I’m keen! Where do I start? How do I establish the best business plan for me?
One of the first things we will do with you is sit down and discuss what you want to achieve in your business. From there, we establish targets for listings, sales, auctions, strike rates, average commission rate, etc for the coming year - as well as discuss your personal goals - for example, time with family, hobbies, sports, etc. Together then, we can identify the key activities you would need to engage in to achieve your goals.
Depending on how you work best, your progress can be reviewed with you at regular intervals and you can also track your progress at Harcourts Online. Some sales consultants want to have weekly ‘stay on track’ or ‘accountability’ meetings, while others prefer monthly or bi-monthly review meetings. It is critical however that you have a business plan that reflects your requirements and that we know what support you need from us to help you succeed. If for whatever reason you feel you are not getting the support you need, please bring this urgently to our attention.
We encourage our sales consultants to have balance in their life for the benefit of their health and family. We have runners, bikers, kayakers, actors, tennis players, animal lovers, trampers, fishermen, scrap bookers, dancers, actors, wine tasters, etc.! While they have diverse interests, the one thing they have in common is they are all fun-loving and have a wonderful respect and appreciation for everyone else’s partners and family. Our youngest sales consultant is 22, our oldest is 64. We have single parents, couples, families with young children, families with grown up children, grandparents and singles!
Many of the sales consultants make use of the shower in the villa so they can fit in a bike ride or a run during the day, and both offices have full kitchen facilities – with an agents’ lunch area in the Villa.
Our franchise area comprises 14,000 properties in a diversity of styles and price ranges. We don’t assign farm areas per se, RATHER, you are free to farm / prospect anywhere in the franchise area as often and as widely as you like. And you can still list and sell anywhere in Canterbury. Every sales consultant is free to farm and prospect as frequently and as extensively in the franchise area as they like – whether it be 100 homes or 10,000 homes, or a particular street, or a particular price-bracket. We will assist in the planning and implementation of a strategy of systems for you to become the local Harcourts specialist in the area(s) of your preference. Our progressive prospecting, promotional and canvassing outlook in our franchise area will be instrumental in your penetration into this market place.
I don’t aspire to be number one or Top 20 in Canterbury, I just want to be able to provide for my family.
We believe you have to plan your business to suit your personal life and requirements. After all, it is your business. Achieving a ranking or choosing to specialise are not everyone’s goals. We believe we can help you structure your business to achieve your desired level of income or your true potential, ideally with less effort, by working smarter not harder. For example, our time with our children from 5pm – 8pm each night is sacred to us and for years our business plans have had to take that into account, and as a result we made good headway in gaining control of our business during reasonable working hours. We’re happy to help anyone out in this regard.
Your schedule is completely up to you and what works best for your business and lifestyle. A number of consultants pick up mail in the office and spend the rest of their day out on appointments. Some consultants work part of the day from home. All we ask is that you keep your appointments for “Opportunity Time” and with your manager, engage in the right activities to achieve your goals (whether that is in or out of the office) and attend the weekly sales meetings on Tuesdays at 9am in The Villa.
Go for it! There are lots of areas to specialise in – auctions, lifestyle, rural, upper-bracket, lower-end, hills, the flat, commercial, you name it – and there is plenty of business to be had in these areas! Let us help you with your plan of attack.
You couldn’t have come to a better office. Between Bill, Tekla or Nick one of us will have a style you are comfortable working with and any one of us would be too pleased to help you develop a plan and get started.
What records are kept of my business? How do I monitor progress?
Harcourts Online is a fantastic website which monitors all of your sales statistics, so you can have instant access to your ‘figures’ which include commissions, listings, auctions, etc. achieved to-date. It can also display graphically your actual income against planned income and provides a comparison of the current year-do-date business against the same period last year. It is a fantastic tracking tool.
We place value in recognising the efforts of every sales consultant on the team. This means every sales consultant, whether they earn $60,000 or $1,000,000 is recognised throughout the year – whether the recognition is relation to income, to learning, or to achieving individual goals. On a weekly basis, we recognise great stories, personal bests, our top 5 listers and sellers, an outstanding client testimonial, etc. Each month, based on office performance Bill and Tekla donate $2,200 to the Excellence Club. This fund is equally distributed amongst all sales consultants attending the annual Conference. This year each attendee received $1000 which substantially contributed to airfares and accommodation.
