Those of you who know me know I love every single day – each is its own special blessing. But I have to say the days of spring make me especially grateful. And this spring is proving particularly pleasant for Realtors because of a strong seller’s market and interest rates that are continuing to hover at historic lows for buyers.
These two factors alone can make your spring selling season bloom with business – if you’re ready. To get ready, you need to think about the tradition this time of year – spring cleaning.
To take full of advantage of this market, it helps to stop for a moment and consider what’s working and what’s not. This is a time to clean out the closets, a time to get back to the basics – because we know those basics work.
So with that said, here are some tips I’d like to offer to help make your spring fresher, brighter and, of course, more profitable.
- Dust off your operations – Pull out the dust rag and wipe down your operations to get a good look at them — give ‘em the old white glove test. First, make sure all of your operations focus on the customer. Remember, we’re talking basics here. You run a small business and the goal of business is to get and keep customers. If any one of your operations doesn’t help you complete that goal, get rid of it. You might start with this question: What can you change to make it easier for your clients to get what they need?
- Sweep out any bureaucracy – Over time businesses, and all organizations really, tend to sprout ugly little patches of bureaucracy – like nasty weeds. Put all of your policies and procedures under the microscope and look for anything that gets in the way of serving customers. Grab the broom and sweep out any and all inefficiencies. Ensure everything in your office points directly at the customer and gets them what they need – without any hassles.
- Vacuum up time wasters – So what’s your most valuable commodity? Time. If you’re not using it wisely, you’ll fail. It’s just that simple. And if you’re not using your time to get and keep customers, you’re not using your time wisely. My boss and the CEO of the company I work for, Bob Corcoran, always says the four tasks Realtors should always be doing are: listing, prospecting, selling and negotiating. I couldn’t agree more. Take a quick timeout to audit your day. List all the activities you typically do and then get rid of (or delegate) anything that doesn’t fall under one of those four tasks. Do that and you’ll do fine this spring – and the rest of the year.
- Polish up your customer service – Real estate is a service business. That’s about as basic as it gets. Service is the most important quality you can use to differentiate yourself from the competition in any market – buyer or seller. You must make exceptional customer service paramount – always. Look around at other Realtors’ customer service, then figure out ways to improve on them and make them part of your repertoire.
