Ray Otten
I started my career in 1989 as a single agent, but very quickly hired an assistant. Shortly after that I teamed up with Bill Renaud. I was apprehensive of a partnership initially, but it ended up being a great decision, and Bill and I were together for 11 years. The partnership was ideal; it dramatically improved our quality of life and gave us both an incredible income. Bill is the head of coaching for Goodfellow Coaching and Consulting, and resides for 6 months on the beach in Florida each year. I think the partnership worked because Bill and I were like-minded, and he is intensely systems-oriented. Because of the partnership, Bill and I had more time off and our incomes increased.
When we first merged we had 15 people, then grew the team to about 23 people which didn’t work. We stopped selling and being realtors and started being human resource directors. It cost us about 110K per month to support the team. Today, the team consists of 8 people, 6 working in the office and 2 virtual assistants.
I don’t think you can hire a sales person today who isn’t afraid to prospect. Going into the office and getting a list of leads doesn’t happen anymore. We used to have far more leads than we could handle, so our efforts were put towards helping salespeople with their close ratio. If you give sales people structure and purpose, most of them will work well on a team.
Prospecting is a critical part of success in this business. I spend a good part of my day, at least an hour, touching base with my past clients to make sure I stay top- of-mind. I lead by example, the sales force know I contact my sphere of influence regularly, which has lead to great success, so they do as well. We door-knock as a group which creates team camaraderie, and afterwards we go out for a beer or a coffee. People are very receptive to face-to-face communication; we find it much better than telephone contact.
I spend most of my time on listings; about 78% of my clients come from past clients or referrals. I call them personally on their birthday, and I call on the anniversary of when they bought their home and one other call a year. The key is whenever I call them I ask permission to call them again. “Do you mind if I give you a call in May to touch base”. Most people are quite fine with that and it keeps me top-of-mind. If I am top-of-mind, I will be ahead of my competitors.
I work about 5 days a week, but it depends on the season. In the summer I work 3.5, spring and fall 4.5 and winter 5. In the summer I take Saturday and Sunday off and half the day on Wednesday. I am rarely on my Blackberry on a day off; I have such a great team that they seldom contact me. I have set up my email to go to an admin person; I have no private emails at work. It is only if they truly can’t handle something that they contact me. I have someone to cover for me for offer negotiations, and inform my listings that they may be dealing with him, if it is my day off. People don’t know my cell phone number; I tell them that I have instant paging from my office number. I believe taking scheduled time off actually gets me more business. If I am competing with someone who is available 24-7, I explain to my clients that I would be doing them a disservice if I was available 24-7. Everyone deserves and needs time off. If you are burnt out you are not good to anyone.
I believe you can never stop growing. I find coaching has given me a tremendous opportunity to improve. Ken has been great in helping me, and it really keeps me focused. Coaching gives you the ability to improve in one area at a time and focus on that, then move onto something else. A coach helps me get clarity on issues and work my way through things.
The Goodfellow Coaching family is the best group I have ever worked with, I enjoy them all. Whenever I go away on the retreats, I come away with tremendous ideas that I can implement quickly and easily.
Ray Otten
Re/Max Metro City
Ottawa, Ontario
OttawaProperties.com