June 30, 2025 • 18 mins
As the financial year rolls over, it’s the perfect time to review what’s working in your real estate business—and what’s not. In this no-fluff conversation, we dig into the strategies that set top performers apart.
High achievers know the value of honest self-assessment. How strong is your listing presentation? Many agents rate themselves a 5 or 6 out of 10—risky business when others are presenting sharp, persuasive pitches that win listings. We show you how to spot weaknesses and sharpen your delivery through practice and polish.
Tech is another game-changer, especially AI tools and dictation that boost efficiency. Instead of getting lost in too many options, pick one or two tools that save time and help you stay connected with more clients, without losing the personal touch.
Knowing your numbers is key. By breaking down last year’s presentations, conversion rates and lead sources, you’ll spot what to double down on. “Volume negates luck”—a solid pipeline protects you from the ups and downs.
Finally, what’s your “one thing”? The single skill or habit that, if improved, would level up your business more than anything else. Whether it’s managing vendor expectations, pushing through call reluctance, or nailing your pitch—committing to that focus for the next 12 months will be a game-changer.
These next 30 days will shape your spring. Ready to make this your breakthrough year?
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tom Panos (00:01):
Tom Panos, john McGrath, troy Malton.
Welcome to another edition ofMillion Dollar Agent the podcast
.
I have to say I do believe weare the longest serving real
estate podcast in Australasia.
Because I've got to say, johnand Troy, I was looking at it
when we started, there was noneother so we could actually say
(00:22):
we were the only, we were thebiggest, we were the best.
But I've got to tell you, thereare so many podcasts, there are
so many, even real estateagents.
Now I've noticed I don't wantto have a guess at the
percentage, but there's a largenumber of real estate agents
that have entered the world ofpodcasting.
John McGrath (00:43):
None been doing it as long as us, Tommy None been
as long as us.
Troy Malcolm (00:46):
He's pioneers.
Tom Panos (00:49):
Troy, I often get asked by people how financially
viable successful is a podcast.
I actually say, look, I'm notquite sure about other people's
experiences, but we're revenueneutral.
It costs us nothing, we makenothing, it's a zero project.
John McGrath (01:06):
Tom, you've got to say we hit our numbers.
Every year we hit our numbersExactly, exactly.
And, tom, you're coming to usfrom overseas.
Tom Panos (01:15):
Thank you for that.
Yes, I am coming to you from aplace called Maklior in Greece.
I'm actually going to Londontoday.
I'm going there to do aconference for two days, and I
just thought, while I'm going tothe UK to do the conference,
I'll tag in a bit of Greece andget a couple of weeks, and
that's where I'm at.
But today is right around theworld, though some parts of the
(01:38):
world don't have financial yearsas being ending on the 30th of
June I know that New Zealanddoesn't, but a lot of the world,
including Australia, have thisJune to July period.
I know that a lot of realestate companies were January to
June, but this is a good timeof the year, john and Troy, to
sit back, have a reflection.
(02:00):
What's working?
What's not working?
What are you going to change?
What are you going to do moreof?
What are you going to do lessof?
Over to you, john and Troy.
John McGrath (02:08):
Yeah, critical, tommy.
I mean I think that's reallywhat we decided just before we
were going to talk about today.
Look, I know you're big onnumbers and ratios and I'd love
you to talk more about that in aminute.
The things that came to mindwhen I was preparing for this a
that came to mind when I waspreparing for this.
A couple of things.
Number one is you know, one ofthe key skills, troy, is listing
(02:31):
presentation.
Right, and when I say to a lotof agents I'm coaching and as
you know, I coach a lot ofagents and I say zero to 10, 10
being world best, where do yourate your listing presentation?
And the number that generallycomes up is four, five or six.
And I kind of look at that andI think, man, like that is, you
know, that's just not goodenough.
And you know, one of myfavorite sayings is in the age
of information, you know,ignorance is a choice.
(02:52):
Um, there is no excuse now foranyone to have anything less
than a nine out of 10 listingpresentation, unless you just
haven't taken the time to unpackit, think about it, uh, role
play it with someone else,rebuild it.
So you know, one of the things,tom, I'd be thinking there's
two or three things and I'lljust jot those down and see what
you guys think.
(03:12):
Definitely I'd be looking athow do you create a nine out of
10 listing presentation key?
Second thing is yeah, this isthe age of technology.
I'd be looking at whattechnology and just choose one
or two.
Don't choose 20 or 30, becauseit's never going to happen.
What technology solutions andI'll mention mine in a second
should you be adopting to savetime, to increase your
(03:34):
scalability, to leverage and soforth?
There's two things that I'm veryfocused on currently.
One of them is AI.
I mean, we all know we heardabout AI.
Some people are using it, somepeople are right into it.
Others are too scared to lookat it.
I mean, just pick an AI whichis the best AI doesn't matter,
just find one.
I use Claude.
A lot of people use ChatGPT.
(03:55):
There's so many good ones.
Just pick one and start usingit.
Whatever the monthlysubscription is, subscribe for a
year and, just as you'rethinking through problems or
situations, just start using itto get good at it.
So I think AI is just going tothis.
The next two or three years isgoing to massively ramp up.
The other one I use time is nowdictation.
(04:16):
I rarely type an email that'slonger than a couple of a couple
of words.
I I go to dictation.
I've just I've got a doubleclick.
A double click, I've trainedone of my keys on my keyboard to
a shortcut.
I double hit the function keyand then I just speak, just like
I'm speaking now, and it gets a95% right, 98% right.
(04:36):
But things like emails, thingslike even using chat, gpt or
Claude, John, I'm fascinated.
Tom Panos (04:44):
Can I ask you so?
Dictation is that you use itspecifically on your MacBook or
on your mobile-type devices.
John McGrath (04:53):
Yeah, good question, both.
You know, right now I'm on myhome studio display, so I'll
just hit it twice and then I'lldictate a letter.
I'll dictate a message.
I've got messages open on mydisplay.
I've got my email open on it,I've got my clod and my AI open.
And again, really do I actually.
And you know it's one of thosethings, troy, I used to think,
(05:16):
oh, but it'll get some wordswrong, it'll spell check wrong,
and then someone will read itand I'll make a fool of myself.
You know, dictation's improvedso much and yet occasionally the
wrong word goes in there.
But most people pick up on itand they get the message, and I
(05:37):
reckon I spend 10%, maybe 20%maximum, or the same amount of
time to get things wrong.
So I'll just go to all mymessages, click on one after the
other and I'll dictate a quickresponse, just like you do in
the car.
So you know, just this is theyear to embrace technology, and
they're just two, but especiallyAI, that I think are really,
really critical.
And the last one, the last onewould be it's a really simple
(05:58):
one and it's kind of I've stolenit a bit from Tommy Ferry, from
Eric a few years ago, butreality is 5% of the people in
your phone are probably going tosell their property in the next
12 months.
Why wouldn't you go through andjust contact as many preferably
all of people as you can in yourphone and just check in?
Tom just wanted to see howthings were going.
It's been an interesting andturbulent year for some
(06:20):
industries.
I just wanted to check in onall my clients and just see if
they think there's anything theymight need from me over the
next 12 months.
And just a simple phone calllike that.
I reckon if you do that everyday for an hour and you get, you
know, 12 or 15 connects orwhatever you're going to get in
that period, you're going topick up half a dozen listings in
(06:41):
the next 30 days that youdidn't even know existed and you
probably would have lost if youdidn't.
So I think you know proactivity, leverage and scale through
technology really critical andrebuild your listing
presentation to world-class.
Tom Panos (06:59):
Thank you, John Brilliant.
You said, Troy, anything thatcomes to your mind right now
that you should be thinking ofreflecting on for the next
financial year.
Troy Malcolm (07:08):
Tom and John, I think what is important is
really to review where yoursuccess came from, from the
current or the just about tofinish financial year.
In saying that, I want to knowwhere your listings came from,
where the opportunities were formarket appraisals that you
converted in, Because if youwrite down those numbers and you
(07:28):
see those ratios, you will geta really clear understanding of
what's working and what's notand some of the gaps that you
need to fulfill.
So, for example, if you'rereally great with past clients
and 30 or 40% of your businessis coming from past clients but
you're not doing anything inregards to social media or door
knocking or networking andclient events, well, you may
(07:49):
need to look at those things toimprove.
But sometimes it's good to lookback and see where the success
came from, realize theopportunities and the gaps in
other areas of your business,but also to double down on where
you were successful in theprevious 12 months, because
chances are the next 12 monthsyou'll be even better.
Yeah, Great.
Tom Panos (08:07):
So if you do that, troy, if you do that process
where you say you look at yourlast year which often people
refer to as reverse engineeringand coming back and working out,
hey, so I went to X amount ofpresentations and I got X amount
of listings and I ended makingX amount of sales and it took me
(08:28):
that much longer to sell them,I think you end up getting a
really good snapshot of what isworking for you, what you should
do more of.
And also, like, realistically,if you went to 200 listing
presentations right, and yousigned up 50 presentations and
let's assume the other one I'massuming that they went to
market another 150 went tomarket, which meant that you had
(08:50):
a 25% listing presentation tolist ratio.
That's an alarm bell.
That's an alarm bell.
That's basically saying 150properties listed by other
companies because they believethat they had a better narrative
, a better story.
John, you used a term on apodcast we did two weeks ago and
(09:12):
I'm trying to remind myself itwas volume negates luck or it
was something like that.
Could you remember what?
John McGrath (09:18):
it was yeah, exactly right, alex Formosi.
Volume negates luck, which is,you know, like if you're playing
rugby league, there's going tobe a few bad ref calls, and just
make sure that you know you'renot relying on every call to go
your way.
Same in real estate business Ifyou've got 20 pending hot
listings you're chasing today,when you loot a few which you
(09:40):
will you're still going to havean unbelievable month.
By the way, ethan, your man,your coaching client, 15
listings last week in a week.
So well done, tommy, you'vetrained him magnificently.
Tom Panos (09:56):
Yeah.
So Nathan Ethan is the sort ofperson that basically works the
ratios because he knows that hewill walk into a listing
presentation and the peoplewon't go with him for whatever
reason.
He doesn't sit there andruminate on it because he knows
he's a nine out of 10 listingpresentation to list ratio.
(10:17):
So he knows that one in 10 aregoing to say oh, thank you,
leave it with us.
And sometimes they may have apre-existing relationship.
They were fee checking, theywere price checking.
But before we finish off today,I do think that one of the
things that really less so atMcGrath, because many of the
estate agents at McGrath seethemselves as running their own
(10:41):
businesses.
They're contractors runningtheir own business units.
But John and Troy, a lot ofreal estate people this time of
the year should be setting a12-month set and forget plan.
That is not your vendor paidadvertising, property specific
marketing.
I'm talking about making thedecision.
(11:02):
I'm going to invest 30 grand inmy community this year.
10 grand is going to go to thetennis club, five grand is going
to go to the public school.
I might go off and do someportal advertising on the
JustSol sections.
I might do some billboard ads.
I might put on a movie night,but salespeople often forget
that they are running a businesswithin the business, even if
(11:25):
they're not the principals.
John and Troy, anything youwant to touch on that.
John McGrath (11:29):
Yeah, it's a good point, Troy, and the reason
sorry, tom, it's a good pointbecause I think the reason that
a lot of people got that mindsetis we teach that very much that
you're in business for yourself.
Even if you are on a debitcredit or a commission, only if
you're not a contractor you'restill in business for yourself.
Most businesses and we've gotin this industry agents now that
(11:53):
are starting to hit 2 million,3 million, 4 million but most
businesses at 2 million would beprobably retaining 15% margin
and investing the rest inactivities to grow their
business into the future.
And yet a lot of agents theybalk at a 10 grand marketing
plan or sponsorship plan for ayear.
So I agree with you totallyYou've got to see your business
(12:13):
as a long game.
You have to understand thatit's critical for you to be the
top of mind default.
So, whatever activities you'regoing to do, get some advice,
get some, get a coach.
You know, go through whatyou're going to do.
But, troy, I think it's reallycritical and I know when you're
coaching guys you go off andthrough what's your marketing
plan and I just think it's sovital to be contemplating what
(12:36):
activities are you doing to toreinvest back in the market.
You look at Troy, you look atCoca-Cola.
A lot of people could say, well, they could stop advertising
because everyone knows them, youdon't need Coca-Cola.
You could save hundreds ofmillions a year by stopping
advertising.
But even Coca-Cola knows thatit has to keep making sure that
its brand is associated with funand lifestyle and activity or
(13:00):
whatever.
It wants to purport itself tobe Bad example.
I know because I'm not a fan ofthose sugary drinks, but you
know what I'm saying that evenbillion dollar companies that
are worldwide brands continue tomarket themselves to stay top
of mind.
Troy.
Troy Malcolm (13:15):
Yeah, and John, you're exactly right, and you've
got to remember as well.
You've got to create a businessmodel that people can find you
when they decide to find you.
It's no longer just push, push,push out there with letterbox
drops and just announcing to theworld what you're doing with
EDMs.
You've got to allow yourconsumer to digest it when they
feel like the time is right.
So the way you do that isobviously having a couple of
(13:38):
different strategies, one ofthem being a digital campaign
and having a lot of social mediaso people can really understand
the power of your brand, evenwhen you're not probably
proactively out there pitchingfor business all the time.
John McGrath (13:50):
Yeah, tommy, before we go, two things that I
wanted to add in.
Um, you know, and these areconcepts that the three of us
have taken from other greatpeople.
One of them is the one thingconcept.
Just ask yourself the questionif there was one thing, one
skill, one activity, one thingyou did brilliantly, better or
(14:10):
much better than you'recurrently doing it, or you
became a black belt of oneparticular thing in your life
that would propel your businessahead and faster than anything
else, what would that be?
For example, a lot of agents.
They're terrific agents, theywork hard, they've got good work
ethic, they've got a polishedlisting presentation, all that
(14:31):
sort of good stuff, but theycannot align vendor expectations
with the market because theyfear they don't want to be a bad
person.
They haven't developed thedialogue, they feel guilty about
it and all this sort of stuffthat you know.
Your one thing may well be yourability to have a business
conversation with a vendor toalign them to where the market
(14:51):
is, and that could be your onething.
It could be prospecting,getting over the fear of
rejection, it could be buildinga great listing presentation,
but inevitably, for each andevery one of us there's one
thing.
So I'd think about that as wellfor the year.
And the last idea Tony Robbinssaid years and years ago.
I went to one of his greatseminars and he said most people
(15:14):
underestimate.
So they overestimate what theycan do in three months and they
underestimate what they can doin three years.
Well, I'm going to say 12months for today.
A lot of people think, oh, if Ido this and this and this, in 60
or 90 days, by spring I'm goingto be doing record months.
Well, maybe, maybe not.
I've got to tell you, if youadopt some of the things we've
spoken about and you, in adisciplined, systematic,
(15:37):
non-negotiable manner, youcontinue to do them throughout
the next 12 months, you will hitabsolutely new highs and new
levels of success.
So stay at it.
This is not a I'll go to thegym once and I'll look like
Arnold Schwarzenegger kind ofthing.
It's fantasy.
That doesn't happen.
You have to be playing the longgame and it's around
(15:58):
consistency and showing up everyday with your new skills or
your new strategies and applyingthem, and in three months, your
life will look probably similar.
In six to nine months, you'llbe seeing a change.
In 12 months, you'll be a brandnew human being or a brand new
business.
Tom Panos (16:17):
And that's beautifully said when you were
saying that we've got a commonperson we've known it's my
ex-employer and I know that he'sa friend and you were a client
of his company Michael Hannanand I remember my first year
setting a budget, when I went inand working in the media for
Kurian newspapers.
(16:37):
I said to Michael I said,michael, I'll be honest with you
.
I said I come from a worldwhere we didn't set up 12 month
plans and budgets and targetsand he just said, look, all you
got to do is this If you onlyhad a 30 day period to achieve
your 12 month goal, write outwhat are the things you'd be
(16:58):
doing.
And then he goes.
Then do 12 of those and you'vehad the best year of your life.
He goes don't complicate it,don't think about the sixth
month, the eighth month.
Just create 12 good 30-dayprojects and you're set.
John McGrath (17:12):
Yeah, gold, I love that too.
Good man, michael Lanner.
Good man.
Tom Panos (17:17):
Yeah, so Troy and John, I think we might finish
off on that point, but I willsay this does remind me a little
bit of November, december, whenyou know that January, february
, there's a bit of stock that'sgoing to hit the market, people
hold back and they say let'swait till spring.
And I just want to remind allour listeners those people that
(17:39):
are going to be listing theirproperty, signing a form six of
signing an agency agreement, inJuly and August, are people that
you're having conversationswith right now.
They don't spontaneously justcome out of the blue.
They've normally been on anExcel sheet you call a chase
list, your CRM system.
So please remember, what you doin this 30 days is going to
(18:01):
affect your whole spring.
John McGrath (18:02):
Yeah, well said, tony, travel safely.
Thank you, see you next week,see you soon.
Thanks, mate, see you, bye guys.
Tom Panos, john McGrath, troy Malton.
Welcome to another edition ofMillion Dollar Agent the podcast
.
I have to say I do believe weare the longest serving real
estate podcast in Australasia.
Because I've got to say, johnand Troy, I was looking at it
when we started, there was noneother so we could actually say
(00:22):
we were the only, we were thebiggest, we were the best.
But I've got to tell you, thereare so many podcasts, there are
so many, even real estateagents.
Now I've noticed I don't wantto have a guess at the
percentage, but there's a largenumber of real estate agents
that have entered the world ofpodcasting.
John McGrath (00:43):
None been doing it as long as us, Tommy None been
as long as us.
Troy Malcolm (00:46):
He's pioneers.
Tom Panos (00:49):
Troy, I often get asked by people how financially
viable successful is a podcast.
I actually say, look, I'm notquite sure about other people's
experiences, but we're revenueneutral.
It costs us nothing, we makenothing, it's a zero project.
John McGrath (01:06):
Tom, you've got to say we hit our numbers.
Every year we hit our numbersExactly, exactly.
And, tom, you're coming to usfrom overseas.
Tom Panos (01:15):
Thank you for that.
Yes, I am coming to you from aplace called Maklior in Greece.
I'm actually going to Londontoday.
I'm going there to do aconference for two days, and I
just thought, while I'm going tothe UK to do the conference,
I'll tag in a bit of Greece andget a couple of weeks, and
that's where I'm at.
But today is right around theworld, though some parts of the
(01:38):
world don't have financial yearsas being ending on the 30th of
June I know that New Zealanddoesn't, but a lot of the world,
including Australia, have thisJune to July period.
I know that a lot of realestate companies were January to
June, but this is a good timeof the year, john and Troy, to
sit back, have a reflection.
(02:00):
What's working?
What's not working?
What are you going to change?
What are you going to do moreof?
What are you going to do lessof?
Over to you, john and Troy.
John McGrath (02:08):
Yeah, critical, tommy.
I mean I think that's reallywhat we decided just before we
were going to talk about today.
Look, I know you're big onnumbers and ratios and I'd love
you to talk more about that in aminute.
The things that came to mindwhen I was preparing for this a
that came to mind when I waspreparing for this.
A couple of things.
Number one is you know, one ofthe key skills, troy, is listing
(02:31):
presentation.
Right, and when I say to a lotof agents I'm coaching and as
you know, I coach a lot ofagents and I say zero to 10, 10
being world best, where do yourate your listing presentation?
And the number that generallycomes up is four, five or six.
And I kind of look at that andI think, man, like that is, you
know, that's just not goodenough.
And you know, one of myfavorite sayings is in the age
of information, you know,ignorance is a choice.
(02:52):
Um, there is no excuse now foranyone to have anything less
than a nine out of 10 listingpresentation, unless you just
haven't taken the time to unpackit, think about it, uh, role
play it with someone else,rebuild it.
So you know, one of the things,tom, I'd be thinking there's
two or three things and I'lljust jot those down and see what
you guys think.
(03:12):
Definitely I'd be looking athow do you create a nine out of
10 listing presentation key?
Second thing is yeah, this isthe age of technology.
I'd be looking at whattechnology and just choose one
or two.
Don't choose 20 or 30, becauseit's never going to happen.
What technology solutions andI'll mention mine in a second
should you be adopting to savetime, to increase your
(03:34):
scalability, to leverage and soforth?
There's two things that I'm veryfocused on currently.
One of them is AI.
I mean, we all know we heardabout AI.
Some people are using it, somepeople are right into it.
Others are too scared to lookat it.
I mean, just pick an AI whichis the best AI doesn't matter,
just find one.
I use Claude.
A lot of people use ChatGPT.
(03:55):
There's so many good ones.
Just pick one and start usingit.
Whatever the monthlysubscription is, subscribe for a
year and, just as you'rethinking through problems or
situations, just start using itto get good at it.
So I think AI is just going tothis.
The next two or three years isgoing to massively ramp up.
The other one I use time is nowdictation.
(04:16):
I rarely type an email that'slonger than a couple of a couple
of words.
I I go to dictation.
I've just I've got a doubleclick.
A double click, I've trainedone of my keys on my keyboard to
a shortcut.
I double hit the function keyand then I just speak, just like
I'm speaking now, and it gets a95% right, 98% right.
(04:36):
But things like emails, thingslike even using chat, gpt or
Claude, John, I'm fascinated.
Tom Panos (04:44):
Can I ask you so?
Dictation is that you use itspecifically on your MacBook or
on your mobile-type devices.
John McGrath (04:53):
Yeah, good question, both.
You know, right now I'm on myhome studio display, so I'll
just hit it twice and then I'lldictate a letter.
I'll dictate a message.
I've got messages open on mydisplay.
I've got my email open on it,I've got my clod and my AI open.
And again, really do I actually.
And you know it's one of thosethings, troy, I used to think,
(05:16):
oh, but it'll get some wordswrong, it'll spell check wrong,
and then someone will read itand I'll make a fool of myself.
You know, dictation's improvedso much and yet occasionally the
wrong word goes in there.
But most people pick up on itand they get the message, and I
(05:37):
reckon I spend 10%, maybe 20%maximum, or the same amount of
time to get things wrong.
So I'll just go to all mymessages, click on one after the
other and I'll dictate a quickresponse, just like you do in
the car.
So you know, just this is theyear to embrace technology, and
they're just two, but especiallyAI, that I think are really,
really critical.
And the last one, the last onewould be it's a really simple
(05:58):
one and it's kind of I've stolenit a bit from Tommy Ferry, from
Eric a few years ago, butreality is 5% of the people in
your phone are probably going tosell their property in the next
12 months.
Why wouldn't you go through andjust contact as many preferably
all of people as you can in yourphone and just check in?
Tom just wanted to see howthings were going.
It's been an interesting andturbulent year for some
(06:20):
industries.
I just wanted to check in onall my clients and just see if
they think there's anything theymight need from me over the
next 12 months.
And just a simple phone calllike that.
I reckon if you do that everyday for an hour and you get, you
know, 12 or 15 connects orwhatever you're going to get in
that period, you're going topick up half a dozen listings in
(06:41):
the next 30 days that youdidn't even know existed and you
probably would have lost if youdidn't.
So I think you know proactivity, leverage and scale through
technology really critical andrebuild your listing
presentation to world-class.
Tom Panos (06:59):
Thank you, John Brilliant.
You said, Troy, anything thatcomes to your mind right now
that you should be thinking ofreflecting on for the next
financial year.
Troy Malcolm (07:08):
Tom and John, I think what is important is
really to review where yoursuccess came from, from the
current or the just about tofinish financial year.
In saying that, I want to knowwhere your listings came from,
where the opportunities were formarket appraisals that you
converted in, Because if youwrite down those numbers and you
(07:28):
see those ratios, you will geta really clear understanding of
what's working and what's notand some of the gaps that you
need to fulfill.
So, for example, if you'rereally great with past clients
and 30 or 40% of your businessis coming from past clients but
you're not doing anything inregards to social media or door
knocking or networking andclient events, well, you may
(07:49):
need to look at those things toimprove.
But sometimes it's good to lookback and see where the success
came from, realize theopportunities and the gaps in
other areas of your business,but also to double down on where
you were successful in theprevious 12 months, because
chances are the next 12 monthsyou'll be even better.
Yeah, Great.
Tom Panos (08:07):
So if you do that, troy, if you do that process
where you say you look at yourlast year which often people
refer to as reverse engineeringand coming back and working out,
hey, so I went to X amount ofpresentations and I got X amount
of listings and I ended makingX amount of sales and it took me
(08:28):
that much longer to sell them,I think you end up getting a
really good snapshot of what isworking for you, what you should
do more of.
And also, like, realistically,if you went to 200 listing
presentations right, and yousigned up 50 presentations and
let's assume the other one I'massuming that they went to
market another 150 went tomarket, which meant that you had
(08:50):
a 25% listing presentation tolist ratio.
That's an alarm bell.
That's an alarm bell.
That's basically saying 150properties listed by other
companies because they believethat they had a better narrative
, a better story.
John, you used a term on apodcast we did two weeks ago and
(09:12):
I'm trying to remind myself itwas volume negates luck or it
was something like that.
Could you remember what?
John McGrath (09:18):
it was yeah, exactly right, alex Formosi.
Volume negates luck, which is,you know, like if you're playing
rugby league, there's going tobe a few bad ref calls, and just
make sure that you know you'renot relying on every call to go
your way.
Same in real estate business Ifyou've got 20 pending hot
listings you're chasing today,when you loot a few which you
(09:40):
will you're still going to havean unbelievable month.
By the way, ethan, your man,your coaching client, 15
listings last week in a week.
So well done, tommy, you'vetrained him magnificently.
Tom Panos (09:56):
Yeah.
So Nathan Ethan is the sort ofperson that basically works the
ratios because he knows that hewill walk into a listing
presentation and the peoplewon't go with him for whatever
reason.
He doesn't sit there andruminate on it because he knows
he's a nine out of 10 listingpresentation to list ratio.
(10:17):
So he knows that one in 10 aregoing to say oh, thank you,
leave it with us.
And sometimes they may have apre-existing relationship.
They were fee checking, theywere price checking.
But before we finish off today,I do think that one of the
things that really less so atMcGrath, because many of the
estate agents at McGrath seethemselves as running their own
(10:41):
businesses.
They're contractors runningtheir own business units.
But John and Troy, a lot ofreal estate people this time of
the year should be setting a12-month set and forget plan.
That is not your vendor paidadvertising, property specific
marketing.
I'm talking about making thedecision.
(11:02):
I'm going to invest 30 grand inmy community this year.
10 grand is going to go to thetennis club, five grand is going
to go to the public school.
I might go off and do someportal advertising on the
JustSol sections.
I might do some billboard ads.
I might put on a movie night,but salespeople often forget
that they are running a businesswithin the business, even if
(11:25):
they're not the principals.
John and Troy, anything youwant to touch on that.
John McGrath (11:29):
Yeah, it's a good point, Troy, and the reason
sorry, tom, it's a good pointbecause I think the reason that
a lot of people got that mindsetis we teach that very much that
you're in business for yourself.
Even if you are on a debitcredit or a commission, only if
you're not a contractor you'restill in business for yourself.
Most businesses and we've gotin this industry agents now that
(11:53):
are starting to hit 2 million,3 million, 4 million but most
businesses at 2 million would beprobably retaining 15% margin
and investing the rest inactivities to grow their
business into the future.
And yet a lot of agents theybalk at a 10 grand marketing
plan or sponsorship plan for ayear.
So I agree with you totallyYou've got to see your business
(12:13):
as a long game.
You have to understand thatit's critical for you to be the
top of mind default.
So, whatever activities you'regoing to do, get some advice,
get some, get a coach.
You know, go through whatyou're going to do.
But, troy, I think it's reallycritical and I know when you're
coaching guys you go off andthrough what's your marketing
plan and I just think it's sovital to be contemplating what
(12:36):
activities are you doing to toreinvest back in the market.
You look at Troy, you look atCoca-Cola.
A lot of people could say, well, they could stop advertising
because everyone knows them, youdon't need Coca-Cola.
You could save hundreds ofmillions a year by stopping
advertising.
But even Coca-Cola knows thatit has to keep making sure that
its brand is associated with funand lifestyle and activity or
(13:00):
whatever.
It wants to purport itself tobe Bad example.
I know because I'm not a fan ofthose sugary drinks, but you
know what I'm saying that evenbillion dollar companies that
are worldwide brands continue tomarket themselves to stay top
of mind.
Troy.
Troy Malcolm (13:15):
Yeah, and John, you're exactly right, and you've
got to remember as well.
You've got to create a businessmodel that people can find you
when they decide to find you.
It's no longer just push, push,push out there with letterbox
drops and just announcing to theworld what you're doing with
EDMs.
You've got to allow yourconsumer to digest it when they
feel like the time is right.
So the way you do that isobviously having a couple of
(13:38):
different strategies, one ofthem being a digital campaign
and having a lot of social mediaso people can really understand
the power of your brand, evenwhen you're not probably
proactively out there pitchingfor business all the time.
John McGrath (13:50):
Yeah, tommy, before we go, two things that I
wanted to add in.
Um, you know, and these areconcepts that the three of us
have taken from other greatpeople.
One of them is the one thingconcept.
Just ask yourself the questionif there was one thing, one
skill, one activity, one thingyou did brilliantly, better or
(14:10):
much better than you'recurrently doing it, or you
became a black belt of oneparticular thing in your life
that would propel your businessahead and faster than anything
else, what would that be?
For example, a lot of agents.
They're terrific agents, theywork hard, they've got good work
ethic, they've got a polishedlisting presentation, all that
(14:31):
sort of good stuff, but theycannot align vendor expectations
with the market because theyfear they don't want to be a bad
person.
They haven't developed thedialogue, they feel guilty about
it and all this sort of stuffthat you know.
Your one thing may well be yourability to have a business
conversation with a vendor toalign them to where the market
(14:51):
is, and that could be your onething.
It could be prospecting,getting over the fear of
rejection, it could be buildinga great listing presentation,
but inevitably, for each andevery one of us there's one
thing.
So I'd think about that as wellfor the year.
And the last idea Tony Robbinssaid years and years ago.
I went to one of his greatseminars and he said most people
(15:14):
underestimate.
So they overestimate what theycan do in three months and they
underestimate what they can doin three years.
Well, I'm going to say 12months for today.
A lot of people think, oh, if Ido this and this and this, in 60
or 90 days, by spring I'm goingto be doing record months.
Well, maybe, maybe not.
I've got to tell you, if youadopt some of the things we've
spoken about and you, in adisciplined, systematic,
(15:37):
non-negotiable manner, youcontinue to do them throughout
the next 12 months, you will hitabsolutely new highs and new
levels of success.
So stay at it.
This is not a I'll go to thegym once and I'll look like
Arnold Schwarzenegger kind ofthing.
It's fantasy.
That doesn't happen.
You have to be playing the longgame and it's around
(15:58):
consistency and showing up everyday with your new skills or
your new strategies and applyingthem, and in three months, your
life will look probably similar.
In six to nine months, you'llbe seeing a change.
In 12 months, you'll be a brandnew human being or a brand new
business.
Tom Panos (16:17):
And that's beautifully said when you were
saying that we've got a commonperson we've known it's my
ex-employer and I know that he'sa friend and you were a client
of his company Michael Hannanand I remember my first year
setting a budget, when I went inand working in the media for
Kurian newspapers.
(16:37):
I said to Michael I said,michael, I'll be honest with you
.
I said I come from a worldwhere we didn't set up 12 month
plans and budgets and targetsand he just said, look, all you
got to do is this If you onlyhad a 30 day period to achieve
your 12 month goal, write outwhat are the things you'd be
(16:58):
doing.
And then he goes.
Then do 12 of those and you'vehad the best year of your life.
He goes don't complicate it,don't think about the sixth
month, the eighth month.
Just create 12 good 30-dayprojects and you're set.
John McGrath (17:12):
Yeah, gold, I love that too.
Good man, michael Lanner.
Good man.
Tom Panos (17:17):
Yeah, so Troy and John, I think we might finish
off on that point, but I willsay this does remind me a little
bit of November, december, whenyou know that January, february
, there's a bit of stock that'sgoing to hit the market, people
hold back and they say let'swait till spring.
And I just want to remind allour listeners those people that
(17:39):
are going to be listing theirproperty, signing a form six of
signing an agency agreement, inJuly and August, are people that
you're having conversationswith right now.
They don't spontaneously justcome out of the blue.
They've normally been on anExcel sheet you call a chase
list, your CRM system.
So please remember, what you doin this 30 days is going to
(18:01):
affect your whole spring.
John McGrath (18:02):
Yeah, well said, tony, travel safely.
Thank you, see you next week,see you soon.
Thanks, mate, see you, bye guys.
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