EVALUATE YOURSELF ON THE MIKE FERRY SALES SYSTEM

Welcome and good morning to Mike Ferry TV. It is the week of Monday, December 19.

The holidays are in full-fledged rush around the corner. Whatever you’re celebrating, we hope that you have a wonderful time. Safe and enjoyable with you and your family. Our next Mike Ferry TV will be on January 3rd.

We closed the company for about ten days over the holidays to give our staff a little extra vacation time, which we’ve done now for probably 30 years. So we will see you again on January 3rd.

The hardest part of selling Real Estate is understanding that there are certain things that are Real Estate salesperson, in my opinion, and I’m limiting this to my opinion should have to know and follow. I’ve been teaching Real Estate people how to sell.

We’re in our 48th year now of doing this full-time, and I did it for a couple of years, part-time prior to starting. So we have a lot of experience in the training of people and we are very lucky as a company to have tens of thousands of clients that follow the Mike Ferry Sales System.

And one of the questions that come up on a regular basis, especially when I’m dealing with a Broker that we’re introducing ourselves to and to the sales team for a Broker is … “What exactly do you mean when you say the Mike Ferry Sales System?” So let me give you an example.

As a Real Estate professional, you should be involved in either listing homes for sale and then working to get them sold or working with buyers to make a buyer sale. And then, of course, negotiating between the two to get the contract completed so we can go under contract and then go to closing.

There should be a system that every Real Estate person follows if they’re going on a Listing Presentation. So we teach a five-step listing process. It’s very simple. It can be learned very quickly, it can be followed very quickly and it is very effective.

So when I say a “system”, I’m referring to the fact that every salesperson should have a step-by-step process they follow. Our industry because we’re independent contractors. We have the freedom to pretty much do whatever we would like, or if we don’t like it, not do it at all.

And there are certain parts of our business that if we don’t do them and do them well, it makes it very challenging and very difficult for a person to succeed.

The advantage we have today, and this is talking about December of 2022, going into, of course, a new year, 2023, virtually in a few days is the average sales price in most parts of North America has increased dramatically.

The demands on the Brokers by agents who are listing and selling Real Estate, their demands for higher and higher commissions take place. And the result is where it commission check used to be “this big” commission checks today are “this big.”

So there is a lot of people in Real Estate that don’t have to have a system to follow. They do three or four, five, six transactions a year and make substantial money. And I applaud you in almost every case that you can do that.

However, if your goal for 2023 is to elevate your business, transaction-wise, elevate your income through more closings, there should be a system that you follow.

And what I want to do today, as we wrap up 2022 and prepare for 2023 is I want to take you through the Mike Ferry Sales System. And what I want you to do is jot down each step.

And then I want you to evaluate for yourself on a scale from 1 to 10. “1” being the weakest and “10” being the strongest on each of these steps.

I did this same little presentation in Seattle, Washington, many years ago, and we had 400 or 500 people in the audience, and I took them through the steps and I said, “Evaluate yourself.” If you had a perfect score, there are 21 steps. You would score 210.

And, you know, and if you score more than 50, you’re a great agent. And we talked about it. We went through it, and then I asked them to rate themselves.

And then I said, “Did anybody score this high?” And some hands went up and “Anybody scored this high?” Some hands went up.

And and then I jokingly said, “Did anybody have a perfect score? Score of ten on every one of these 21 steps?” And one lady raised her hand. And I said, “Well, first of all, congratulations. That is outstanding. You must be a mega-producer that I have not met in the past.”

She goes, “No, I’m not.” I said, “Well, approximately how many transactions do you do per year?” She goes, “Four or five.” I said, “Wow! You know everything that we teach verbatim, but you’re only doing four or five deals.”

She said, “Well, you have to understand, I know exactly what you teach. I just don’t do it.”

Well, there is that issue of execution when you learn something. So I’m going to ask you to write down all 21 steps. I’m going to ask you to evaluate yourself.

And then between your Mastermind Group or your Broker, your Manager, a Coach, if you have a Coach or calling us sometime in the next few days before we close or sending me an email to mike.ferry@mikeferry.com.

During the holiday season and say, I need help with this particular thought or I need help with these five thoughts. Give me some advice. I will commit to writing back some type of action plan, some steps you can take to make that happen.

So step number one in The Mike Ferry Sales System is developing a strong Time Management system or in essence, having a schedule, and the schedule should be production-based.

If I want to maximize my productivity, 75% of each day should be spent in either prospecting, doing lead follow-up, prequalifying a buyer or seller, going on a Listing Presentation or showing property to a qualified buyer and negotiating a contract.

So a strong time management system means that I’m involved 75% of the time. So I want you to evaluate your last 30, 60, 90 days. What percentage of your time is spent doing those five things? And unfortunately, for the majority of people in Real Estate, it’s about zero time spent.

Step number two, maximizing your business from your Past Clients, Centers of Influence. Everybody has a database. Very few people work that database effectively.

For some reason. There seems to always be that little embarrassment of picking up the phone and saying, “Hi, Martha. Hi, Bill. You know, as you know, I’m in Real Estate at this time.

Who do you know that wants to buy or sell Real Estate now or in the near future?” We’re salespeople. It’s our job.

And our job is to maximize relationships, to give value to the people that we represent and ask for the business. And the database are people that know who you are and what you do.

And then step number three and the Mike Ferry Sales System, other effective methods of Prospecting. What are you doing if you’re not calling your database to generate business?

And when you look at methods of prospecting, there are two types aggressive results-oriented and nonaggressive, long-term oriented, and they both work.

However, the aggressive results-oriented work a little faster, and it probably requires that you learn some scripts and you take the Mike Ferry scripts and use them and the nonaggressive future type of business.

Whether it be geographic farming and building for the future or holding open houses, which generally brings you more buyers, you know, promotions through social media, which is hard to identify responses, get responses.

However, the aggressive calling your Past Clients, calling For Sale By Owner, contacting Expired Listings, making phone calls around your listings and sales Just Listed, Just Sold.

Number four is aggressive Lead Follow-Up. They gave you the name a number. They would hope that you are bright enough and smart enough and aggressive enough to be the agent that will call them back to prequalify them and set an appointment.

Prequalifying buyers and sellers is step number five. If you go to the doctor before you see the doctor, unless it’s an emergency, and we hope that you never have to experience that. But if you’re going for regular checkup, they take your blood pressure, your temperature and your pulse.

They want to prequalify to make sure you’re alive and breathing before they start coming in and doing any work to check anything else that may be wrong and some solutions for you.

Prequalifying by a pilot is standard procedure. In fact, it’s the law. They go through a prequalifying process. So the more time we spend in prequalifying asking questions of the buyer or seller prospect, the better chance we have.

The Listing Presentation. Which is a chance to perform and display your knowledge of what has to be done to get the home sold. You can go on to MikeFerry.com. You can go to our Vault and you can see multiple examples of a strong Listing Presentation.

Step number seven of the Mike Ferry Sales System is Pricing Properties. And of course, that is much more of a challenge today than it was six months ago and more of a challenge today than it was 18 months ago. But we know that the price we put on a property affects the response we get from the public.

Handling Objections. Step number eight. Here’s the good news. All buyers and sellers give the same objections. If we learn the answers when they get an objection, we can respond in a positive manner.

Step number nine is Closing Skills. Watch. Would you sign the contract, please? How effective are you at closing knowing the stronger your presentation is, the more likely they will respond in a positive manner to asking them to sign a contract?

Step number ten, Negotiating Contracts. Bringing the two parties together.

Step number 11 is Working effectively with Buyers. Working with sellers and working with buyers are both part of our business, but it’s two totally different systems that you have to understand. Because here I’m going to prequalify the buyer, then search for the home for them. Over here I’m going to prequalify the seller and convince them to list their home with myself.

Step Number 12 Administration and Staffing. If you have staff, if you have an assistant being organized, giving them checklists, making sure they’re doing their job.

Step number 13, High-quality Customer Service. That is the end result, which is what brings us more referrals.

Step number 14 is writing a Business Plan. Here we are towards the end of December. Do you have a simple one, two, three-page business plan that outlines what you’re going to do in 2023 and how it’s going to take place? Go to MikeFerry.com and download the business plan.

Step number 15, Tracking your Numbers and learning from them, which is a big challenge for most people. I mean, just simply taking a pen of which I had one here a minute ago and a piece of paper. And how many contacts did you make today? How many leads did you generate? Did you go on any presentations to get a contract signed? If you track what you do, sometimes you’re not always happy about what you see, but you can become a lot smarter because you can determine. Then, after doing it for days and days and days, tracking your numbers, what your ratios should be and what they are.

Number 16, Practicing Scripts and Developing Skills. A big part of the Mike Ferry Sales System is the use of scripts. I’m using a script today. I’ve probably read this list over the course of the years thousands of times, but I always have it in front of me to make sure I don’t miss any points. If I practice what I’m going to say on a listing or I practice what I’m going to say to a buyer, it is in my subconscious mind takes over and I reduce some of the stress and fear of asking the questions because I’ve practiced the routine.

Developing a strong Mindset is step number 17. It is such an important part of what we do today in December of 2022 and will be just as important in 2023.

Step number 18, Goal Setting. Setting personal goals for what you want to accomplish for yourself and your family if you have one, because there has to be a reward for you for all the hard work you do.

Step number 19. This one gets a little tougher Money Management and Profitability. If you’re doing three or four deals a year, money management is not an issue. You probably are just getting by and paying your bills. We would hope that you can do dramatically more so you have a strong profit, so you can enjoy life at a higher level.

Step number 20 only applies to a small percentage of the clients that we get to work with, and that is developing Business Systems. In most cases, your Broker has business systems in place for you to use. But if you’re building a business of 30, 50, 75 to 100 transactions a year, you’re going to need business systems

And then Understanding Personality Styles and versatility. I talked about it briefly last week. I’ve talked about it in the past. It’s important.

And the 22nd step, which we’ve added over the last two years, is assisting and helping an agent Build a Team.

All right. There is a lot of information that an agent has to know. There’s a lot of important things that an agent has to learn. There’s a lot of important things we have to consume to build a business that is long-term, productive and profitable.

I don’t expect I don’t anticipate that anybody’s going to say, “I need to work on all 22 of these steps now.” Probably the first 10 or 11 are the foundation behind building a strong business. And that foundation really is our responsibility to learn.

The Brokers are going to help, the management is going to help. The trainers for your company are going to help the thousands of seminar leaders all over North America like ourselves are going to help.

Coaches are willing to help. Your boards of realtors offer information, your associations bring information to you.

The question is, are you learning? Are you growing and are you planning to do a lot better in 2023 than you did in 2022? If we can help, we’re here to help. We’ve been doing it for 48 years.

We understand the system. We understand the process and we understand the objections we receive so we can help you overcome some of the challenges that you face.

Again, my email is mike.ferry@mikeferry.com. Rate yourself on all 21 steps. The second half really 12 through 22 may not apply for a while, but the first 10 or 12 apply starting today. We hope you have a great, safe, fun, enjoyable holiday season and I’ll look forward to talking to you again the week of January 2nd and 3rd. Thank you.