smashing the real estate myth with Agent Dynamics
Real Estate101: where it all started
agentdynamics.com.au
Thank you for taking the time to read our e-book series, “smashing the real estate myth with Agent Dynamics.”
This series was written to give you, Agency Principals and Agents, an alternative approach on how to manage ourselves and our teams and how to recruit better.
The Agent Dynamics system applies to all facets of Real Estate and all types of real estate professionals - Salespeople, Property Managers, Business Owners and importantly support teams.
Our goal is to promote alternate, or lateral, thinking and for readers to see that the “perfect” sales person or property manager does not exist, they just think they do.
To be fair, each book in the series was not written to be a quick fix ‘How To” guide or instruction manual but rather as a study on how our industry is changing and what we can do because of that change.
We hope that you will identify with our little anecdotes, case studies, testimonials and stories and that you will see how we can help you fufill your business and personal goals.
AGENT DYNAMICS: FIRS T CL A SS
Julie Davis and Neil Williams
WHAT WILL YOU GET OUT OF READING REAL ESTATE 101: WHERE IT ALL STARTED?
Understanding • Every one of us has
Purpose • Working to your
Reality • It doesn’t matter if
a unique story to tell,
strengths will put
you’re the number
particularly about
you on the path to
1, 2 or 10th ranked
‘how we came to be in
success. Plus it will
salesperson in the
real estate’ - but you
make working easier
office. If you are happy
would be surprised
and much more
and working in flow
just how similar our
enjoyable!
then you should be the
stories are.
only judge of your level of success.
Neil Williams, co-founder of Agent Dynamics, talks about ‘why I got into real estate’...
R E A L E S TAT E 101: W H E R E I T A L L S TA R T E D
My start in Real Estate was triggered like so many of us, by having an appraisal done on my home.
“He is going to make a great doctor, look at the way he cuts his sausage” or “she will make someone a great secretary, look how organized her room is”. Job prospects were based on stereotypes and the gender gap was quite wide.
When I was a kid I would often hear my friends parents proudly boasting about their children,
the old chestnut “sell ice to the Eskimo’s” came out at my place.
When I was 12, like most kids at the time I needed cigarette and lolly money so I started selling the Herald Newspaper on a suburban street corner in Pascoe Vale for $1 The old Jesuit saying “Give me the per week. It was a busy intersection child until he is seven and I will give with traffic lights and I used to dart you the man” often rang true. between the cars yelling “hear are de Herald” at the top of my voice. If a kid had the gift of the gab he I mastered dexterously folding the was usually pigeon holed for a sales paper in one smooth movement role. I’d like a dollar for every time of my right hand and then slotting
At the time, there were no qualifications required to sell property in the A.C.T., not even a police check and everyone worked commission only. Talk about “churn and burn”. It was survival of the fittest and most Agencies were looking to employ older folk as they at least “looked” experienced. it through the gap in the driver’s window while accepting the money with my left. I quickly learned that as the paper cost 4 cents and most people gave me a 5 cent piece, if I jangled around in the leather money bag hanging from my waste for long enough looking for the 1 cent in change the lights would eventually change. Horns would start to sound and the poor driver would take off leaving me with a tip. Selling around 70 to 80 papers in a two hour shift, I was picking up around half a week’s wage each day in tips. I was starting to like this sales caper. At age 14 my Uncle got me a job working at G.J. Coles in Bourke Street Melbourne. The store is now the site of David Jones and in those days Coles sold everything fairly cheaply with the store comprising a number of “counters” with two cash registers and all the wares laid out for the public. We were paid $1.10 for 3 hours on Friday night and three hours on Saturday mornings. I really enjoyed working at Coles and would love listening to the “spruiker” as they roamed the store armed with a microphone and portable amplifier, expounding the benefits of
a range of products from Rice A Riso By chance the Agent who visited to Viscount Cigarettes. my home to conduct the appraisal was an ex sailor. Discussion soon My proudest day was the day the turned to how much success he “Spruiker” was crook and I was had enjoyed selling property and offered the job. Within the hour, I how he thought that I would make a was roaming the store dragging good agent. The thought of a career the amp and its car battery power in Real Estate Sales appealed to supply, all round the store, bellowing me so I completed a fairly basic 5 about the days “Specials” and the day course, “Introduction to Real benefits of using Gillette razor Estate” organized by the Real blades. Estate Institute and applied for a sales position with one of the local I thought I had found my calling, agencies but alas good things rarely last. At the time, there were no Being lazy at school with a bitter qualifications required to sell hatred for homework I was never property in the A.C.T., not even a destined for scholastic success police check and everyone worked so took an early redundancy from commission only. Talk about “churn Strathmore High School and joined and burn”. It was survival of the the Royal Australian Navy at age 16. fittest and most Agencies were looking to employ older folk as they I spent the next 20 years at sea at least “looked” experienced. and ashore and learned a lot about The interview process comprised a people, particularly around their 3-minute phone conversation that management. ended with a hearty congratulations and I was informed that I was a My start in Real Estate was “natural” and had been accepted for triggered like so many of us, by the position. having an appraisal done on my home in the southern suburbs My new real estate sales career of Canberra. I was nearing the started the following Monday end of my Navy career and was morning. contemplating what I would do when my service was at an end.
In the end I just said bugger it. I decided that I would no longer do anything that I hated as it was a waste of time.
I fronted at the office, 30 minutes early of course, proudly decked out in Country Road’s finest sales attire, leather briefcase in hand, diary, pens and a calculator ready to go. I didn’t have to worry about a mobile phone as Agents weren’t using them yet although, I would need to organize the installation of a two way radio in my car. My on the job training involved shadowing another agent for three months so that I could pick up all his bad habits and the company supplied learning resources were a cardboard box full of Bob Proctor, Zig Ziegler and Doug Malouf tapes.
R E A L E S TAT E 101: W H E R E I T A L L S TA R T E D
What an auspicious start. For my first three months in the Industry, I achieved absolutely nothing, I hadn’t made a sale and had not listed a property. The one or two appraisals I had were a result of letterbox drops and my wife and young family were starting to eat the putty out of the windows. Being on commission only things were a little bleak so something had to change. Fortunately I was enough of a realist to make the decision that the market, the buyers and the sellers were not all going to change to suit me. I had to change the way I was trying to do business. I realized that although friends, family and colleagues all agreed that I was a “natural” salesman, I was in fact, starving to death. I had
a million systems in place which I never used. I hated door knocking, my cars boot was full of letter box drops and the back seat was my data base. To make matters worse I was terrible at follow up. In the end I just said bugger it. I decided that I would no longer do anything that I hated as it was a waste of time. It hadn’t worked for three months so why would it work now. I may as well have a last crack working to my natural strengths and if that didn’t work then so be it. I was a little short in natural strengths as well, but the one thing that I could do, and do well, was “talk in pictures”. I found it really easy to recount stories of my Navy days when entertaining friends and colleagues and had an ability to think on the run and come up with just the right responses. It felt perfectly natural to do this and it allowed me to quickly build rapport with my clients. My listing presentations started focusing on what the vendors’ future looked like as I walked them through the marketing and sales process, clearly describing each step of the so that they could almost “see it”. Most of my business then started coming from referrals and I went on to build a successful real estate career of over 20 years.
Understanding what you are good at, what you enjoy doing is the first step to getting your life & your career back on track. Working that out plus how to take care of the other stuff is where we step in at Agent Dynamics.
Up for some light reading? Get the NEXT book in the series here: ‘Building a team and a culture that lasts’
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To get more information or to book in a time to talk please contact us in one of these ways:
R E A L E S TAT E 101: W H E R E I T A L L S TA R T E D
Online julie@agentdynamics.com neil@agentdynamics.com www.agentdynamics.com Tel: 0412 752 366 Julie 0417 249 688 Neil
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