GUIDE TO BECOMING AN ELITE BROKER: from salesperson to business owner
By
|
27/02/2009 8:00:00 AM
|
0
comments
Building your brokering business requires you to think of yourself as a business owner from day one. Although you may be working in the trenches and writing some of your own deals, you have to set yourself up mentally for the tasks at hand.
"You have to declare yourself president of your own corporation," says Colin Dreyer, president and CEO of Verico Financial Group. "And if you think like that from the outset, then you have a much better degree of success than just being a salesperson."
This means that, regardless of who you work for, what commission splits you're on or what other financial arrangements you have with your company, you have to act like a business person. The first step involves creating a mission statement and determining what you want to achieve through your business.
Next, you have to set the goals that will help you accomplish what's set out in your mission statement. This is where creating a detailed business plan comes into play. This business plan will act as your roadmap to success.
"You don't build a house without a blueprint and so you can't build your success without a blueprint," says Dreyer, adding that most people fail in this business because they're so caught up in the functionality of creating a business plan that they're not thinking about how crucial this roadmap is to their long-term success.
He suggests that brokers/agents ask themselves the following five questions when creating a business plan: What is my value proposition? How am I going to stay true to my goals? How do I analyse my business plan? Does my plan fit into my mission statement? And, how do I move forward and improve upon my business plan?
Dreyer says that it's crucial for brokers to reserve a time each week to work on their businesses, which means taking a step back and ensuring they ask themselves the above questions to pave their roads to success. And in slower times, it's that much more important to always seek facts on the changing market and how what's going on can affect your business plan.
Leadership
In order to become a business owner who can build a successful team around you, you also have to be a leader. So how do you get people to follow you?
"The key is you need to be able to prove that you can feed them leads," says Greg Williamson, president/owner of Canada Mortgage Direct in Calgary and president of Greg Williamson Consulting Services.
Especially for people fairly new to brokering, they need to know that the business leader is going to guide them and send them leads. "That person has to either know that you can do it or you have business already lined up and you're going to feed them. Either that, or they have to take a fairly big leap of faith in you," he says.
In his case, because he's been leading a team for so long, Williamson has no problem nowadays finding people who want to work with him.
"I typically have more people than I have business and that's because I've been able to prove that I can deliver leads," he says. "I was absolutely blown away by people I've come across whose splits and/or their arrangements with salespeople are absolutely shocking. I couldn't' believe it - they're going out and getting the leads, but they give away all the commission."
Williamson runs his independent brokerage a little bit differently. "In our business, you need to make the decision of whether you want to run a mortgage brokerage or a sales team," he says. "I pay my people 35-40%. If I'm feeding you, that's what you get."
Although, he does also have agents who earn 90% splits by generating their own leads.
Bob Ord, president and CEO of Mortgage Architects, agrees that splits have become too high in the industry and, in order for continued growth, there needs to be profit margins that can go towards continued research and development of the business. His lead planners all make the same 90% commission splits.
This low profit margin is why Williamson decided a while ago that it was of no interest to him to build a mortgage brokerage.
"It's way more profitable for me to spend my time building a sales team," he says.
The reality is, you can't afford to take time off from your deals to train somebody who is making an 80% split because it's more profitable for you to do your own deals.
"We tried that at the brokerage level as an independent and it was dismal. I would go out of my way to tell people that you're crazy to do that," Williamson says.
Both Ord and Williamson agree that too many brokers are focused on splits as opposed to focusing on the amount of money they take home at the end of the year.
"Don't tell salespeople to worry about the split - worry about what the dollars in their pockets are," says Williamson. "In other words, don't worry if you're only making a 35% split and that sounds bad. But if you're doing 12 or 15 deals a month, you're making $130,000 a year. Compare that to some guy at another place that's at a 90% split that's doing one deal every two months," he adds.
Maintaining a positive outlook
In terms of accountability and execution, it's important to monitor your self-talk (ie, how your thought processes work as you deal with issues that arise in your business).
"Instead of calling yourself a dumb bugger for making a mistake, ask yourself what you learned," Dreyer says.
For instance, in times like these when the market is dipping, pay special attention to your actions so that you can better handle slower times that may arise in the future. Another trait that a successful business owner possesses is the desire for ongoing education, including business and industry seminars.
If time management, accountability or ongoing education are issues for you, Dreyer suggests you seek out a mentor who will hold you accountable to the success of your business.
"The reason people go to motivational seminars is because they want to get motivated. The reason that they go again next year is because they didn't act on what they learned the first time," he says.
When you leave a motivational seminar, you're likely hyped about what you heard. Unfortunately, once you leave the room and get back to work, you fail to make the time to implement anything you learned in the motivational talk. A mentor can help guide you in the right direction when you need a push.
And although a mentor can help you identify your weaknesses, most people already know where they lie. You have to take a look at yourself and zero in on your weaknesses in order to overcome them. Plus, you can always build a team around you with people who complement your weaknesses.
"You have to find out what your strengths and weaknesses are and fill them in," says Dreyer. "And if you're having difficulty examining it, then get a mentor who will help you point them out. It's okay to have strengths and weaknesses if you know how to work with them."
The biggest mistake is getting frustrated and giving up, because options are available.
"This whole process is a journey, so it's going to change next year and the year after, and there's no finish line unless you get out of the business," says Dreyer.
"A lot of people think because they work for a particular company that the company should do everything for them. But when you think as a business owner, you think what do I need to invest? How can I improve my training? How can I improve my technology? How can I improve my exposure to the market?" he adds.
So instead of sitting back and expecting your brokerage to take care of everything for you, be proactive and secure your own fate. CMP