Beside the private residential market, I am also active in the commercial property segment and have frequently come in contact with many retail and F&B operators.
Some of them are pretty big scale, well-known businesses while some are functioning on a smaller scale, of which many are spending many hours personally handling most aspects of the business.

It is almost inevitable that I start to analyse my own Real Estate Business and compare with other forms of businesses.

A few questions arise.

Does Bill Gates do the programming of Microsoft product? Does he need to do the corporate sales for Microsoft software? How did Microsoft get so big?

Perhaps Microsoft is too corporate and too big a business to compare my small real estate business with.

How about Robert Kiyosaki? How about businesses like Sakae Sushi, Charles & Keith right here at home?

What are their winning strategies ?

Hmmm… There’s a definitely a great deal of branding involved. And I think there’s definitely a well thought and tested system to leverage on and automate the entire business process.

In my personal humble opinions, given my lack of academic qualifications in the field of Business Management, Automation and Leverage are probably two key factors that determine the very important resource that money cannot buy – TIME.

Theoretically, With more Time saved through an adoptation of a systematic approach to automating whole or part of our business, success is simply a matter of duplicating the concoction of tools and process that had blended and worked well.

Perhaps from my previous training as an Engineer, I always believe that leveraging on technology is the most efficient way to achieve that duplication effect.

The theory is simple – more time saved from doing mundane and low-productivity work means we have more time created to perform functions that tools cannot replace – such as buidling business relationships through more face time, negotiating deals and finally being in a capacity to take time to enjoy the fruits of our labour.

As a real estate salesperson, am I able to have 100% automation by leveraging on other people’s time and efforts? I can’t – mainly due to the nature of my business and partly due to the stifling regulations to ensure that the black sheep in the Industry are flushed out.

But probably, I think , we can automate part of the business process.

This is a huge topic to discuss, really.

Let’s just touch on some questions on a particular process – Prospecting.

Being a real estate agent is not for the faint hearted – We prospect for lisings to market. And then, we also need to prospect for tenants or buyers for those listings that we have prospected!

Questions:

Are we still sticking to conventional passive methods of advertising and waiting for calls?

How many of us are killing ourselves with the massive amount of exhorbitant advertisement fees on newspaper ad that forms part of history when the day ends?

How many of us are engaging amateur telemarketers with whom we ourselves are so often annoyed by their lack of empathy when they start uttering the first words , reminiscent of a just-too-familiar sales script?

What’s your strategy when the DO-NOT-CALL / DO-NOT-SMS name list starts to take effect this year?

Many would say – walk the ground then! Back to basics!

I agree. I have been doing that.
Trust me. It may not be for everybody.
Why? Reasons: Age, health, discipline.

First, it is physically demanding. Imagine 2 hours of continuous patrol of an entire landed property estate under a humid and hot environment.
I think if we aim to run for the next Election, we stand a pretty good chance of winning.

It is effective to establish rapport but it takes time and a lot of follow ups to make things happen.
It probably is a solution but we definitely need something to complement, if not replace it so that we could be performing more productive engagement that demands more of our skills and intellect than physical stamina and luck.

That’s the reason I have researched and established a system based on Webinars. Yes, Webinars – Seminars on the Web – that really provide eductional , helpful and insightful information to the public so that the prospective audience achieves the following:
1. save time travelling to attend property viewings or live seminars.
2. retain their privacy to just want to observe you as a salesperson first before engaging in business conversation with you.
3. experience a trusting and non intrusive approach right from the beginning of the business engagement process.

I believe this system of automation and leveraging on technology works as I have experienced positive result from the Webinars that I am already holding on regular basis,
such as those found in : http://SingaporeProperty.TV and http://Facebook.com/RealEstateBusinessWebinar

The challenge though is that it involves certain skill sets ranging from public speaking to handling technical tools that could be too overwhelming for many salespersons, if they are not guided properly in the entire Webinar system.

This, to some, could be good news as the barrier of entry is set higher.

I feel it is important for us to set the distinction between those who are determined to bring professionalism a notch up and those who are still functioning unprofessionally and trying to fool themselves into thinking that consumers are as gullible.

This is just the beginning.

I am glad to be sharing the system and thoughts in my next sharing session with my Group – The Eagle’s Nest of GPS Alliance.