Christmas Party!!!

Parti Noël – « Sutton »
Dîner *** Danser***Prix de Présences

Venez supporter vos bureaux! Mettez vos souliers de danse et nous joindre pour une soirée fabuleuse avec vos amis et vos collègues!
Repas merveilleuse de quatre services, 2 litres de vin par table, 2 « cocktail » complémentaires avec vos hors d’œuvres, DJ, danse, et beaucoup plus!
Nombreux prix de présences.

ESPACE LIMITÉE – RÉSERVER TÔT.
PREMIÈRE ARRIVÉ PREMIÈRE SERVIT!

Date : jeudi le 15 décembre 2005
Heure: 18h-19h –« cocktails » et hors d’œuvres
suivi par souper, danse et bar payant
Endroit: Olympia (en haut du restaurant Casa Grecque)
3855B, boul.St Jean
Dollard des Ormeaux
Prix des billets: 50$ pour non membres /épouses/invitées
30$ membres
Date limite de réservation: lundi le 12 décembre 2005

Pour plus de renseignements veuillez contacter les suivants:
Ingrid Brauer (Performer) (514-298-4639
Daniel Dagenais (Expert) (514) 917-8777
Lucy Gacki (du Suroît) (514) 594-4964
Organisé par votre comité social.

**Promotion Spéciale De Votre Comité Social**
Réservé avec paiement pour les deux, la parti du bureau ainsi que la parti du nouvel an Sutton Québec, et payez seulement 85$ total.
30$ (parti bureau) + 75$ (parti Sutton Québec taxes inclus)=105$ - 20$(comité social) = 85$.
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Nom:_______________________ ¨ Membre ¨ Non membre Bureau : _________


# billets requis__________ Montant total ___________ ¨ Cheque inclus (payable au Sutton Performer)

Choix de repas: ¨ Saumon ¨ Roast-beef
Choix de vin : ¨ Vin rouge ¨ Vin blanc

SVP retournez ce formulaire remplis au secrétariat à votre bureau.

Brokers Conference in Toronto

Robin and Linda recently attended the Sutton Annual Brokers Conference in Toronto.

The Quebec Delegation

(l to r.Michel Selye, Laval; Linda; Yvan Lemay, Sherbrooke; Christophe Folla, president Sutton Quebec; Julie Gaucher, vp Sutton Quebec; Eric Tremblay, St-Jean-sur-Richelieu; Raymond Cyr, Laurentians; Errol Mongrain, Gatineau; Francois Leger, Laurentians; Robin; Yvon Cousineau, Est de Montreal.

WIll it fit in the bag???

Linda with Lance, co-founder of Sutton Canada

Robin with Scott Shaw, co-founder and President of Sutton Canada.

Overcoming objections

Objections can be broken down into two parts. Part one is the concern of the client or prospect; part two is the solving of that concern. You need to be proficient at approaching each of these parts.

Many agents make their mistakes on the first part, which gives them no chance to be successful in the end. They are not focused enough to understand the concerns of the clients or prospects.

When you get an objection from buyers or sellers, make sure that you hear clearly what they are saying. If you interpret the objection wrongly, the answer you give, no matter how eloquent, will not be sufficient to overcome their area of concern.

Let me give you a few techniques I have used to turn objections into dollars. I would pause to make sure I clearly understood and repeat what they said or ask them to explain further. This technique will do a few things for me. First, I could confirm what their objection was to insure I had understood it properly. Second, it would enable me to be well prepared when I responded. I had bought myself a few seconds while my brain prepared my answer. I was able to respond in a powerful, well-planned manner. Third, I would avoid the big mistake of trying to answer the objection before the buyer or seller gets the objections completely out of his mouth, as if stopping the buyer or seller from stating the objection completely will stop the objection and it will go away. The objection is legitimate to that person, no matter how ridiculous it may sound. He feels it is legitimate, so it is legitimate. Interrupting can cause the seller or buyer to become irritated with you. It may not matter how well you handle the objection if you interrupt him.

Once you have properly understood and evaluated the client’s concern, you have moved to the solving stage. You need to train yourself mentally to believe that objections are good at this stage. I know that many of you are going to reread that sentence a few times and then decide that I am nuts. But the truth is that if the clients were not interested in what you have to offer, they would not be giving you objections. They would not bother if they were not interested in the home you showed them or interested in having you list their home for sale.

Objections truly are an opportunity to get a signed contract. When a buyer or seller gives you an objection, he is presenting you an opportunity to close. He is basically saying, "I like this, but there is one factor I do not like." The buyer might say, "If the home you are showing me had a larger patio, it would be right for me." All you have to do is get him a larger patio and you have made a sale. You must put your problem-solver hat on. If you solve his problem, then you get the opportunity to ask him to buy. The client can say, "Yes," or give you another objection. If he gives you another objection, you get another opportunity to solve the problem and ask him to buy. This procedure may continue for a few objections. Do not give up; you are getting closer to a sale. As long as you are able to continue to solve his problem the client will buy. Remember, you are the problem solver.

You are the one in control, as long as you continue to ask questions. Your questions will move the client forward to the ultimate decision. The goal is to get a decision out of a client quickly. Even if that decision is "no," you will have invested the minimum amount of time to get there.

Join the ranks of the highly skilled and highly paid professional realtors. Change your mental approach to objections. View them as the opportunity to make the sale. Make sure first that you clearly understand the objection of the client. Then put on your problem-solving hat and make the sale.

Commission Drops???? No Thanks...

Sometimes when the seller does not want to pay your full commission, they may be right - you're just not worth it. Don't worry, it's nothing that focus, education, compassion and implementation won't cure. However, if you are worth it, then print this article out as your call to action!

When asked to cut one percent from a six percent commission, that you will probably co-op with a peer, you de-motivate the co-op and they negatively impact the marketing campaign. The really dangerous situation is that if you take a ½% cut from a 3% side, you are putting your commission on sale for 17% off.

"Well," you say, "why am I any different? Everyone has sales" The profit margin in real estate can be brutal. Many agents have 60% or more in overhead, when you take into consideration your broker, income taxes, and other overhead. This simple little reduction now translates into a 42% reduction of net profit, based on the fact that approximately 40 cents of every dollar goes to your bank account. This is a business practice that is guaranteed to keep you from innovation, success, and retirement.

If you're worth it, this is how to say "no thanks" to commissionectomy, in a warm fuzzy way.

1. ?Mr. Johnson, please allow me to restate some of the extras and differences that my marketing plan and service delivers????

2. ?Mr. Johnson, let me show how I earn my full commission by positioning your home in the marketplace. The buyers will be found by lead generation, focused demographically and economically to make my solicitations interesting. This type of lead generation creates multiple buyers that may lead to multiple offers and thus less negotiation of price.?

3. ?Mr. Johnson, I understand that is your bottom line, but I need my full fee to offer my services. Let us both ask the buyer to pay for it in a higher price. However, after marketing the home, we may have to reduce the price after 30 days. If the market will not realize our higher price, I would like your "okay" now for a price reduction that is more in keeping with the comparable sales.?

4. ?Mr. Johnson, it's all about your net proceeds, right? Well, let me show you how working with me can increase your net proceeds. (1) Discovery of latent problems early in the listing by using one of my team members, my home inspector. We can sometimes discover and cure any deficiencies prior to the new buyer requesting "above and beyond" remedies. (2) Here at our board of Realtors, homes sell for an average of 96% of list price. My average is 98% of list price. Because of my negotiating experience, I bring 2% more to the table. Apply that 2% to your $150,000 home and we have a $3000 increase in net. (3) ??..(what do you do to increase your client's net proceeds?)?

5. "Mr. Johnson, what business are you in? How do you respond to requests for lower prices, fees, etc?"

6. "Yes Mr. Johnson, I understand that Brand X will do it for less; however, when you buy something, you look at all the features for comparison, right?" Then let's look at a comparison chart of: use with discount brokers
A. Number of signs up (more signs equals more buyer calls).

B. Sold properties in last twelve months (proof of excellent marketing).

C. Number of agents in company (all your sales people!).

D. Systems and strategies (show them your checklists that guarantee consistency in service).

E. Education and experience (you want the best CPA for your audit, right?).

F. Marketing powers (let's check some internet sites!).

G. Years in the business.

H. Testimonial letters.

I. Proven lead generation systems.

J. Number of buyer contracts in force.

K. Resumes of all team members.

L. Technological proficiency.

M. Internet search engine superiority.

N. One hour return phone call guarantee.

O. (Where does the competition eat your dust?)

?I will mark the boxes for myself and the ones that I am sure of for my competition. You can mark the ones I leave blank on the competition. Based upon their listing presentation, you should be able to fill them in. Then we will decide.?

7. Using the old speaker's standby of "What should we eliminate from the marketing plan" is negative and I have never used it.

8. ?Mr. Johnson, I have offered discounts to volume clients. What other business can you offer our team??

9. The 30-year-old stand by, "No, next question please."

10. ?Mr. Johnson, is this a test to see how I will negotiate for the best price on your home??

If anything happens after reading this article, weakness in the face of a commissionectomy will not be one of them. You just might realize that their property listing does not work for you and the most profitable move may be a strategic retreat. When do you say "pass"? Figure your bottom line before you go. Understand that even a small reduction will severely affect your net, then overcome the objections using some of my favorites above. If the pain still exceeds the pleasure, pass it on.

Are you driving your customers crazy???

No sales professional would ever do or say anything that would intentionally antagonize a prospect. But what about those unintentional miscues? Whether you've offended on purpose or in innocence, the result is likely to be the same: Antagonize the prospect - lose the sale.

Reflect back on your recent turndowns. Did you make an effective presentation? Did the prospect have an open dialog with you? Did you listen to the prospect's important needs? If there's nothing amiss in your presentation or service, perhaps the prospects decided it's you they could do without. Take a moment and check some areas where your presence perhaps has been less than welcome.

1. When you meet with the prospect, do your manners go out the window? A frequent complaint of buyers is that some agents fail to use common courtesy - sitting down before being invited to do so, cutting off the prospect in the middle of a sentence, being late for an appointment, complaining when kept waiting beyond the appointed time are just a few forms of bad manners. Keep in mind, you never get the second chance to make a favorable first impression.

2. Are you too polite? In a sincere attempt not to rub the prospect the wrong way, you could move too far in the other direction. Politeness helps create a friendly, sales-producing environment but an overdose of friendliness and compliments can lose you the prospect's respect and kill the sale.

3. How deep is your knowledge? You cannot impress a prospect with mere superficial information that can be found on the Internet or in brochures and other literature about your agency and your services. A professional salesperson must be able to provide answers to what buyers want to know - why they need you, how your services will solve their problem, how you will work with the prospect, and what can be expected from you and your company during the search, negotiating and after the sale process. That's consultative selling.

4. Do you go beyond features? If your presentation focuses solely on your personal services, the prospect must determine whether they can use all or part of your entire list. Many won't bother to do that. Buyers are interested in features but they are far more interested in benefits and advantages those features represent to them . Always remember the prospect is thinking WIIFM ? What's In It For Me? Do your homework. Before your initial meeting with the client, learn everything you can about their needs, interests, and personal information. Then in your first face-to-face meeting, ask more specific questions to convert your knowledge and services into benefits and advantages that will meet their needs.

5. Are your calls too often or not often enough? Call too often and you can become an annoyance. Don't call often enough and you're perceived as not interested in their business. A simple rule to remember: Base your call schedules on each customer's desire. Some want periodic updates through the negotiating, inspection and loan approval; others want to know details of every step. Take care that you tailor your calls to the prospect's wishes.

6. Do you keep your promises? Closely examine the statements you're using in discussing the purchasing process. Do you make offhand remarks that you soon forget but the buyer takes as promises? Your casual assurance may win you the sale, but it will probably also create a dissatisfied client. Never promise what you can't deliver. In fact, the old adage, "Under promise, over deliver," still works.

Remember, you are part of the package the prospect considers in buying their home.

No photo - No Sale - No Joke!!!

Question: How many agents does it take to put a photo on the web? Answer: One - but you'd never know it by looking at some real estate sites. Recent studies put the numbers around 6 in 10 listings with one photo of the property. Which leads to a second question: How many buyers do you get without a photo on the listing? Answer: Zero.

Even worse is the agent who doesn't publish his or hers own photo on the corporate website.... LET'S FIX IT......go to suttonup...my info....and upload your photo.

No kidding!

It's no joke. Too many online listings lack important elements of Internet marketing. For starters, textual content is usually minimal at best: less specs end up on the web than end up on fancy printouts, leaving web listings with the bland ?2 bed, 2 bath? and hardly anything else about the rest of the home. And some listings with descriptions look undecipherable, full of word abbreviations no normal buyer cares to untangle. At a bare text level, too many agents continue to treat the Internet like a newspaper ad, conserving type as if it cost per letter, when a web-page ideally could hold hundreds of words.

And most mysterious of all, almost four in ten listings lack photos. Not even one.

It's a mystery, since most real estate agents claim to own a digital camera. And they seem to have no problem making printouts with photos, or mailing postcards with multiple images. Yet, on page after page of Internet listings, Joe Consumer finds nothing but bizarre boxes stating ?Too new for photo? or ?Photo Missing.?

Too new for a photo? What do you say to that? That you didn't have time to take a photo the night you took the listing contract (i.e., the night you were hired)? That it's the office administrator's job to upload it to the web site? That it's too hard to upload a photo? Give me a break. If those are your excuses, let's hope nobody tells your sellers. For every listing without a photo, the only explanation is: The listing agent failed to do their job!

How does this happen? Listing agents obviously arrive at presentations with lots of color images - photos of the company, their photo on a personal resume, glossy photos of past consumers. And the bottom line argument of any listing presentation is mostly; ?Hire me because I'm the marketing expert.? So what's the deal with Internet listings without the most important marketing element - the photo ?

In fact, some sellers already promote their properties online better than many agents. Browse any for-sale-by-owner web sites, where listings with any photos most likely have multiple photos. Why? Because the sellers bought the same camera you did; they just have the motivation to use it. Click, click, click and they can add a dozen photos faster than many a REALTOR. They can do it in real time, within seconds of purchasing an online ad.

Oh, sorry, you already knew that. It's been a major concern lately, that sellers can create attractive, compelling marketing pieces online just like the professionals can. Why, then, would they possibly need you - especially when any ?preview? of your work reveals 40% of listings without a single photo? Looks to them like, for four in ten sellers, you couldn't be bothered to do the marketing right.

Internet listings without photos get no clicks. None. Not even a quick glance. Buyers don't take the time to click text-only ads, just like they never read text-only classifieds in the newspaper. Ever see a listing sheet without a photo? Didn't think so. So why do we see so many photo-free listings online?

Well, it's not because of hard technology, that's for sure. Agents can upload photos into company pages in seconds. And it's not lack of hardware: most agents with photo-free listings on the web don't have any problems using their digital camera to print photo-full flyers. It just seems like 40% of agents are not doing their job.

Oh, well, the photos get up there within a few days, you say? A few days in an on-demand world is almost as bad as never. Unless you are hoping your sellers will forget their home is for sale for a few days after they hire you, ?a few days? is just a poor excuse, isn't it? A few days?. Harrumpf!

Not you, you say? Your listings have photos. Well, don't congratulate yourself just yet. Even if you have a photo or two on every listing, when other agents in your company fail to upload photos, your company's web site will still look partially empty. Any prospective seller who previews your photo-lacking company site may not invite anyone to make a presentation. So it's not just your photos that are important; it's a company-wide competitive issue.

Heck, if your competitors are smart, they'll use this fact when comparing themselves to you in a presentation. Imagine a competitor previewing your company site, determining how many listings lack photos, and then mentioning those stats as a powerful comparative statement when they compete for the same listing. We do it all the time in this industry. We have this feature, they don't; they do this to market the home, we don't. Well, what about, we have almost twice as many photos per listing on our web site as they do. Will that make a difference to you, Mr. Seller, when choosing someone to market your home online?

You bet it will.

Customer Service Ideas

Here are just ten inexpensive customer service ideas you can implement tomorrow to blow their socks off:

First, now that we're under contract:

1. Start telling your prospects what you do all day.

The educated prospect perceives the most value in what you do. Talk about your technologies, your "team" (even lenders and title reps), your follow-through, etc.

2. Save your money and send your database fewer mailings.

I recommend you send a mailing four times a year and replace the rest of your mailings with email and a couple of phone calls. Be sure to respond to your email within two hours. If you don't, your competition will! Rather than having your phone calls look so self-serving (asking for referrals and future business), instead ask which of the free services would be of particular interest to them in 2006. This, of course, leads into the question: Will they be considering buying and selling in 2006 and do they know of anyone else thinking about buying or selling in 2006?

3. Obtain email addresses from your clients.

This will be a primary source of communication for most people. It is more professional than answering machines and your ability to download important information is easier. The future of database system communication is here. Get those email addresses when you telemarket your person of influence.

4. Set up separate code words/pages on your website for each individual buyer.

Your buyer can log on in the morning and receive their own personal list of properties to look at plus any special messages designed particularly for them from you. This makes them feel extremely special and it will differentiate you from the rest of the real estate agents in town.

5. Stop making your assistant do ineffective things.

When you show up for listing presentations, make sure you have a sign, a brochure caddie, and preliminary market brochures. I suggest about 50 just to get them started. Remember, you've already asked for two keys in your pre-listing package and this "field package" in the trunk of your car merely completes the presentation. You have just eliminated the need for field personnel and you have provided amazing on-the-spot customer service. Remember that getting a sign up late taints your efforts for the next six months.

6. On the "Just Listed" cards you send out, make sure you tell everyone how inexpensively you can buy the property with a start rate P&I payment.

At the bottom, offer free lists of properties available in your town that can be purchased for less on a P&I payment than what you just advertised on the "Just Listed" card. It's an amazing customer service item that keeps the phone ringing.

7. A lot of you think you were offering wonderful services when you were offering free CMAs. I want you to now offer free buyer lists.

In 2006, we are putting buyers under contract and we are widely advertising the fact so that prospects are encouraged to call us for our free buyer lists of wants and needs.

8. Make all your listings immediately cancelable.

Provide more flexibility to the seller than any other person in your town. Charge a nominal $500 cancellation fee that is fully refundable should the property only be listed and sold through you in the future.

9. At the listing presentation, let your sellers and buyers know that you will only be in contact with them once every two weeks.

Return their phone calls the same day you receive them. Remember, under-promising and over-delivering makes them clients for life.

10. Make decisions on buyers faster.

Don't lead them to believe that you're going to be helping them and then put their file in the ?nether? regions of your desk until it becomes embarrassing to call them back. Tell them immediately that your abilities may not fulfill their needs and refer them on. Never leave a client un-serviced, even if you don't want to work with them. Obviously you're going to ask for a referral fee when you refer them out.

As you can see, all these service items will gain a greater perception of your abilities to help the realistic client and, at the same time, increase your profits. Implementing one, simple, inexpensive customer service regiment a month will guarantee you remaining a "Big Fish" in the future. Start writing them in your calendar today for immediate implementation!

Meeting Loblaws 24 November

Heather Mallette will be our guest speaker on 24th November at Loblaws on the 40 at St.Charles, Kirkland. The meeting will be between 10 and 11.
Heather is a personnal accountant dealing in tax issues for real estate agents.
The subject of her presentation will be your tax obligations as self-employed persons.

Heather Mallette sera notre invité le 24 novembre chez Loblaw sur le 40 et St.Charles à Kirkland. Le réunion sera tenu entre 10h et 11h.
Heather est une camptable qui specialise sur les dossiers d'impôt des agents immobiliers.
Le sujet de la présentation sera vos obligations d'impôt des travailleurs autonomes.

After much searching for an easy, accessible way to communicate with everyone in a real time basis welcome to the sutton expert blog.......
We can't guarantee that this will be updated on a daily basis, but all pertinent information regarding the business, news, achievements, meetings, training will be posted....so come back often.....