Todd Duncan – High trust selling
Takeaway 1: “When you create trust, have confidence, and connect emotionally, you have less pricing pressure and greater sales growth.”
In a keynote speech on high-trust selling that covered everything from confidence to finding the right clients, US sales entrepreneur and real estate broker Todd Duncan noted trust was an agent’s “superpower”.
“Trust is the most disruptive strategy you can employ to win more business and eliminate objections,” he said. “If the world perceives your industry as less trusted and sometimes distrusted, what must you do to break from the pack?
“We are not in this business to sell homes, we are here to transform lives through home ownership. If we focus on that, the sales will follow. Be a transformer!”
Tom Hector – The longevity of high performance
Takeaway 2: “The goal is to consistently become a better agent. Highlight everything you want to do and give it a set action date. It is not the ideas that matter as much as executing them.”
Looking back at a 10-year career that has seen him sell 207 properties this financial year alone, South Australian agent Tom Hector explained there were two key elements to real estate: knowledge and skill.
“If you have lots of volume but not the skill to back it up, you won’t get repeat business. If you have great skill but not volume, that business is not sustainable.”
He credits his career success to focusing on both through a relentless pursuit to get the basics right in a bid to build “real relationships in real time though consistency”.
Ruma Mundi – Resilience in life and real estate
Takeaway 3: “You can only go forward, you cannot go back. Although it takes courage, the strong foundations you build will carry you through the tough times.”
Sales agent Ruma Mundi had built a highly successful career in Sydney before a challenging business merger saw her and her team locked out of their office, cut off from their phones, and without access to a database.
In her presentation, Ruma shared an insight into the the strong foundations, courage, resilience and commitment that allowed her to come back bigger, better and stronger than ever to clock up her biggest sales year to date.
“I understood branding in marketing. I was strong and consistent. I gave back to my community, built a very strong database and whenever I met clients I was 100 per cent with them,” she said. “There are two types of agents: you are either memorable, or you follow-up. I tried to be memorable and connected to my community. I networked every room I went into.”
David Walker – The structure and process of becoming a Number One selling principal
Takeaway 4: “Changing and growing are difficult but there is nothing harder in life than being stuck in a place you don’t want to be!”
As the Number One selling principal for Ray White international, David Walker offered an insight into his approach to success, noting he learned early that a point of difference is critical.
“If you are not number one you need to put a plan in place to be different,” he said. “You need to work out how to zig when the others zag.
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Know your own weakness and put people in place to make up for them
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Have a culture of positivity and trust
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Surround yourself with amazing people
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It’s important to spend time with people you like
David left the audience with a series of tips, noting change was inevitable and agents should embrace it by:
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Switching off the negative voice in their head
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Being open to learning and being better than who you were yesterday
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Future-proofing and staying relevant.
Kylie Charlton and Lisa Totaro – Repeatable, scaleable, predictable
Takeaway 5: “Every agent is looking for a blueprint formula that they can follow to achieve success. That blueprint doesn’t exist. Instead, it’s about finding what works for you and being authentic.”
In a panel discussion led by Tom Panos, Kylie Charlton and Lisa Totaro shared their successful, yet different, approaches to real estate.
Now aged only 29, Lisa carved out a niche in the industry at a young age.
“You need to be better, sharper, more organised, more thorough,” she said. “You need to care more and have great energy. Great energy can trump experience.”
Meanwhile, she reflected when she truly learnt to be herself, the sales results followed.
“I was nervous when I first started. I was very scripted. I wasn’t connecting with vendors on emotional level. As time went on, I unlocked more of me and I was more authentic. When I was more authentic my results went through the roof.”
Kylie explained her priority was to build relationships with her community.
“The connection with the person comes before the commission,” Kylie said. “To get a referral to their friends or their family is more important than a transaction. I always demonstrate that I can sell property and I can negotiate, but it’s absolutely about the connection. When you ask the right questions and get the connection, ultimately you get the commission.”
Steven Koerber – Love your area
Takeaway 6: “Become the expert in your area with hyper-local, emotive branding that offers a point of difference and connects you with customers on a deeper, and trusted, level.”
As an agent writing more than $2 million GCI at Ray White Remuera, Steve Koerber explained a shift in thinking and strategy allowed him to triple his business, but it was only when he decided to become happy that the rewards began to follow.
Now he and his wife have surrounded themselves with a team of like-minded people with individual talents. They have also created a unique branding strategy called “Love Your Area”, relying on emotion as the branding currency.
“Personal branding is a powerful tool that is perhaps not understood by many in this room,” he said. “People now think of me positively as a person who loves this area and has unsurpassed local knowledge.”
Malek Younan – Passion and the hustle
Takeaway 7: “Be genuine, be real. It’s a people business, not a real estate business.”
In a 17-year real estate career that has just seen him named Number One Agent by SQM, Malek Younan said for him it’s always about the “passion and the hustle”.
“Do you what you say you’re going to do. Shut out the noise, work hard and make it a 30-day habit,” he said.
“What is your why? What makes you excited to get up every day and do this career. I believe we are so lucky. Make this career a lifestyle.”
Sonya Treloar – Volume: A key factor in an attraction business
Takeaway 8: “Volume will correct a corrected market. You cannot change the value but you can change the volume.”
As a sales agent who has notched up more than $450 million in sales over an eight-and-a-half-year sales career, Sonya Treloar looked at creating volume. She explained the art of maintaining volume came down to a detailed database, good communication, a local reputation and doing what you say you will.
“This is the market that we’re in and right now. We can’t go back. We have to go forward and we have to adapt and change,” she said. “Your database is the stabiliser that keeps your house from crumbling. It is the foundation that produces volume.”
Alex Mintorn – The $3 million business deep dive
Takeaway 9: “Be diligent, be proactive, leverage your success and surround yourself with positivity. This job is hard, but the prospective vendor doesn’t care. They expect you to be on. They want to feel your passion and feel your energy.”
In one of the most popular presentations of the day, Sydney sales agent Alex Mintorn offered a 10-point insight into the strategies that have seen his business become one of the leading agencies on Sydney’s North Shore.
His top 10 tips were:
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Assemble a team – everything that keeps you off the phone should be delegated to an assistant
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Make prospecting a daily ritual
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Buyer servicing is key
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Carry your hot-list everywhere
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Have world-class open homes
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Social media – you can prospect, build a brand and sell 24/7 on social media
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Leverage your sales – whenever you sell a property, go to town on it
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Experiment with technology
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Consider who you talk to – surround yourselves with the best in the business. When you meet with the best you become exposed to how they do it. It changes your benchmark
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Have fun – people tend to buy off people they like
Mark Schulman – Hacking the rock star attitude
Takeaway 10: “Every word you speak is a performance. Every document, every phone call is a performance. For rock star performers, there are no small performances.”
Concluding an information-packed first day of AREC 2019 was Pink drummer Mark Schulman who rocked out and talked agents through the power of having a rock-star attitude.
“Performances are not just what we do, but a reflection of who we are,” he explained. “Life is a series of nows. How you choose your attitude right now is how you are driving your behaviour and the consequences of your life.”
And that’s a wrap for Day 1, but stay tuned…We’ll bring you more freshly-baked AREC news, dusted with a light smattering of all the glam and glitter of the Gold Coast, tomorrow.