Jeff Rickard

     This is a time of year we review what we did and game plan for the future.  Part of that game planning is deciding if we want to join new organizations or continue in the groups we are already a part of.  There is an expense to these organizations and you have to ask yourself  “Am I really getting my monies worth?”  If the answer is no you need to decide is the organization wrong or are you not a person who knows how to network? 

     If you answered the question  that “you really are not very good in a strange crowd and making small talk that eventually ends up being self promotion is hard”, puts you in the majority.  Most people feel exactly like you, so if you can overcome that fear it puts you in the minority.  The minority that gets business from their organization. So how do you make these meetings work for you?  Continue Reading »

Happy New Year!  Are you ready?  One of the number one gifts this holiday season was portable GPS devices.  One of the most used websites is Mapquest.  So what?  So, we are constantly looking for ways to see where we are going, how to get to the place we want to be as efficiently as possible.  How about your career?  Have you set your goals, got a game plan, reviewed last year? 

     This is a very important time of year to get excited about your business.  We get to start all over, re-energize and forget about the challenging year that just passed.  One of the most successful real estate teams that I work with is the Eskanos Team and they take a week a year to go on the road in their camper and brain storm, review and plan their business.  Does it work?  Last year, which was a challenging year for most in real estate, was a great year for them.  Coincidence?  No chance, they will tell you that having a plan and knowing their business statistics fires them up and focuses them on the future.  A profitable future.

     I have taken their advice this year and “gotten out of town”  to game plan for next year.  It is nice to know that on January 2nd I have a plan.  Things to do and get done.  I know what I want to do to improve my blog, website and House$mart.  How I can bring more value to my Realtor and referral partners and my past clients.  I also am expanding my commercial lending business and have a very specific marketing game plan for that area.

     Take my advice, take Mark and Gayle Eskanos advice, plan your business and have the best year ever!     

  Merry Christmas!  Happy Holidays!  Today, all the motivation you need is spending time with your family and friends.  Say a prayer for our troops and peace on earth.

Pinging - All the Time

     If 80 percent of success is, as Woody Allen once said, just showing up, then 80 percent of building relationships is just staying in touch.

     I call it “pinging.”  It’s a quick, casual greeting, and it can be done in any number of creative ways.  Once you develop your own style, you’ll find it easier to stay in touch with more people than you ever dreamed of in less time than you ever imagined.

     Yes, there’s grunt work involved.  Pinging takes effort.  That’s the tough part.  You have to keep pinging and pinging and pinging and never stop.  You have to feed the fire of your network or it will wither or die.

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Your Message Must be as Compelling as Your Product to Engage Anyone - Especially Your Customer.

The key to any communication rests in how well you engage the other person or the audience.

Your preparation, the questions you ask, the ideas you bring, your communication and presentation skills, and your positive attitude and enthusiasm are the keys to intelligent engagement.

The old adage is, “it’s not what you say - it’s how you say it.”  Wrong.  In business it’s both.  Making a great presentation is a marriage of “what you say” and “how you say it.” 

Your ability to present a compelling, believable, enthusiastic, value driven message is the difference between yes and no, understanding and confusion, acceptance or rejection, and even approval or denial.

This is an excerpt from Jeffrey Gitomer’s Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching!

     This is very true today and it has been ignored by many in the real estate - mortgage industry for some time.  The business was booming for so long we stopped presenting ourselves and our services.  In this new slower market we need to get back to basics and get good at selling again.

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Transform Your Inner Critic into Your Inner Coach

Research indicates that the average person - that means you! - talks to himself or herself about 50,000 times a day.  And most of that self talk is about yourself, and according to the psychological researchers, it is 80% negative - things such as  I shouldn’t have said that…. They don’t like me…. I’m never going to be able to pull this off…. I don’t like the way my hair looks today…. That other team is going to kill us …. I can’t dance…. I’ll never be a good skater…. I’m not a speaker…. I’ll never lose weight…. I can’t ever seem to get organized…. I’m always late.

We know from the research that these thoughts have a powerful effect on us.  They affect our attitude,our physiology and our motivation to act.  Our negative thoughts actually control our behavior.  They make us stutter, spill things, forget our lines, break out in a sweat, breathe shallowly, feel scared and taken to the extreme, they can even paralyze or kill us.    This was taken from Jack Canfield’s book “The Success Principle”

     I had this “self talk” concept told to me about a year ago.  Since then I am amazed how much I beat myself up or complained internally about work and personal issues.  When I was in the car driving to work I would have conversations with myself  complaining about or reliving frustrating moments at work.  There was no one there, just me getting all wound up.  After hearing about “self talk” I began to realize what I was doing; it was crazy.  The truth is I love my job and where I work so it was just me making the everyday challenges, that are at all jobs, into my own personal drama.  What a waste of time!  I have stopped that behaviour, for the most part, and I arrive each day with a better attitude.

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     This weeks entry is from Jeffrey Fox’s “How to Become a Rainmaker”. 

Treat Everybody You Meet as a Potential Client

Rainmakers see the world, and everyone in it, as their market.  Rainmakers know the world is small.  They know that everyone knows someone.  They know that anyone can become a client, or refer a client, or recommend a client, or scuttle a promising relationship.

     Rainmakers treat nonclients as they do existing customers.  They are polite to everyone.  Rainmakers view everyone as influential.  They know that business can come from unexpected places.  They know that something they did ten years ago might result in business today.

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The mortgage and real estate industry has been very challenging in Colorado as of late, so in an attempt to help all of us thrive and survive I am going to start “Motivation Monday”. Every Monday I will do a post that is motivational or sales tip driven. The source of this information will come from all sources but I will always try and reference the source so you can further investigate. Please feel free to add your opinions and information because we can all use a boost.

How can I differentiate myself from the competition?

All sales people are under the false belief that because they think their product is better, that each customer will perceive them as different from the others.  And they are wrong.

The first key differentiator is you, the sales person.  You differentiate yourself from others by the questions that you ask, the ideas that you bring into the room, and how well you communicate them. 

You differentiate yourself from others by:  Continue Reading »