Jennifer Ames
Key Frustrations:
- Profitability
- Changing Markets
How Goodfellow Coaching Helped:
- Jennifer worked with her coach to develop systems to track and monitor her business to be able to maintain the profit level she wanted.
- Her coach helped her get accustom to the market change and how to position her business to grow in the current conditions.
Why did you join Goodfellow Coaching?
The saying “timing is everything” could not be more true than in the case of my entry into coaching. I joined Goodfellow Coaching’s program just before the market started to change. Like most everyone in our industry, I found myself unprepared for the correction that took place in the residential market in the fall of 2008. It was devastating for my clients, my profitability and my psyche, and Goodfellow Coaching became a lifeline that helped me stay centered and effectively serve my clients. With Ken’s help, I reorganized my team to stay profitable, learned how to deliver bad news in an empathetic manner, and stayed sane!
What did your business look like before joining Goodfellow Coaching and Consulting?
Before coaching I had a very successful, profitable business that I ran by the seat of my pants. The market was good and there was plenty of business to go around. I pursued as many leads as I could and did not worry about those that slipped through our fingers. Our listings sold quickly and for good prices, and our clients were happy. In listing appointments and when we received offers, we were most often the bearer of good news. And there was no need for communication systems because the market was moving. My overhead and stress level were manageable, and life was good!
After the market changed, everyone’s stress level escalated including mine. Homes were taking far longer to sell adding unexpected additional marketing, sales and client care expenses to my overhead. Nearly every seller was losing money, and listing appointments were often heartbreaking. Commissions contracted, as did the overall number of sales in our market. The bottom line was that the world suddenly changed and it was brutal.
With the help of Goodfellow Coaching’s program, I spent the last two years reorganizing and retooling my business. That’s where Ken has been helpful. We laugh because I tell him he is my therapist. And in a way, he is because he hears my challenges and helps me figure out how to make adjustments in my business to resolve them. And those changes have been across the board from staffing to systems to client expectations. I got a handle on my budget, and made adjustments as needed. I have started developing systems that would have always been helpful but were never a priority. I have learned to be more clear about what I expect from my team, and am developing metrics to measure individual performance. And most importantly, I got back in touch with the fact that even though I am often the bearer of bad news, I am still uniquely capable of helping people get on with their lives and thus still the hero I was in a better market.
What does your business look like now?
It took a while to get here, but I am now back in my groove! After the market changed, I felt like I didn’t know that I could do a good job for my clients, which is a really hard thing to say. I have been doing this for a long time and have really high expectations for myself. It was hard to look people in the eye and not have the answers.
Today, I can meet with a client and speak confidentially about what I do and don’t know. I clearly understand what happened and where we are today. I know it is okay that I can’t predict where the market is going, and I don’t try. I can provide seasoned advice, and help people get on with their lives. Sometimes the math is kind of crummy, but it is what it is. I give buyers and sellers an understanding of their options allowing them to make informed decisions. I am better versed in the financial implications of their choices. I have a lot more experience now with short sales and foreclosures, about talking to condo associations about going FHA, and about the trade offs are for renting versus selling at a loss now. I feel like I have portfolio of ideas that I bring to the table that are constructive. I’ve got my energy back, and I’m excited.
One of the things that happened when the market changed was that my profitability dropped quite a bit. And it was frightening. It motivated me to get that part of my business cleaned up. Now we’ve got my numbers under control. When the market was great, I never had to worry about it.
I’m doing a better job of meeting with my team. Again it wasn’t as important before. Now, we have to work together because the difference between being profitable and not being profitable is more tenuous then when the marketing was booming.
Client expectations are higher today than they ever were. We’re doing a better job as a team to communicate as a single, synthesized voice and not as a bunch of people kind of out there winging it. It’s definitely not perfect but we are getting better. We are building a contact management system that will be a centralized resource for our team which should help.
I also hired a more senior level marketing person to help bring our marketing program together. I did not need it before but the world has changed so much between social media and the web and e-mail marketing and direct mail and my magazine. I’ve had to evolve and grow to stay competitive.
So I think we’re on the right track. We’ve raised our sales goal for this year by a significant margin over last year. And if we can stay focused, I think that we’re positioned to hit it.
What’s next for your business?
As I said, my team and I are working towards getting back to the volume we sold before the market changed. We realize it will be more challenging as our market is only just starting to stabilize, but we are confident we can get there.
I also want to work on delegating more at a higher level. Delegating is tricky for me. I want to delegate and I do delegate, but too often it backfires and then I’ve got to clean up the mess. I am working on creating the right systems and bringing on the right talent so that I everyone on the team can be successful. My goal is to get a little more sleep, have better systems, and a smooth operating team. That would make me really happy.
Why would a successful agent need coaching?
There is room for improvement in everyone’s business. But coaching is not for everybody. You have to be in touch with yourself and willing to be honest about your strengths and weaknesses. You also have to be open to change. I am a perfectionist so I always see opportunities for improvement.
From the outside, my business is off the charts. It’s great; a lot of agents wish they could do the sales that my team and I do. But from the inside, I always see the ways we could run it better. That’s my personality. If you go into coaching, you want to assess what’s working and what’s not working, and really try to get your arms around that before you start so that you’re investing your resources in those areas that are going to make the most difference in upgrading your business and improving your quality of life.