For the first, and possibly only time, come and join us for arguably the finest ‘career improving’ (for those who come) and ‘business ending’ (for their competition) in Queensland Real Estate history.

If 2011 wasn’t the most fun for you, or even if you just want to make a great career even better, one time only, the biggest names in Real Estate join forces to help you SHINE in 2012.

John McGrath needs no introduction to readers of this blog, Mat Steinwede, arguable the most skilled real estate agent in the country and Chris Gilmour, Qld’s #1 Agent join me for a one day intensive training this February.

And this time, YOU get to control the content, so to ask your question of John, Mat and or Chris, visit www.HeavyArtillery.com.au and leave your most pressing concerns and our guests will move hell or high water to help make your career give you the kind of lifestyle that brought you to real estate in the first place.

More details at
www.QREAS.com.au

(or ask your question of John McGrath, Mat Steinwede or Chris Gilmour at)
www.HeavyArtillery.com.au

Recently listened to (for the second time) The Jim Rohn 2004 Weekend with Jim, Brian Tracy, Denis Waitley, Charlie ‘Tremendous’ Jones, and the MC is a wonderful author and speaker named Chris Widener.  He’s my guest this week. Over to Chris…..

When traveling down the road it is always good to beware of roadblocks! You don’t want to crash and burn do you? The same is true in our journey toward success. We need to beware of those things that will keep us from our destination!

What are the most common? Here they are:

1. Fear. Fear is one of the worst enemies of success. When fear wraps its tentacles around you and keeps you in bondage, you will never be able to reach for your dreams. We must confront our fears, see them for what they are, toss them to the side, and pursue our dreams with relentless passion. Conquering fear and stepping forward to reach new lands and new ideas is what makes success possible. What are you afraid of today? What fear must you conquer to be able to achieve your dream? When you realize what it is, take an action that is diametrically opposed to that which you fear. This will confront and conquer the fear by giving you the first step in the right direction.

2. Lethargy. Quite frankly, what keeps most people from success is that they simply don’t have the energy, or make the energy, to do what it takes to move to the next level. They get to a point that is comfortable and then they settle in for a nice, life-long nap! Don’t get lethargic; get going! Force yourself to wake up from the slumber and move!

3. Lack of perseverance. Often times the race is lost because the race is not finished. Success is often just around the sharpest corner or the steepest hill. Persevere. Keep going. One more hill. One more corner! In real estate they say the three most important things are “location, location, location.” In success the three most important things are “perseverance, perseverance, perseverance.”

4. Pessimism. The saying is that you can achieve what you believe. Ask yourself what kinds of beliefs you hold. Are you an optimist or a pessimist? If you don’t believe that you can achieve than you won’t. Your pessimism will prove you right every time. You will find that you subconsciously undermine yourself. Develop your optimism. Look for ways to believe that you can achieve success.

5. Not taking responsibility. I am the chaplain for the local police department, and the other day I went with an officer as he took two prisoners to court. Time after time the prisoners made excuses as to why they hadn’t yet done what the judge had ordered (she didn’t buy it, by the way). After dropping the prisoners off, I said to the officer that unsuccessful people and prisoners have the same bad habit – they won’t accept responsibility for their lives. Bottom line is: You are responsible, whether or not you choose to admit it or accept it. But when you do accept that (and that is the moment when you become empowered), you are on the road to success!

6. Picking the wrong people to hang out with. We can easily become products of our environment. This is why it is essential to hang around people who will spur you on not hold you back! What about the people you have surrounded yourself with? Are they quality people who will encourage you and strengthen you in your quest for success? If not, move on!

7. No vision. Those who succeed always see their success months and years before they live it. They have the ability to look ahead, see the future, imagine the good that can and will come from their lives, families and work. To not have vision is a tremendous roadblock. Sit down and work on seeing the future – and make it good!

Chris Widener

…well at least I think it is. It had me in tears and I suspect any emotional response to a video is better than boring them to death (come on now, you really aren’t going to tell me that most real estate promotional material in any way ticks the emotional box…some maybe, but not most)

I still am in two minds whether it’s a good thing to have potential buyers crying tears of empathy for a seller, but I have to say I was moved, and if that makes the property, and the agent memorable, that can’t be a bad thing.

Leave it to you to decide, have a look…..

What you say about yourself, even if you’re a communication master, which I am not, though I am a good student, can only ever be at best a 5/10.

But a message from the heart, when told by someone without a script, just talking, unpolished, even nervous, can be 10/10.

For the Real Estate agents out there who LOVE to tell their communities how great their service is, imagine if you had all of your past sellers singing your praises like this. Do you think that would be more believable and actually BELIEVED by your future sellers than you throwing your own words on your ‘about me’ page?

Hey I walk my talk, this is one of literally hundreds of video case histories in my arsenal, just google or youtube ‘glenn twiddle testimonial’ and see em. This one is special though. Christine just spoke, no slaes pitch, she wasn’t coached, and unlike many of the other testimonials I have gotten, I wasn’t there, she just did it and mailed it to me.

One of the nicest presents I have ever received. Thanks so much Christine. And on behalf of the readers of this blog, thanks for the lesson in marketing !!!

Thought I’d throw a few more examples down !!!

it goes on with about 200 more of them, but I don’t have room, check you tube !!!

It would cost $100,000 PLUS to have this list of trainers, authors, agents and speakers…..Chris Gilmour, Mark Dwyer, Pat Mesiti, Kurek Ashley, Mal Emery and the other experts assembled here to come and mentor you for two full days. They’re yours here for next to nothing.

Personal message from Glenn Twiddle….

I was lucky enough to have been given some great advice early in my career. To study and emulate those who are succeeding, and do what they did to get where they are, and you’ll be just fine. Well, Jason Adcock gave me some advice when I first started. Now at that time, Jason earned $500,000 in commission in the MONTH I met him. So I promised I would do whatever he told me to do. And he said he invested $10,000 in personal development material in the last year. So I just did what I was told, and it worked for me.

We understand though, that not everyone has $10,000 to invest so, here at QREAS, we have endeavoured to take all the risk out of this decision for you. We have made this training affordable, but we still managed to get the world’s best to come and teach us.

So, who are the speakers –

Click here for a comprehensive bio on each of our speakers. But in a nutshell, here are their bios.

First off, little ole ME….

Glenn Twiddle
Didn’t want to sound big headed so I thought I’d let my students talk for me. Check out the ‘Past Recruits War Stories’ Tab, in the menu above, for more examples of my students who have revolutionised their careers based on what I’ve shared with them. Here’s one to whet your whistle….

‘Glenn is the real deal. I personally have gone to number one in my area and I know of no less than three other agents he has done the same for on the last year. His strategies are simple, and you wonder why you didn’t think of them yourself. The fact is, do what he says and you’ll be wondering where the commissions have been hiding all this time.’

Chris Gilmour
The #1 Agent in Queensland right now, (and, unconfirmed, in the country) who has taken the SE Qld Real Estate world by storm.

With an average, normal area, average, normal prices, average, normal, suburban ‘Mum and Dad’ buyers and sellers, Chris has created anything but an average, normal career.

From Chris himself -

“I have just turned 30 and have been in Real Estate for three years. In my 1^st year I made $135,000, with some tweaks and systems in place my 2^nd year saw $880,000 – my 3^rd year I just made my goal of a million, by earning $1,040,966. In the 3 years I have gone from owning one property to now three, I work 6 days a week and spend Sunday’s on my boat or racing Formula 3 at some track around Australia, so anything is possible with systems, focus and dedication, I will show you how to achieve this and enjoy a lifestyle along the way.

I currently run with approx. 40 listings at one time, and have been averaging around the 15 Sales per month, even in a “down market”. I work within only 1160 homes in my farm area and have 82% market share, with a 91% list to sell ratio and my average days on market are 18 Days. Now all this didn’t happen in 3 months, it has taken thousands of dollars’ worth of training and discipline to achieve this and now I’m ready to share to you how I went about achieving this and still are today.”

John Dwyer (yup, THE John Dwyer who got JERRY SEINFELD for an Aussie small business. Not so small anymore though)
Jerry Seinfeld, in his entire lifetime has endorsed three companies – American Express, for a squillion, Microsoft, for several squillion and a little known building society in Newcastle. Well they used to be little known. The marketing genius behind this rags to riches story is John Dwyer. And this marketing genius behind whole ‘Seinfeld’ coup is no ‘one trick pony.’

John has consulted to many of the largest names in Australian business i.e.:

(McDonalds, Caltex, Coca Cola, News Ltd and lots more), but in recent years has specialised in providing wow factor marketing strategies to small businesses like yours.

John also showed his marketing prowess by selling his own home, using these ‘Wow Factor’ techniques for DOUBLE what the local real estate agencies told him he would achieve.

And I’ve talked John into joining us at QREAS and sharing some of his amazing, some would say ingenius, marketing chops with us at our event. Worth the price of admission for this session alone.

Kurek Ashley
One of the world’s absolutely best peak performance coaches. Kurek is responsible for more success than can be listed here. But he took Australians to Olympic gold medals, created many multi millionaires, has taken real estate agents to the top of their area. He also holds the world record for fire walking. He lives what he teaches and his message will rock your world. I spent two days with Kurek last year and I took a few of my close inner circle. One of those agents went from a complete rookie, to the number one agent in his area in the next year.

Click here for a preview interview with Kurek. (approx 10 mins)

Mal Emery
Australia’s Millionaire Maker. Dubbed ‘The Napoleon Hill of the 21^st Century.’ Personally I believe this ‘Napoleon Hill’ title is a little misplaced, because Hill, the Author of Think and Grow Rich, was very much into the midset of wealth. Mal, in my opinion, is at the other end of the wealth spectrum. Mal won’t talk to you about mindset and other things. While he acknowledges their importance, Mal will teach you the 1-2-3, A-B-C, step by step marketing strategies that will get you into the door of your clients, build credibility and trust with your prospects, so they are begging you to take their listing to sell. I personally pay Mal over $10,000 per year. As a favour to me, Mal has agreed to come and share with you, some of the secrets I pay him a small fortune to reveal to me.

Mark Dwyer
In my opinion, Mark Dwyer is one of the most intelligent trainers of Real Estate skill in Australia today. I personally have learned so much from Mark on the subjects of negotiation, getting full commission and running KILLER Open Homes. I’m honoured to have Mark join us at QREAS and whatever he brings to our seminar, will be absolutely top notch, I vow. (a snippet from his bio…)

Mark Dwyer is a career real estate person. Commencing a sales career in the late eighties he broke records for volume of sales and gross commissions by both auction and private treaty.

In 1992 after becoming the top salesperson for the First National Group he began Shire Real Estate Agents. Mark still owns, operates, leads, manages and administrates a real estate business. He is an extraordinarily talented and professional salesperson.

Mark’s vision for the future of real estate practice brings a new dimension for untold prosperity for leaders, managers, salespeople and support personnel alike. His message is clear, ‘the future arrives’ and his aim is to see you there first!

Simon Treselyan
Simon had a very distinguished career, covering more than 19 yers, in the United Kingdom Military Special Forces. A great deal of Simon’s service was conducted in “Covert Operations”. It was during this time that Simon received decorations for Gallantry. Simon has also briefed the UK Prime Minister, Civil and Military leaders on aspects of National Security, plus trained other International “Special Forces” members. He has also given training and instruction to the CIA and other International Intelligence Agencies.

After leaving the military, Simon began his career in the “Personal Development” field and is now one of the most sought after “Personal and Corporate Development Master Trainers”. He uses techniques borne of the most extreme environments and “hones” them into effective and powerful lessons for attaining excellence in the modern world. His work has inspired thousands worldwide to embrace extraordinary training in order to achieve extraordinary results!

Simon has appeared frequently in the television, radio and news media. He is also a regular columnist for magazines. He continues to publish articles on “Human Potential” and “Personal Development”. His first book “Who Dares for Success” was published in 2009.

Greg Vincent
In the past 18 months, Greg Vincent has become the go-to guy for real estate professionals in Australia trying to understand the internet and social media applications for their businesses.

Are you looking for someone who will share their extensive knowledge about how you can achieve better results from the internet as a real estate professional without all of that confusing ‘geek speak’?

Having been a successful real estate agent for over 20 years, running multiple agencies, Greg Vincent has now become one of the most respected Online Real Estate Marketing Experts/Speakers within the real estate industry.

Greg now has multiple web-based businesses & works with some of the greatest internet marketers in Australia. Having over 10,000 followers on Twitter, Greg teaches real estate agents about how to use the internet & Social Media effectively.

Since Greg has an extensive understanding of the real estate profession, he presents the online marketing concepts in a way that cuts through the confusion and makes sense out of the web for real estate professionals.

Greg is always looking for simple and effective ways that real estate agents can achieve more success online today and into the future.

Terri Cooper
Terri brings a wealth of experience, proven skill and passion for the benefit of her many clients. Her work with individuals and sales teams has resulted in massive improvements in sales results for participants and sales teams, and a by-product of this has been incredible personal growth for graduates of her trainings.

Up until the end of 2005, Terri had a very successful career in real estate sales spanning twelve years. She was awarded membership of the RE/MAX Gold Club for high performing agents from 2002 to 2004 and was among the top twenty RE/MAX sales agents throughout Australia in November 2005.

Terri’s recent training, is all about getting back your ‘Mojo’ in a market where you are surrounded by doom and gloom and how you can use the rest of the industry’s negativity as your opportunbity to shine through.

Kevin Turner’s Panel ‘Best of the Best’
The ‘Voice of Real Estate’ Kevin Turner hosts a very unique ‘Best of the Best’ panel this year. In years gone by, we have seen such real estate ‘superstars’ as REIQ Agents of the Year Amber Werchon and Daniel Argent, Agency of the Year Winners Peter Sissons and Paul Curtain of Place Estate Agents, and other thought leaders in Real Estate.

This year the panel exists of ONLY people who are writing sales NOW, in this market where others are struggling, a name alone is not enough. We must be seeing results NOW, in June, July and August 2011.

A session not to be missed !!!

While I will continue, with my teams of clients around the country, to keep tabs on things, I am done with my year long exercise ‘secret shopping’ agents open houses because the results are in, and clearly, there is a winner….

And the winner is….

ANY AGENT WHO WANTS TO GET OFF THEIR BUTT AND DO THE WORK !!!

Yup, here are the final results. Over 14 months, and after visiting 102 Open Houses, we have the results of how the agents out their treat the properties entrusted to them by property owners.

We were looking for certain criteria. Now not all of the criteria we were looking for is necessarily the right and wrong way, they were just indicators that I was curious about, and of course some of them are absolutely critical to both the agents’ success in terms of their ability to get their sellers the highest price (their legal obligation to do), and in turn, their success in their own career. One cannot exist without the other.

So the critical ones, I believe, are these

- Follow up process – did the agent make one or several attempts to follow up with guests at the open? Did they use multiple media ie phone calls, sms, cards, emails to do so without being too annoying?

- Qualifying – Did they simply give a guided tour? Did they not even do that, did they meet at the door, tell you to have a look around and call me if you like it? Or did they ask you some, not too many too quick, but some probing questions to find out if you may be interested in buying the property, taking a second look, goodness, even flat out did they ask ‘You Want To Buy It???’

- Be Nice - We wanted to know how many of the agents were simply nice people in their character, rapport building etc. Some great customer service advice I got recently that I think many businesses have forgotten. BE NICE !!!

We measured other things into 3 CATEGORIES….

- Presentation of marketing and take home materials below average, average/ok and ‘Very Good or better’

- Presentation of the Open itself  including the agent’s presentation, signage, street appeal, extras, etc.

- Did the agent promote other properties other than the seller’s property before ascertaining that 100% this WASN’T the property for the buyer.

- Were there two people there from the agency? Were the buyers escorted or left to their own devices?

- What contact details were collected? Asked for?

So, after visting 102 open homes primarily in S.E. Qld but a few in Perth and Sydney, the results were these.

The secret shoppers were instructed to say ‘We own a house in the neighbourhood, and we’re just checking out prices.’

They were also instructed to give the agents whatever contact details they requested.

Some interesting (I am politely removing the word appalling here) statistics

• 31 of the agents made our ladies either ‘feel unwelcome,’ neglected or they described the agent as completely arrogant
There are 10,969 bboks on Amazon on the subject of ‘Customer Service.’ Did we really need over one    million  pages (all of these books are well over 100 pages), at an average of 300 words per page. I mean do we need 300,000,000 wprds to say two……

BE NICE!!

In fact, until you feel bad, there’s a very high chance that NOTHING will change. So enough of the positive thinking, go and buy Larry Winget’s book, ‘Shut Up, Stop Whining, and Get a Life
,’ or ‘People Are Idiots and I Can Prove It!
‘ take responsibility for your career and get better.

Here are two little tips to add to your Listing Presentation that will increase your Listing Presentation conversions OUT OF SIGHT.

1) Any that are ‘no’ or ‘maybe’ or ‘let me think about it,’ ‘let me interview the other agents and we’ll see’ etc, basically anything except a YES,  apply this script to get the reluctant prospect over the line.

“Mr. Smith, obviously you’re not interviewing agents because you think it’s fun or because you have nothing better to do with your time. You’re doing this because you don’t want to make a mistake.”

At this point, I refer to a page at the beginning of my Listing Presentation that reveals that three quarters of clients would NOT re-use their previous agent. I explain the importance of this statistic in this way:

“Mr. Smith, the reason this number is so high is because all agents will PROMISE to do a good job for their clients, but it’s rare that an agent will GUARANTEE this. As a result, it’s quite possible that an agent could win a listing based on a great sales pitch, but then not follow through to do a great job in selling that listing. Understanding this possibility, you would have to agree that this piece of paper (i.e. the Cancellation Guarantee) is very, very important because it GUARANTEES you that I cannot simply woo you with a great sales pitch, but rather that I MUST do a good job for you every single day. As you can see, what I’ve done by giving you this guarantee is to switch the risk from you to me. This piece of paper allows you to take a chance on me without really having to take a chance at all. Because if I don’t do what I promise, you can simply cancel our contract. Mr. Smith, did other agents offer you a cancellation guarantee?”, to which these prospects will answer “no”.

You’ll find that explaining the guarantee in this manner convinces most of these less certain prospects to sign a listing with you.

And make sure you have a signed certificate in the back of your presentation from both you and your principal saying you’ll let them out of their agreement no questions asked.

2) If it’s still, after that, anything but a yes, turn every ‘No, or Maybe, etc’ inoto this strategy.

‘Understood Mr Smith, well as part of your decision making process, for your own good, I recommend doing this exercise. Have a look at this webiste, www.agentchoice.org,  and have a look at the criteria of a great agent. Pay particular attention to the ‘Secret Shop’ exercise this site did on real estate agents, and how low the standards of what agents actually DO compared to what they SAY they will do.
Then, either yourself, or if they agents know you, then send someone they don’t know, into the agents you’re considering, including me and compare how we perform compared to how you would like your property to be represented’
After doing this, you better darn well make SURE your Home Opens ARE KILLER. For more info on that, click here for my Open Home CD that is guaranteed to ‘Embarrass your Competition When Your Clients Compare Them to You.’

Click this link for a copy at $45 instead of $147

Real Estate Open Homes

OR

Go to www.ChrisGilmourTraining.com as Chris gives you his ENTIRE system in his pack, including his killer open for inspection formula.

Happy converting guys. Follow these tips for instant improvement in your conversions.

What the hell are you talking about Twiddle?

Well recently I had some constructive criticism, hey he was a nice bloke and was being helpful, saying some of my emails were, well the word ‘pathetic’ was mentioned, but he wasn’t being as harsh (I don’t think) as that word made it seem.I really do think he was passing on constructive assistance.

My reply is below, and whilst I acknowledge I don’t know where to draw the line, some of the time, when I air the mistakes that happen back of house in my business, or with technology, etc, I do it completely on purpose. Here was my reply -

Hey XXXX, cheers for the response and I do appreciate the feedback.

I really hope I can make a point for a sec. While many times these stories that seem like I’m running a junk shop here, many times they are an exaggeration of the truth, or simply relaying what happened. And here’s a few points why.

-          A research team split tested a bunch of headlines, and headlines with slight errors in grammar, spelling, etc win over identical headlines that are grammatically correct. Every time. Probably because our attention gets drawn to them. I’m not interested in the opinion of the people reading them as to the intelligence of the writer, I’m simply talking in $$’s. Incorrect grammar, spelling wins in advertising over correct.

-          Another example was research done by Robert Cialidini and documented in his book Influence – The Psychology of persuasion. They sent out resumes, identical to 1000 jobs (can’t remember the number, but it was enough to get statistically compelling data), and the resumes were IDENTICAL, only one was completely glowing, and the other had one criticism, that he ‘doesn’t always get on with people’ or something, something quite negative, but in all other ways identical. No guesses which one got heaps more job interview call backs than the other.

So yeah, I may go over the top and some of my emails sound unprofessional, but for the most part, I suggest that’s part of the reason I have come from literally no where and am nipping at the heels of the Lee Woodward’s, Michael Sheargold’s etc, and so many other trainers would dearly like to be, who have been trying years longer than me.

So again, what may seem ‘pathetic’ is in some ways, completely by design, I mean thing about it, which real estate trainer, now ignore the content, but which real estate trainer got more of your attention in the last 72 hrs?

Not saying my style is for everyone, but maybe consider this email, and see how slight imperfections, what I call ‘Damning Admissions’ might be useful in your business.

(man I’ve gone on with this, I’ll remove all reference to you, but I’m going to use this lesson in a blog post soon, so thanks mate, if u wanna chat ever mate, I owe u one, shoot me an email with when we can talk if ever u need anything)

Now the fact is, in our own marketing, our job is to cut through the clutter and get noticed, PERIOD. I will not be relenquished to the depths of mediocrity by trying to be Mr Professional, because a) it ain’t me, and b) there’s enough of them out there so I’m going to quote Mal Emery, (quoting Earl Nightingle) when I say….

I think it was Earl Nightingale that said, “If you can’t find a valid model for success in your category, then look at what everyone else is doing and do the opposite.” So true.

How funny is Jane at the end of this?

Awesome trip, and looks like the guests of the fantastic and skillful Ian Keightley really got their money’s worth

This past Tuesday, I witnessed one of the best debuts from a Sales Trainer in recent memory. Chris Gilmour, if you haven’t heard of him by now, (if you haven’t where have you been? Haha), is taking the Real Estate world by storm.

Chris Gilmour has done the unthinkable. In a market where some are saying that sales are a little lighter on the ground than other times. And in these scarce times, Chris just explained, step by step, move by move, his entire system that has taken him from his first year income of $135,000, to his second year earnings of $880,000 and in this, only his third year in real estate, is on track for a million.

Before I get into the takeaway actions for you I wanted to mention a very interesting thing. Almost every office that is a competitor to Chris had a representative in the room. And Chris, with great respect, laid out his entire system…

TO HIS COMPETITORS !!

What a great attitude. Very rarely do we get a chance to learn from a seven figure earning, WHILE THEY ARE DOING IT.

So Chris did just that, and now he is being sought for speaking engagements overseas and interstate, so we have witnessed the start of a great speaking career, should Chris wish to continue down this path.

Of course, he’s still a real estate agent, first and foremost, and until I hear of someone selling more than 20 a month, I’m going to refer to him as the #1 agent in the state.

So here are some tips Chris gave the group.

1—There’s not really any secrets. You all know what to do, you just aren’t doing it. So do it !!

2—Always be marketing. Chris delivers at least 1000 flyers to his market place each and every week, for the last 3 years.

3—Be creative in your marketing. Don’t just always be talking ’real estate, real estate, real estate.’ Become a part of the community.

4—Gather leads and put them in an automated system, as opposed to trying to list a house or sell a house.

5—Have a killer pre-listing kit, complete with brilliant positioning tools, so you’re seen as more than a real estate agent in your community.

6—Embarrass your competitors with your Open Houses.

If you want the full program, grab it at www.ChrisGilmourTraining.com and get it while Chris is still selling it.

In future posts I’ll go through some more of the take-aways, or you can do yourself a favour and grab the Home Study Course based on the content of the day at

www.ChrisGilmourTraining.com