FUSION'S BUSINESS FUNDAMENTALS

Become the Professional

YOU

Would Hire

Most of our Partners hold lofty standards for those we elect to do business with, regardless of the type the service. Most individuals want to deal with people they trust, people who are responsive, people who listen and people who really try to make a difference. If we do not receive an elevated level of service and value and our interactions are less than satisfactory, we are often critical of those companies or services. We would not refer them to a friend or colleague.

If we hold ourselves to the same lofty standards that we hold other businesses and people, this one exercise alone would drive up our value significantly.  Spend more time focused on how you would want to be treated. Be honest with yourself and allow this to be your guide for how you manage your touch points.

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Start With

Offering

REAL VALUE

Most Real Estate Agent’s businesses start with how to “sell” an agent’s services with little regard to the value that the agent provides above and beyond the norm.  When an agent’s service is on ‘par” with literally 1000s of agents in an MLS system competing for the same business as well as technology like “Open Door”, this makes for an uphill climb no matter how wonderful the agent’s sales skills.  

So many agents choose to ignore how they buy products and services themselves thinking that somehow their clients are different.  Most consumers and highly sophisticated clients want real “value” for their money.

The best salespeople are those who sell services and products that they truly believe in!! You need to build a level of service that YOU KNOW is special and by far above your competition.  If you build a service that has a lot of value for the clients, the easier it is to win the business. The more clients you will have, the more referral and repeat business and eventually a higher return for the time and money that you invest in your business.

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Function as the

CEO

of Your Business

You must allocate your time in the areas that will make the MOST DIFFERENCE IN MOVING YOUR BUSINESS DUE NORTH. This means that you must NOT ALLOCATE YOUR TIME in areas that do not make the most difference. We call the areas that make the most difference staying in the “Macro”. Those areas that make little difference by comparison we call the “Micro”.  Your job as the CEO is to stay in the “Macro” and out of the “Micro”

Time is our most precious commodity but is wasted and squandered by most real estate agents.  It is far more valuable than money.  Money you can multiply, time you cannot.  It is critical to be incredibly mindful of how we are spending our time.  We cannot get it back. We consistently work on the activities that can help grow the business in a significant way and do not spend ANY time on those activities that will help the business grow in a small way, or not at all.  In other words, work in the Macro and stay out of the Micro.

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Allocate business resources (your time & energy) to the highest and best use

Manage Your Business Based

on INPUTS not OUTPUTS

 Place focus and energy on factors you CAN control. This is one of a few elements that Jeff Bezos the richest and most successful business CEO in the world attributed to the growth of Amazon. There are so many elements operating around us for which we have no control — factors such as the current state of the market, interest rates, how much it rains, or the behavior of other people.  It is imperative to focus your time on what you can control and to build your business on inputs and actions evidenced to have a high correlation with business growth.

Consider this in contrast to where the focus most often lies- the profits and output of your business. In most cases with real estate agents this is defined as the amount of commission earned.  There is not much analysis of how it was obtained or whether growth will or can be sustained. Focusing on results does not provide for a specific understanding on which of the inputs (such as personal effort or time) were responsible for the results achieved.

If you do not develop efficiency in your workload, time and effort, your business will eventually stop growing and will fail to produce consistent results.  Focusing on the type of activities you spend your time doing and the rate at which you do them ARE under your control and will contribute to the generation of prospects, meaningful connections and building involvement in your community where you will impact potential spheres of influence. This will in turn correlate with a steadily growing income.
 

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Stack the Deck

to

Ensure Success

​

We do things in full measure. We fully develop the value of our business, we fully market our services and we provide great service to our clients. 

With these things we go all in.  We believe half measures will yield far less than satisfactory results.  If we are going on a journey to a great destination, we need to stack the deck with everything we can, to ensure we achieve success in the areas that matter most.

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Be Fanatically Dedicated to the Consistency of the Business Plan

In Jim Collins’ study of “Great Companies” there was unveiled a commonality among twenty amazing companies with long-term success. The underlying denominator of these companies was that each company chose their business methodology and then practiced fanatical dedication to exercising a simplistic formula for business growth

If a business owner implements too many different strategies or is constantly trying new things without the time to find and develop increased efficiencies, it is likely that any strategy implemented will be executed at a level that generates disappointing results. This is one of the most common problems facing real estate practitioners.  One of the most recognizable ways we see this failure mechanism manifest itself is through the failure to market correctly. This mistake unfortunately yields a loss in consistency which we have already established is a significant key to success.

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Build Your Brand to a Specific Market vs Direct Marketing or

Generating Leads

Building a brand means building a business that will last and is independent of vendors or advertising outlets. Conversely, building a business based upon lead generation means being dependent on that lead source and its effectiveness.   
Great lead sources seem to all go through a cycle.  Typically, a new source is discovered, it produces very well for a time, such as email, but then other competitors also discover their value and begin to saturate the channel  

Great lead sources, even when they are very productive, can also be very costly AFTER you have paid for them. The cost comes in the form of the work you must do to diligently follow up with those leads. Even with the current “AI” systems that can do some follow up for you, you still must feed the machine “cost”, and then follow up with people that have ZERO real connection with you and are often times unqualified.  If you hire someone to do it, then the follow up becomes hard cost verses lost opportunity cost.

The alternative is to build a reputation of making promises that provide value and mean something to your clients and keep those promises and deliver on time.  Typically, when you have this kind of brand power and someone reaches out to you, they will be well into the “sales” cycle, thus maximizing your time and your employees time and raising profits because of it.
 

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Your Brand is Built on How You Manage ALL of Your Touch Points

Prospective clients will decide to do business with you based on the impression you’ve left not only on them but also on others they may know who have experience with your service. The impression comes through the “touch points” with your business, your employees and you.  These touch points are an indication, and in essence the promises, you make of the type of quality of your service.

This boils down to staying mindful of the quality of your touchpoints each time a client or prospect reaches out and connects in some way with your business (with YOU as the “brand”) or when you reach out to them.

Every single point of “touch” is important if you want to create strong alliances where prospects and clients consider you a trusted advisor. You want to create raving fans who are in love with your service and business so much that they can’t help but spread the news to others.  

Love of your service & your brand is what scales a business and enable it to expand. Love is what gives a business longevity. It is the absolute goal if success is to be attained. Love is created when it shines through with every “touch point” and interaction an individual has with your business.
 

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Market to a Specific Group of People Most Likely to Use Your Services,
Not the Masses!

Which are those individuals or groups that you have had a previous interaction with or who your service is specifically designed for them and clearly sets your business a part or those you are competition with or those that are directly in your immediate area.

Market Only To
a.    Your Niche
b.    Hyper Local
c.    People you Know (Sphere of Influence)

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Have 4 Strong

Cornerstones

in Your

Marketing Plan

We believe in building a marketing plan where each element and activity leverages the previous element for effectivness and increase the effectiveness of the next element to be executed. 

If there is a marketing element or activity that does not leverage the previous or help future activities, we do not waste the resources of time, staff or money for that exercise.

Maximize marketing by always using the following 4 elements

1. A Consistent Theme

   • A great theme is “who you choose will make a difference – Can I interview for the job”

2. Reach 

   • Large enough quantity of prospects to support the number of potential sales opportunities necessary to grow the business but small enough to maximize the following two elements.

3. A lot of Frequency

4. Across a lot of different Modalities

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Business Grows Consistently

with

Routine & Process

Businesses are built around routine and process. These are needed in all stages and all parts of the business. Without them, mediocrity is assured. Guaranteed with great routines, are great business which will be built.
 

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Measure Your Progress

Specifically

Every great advancement of business comes from measuring and analyzing variables. Human flight, medicine, athletics, energy efficiency—nothing improves without measuring the difference between various inputs and outputs. Since your goal is to build a better business, you will need to start specifically measuring your inputs to increase your outputs. Failure and mistakes are no longer your enemies, but instead valuable friends. By being aware of and quantifying your mistakes you can more accurately and specifically assess those practices. In doing so you will identify exactly what needs to be adjusted to develop success.

When you tweak processes as a step in taking corrective action, systems will fine tune and improve over time. The collective improvement will pay off greater than you can ever imagine.

Would you ever invest in a company that was not doing proper accounting? One that was not measuring ROI on specific advertising campaigns? How about pouring your resources into one that continued to pay employees that do not show up for work?

“Of course not!”  But if you look closely, you’ll find that you probably already are doing those things without realizing it. Your business IS a business, yet most agents do not measure their effectiveness, their ROI, or how many hours they work.

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A Long-Term Approach to Find Subtle Nuances Can 10x Results

By Staying on Course

It is easy to drift from your business strategy and methodology. It is critical to prevent this common error. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel; you simply need to build on what is already in place. A fitting example of this can be seen in the improvement of man’s ability to fly, starting with the Wright Brothers’ first flight. The speed, comfort and safety of air travel we enjoy today was derived from a series of small, seemingly minuscule improvements over an extended period of time. The compounding effect of this resulted in our ability to safely fly from coast to coast in relative comfort and security in just a few hours.

Another poignant example is shown when we imagine two artists with unique styles and creative perspectives performing the same piece. One may make you cringe while the other rendition may be so beautiful and emotionally touching that it brings you to tears. This is because talented artists practice their craft and refine subtle nuances that make significant differences in the outcome and final product/experience.

If you are always chasing the next trend, it will be impossible for you to invest the time to discover the nuances that make your brand uniquely YOU and your work truly effective.

Stay the course and make small adjustments to become progressively better. The accumulation of those improvements will pay huge dividends.
 

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Unless You Take Personal Responsibility You Will Not Succeed

We are your partner and we will do a lot of work to help you leverage your efforts. We will give you an opportunity to do things that will help your business grow more because we are taking a lot of the work and responsibility of tasks off your shoulders.

However, you are the one ultimately responsible for the success.  Unless you completely accept this your business will not succeed.

Your personal work ethic, a dedication to win the trust of your clients and a strong connection to your community are the anchors of executing a successful Business Plan. The business flourishes because of the owner’s commitment to exuding and showing LOVE for people and wanting to achieve the best outcomes for his or her clients.

A fundamental tenet of this Business Plan is that you must become the agent you yourself would hire. You must provide services equal to, or better than the Agent you would hire. It is critical that you develop, dedicate, and even become fanatically passionate about providing the highest level of service possible to your clients.

 

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