Know Your Numbers to Grow Your Business

Know Your Numbers to Grow Your Business – by Dana Sparks

Do you know how to analyze your business?  Do you know what to analyze?  What “numbers” to track?  What you track, you can grow but you must have a starting point.  So what are the numbers of your business?

The appropriate numbers to track totally depends on how you choose to run your business.  Growing your real estate sales hinges on lead generation and lead conversion.  What do you do to generate leads?  For example if you prospect by phone then you track dials, contacts, appointments set all against time.  If you generate business online, then you would track internet inquiries, email responses, conversations, etc.

Basically you need to analyze the time you spend actually generating new business, the number of conversations you have, how many of those conversations turn into listing appointments and buying appointments, the number of sellers and buyers you convert from appointments to clients and then convert those clients into closings.  Once you track your numbers for 1 – 3 months then you will know exactly where you need to focus your efforts to grow your business.

For Example:

 

Dials per Day

Dials per Appt Set

Dials per Appt Done

Contacts per Dials

Contacts per Day

Contacts per Prospecting Hr

Contacts per Listing Taken

Contacts per Listing Sold

Appts Set to Appts Done

Appts Done to Listings Taken

Prosp Hrs per Appt Set

Prosp Hrs per Appt Done

Prosp Hrs per Listing Taken

Prosp Hrs per day

Listings Sold per Listings Taken

Listings Taken per Month

Total Hrs per Day

Total Hrs per Listing Sold

Price per Total Hour

Use these on Listing Presentations:

Ave. Sales Price

Ave. GCI

Total Transactions

Total $ Volume

Sales Ratio (Listing Sold to Listing Taken)

Ave. DOM

Sale Price to List Price Ratio

If you are not logging many dials/day then you need to prospect more each day.  If you do not get very many contacts, then you need to find a different group to prospect.  If you get a lot of contracts but not many appointments, then you need to work on your scripts… what you say to those prospects to get the appointment.  If you are going on a lot of appointments but not getting may listings or buyer brokerage agreements signed, then you need to hone your presentations.  If you are getting listings but they are not selling, then you need to work on your pricing strategy.

By tracking your numbers specific to your methods of attracting customers, getting appointments and converting those appointments to clients and closings you will know EXACTLY on which portion of your business to focus in order to grow, help more people, make more money and be more efficient with your time!

Click link (or contact Managing Broker, Dana Sparks – Dana@MaximumOneRealty.com for tracking sheet provided courtesy of Maximum One: Numbers Tracking Sheet for Business Planning

 

“X” Marks the Spot! Create a Treasure Map to Achieve Results

“X” Marks the Spot!  Create a Treasure Map to Achieve Results – by Dana Sparks

 

Don’t make a vision board… create a Treasure Map instead!   A vision board, popularized in “The Secret,”  also known as a “dream board” is a collage of images, words, quotations, anything you choose to create a visual representation of that which you choose to have, experience, be  or achieve.   It is a visualization tool designed to activate the Law of Attraction , manifest your dreams, keep you focused on your goals, display your “Big Rocks,” and remind you of your “Big Why.” Directed intrapersonal communication is an important aspect to your “inner game of real estate,” then why do I, as a real estate broker and sales coach, admonish you from making one?   I encourage you to take your dream board further and make it more powerful so that it can truly  assist you in producing the results you desire by creating a treasure map instead!

When you hear the term “treasure map” what  thoughts does that conjure up for you?   Perhaps you think of adventure, excitement, searching, exploring… feelings much more energizing, right?   Think about your real estate training around the marketing that you do.  The vital  element in your internet, social media  or print advertising for your real estate business is that  crucial “call to action” to prompt a seller or buyer to contact you so that you can capture a lead, turn that lead into a client and turn that client into a closed transaction – a treasure, indeed!   This integral step is significant when marketing your dreams and goals to yourself! “X” marks the spot!

Mapping out the ways to your  treasures will visually urge you into taking the actions necessary to reach your desires!   When you imagine a treasure map, don’t you see the dashed lines that take your from point  “A” to point “B” to point “C?”   In the ancient pirate charts, those dashed lines indicated travel  between each of these destinations: travel, movement, action!   So on your personal inspiring  treasure map, include these dashed lines and add a visual representation of the actions steps necessary to  realize your future!   Some of those actions may include prospecting, networking, creating a schedule, exercising, enhancing your mindset, learning new skills, investing in your ongoing education, mapping out your value, practicing your presentations… get the idea?

With your treasure map in front of you, your work in real estate sales can be fun and entertaining!   So instead of dreading your daily prospecting, make each of those calls a booty call!

“Back to School” and Real Estate

 

“Back to School” and Real Estate – by Dana Sparks

Believe it or not, it s that time of year again… “Back to School!”  The commercials are on television, the magazines advertise school specials, the temperature has not cooled but it hopefully will soon, football teams are starting practice… all signs of a change of season and a change of attitude and activities!

Back to school is a time for children to re-focus, get ready and re-commit… let’s join in those lessons and get “Back to Real Estate!”  Re-new your commitment to your profession and your pocketbook and plan to have a powerful last half of the year!

What has been working in your business?  Determine your most productive lead generation source and figure out how to amp that up to be even more productive.  Stop wasting time and effort in activities that do not provide any results.

Now is a good time to catalog and organize your business year-to-date.  Check in with all of your past clients and ask them how their new home is.  Log all of their birthdays in a perpetual calendar so you can call them every year; record their purchase anniversary in that same perpetual calendar; update their contact information.  Contact all of your co-op agents and thank them for doing business with you and create a mutual referral business with them.  Stay in touch with all of the lenders, closing attorneys, inspectors, etc. with whom you have interacted and ask them who they know who can use your services.

Analyze your market and notice the trends… what price points are moving?  What school districts? What types of properties?  Start working in those more profitable areas.  Write up a trend report and place it on your website. Offer to give a report at your next Homeowner’s Association meeting.  Position yourself to the public as an expert in your field.

Look at the Maximum One training calendar (or ANY training calendar) and determine what new skills you can acquire or what old techniques you need to strengthen.  Are you reading any books to support you in your career goals and aspirations?  Do you have a mentor, coach, accountability partner to help you stay focused on the results you wish to achieve?

“Back to School” is the perfect time to evaluate where you are in relation to your business plan.  Our children embark on a new school year with new classes, new teachers and new subjects to learn.  They make new friends, start new activities open new books and open themselves to new experiences.  Learn the lessons from our school age children and let’s be as open to new experiences and opportunities in our businesses as they are in their school days!  The bell is ringing and SCHOOL IS IN SESSION!

* Reprinted from 7/22/12