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March 2010
Index of all
past
Affiliate Corner columns
The perfect purchase transaction starts with a system
By Ben Yost
Castle & Cooke Mortgage, LLC
Have you ever wondered what the “perfect purchase transaction” would look like? Close your eyes and dream about it for a minute: Few inbound phone calls. Your cell phone never rings. Clients leave so ecstatic with your service that they hand you three names of people they know who are ready to sell their homes or want to buy in your area. You enjoy shorter workdays during the process because everything clicks. Okay, WAKE UP!
The dream has ended.
Yet, that dream is possible. Although you work in an innately reactive business, it is possible to be proactive and stave off the reactive nature of day-to-day dealings. But to do it, you must create a system.
Think through each step of the process and ask yourself, “How can I make this better?” or “How can I take this reactive activity and be proactive to curtail it?” Here's the key: Create the Perfect Purchase Transaction.
Gather the players, outline the plays
Sit down with all of your team members, individuals on your immediate staff as well as your extended team – your lender, escrow officer, title representative, home inspector, handyman, home warranty representative, etc. Then on blank index cards note the steps that take place pertaining to any purchase. The first card would document the initial phone call or touch point. The last card could describe the note you send on the one-year anniversary of the transaction’s closing, congratulating your buyers on that memorable date. Each of the middle cards should highlight and detail every contact required throughout the process to ensure the Perfect Purchase Transaction.
In the lower right-hand corner of each index card, jot down the initials of the individual tasked with executing the particular activity. It would be helpful to conduct this meeting in a conference room with a table long enough to spread out the index cards for easy viewing. Create a snake of index cards, beginning with the first point of contact. As you sift through this snake and examine each index card, determine where any snags or breakdowns occur. Contemplate any ways to improve each interaction.
Stack the decks
From there, separate the index cards into stacks, sorted by initials. Are any of the stacks top heavy? Do any of the stacks contain more activities than it's humanly possible to service at the level of professionalism needed to "WOW" a customer? Do any cards in these stacks need to be redistributed? Can any cards be discarded?
Creating this project, complete with all the players involved and documenting each and every step to a successful transaction, can help you visualize every point of contact and critical element of your Perfect Purchase Transaction process. |
