Perfect never happens, and it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pursue it.
I am better than I was six months ago by a wide margin. I’ll be better in six months by a wider margin, I hope. I’m hoping that I improve at an improving rate. I work hard to do so. The silly math is that if you improve your efficacy by 1% each day then you double every 68 days or whatever. Every year then you’d through five cycles and then be 2*2*2*2*2 better. Nice theory, but it doesn’t happen that way. Google grains of rice and chessboard.
You CAN however improve a bunch, and have times where you are like Neo.
My focus is on lead generation. I’m good at it, and getting better. I’ve learned bigger gains are made in other areas, but lead generation is still what I like because we gravitate to what we’re good at. But that’s not the only area where we can get good. Lead gen rocks because I like getting leads that are above average. Nobody has time to sift through morons, but anyone has time to deal with motivated and interested buyers. That’s why Search.Twitter.com is such a beautiful breeding ground.
Anyway, here’s a fun idea.
What’s the best customer experience for a loan process?
What’s the best possible customer experience for a Real Estate Sale?
For a contract negotiation?
For a listing?
What wows? Author # 8 touched on this a while ago. You create the perfect experience from the buyer’s perspective.
How long they’ll take.
How much they’ll know.
You make it customer focused, high touch and high tech. And you make it utterly destructive to all of your competition. Make it so much better than it anything that exists from the knowledge the buyer gets to the resposnsiblity you take. Widen the gap with things that make people feel better…even if most of the effort isn’t used.
Let’s design the best experience possible.
And then, let’s figure out how to deliver it with modern tools.
After we’ve done that, let’s figure out what the most critical and different elements are. And let’s focus on building an experience with today’s tools that delivers that…level of perfection….the perfect loan, listing & buyer experience…
…delivered with a focus on minimizing the effort once the machine is built. I am learning the Vendorslut lesson with my business. Make something cool. What’s the ideal listing, in a perfect world. How do we create 80% of that with very little marginal effort? It’s possible, man, don’t say it’s not.
Then, once we’ve made a machine, how do we make a machine that presumes that it’ll need to get better, and that presumes that it’ll get caught by the world at large unless it gets good? THAT is where I want BHBU to be.
I’m talking about making some blue oceans. Making something that’s different and customer focused.
Then when you throw a massive amount of leads at an existing machine, we’ll be fine. Because they’ll stick.
What would cause…
- Clients to not sell you up the river for a $500 reduction in commissions.
- Buyers to call you first before EVERY move, while still feeling free to browse through properties?
- Agents to have low marginal-costs-per transaction WITHOUT short changing clients or having a huge capital investment.
I don’t know the answer. But if that’s the focus, reinventing our jobs…then that’s what we can do. Because dumping great leads into a great system is sustainable…!
Sean Purcell says:
Great post Chris… again. Every time I read you I think “systems.” Systems are the key to sustainable success and you preach it with a passion that certainly appeals to me. Thanks for making me think… again.
January 13, 2010 — 9:21 pm
Scott Schang says:
Absolutely agree with Sean. I can only speak from the “loan experience” side. We closed 191 loans in 2009, our best year, by creating a home ownership education “system” that includes webinars, video, slideshare, blog, niche marketing.
It’s not automatic and I improve on it daily, but it does deliver a buyer experience that is not common in my marketplace.
Honestly, much of this system I owe to innovations
that came out of BHBU.
Systems are most certainly the key to working hard to develop then working consistantly to maintain. By making the education resources available to buyers I am only hearing from them once they have done their homework and have made an informed and educated decision to work with our company because of the value of the education they received from our “system”
great insight Chris
January 14, 2010 — 12:41 am
Genuine Chris Johnson says:
@scott some will still sell you up the river for $100 bucks, but you know? Not most.
January 14, 2010 — 7:09 am
Jeff Brown says:
It’s the systems that create so much predictable success, and present the biggest challenge. Since we’re trying to ‘break out’ so to speak, it means we’re buildin’ our own cars from the ground up, not just pickin’ one out on the dealer’s lot.
The first version is great ’till it sucks, and it’s tweaked. Before ya know it, you have a hummin’ system. Just not next week. 🙂
January 14, 2010 — 8:49 am
Scott Schang says:
“The first version is great ’till it sucks, and it’s tweaked. Before ya know it, you have a hummin’ system. Just not next week. :)”
I think I reinvent myself about every 6 months. After a few months, the creative juices don’t flow like they used to…I HATE everything i’ve done….and I start tinkering.
Not sure if the destination is the goal, it’s more about the journey – you can never predict the conditions of the road so you have to tweak when the ride’s not what it used to be.
January 14, 2010 — 9:35 am
Scott Schang says:
Chris – @scott some will still sell you up the river for $100 bucks, but you know? Not most.
No question…just keeping that to a minimum is my goal 🙂
January 14, 2010 — 9:42 am
Genuine Chris Johnson says:
Right, and you don’t worry about it. I still go to retail, check on my bberry if the thing I want is vastly cheaper on Amazon…and buy if I can wait.
January 14, 2010 — 10:17 am
Thomas Johnson says:
Just not next week. 🙂
@Jeff: And next week, the bills are due. Everyone in this business has had their own near death experience in the past three years. This RE.net stuff is time consuming while keeping our machines coughing and spitting to glean whatever cash flow we can in order to survive. Keep in mind that Glenn Kelman has a $50 million bank roll and is barely paying the bills if that.
January 14, 2010 — 12:23 pm
Jeff Brown says:
Thomas — The whole RE.net thing is why, IMHO, many agents fail. For every successful 2.0 agent out there, 1,000 suck at it. But if they were to include, ALONG WITH the 2.0 approach a lotta good old school letter writing, calling, knocking, etc., they may be able to hang on ’till the worm turns.
January 14, 2010 — 12:38 pm
Genuine Chris Johnson says:
Bawldy…
Most agents fail because most agents fail. For every successful 20 year vet, probably 1500 people try to be one and go to licensing school.
Get it?
Good.
Anyway, more to come as is always the case.
January 14, 2010 — 1:01 pm
Susan Zanzonico says:
‘But if they were to include, ALONG WITH the 2.0 approach a lotta good old school letter writing, calling, knocking, etc. ~ I fully agree with this statement, combined of course with a good infrastructure, tenacity and staying on top of the latest and greatest. A little bit of old and new. Great thoughts…thanks Chris.
January 16, 2010 — 4:14 pm