those; think past clients, market appraisals, and key streets where those types of homes exist.
Tuesdays - Seller hitlist. Read over every market appraisal you’ve conducted in the last 12 months. Ideal to have them sorted based on problem type, i.e. growing family versus having a baby, as it determines the way you follow up with them.
Wednesday - Listing review. Review all your current listings and identify what needs a change in sale method, marketing, or pricing. If it feels off, it is; get face-to-face and get strategic.
Friday - Numbers review. Review your listings, sales and income, month to date. If you’re off track, change your strategy and commit to what you need most. Then review your weekly buyer appointments (BAPs), market appraisals (MAPs) and listing appointments (LAPs). I’ve never met anyone who lists more than they appraise.
If you just committed to that, you’d have an incredible business. Simple disciplines done well always lead to success. You behave your way to the future.
Name Your Strategy
Hubba Bubba. Rapid growth in market share.
Formula 1. Rapid improvement in streamlining workflow in your team.
Lotto. Increasing your average sale price.
McDonald's nailed it globally with their ‘keep the drive-through empty’ strategy. If the drive-through is empty, more people are likely to drive in. People will wait once they’ve ordered, but they won’t wait to order.
Once you’ve got the strategy, then you need to work on the tactics. We have a strategy, it’s called KJT - keep Josh talking. Anything that isn’t me talking, I don’t do. Work out what you want, define the strategy that gets you there, work through the tactics you need to put in place and how you’ll measure success to ensure that you’re on track. Build it with your team, and drive it home.
Grow People, Not Insecurity
People can get better on their own if they’re learn it alls, not know-it-alls. Set high expectations for your people and help them live up to those standards. Define the next 5 key skills that would rapidly improve the value of the people in your team. If they could do an open, callback, and take an offer, they’d be higher in value to you. Be clear on what’s next for people and be constantly on the lookout for new skills they need to acquire so that you can do less, but do more of the things that really turn the dial on your performance.
Big Bets
Where will you place your big bets this year? All in on AI? Or all in on relationships? Where do you need to be all-out and in front, and where will it be okay to be a fast follower? I’d be all in on relationships. AI is yet to make you an extra million, but relationships will. Use AI where it makes sense, but don’t be deluded into thinking that it’s the thing.
You Get Known For What You Execute
Remember this: You get known for what you execute. There are a lot of good ideas here. Many people receive advice, but only the wise will profit from it.
