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In his first year as a residential real estate agent, Erik did one transaction. He had devoted a lot of time and energy networking--he became president of a local referral group and joined several chambers of commerce. He was extremely busy with his various networking activities, but had no solid system for contacting and following up with sales leads and prospects. At the end of his first year, Erik hired me to help him grow his business. In our first month of coaching, we established sales prospecting strategy and a weekly schedule. We organized his time and got him focused on the fundamentals. When I began coaching Erik, his most optimistic goal for the entire year was to do 12 transactions and $5 million in sales. Within three months of beginning coaching, Erik generated $4 million in sales and by the end of the year he had done 24 transactions, which amounted to over $12 million in sales. In that year, he went from being the lowest ranked agent in his company to number one. Within 18 months of beginning our coaching, Erik was ranked in the top quarter of one percent of agents in the country, measured by sales. In our coaching, we focused on specific business growth strategies and ways for Erik to leverage his time. One of the growth strategies was for Erik to focus the majority of his effort and marketing on a new development in Marina del Rey and become known as the specialist in that area. His efforts have paid off. Erik has consistently been the top-performing agent in his company and is now branching out and engaging the assistance of other agents to sell multiple units in condo complexes. Erik is my longest-standing client. Despite his great success, Erik is always looking to improve and he finds that coaching keeps him on top of his game and accountable for his actions. We continue to work on strategies to improve his business and the management of his back office. Despite the decline of the real estate market in Los Angeles, Erik has built a solid reputation and his business continues to thrive. Even in a down market, those who are truly committed will continue to get the business. Erik’s future continues burn brightly. Mortgage Group - Team Alignment and Performance Philip heads up a small residential mortgage group. In 2006, he brought me in to enhance the group’s teamwork and performance. At our first meeting, I asked the group if they felt they functioned as a unified collaborative team, or as isolated individuals each doing their own job. The response was unanimous—they did not view themselves as a team. In that first meeting, we uncovered several communication and workflow issues. By the end of the first meeting they had aligned over common goals and brainstormed solutions to several of their most pressing issues. We continued our coaching meetings, and over the next several months the group went through an amazing transformation. Their energy, communication, and workflow improved. They created and implemented more efficient systems and their monthly deal-flow grew. And they started having fun. During one of our coaching meetings, the team set an aggressive performance goal: by year’s end they wanted to create enough business to generate 20% more commission fees than in 2005. This was a big feat: 2005 had been their best year ever because California home sales, real estate prices and refinancing were at an all time high. That all changed in 2006 when the housing market became stagnated and interest rates rose. At that time, many mortgage brokers were struggling just to stay afloat. Through our coaching, the team banded together and created a powerful mindset and several strategies for bringing in more business. In all my years of coaching, I have never seen a team so ignited and aligned. They closed their final loan of the year on December 28, 2006. When the calculations were done, they discovered that they achieved their goal. The fees they generated in 2006 were 20.03% higher than those in 2005. They squeaked by their goal by three hundredths of a percent. Such is the power of an aligned team working toward a common goal. Midlife Career Change A seasoned and highly successful commercial real estate agent came to me because he had lost all excitement in his career. He was great at what he did and regularly generated repeat business from real estate investors who loved working with him. He was 37 and in a career slump--there was just nothing new or stimulating for him in his current business. He was married and had two school-age children and was concerned that by changing careers he would sacrifice significant income. Plus, he did not know what he wanted to do next. In our first meeting, we identified three careers that he was interested in and mapped out what was most important to him in a career that he would love. Over the next few months, I coached him to research the three careers and to identify and talk to various people in these businesses. The one career that stood out to him was commercial property development, but he had serious doubts: He believed he did not have the aptitude or skill set. He believed that because of the state of the market, it was a bad time to get into that business and he risked taking a huge financial hit. Had we not been working together, he would have dropped the idea. I had him explore the market further. The more we discussed it, the more it became apparent to him that he wanted to become a developer as long as he knew he had a good chance of success. I had him put together a business plan to define his goals, create a business strategy and see if he could make it work on paper. Meanwhile, I coached him to put his toe in the water by doing a couple of development deals on the side. After a few months of coaching, he decided to leave his firm and open his own development business. Over the next couple of months, we worked on strategies for exiting his old business and forming his new business. He recently opened the doors to his development company and is very excited and looking forward to his new career. He feels excited, renewed and looking forward to the next half of his career. Sales Professional Steve sold payroll services to small- and medium-size business. When we first met, he told me, "I want to be the number 1 salesperson in the company." He was not only ambitious, but tense. He typically worked 70 hours a week, including weekends. He was recently married and spending little time with his bride. He came to me for help in working smarter, so he could meet his sales goals and spend more time at home. Steve spent the first two meetings explaining the complexities of his work schedule. The way he had it set up, he was personally visiting between 15 and 25 potential clients and recommenders of his services, every day, five days a week. Now wonder he was tense. In our meetings, he began to look "outside the box." He discovered a way to be more effective by calling only on key people. He spent more time going deep with prospects, rather than trying to visit as many as possible. As a result, his sales went up and his hours went down. In three months, he went from the number 50 salesperson in California to number 1. During that same time, he reduced his weekly hours from 70 to 35. He started taking off Fridays at noon and no longer worked on weekends. He spent much more time with his wife. Steve was so successful, that his company asked him to train its reps to work the way he did. Because of his outstanding performance he was promoted to a sales management position.
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