[Maximize Your Success as a Realtor with Kevin Markarian and CEO of Big Block Realty, Sam Khorramian]

[Beginning of Recorded Material]

Sam:      How do you ensure your 2018 is the best year you’ve had in the business, with the highest level of production and most importantly the highest levels of profitability? What’s going on guys I’m here today with my friend Kevin Markarian who is a legend in the space, most of you already know him, a lot of you want to be him and every single one of you can definitely learn from what he’s done to help himself and his team reach ultimate levels of success.

Kevin runs a company called Marker Realty with agents both in San Francisco and in Orange County, that he’s able to have these people have big years and a lot of success. So Kevin if you were to pick like one thing or the first place to start, like if we want 2018 to be the year, the year that we’ve always said it’s going to be where do you think it starts?

Kevin:    The first place to start is planning systems, creating a plan and ending year 2017 on a high note. Today is the day that 2018 really starts, so you want to be focused on the dollar producing activities and things that have helped you be successful in 2017 and build upon those. So think about what is that one or two things three things that you’ve done really well in 2017 and focus on those and have those be the main focus of your business going into 2018.

Sam:      A lot of times they haven’t taken the time to look in the rearview and see look where did most of my deals come from, what activities that I do behind them to actually make those deals come to life, look if the register is already ringing how did it start ringing and how do you make it ring more often it’s really what I’m hearing you say.

Kevin:    Absolutely and tracking, so have something where you can track your success track your deals, track your sources of income, track your lead sources and focus on those things that have given you the greatest return. I think lead generation is a big thing, I mean you need to have a constant stream of business, a constant flow of clients coming in on a regular basis.

Sam:      Absolutely, you know too many people want to go from A to Z without going through the actual alphabet, and what Kevin’s done great is he’s built a system that everyone goes through, he has check lists and Trello cards for everything, we’re just at lunch he’s telling me how everything has a process people follow the systems, they do what’s in front of them and that his team wins and we talked about this Kevin is created in an environment that’s conducive to his team winning. So let’s just talk for maybe some new people that are really talking about taking their business to the next level, where would you say is the best place for them to focus on new lead gen opportunities in the upcoming year?

Kevin:    There’s some so many sources, there’s so many different sources where do you go, which direction do I take. So if you want to talk about free sources I mean for me a big thing has always been prospecting, picking up the phone and calling people.

Sam:      What did you say the P-word?

Kevin:    Prospecting yes, say it one more time?

Sam:      Prospecting.

Kevin:    So prospecting is an easy free way to get in touch with a lot of people, we are in the communication [00:03:00.26] Business right, we’re in the business of connecting with people, helping people achieve their goals by buying and selling property, so connect with them find out what’s important to them. So an easy one Sam is expired with drawings, it’s not that difficult you can get those lists for three.

Sam:      Yes, I got to address something real quick there, what I love about this is you probably already know this but if you don’t Kevin is like a master online, this guy knows how to generate leads, he knows how to create opportunities, he knows how to do it with automation and systems but he’s still telling you the first thing he would do is pick up the phone call expires and withdraws which is what you hear me say all the time.

Look I’ll tell you this I think one of the biggest problems that agents have in this business today is they have the opportunity to come in new and get leads without ever learning how to generate them on their own, just having leads is nothing you need to know how to conversate, communicate, prospect and convert.

Kevin:    Which is why practice is so important, practice the best people at whatever it is and they do have practiced a million times, I mean think about like Steph Curry, Michael Jordan all the greats right I mean they’re constantly perfecting their craft and getting better and better at what they do. So find a role play partner, find someone that you can practice with practice your calls with, so I take prospecting number one. Also of course there’s like portals you can find, then you can pay for leads, you can find opportunities there also open houses if you’ve got your team or you have listings or whatever I mean it’s just about getting out and touching and communicating and connecting with as many people as possible.

I don’t know if you are being on that too I man with the great success you guys have had here at big block, so it’s just continuous, it’s constant. One thing that helped me a lot first and when I first got into the business is finding out like my motivation, people talk about their why, what’s your why I didn’t know what my why was. So what I discovered was this little book how to be a rain maker by Geoffrey Fox, I would check it out. In that book it talks about four points a day, if you can get four points a day you’ll always be busy. One point is for a new lead a new conversation, a new interaction with a person, so it has to be a positive connection you can’t just be like I pick up the phone and they hang up you.

Sam:      So if I get a new lead I make one point?

Kevin:    You make one point.

Sam:      Okay.

Kevin:    Two points is for an appointment, so if you set an appointment you’ve got two points. Three points is for a sale meaning like a contracts signed, a purchase agreement or a listing and then four points is when you get paid.

Sam:      Like if I could get four points a day broken out of those four categories, then the chances of failing are greatly diminished.

Kevin:    Absolutely, I mean it helped me I went from coming from Modesto California like tiny little agricultural town to San Francisco, there’s like big city I was like this little guy in a big city that was what helped me succeed, that was what pushed me, do you have the mental toughness to continue sending those 15 emails, do you stop at two. And some of us don’t we all have our challenging moments in our days where we don’t feel like going, we don’t feel like getting up, we don’t feel like making those calls but you know you have to, so for me [00:06:00.26] it was the four points that pushed me. For you it might be your why, might be your family and if you have that great but if you don’t which I didn’t, I didn’t have that luxury I just use the four points and it helped me.

Sam:      But you had to have some why because we were just talking at lunch, Kevin and I have something very interesting in common which is neither one of us graduated college and we’re both I think doing pretty alright for ourselves, so you have to have something inside of you that forced you to like want to go get it and be great. So I’m not saying that because I want to challenge you, I’m saying that for those of us that are watching and they’re thinking maybe I don’t have a why, that’s all bullshit everyone has a why, everyone has a reason, there’s something inside of you that you feel like you absolutely have to have to have.

And it reminds me one of my favorite quotes that I heard recently is change and working hard and doing what you’re supposed to do is painful, change is painful but nothing is more painful than being in a place you don’t belong. And for two guys that didn’t graduate college and have built some pretty exciting businesses it all comes from the fact that we’re never happy enough where we’re at, and that grit, that drive, that desire to do something great is where the foundation of all good things. So if you just listen to yourself and execute on it everything becomes available.

Kevin:    Like this is a Counseling Center, something’s coming out right now and I have to say I know what it is, I know what it is that drove me it was I was running, a lot of people are running towards something I was running away from something. I was running away from my past, I was running away from my childhood, we didn’t have money, we grew up struggling my family came from a different country, we didn’t have a lot of the things that I looked at as like success. So my thing was I was running away from that and that was my drive, that was my thing and for others it could be other things I mean it could be running whatever sideways right it doesn’t matter, but it’s just like I agree with you I know what it is now having a reason, having a why it’s so important.

Sam:      It really does, Les Brown who we all know says you got to be hungry, you’ve got to be hungry and a big part of 2018 being what you want it to be starts with finding out what are you really hungry about, getting real with the fact that 2018 started today or maybe even 30 days ago look your pipeline is a quarter behind you every single day in the business.

Kevin:    A lot of people take a break during the fourth quarter of the year right, that’s like the biggest you can possibly make, because if you’re taking a break in quarter four of 2017 you’re going to be forced to take a break in quarter one 2018, so you need to continue.

Sam:      You know what’s interesting about that and we’ll wrap this up is you said look, if you don’t have a good end of 2017 then you are going to be forced to have a shitty beginning of 2018, you didn’t use those words but the interesting thing about going hard at the end of the year is there’s agents right now that are saying themselves [00:09:00.17] Kevin they’re saying yes but the markets shrinking, transactions are slowing down towards the end of the year.

But what you might not realize is the amount of agents that are dropping out at the last quarter of the year; they’re going down faster than the transactions are slowing down. So in the end of the year, in the bad market you have a better chance of winning because your competition is on vacation.

Kevin:    I look at that as an opportunity, it’s an opportunity in order to succeed you need to be willing to do what others are not willing to do, so most people are not working and to me that’s an opportunity, so take that and run with it.

Sam: I hope today’s the day that you draw the line in the sand, you listen to the wise words of Kevin, and hopefully listen to me sometimes because I promise you we are in your corner we got your back, we can’t wait to see you have an amazing 2017 like we know Kevin and his team are, see you next week.