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How We All Win This eBook is a companion to the website: http://HereWeAllWin.com

First eBook Edition by Larry K Cragun

With Important Contributions by Jim Warner

Assistance from Kathleen Cragun, Debbie Leavitt Jones, Jim Vanderwarker, and Carol Miller,

and the techies:

and

2014 by Larry K Cragun

All rights reserved.

Larry K Cragun

Email: larry@cragun.net

Acknowledgments:

All clip art is provided under license with PresenterMedia.com

I thank brainyquote.com for their selections of quotes

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Blogger and Blogspot are the registered trademarks of Google Inc.

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DataReef is the registered trademark of DateReef Inc.

Zillow is the registered trademark of Zillow Inc. Trulia is the registered trademark of Trulia Inc., is being purchased by Zillow

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Table of Contents

Introduction: Page 3

Chapter 1: Having Business At Risk Page 6

Chapter 2: Seeking To Be Champions Page 9

Chapter 3: Football Analogies Page 11

Chapter 4: Be Mentally Tough Page 13

TIME OUT: Page 21

Chapter 5: Especially For Real Estate Agents Page 22

Chapter 6: Especially for Real Estate Agents Part 2 Page 26

Chapter 7: Especially For Loan Originators Page 28

Chapter 8: For The Rest Of Those In Sales And Marketing Page 30

Chapter 9: Your Position Page 31

Chapter 10: The Playing Field Page 32

Chapter 11: The Game Plan Page 43

Chapter 12: Training Camp Page 45

Chapter 13: Pre-Season Page 51

Chapter 14: First Game – First Win Page 56

Chapter 15: Each Week - Another Win Page 59

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PREFACE

A Proven Approach

About 20 years ago, having been a loan officer for three banks and four mortgage

companies, believing that there was a better way to build a mortgage company, I started

my own. I had three friends in the business who took my invitation to work as loan

originators for this new enterprise. I told them that my success would be all about

their success. It would be all about them. This is what I wanted from the previous

banks and mortgage companies that I had worked for. I felt that as I brought them

the business that I should be treated as the customer. This had not been the case,

not even once.

To define my efforts to my new loan officers I lived by three promises. 1- I would help

them to make more money 2- I would find ways to make their job easier to do 3- I would

help them to be more professional. These were my focus. Did keeping those promises

deliver? It did. We grew fast by word of mouth. We started in the summer with the three

original loan officers and quickly grew to over 100. From the next January to the end of

the year we did over 1 billion in sales. All I had to do was to live up to my promises. I

didn’t advertise for business or loan officers. Good people just came to us. Our growth

was incredible. Our people were incredible. As things progressed, several came to me

with thanks that they had never made so much money in their entire careers. Mission

accomplished. I embark on this venture with the same commitment. I offer a strategy and

support in your becoming an elite performer. I challenge you to give this serious

attention. I know it will work if you want it to work.

Seahawks, Broncos, Patriots.

February 2, 2015: the first edition of this book was written a year ago after the Seattle

Seahawks won the Super Bowl. Today the New England Patriots are the champions. This

book is about a championship strategy for you. The principles and comparisons to the

Seahawks apply to the Patriots, to you, to any champion. This is a definite strategy. I

congratulate the New England Patriots, they played great. I encourage you to embrace

this championship strategy. We all can win each year. Who will be the next Super Bowl

and Sales champions? Who will win? Here We

All Win and here is How We All Win. Larry Cragun

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INTRODUCTION

Who should win with this strategy?

Shouldn’t We All Win?

The sales person should win.

The consumer should win by getting the attention and help they need.

The person giving the referral, being a valued advocate, also should win.

I am grateful for the feedback and assistance I have received from people whose opinions I

value. This feedback has added greatly to the finished product, both the book and the website.

This has been a longer journey than I had anticipated. It was over a year ago I thought I was

close to delivery. I don’t think I ever got discouraged but I can say that recent enthusiasm for the

project has lifted my spirits. First lookers have voiced an excitement that this strategy will help

them and that is the objective.

I have been told by some that this is a surprising twist to some concepts that they already were

familiar with. What they thought they were going to discover wasn’t what I delivered. Getting

that feedback from “old pros” was also exciting to me.

I know that those who seriously implement this strategy will see their success results multiply.

However, I warn you now that there will be some walls to break through.

This is going to be difficult because it’s not about you, it’s about them. I am working on this

every day. It is about you becoming a champion. To do so you must do what is for most of us, a

huge shift in attitude. To implement the strategy you must be willing to implement a tool

that most won’t. You must also keep score and win consistently. The interesting part is that

anyone can do this strategy. I mean anyone and everyone.

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Dan Walsdsmidt has published a list of 19 hard things you need to know and do to be successful.

They also apply. They are all good. However, seven really are applicable to this strategy.

You have to make the call you’re afraid to make.

You have to give more than you get in return right away.

You have to care more about others than they care about you.

You have to feel unsure and insecure when playing it safe seems smarter.

You have to lead when no one else is following you yet.

You have to make mistakes and look like an idiot.

You have to try, fail, and try again.

How should a strategy help you win?

This question addresses a key point. It is also a reason I am excited about the positive feedback I

have already received. As Jim Warner told me “call reluctance happens because people don’t

have anything interesting to say”. Later I address the fatal role of call reluctance. The strategy

obliterates this problem.

Having a strategy is important. Having a great strategy is even better. It should identify winning

plays. It should demonstrate by example how to execute those plays. It should show how to beat

the competition. It should make the work we are in fun. It should play to our strengths. Most

important it should bring out in us what is authentic. In other words, no games, not faking it and

no razzle dazzle. I was called out by one of the edits for leaning towards the razzle dazzle. I hope

that is tempered now.

Contributor Jim Warner told me the “How We All Win”, the eBook and the website

“HereWeAllWin.com” must provide four valuable consumables: 1- A network. This is tangible,

valuable, and technical. 2- A path to follow. I have loved some of the motivational events I have

attended. That is not what this is. It is an actual all day every day path. It begins with who is in

your sphere, how to connect with that sphere, who to prioritize your time with, and how to

expand that sphere in an effective way. 3- Coaching pathways. We encourage coaching. We

also provide the path and the how to execute. The pathway is on how to generate referrals.

4- Monetization. Isn’t this the most important part? The book has a football theme. It proposes

that your sites can be set on being a champion. We define what a champion is. In that vein, we

want you to attain top of your industry income. Monetization is about generating income from

referrals. Not just one referral. Not buying leads, but a steady stream of referrals.

Jim used the word personify in describing how he saw the “How We All Win” strategy. He see’s

being able to teach this to other agents. He said that it shows what it looks like to be a champion.

It maps out how to make it happen. He liked that it implemented what I learned from him, how

to focus on being of value to others.

Another Jim, Jim Vanderwarker and I have discussed the strategy over a lengthy period of time.

Jim V was my favorite real estate broker. We recently met to discuss final markups of the book

and the preparation for the website. He stunned me by opening up the meeting with these words,

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words that personify the How We All Win strategy. He said, “Larry, first of all I want to know

how I can best help you”. Jim gets it, thanks Jim. Jim has a goal to double the amount of homes

his property management division is managing, but his interest was on helping me.

Being a consistent champion has eluded many of us. Why is that? Are these possible reasons?

The majority of us are not great prospectors. The majority of us are unwilling to farm or canvas

for business. The majority of us hesitate with strangers, being uncomfortable to connect with

them. The majority of us aren’t great networkers. A majority of us need a better strategy. Most in

sales get distracted from what are their top priorities. Few of us are successful with even an

elevator pitch. The vast majority of us won’t cold call on the phone, even when we are handed a

script and a system that works.

Our best hope for elite status is founded on having a game plan that embraces caring about others

success. It was the reason our mortgage company took off like a rocket. My promise to those that

joined our mortgage company was that I would focus on three things: 1- I would focus on

helping them make more money 2- I would help them be more professional 3- I would strive to

make their job easier to do. We didn’t set goals for a billion a year; we just wanted our team to

have what I always wanted from an employer. Because we had the right approach the success

followed. In like manner I believe to accomplish my current goals I must care about your

success. Adopting this approach is also in your best interest. It is the way for you to become a

champion. Copy this thought.

Overcoming the challenges that get in the way requires a winning strategy. This is that strategy.

When we talk big goals, they may seem too much to dream for. So let’s take it in small chunks.

We can just have the goal to be at the champion level, the top 20%, first take this step, and then

move it up a notch to the elite 5%. Start with the basics, learn the playbook, move into the pre-

season, build your championship team in the regular season.

Can you sense that I am inviting you to join me and others on an exciting journey to elite

performance? We will seek to reach a championship level of sales. This strategy is for all in

sales. I come from a real estate and mortgage background and you will see that background in

this book. Just know that as we implement this strategy, it is necessary for us to reach out to

others outside of our fields.

Whatever field you are in, this is an important part of the game plan - reaching out to others.

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Chapter 1

Business At Risk

“Pick a service provider with large amounts of future business on the line. It places you as a

high priority. Performance in football and in business is better when there is pressure to

perform.”

Larry K Cragun

How important is that one client? Does he carry a lot of weight?

Here, early on, I introduce a most important principal. I call it “having business at risk”. It is an

important reason for the website. It’s a message to consumers, on this website you will find

providers whose future business is at risk. In other words always use a service provider that is

referred. Do it in a way that their future business is at risk! Be referred by someone important to

their future stream of business.

It is a fact, we don’t want to botch a relationship that brings repeat business. If this isn’t the most

important part of the playbook, it’s close. My experience has taught me that service providers

such as loan officers or plumbers place a higher value on a referral that has been provided by

someone who brings them a steady flow of repeat business than a random referral, a walk in, or a

response to an advertisement.

I illustrate with two examples: a loan officer and a plumber. The principle applies to a lot more

than these two fields. Customers or clients deserve the best service and competitive or fair

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pricing. When they are referred to a provider they should expect this, as well they should expect

delivery on time and receive what was promised as it was promised.

Let’s assume a loan officer earns $1500 on a closed loan. Let us also assume this loan officer has

a real estate agent that provides him or her access to clients every month on a steady basis,

perhaps 10 loans a year come from those referrals. Doing a good job for a client in this business

can be time consuming, there is much to do to assure things go well, that the loan closes on time

and as promised.

The loan officer also has to do a lot of communication with the various parties involved. The

$15,000 a year earned in this example is well earned. Next, suppose that you hear about this loan

officer from a radio advertisement or from a neighbor. Of course your loan is important, after all

$1500 will buy a lot of bread. But let’s say things get stressful. Perhaps rates start rising and

people start panicking, the loan officer’s phone starts ringing constantly as an example. Even if

the loan officer is doing his or her best, who has the priority if things get real difficult? Whose

loans are less likely to have a crash or problem? You, who were referred by a neighbor or an

advertisement, or the real estate agents client, that agent who is the source of many loans? In

working with and employing hundreds of loan officers I understand that no matter how serious

the effort, how genuine the intention, how stalwart that loan officer may be, the repeat business

has priority.

This illustrates what really can happen. It can happen in any field.

The plumber example is first hand and recent. I should have practiced what I am preaching. We

had water coming out from underneath our washing machine. We asked a neighbor for a referral.

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(We live in a condominium high rise) The plumber turned out to be actually two plumbers. I had

no idea why two plumbers had to come.

The fix was a quick one; they used a rooter type tool so I asked them to see if they could use the

tool to speed up the draining in a bathtub. This took another few minutes, not many. They were

here at our home for less than an hour. How much should the bill be? We live in downtown Salt

Lake City, not in the middle of nowhere. The bill was a staggering $750.00. It gets worse.

The job they did on the bathtub drain was a bad job. The next morning we had a knock on our

door, the building maintenance supervisor was the bearer of bad news. Our draining tub was

filling the hallway with water. Yes, the rooter tool ruined something in the drain. Who were we?

We were just one client out of the blue. They had only our small world of business to lose. So

did they honor their mess? No they did not. They would not come out and repair their work, nor

did they think their bill excessive.

We had to hire another plumber. This time we found one the condo association and management

company could refer us to. I made sure I got a name from the onsite manager. I spoke with the

maintenance supervisor. When we called their respected plumber I used them as the referral.

Messing with us now could cost this plumber future business. This next plumbing experience

was a good one. Perhaps they would have been this good under any condition. But why wasn’t

the first one honorable? Our problems were now solved. In fact, we also had the second plumber

fix a sink that had a little leak. This visit was longer than the first one. The bill was $175.00. But

wait, we discovered that the fix on the second sink actually caused it to leak more. We called the

next day and instantly they were out to fix it, at no additional cost. We were happy. Shouldn’t we

always end up being satisfied as in this second experience?

To assure that result, “always use a service provider that is referred. Do it in a way that their

future business is at risk! Be referred by someone important to their future stream of business.”

Sales people, I propose you strive to be positioned to have daily experiences where you are a

sales person or vendor to be trusted like this. Put yourself in a system that promotes this.

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Chapter 2

Seeking To Be Champions

“We are trying to be that franchise that year-in and year-out is competing for a championship.”

Drew Breese

OK I admit it right from the beginning, You can probably already tell. I am a football fan. I love

the game. Last season was great for me as my grandkids invited me to join their “Fantasy

Football” league. For the record, I won the league championship against those young pups. It is

no wonder with my team having Drew Breese, Adrian Peterson, Matt Forte, Demarius Thomas,

Knowshon Mareno, Steve Hauscha, and the Seahawks Defense.

Who is on your team is a relevant question?

On February 2nd

, 2014 the Seattle Seahawks won the Super Bowl and became the World

Champions. They had stiff competition going to the finals from the San Francisco 49ers. The

Denver Broncos were projected by some experts to win over the Seahawks in the Super Bowl.

All championships provide us with lessons to learn from. I see some important lessons in the

Seahawk vs. Broncos story. In this book I’ll share some that I see, including “Why not you.”

First I would hope that you would seek to be a champion. I believe that it is possible for those

that follow through on the right strategy. The How We Win strategy is based on principles that

provide a way for any of us to be our best 24 – 7, a Seattle Seahawk theme.

I mentioned three levels of success, the masses, the champions, and the elite. The bulk of those

in sales reside in the masses. Typically twenty per cent reach champion status and then there are

the elite, the top 5%.

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How We All Win is about each of us moving out of the masses, permanently. It is about,

enjoying the fruits financially and treasuring the relationships we develop. It is about how each

of us win by being an asset to others.

For example, about two decades ago when I started a mortgage company. I invited five good

people to join us. Because we started with a great strategy, within a few months of our first year

we were over 100 strong, producing at an annual level of 1 billion in closed sales. Instead of

advertising for loan originators, they came to us by referral from a happy sales force that

embraced our focus. I challenge you to see how you can start small and build a team of CORE

relationships and of ADVOCATES that will create a championship team for you.

These CORE and ADVOCATES will become a network endorsing you and likewise you

endorsing them.

We must at all times earn that status or be benched. If I endorse you I expect that endorsement to

be justified, or the endorsement will be dropped.

So, our challenge is to start with the basics, learn the game plan, know the details, and take a

small amount of time in training camp and pre-season to improve our skills.

It all happens because you followed a great strategy, not one just self-serving, but more like

serving, more like my friend Jim V offered.

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Chapter 3

Football Analogies

“Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious

than that. “Bill Shankley”

In his youth, Seattle Quarterback Russell Wilson’s father inspired him with this powerful

question: “why not you Russ?” He never forgot that question. He often told his teammates,

“Why not us?” That’s your question now, why not you? Have you been looked over? Are you

the prototype? Are you the unlikely champion? “Why not you too I ask? “ This is the point, why

would we go into a wonderful business such as sales if we didn’t strive to be champions? Why

would one avoid the prosperity? Even more important why avoid the personal growth and the

relationships that accompany that growth?

So how about more football analogies? Like football, having a coach is a big deal. Have you ever

seen a championship team in any league without a coach? Thank you, need I say more?

Football teams have a playbook for their players to learn. The playbook is a key to your success.

It details the strategy. We have a playbook on how we all win.

The game has a time clock. So do you. Each day, each week, and each month the time clock is

ticking away on your championship season. Don’t let indecision, doubt, or procrastination keep

your season from being a championship season. If you join our team we have a training camp to

experience. There is also a pre-season. It need not be a long one, probably less than a week. Then

the game starts, manage the clock well, make each week a game, win the game each week. Be a

champion.

The Playing Field: This would be your market. I call it your community. I divide it into seven

important categories. You don’t market to each category the same way. The game plan is to not

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ignore any of these seven categories. They all play an important role to your team and your

championship. It’s called a balanced attack.

Usually the community is defined as your sphere, a geographical community, or a community of

common interest. You play here to score touchdowns or sales. It’s an important place. It can also

be your fun place. Wouldn’t it be great if it were simple to be yourself and make touchdowns, or

successful passes or running plays any time you are on the field?

In addition to your team mates, who are already on your team, there are many that will want to

join up. They really will. You may have to do just a little bit of recruiting. You might want to

share the game plan with them.

Visualize your success. Set a personal goal. At the end of the season, prior to the Seahawks

Super Bowl win, Russell Wilson went to the Super Bowl as a visitor. His goal was the super

bowl. The Seahawks did well in the playoffs, but didn’t get there in 2013. It was at the end of the

season that Wilson believed that next year could be their year. With that as his vision he went to

the game to absorb what it would be like. He was mentally preparing himself to lead his team to

next years Super Bowl triumph. What’s your goal? Will you set it Super Bowl high?

Know who your best players are: You are going to want to have many teammates. All on the

team will be important. As a great quarterback, you will be the one that knows how to get the

best out of each of your teammates. You will lead the way to the top. You will at times need to

encourage them, to help them, to be a quarterback for them.

See the entire field: All good things do not happen at the line of scrimmage or near the end zone.

Openings come at different places at different times. This is why each of the seven categories

should be addressed each week.

Control the Clock: You only have so many minutes and hours in the game. It is your duty to take

charge on how they are spent. Efficiency in time clock management is the characteristic of a

champion quarterback.

Make the Plays: Execute on the playbook strategy. Don’t deviate.

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Chapter 4

Be Mentally Tough

“Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you will do. Attitude

determines how well you do it.”

Lou Holtz

Things Can Turn On A Dime. Turn on a dime? What is this about?

It’s a short pep talk. Pretend I am your coach. I am here to pump you up. Staying focused can be

difficult. I want you to believe that with the right strategy you can move to a higher level of

sales, even to the level of the elite, the leaders. To make this real in our lives we must stay

focused. The “How We All Win” strategy will help you determine where your focus needs to be

and is an exciting way to keep focused on championship activities.

In the business world this challenging priority is so important that the Harvard Business School

is offering leadership programs to executives on this topic. They say that every leader has to

cultivate an awareness regarding focus. Focus is critical.

Our goal is to immediately turn things upward. This applies to whichever level of production we

are in. Things can turn upward on a dime. Have you experienced an abrupt positive change? I

have. We all can experience it now. My challenge to you is to embrace this strategy, at whatever

production level you currently reside, do this, turn on a dime.

The citations in Random House Dictionary of American Slang by J.E. Lighter leave no doubt

about this idiom’s origin (turn on a dime). As early as 1881 one could say that a well-trained

horse turns on a five-cent piece. In the twenties of the 20th century, a fielder who failed to cover

much ground was said to be playing on a dime, and dancers in a dancehall were encouraged to

move off the dime, that is, to not to stay glued to each other in one place. So the goal is to turn on

a dime you horses out there, cover a lot of ground you future stars, and move off the dime rather

than dancing in place. Let’s get moving.

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Are we at our current station by accident or fate? Of course not, we programmed or allowed

ourselves to be where we are. Our vision, our approach, our priorities, our time management, our

strategy or lack of a strategy brought us safely here.

The question we must all honestly deal with is where are we now? Are we in the masses? What

has been the strategy that brought us here? Is our enemy “the wall”?

The Wall

Is it our self-esteem or is it fear that drives us bonkers? Perhaps it’s our not liking the bitter taste

of rejection. It’s that darn wall. The wall is our mental enemy. We deal with it on every play.

Losing the game is usually a result of placing a higher priority on avoiding the wall rather than

climbing over it or breaking through it.

Allowing the wall to fence us in with the masses is a decision we make.

That wall is everywhere. Just check out the activities of the masses and you will see. To some the

wall is like an electric fence; they fear getting electrocuted by it. To others it’s so high they can’t

see past it.

There is a break through process but first let me establish what the wall is made of. The wall is a

composite of fear and distraction. Fear (or call reluctance as the diplomatic folks say) by itself is

tough enough to penetrate, but add a bunch of distraction and it’s like adding a steel shield

around it.

Using the strategy to focus on the productive activities knocks down the wall when the issue is

not fear, but when it is that lacking important tools. The tools you are soon to discover are game

changers. They are tools to help you identify how to use your time, how to open massive

opportunities to create connections, referrals, advocates, and people who will be core proponents

of your success.

In the upcoming interview with Carol Miller I discovered her wall. It was not having a lack of

advocates. It was the fear of looking insincere to her sphere. She had served her clients well over

the years and only wanted genuine non selfish interaction with them. This made it difficult to just

drop by or contact them with a goal of coming up with some referrals.

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I have a hunch Carol shares a fear that was on my shoulders almost daily, the fear of appearing

like I needed the business, or looking like I am a “hungry man”. Many times it’s a fear of getting

rejected. Fear of rejection is like a plague in most sales organizations. OK, I’m in that group, I

admit it.

However…..

Scoff not big shot; you would probably wear this T-shirt too.

Or is this next one your T?

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If the strategy is to be of a long term value to you it must address these issues in a factual and

strategic way. For example, how many new people do we regularly meet each week? How many

new people did you meet last week? More importantly, how many can you follow up with this

week? I challenge you to look at how much of your time is spent in effectively creating new

customers versus how much time is busy work or not really productive?

One office I worked in offered a training class on cold calling on the phone. It was taught by a

big time producer. His track record was proof his system worked. Yet, out of an office of about

80 agents, no one wanted to participate in the class. That included me. If not fear then what was

the reason? In my case I was definitely not willing to get phone rejection in mass. It seemed

painful, somewhat like having the plague. I don’t know about the other agents, perhaps they were

just too busy to implement this strategy.

What else can create distractions? Are any of these familiar?

Just normally not an outgoing person

Like taking Fridays off

Don’t have a comfortable way of connecting with almost everyone you meet

Enjoy chatting with the office staff or colleagues

Used to starting the day off slow, getting going about 10AM

Don’t have a lot planned for tomorrow anyway

Spend a lot of time on Twitter or Facebook

Bunny Trails get me distracted – guilty as accused

Let the priority of others interfere with mine

We only have so many hours in our week. When we blow them, they are gone. The strategy

claims that there is no reason to spend our working or waking hours foolishly.

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The biggest problem in sales is having enough qualified quality prospects. Or is it being willing

to prospect those prospects? Are we timid or hesitant to make new connections? Do we shy away

because we don’t want to appear to be abrasive or even desperate for business? Are we one of

the masses that put off this most important work?

I believe I am offering a way to be bold, not abrasive, in making all activities conducive to

connecting with prospects. Additionally, everyone that we meet can become a part of our sphere.

Every hour worked should be and can be exciting.

Referring back to the Seahawks win, from the beginning of the season they lived the motto,

“Champions 24 – 7” They weren’t on the field 24 – 7 but their focus was there 24-7. Yes, the

strategy is also a 24 – 7 approach and it will bring us prospects.

Imagine that there was a definite path that would take any who walked it to the top of their

industry. If such a path existed would you take it? Would it help if you knew that the walls and

roadblocks normally faced are comfortably removed?

This path does exist. It has a few twists and turns but it is there for you to take. It’s a pleasant

path. It takes you through communities with interesting people. These people are anxious to

reach out and contribute to your well-being. We invite you to join us as we take this walk,

implementing the How We All Win Strategy.

Where is your level of production? Where would you like to arrive?

Do you ever feel that making sales is like this illustration above? It’s time to make permanent

history of any such thing. The door can soon open wide. Leave the masses, be a champion, join

the elite. Life is better there.

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The strategy is also about the relationships which we build. However, this chart could be a way

to measure the income level of a champion. It’s a 2010 chart but the numbers are similar now. If

you are already in the top of your office or company, let us help you move higher in your

industry.

This graphic is an IRS report on share of income: 2010. This

is their reporting of the various income levels of Americans

filing tax returns.

An integral part of the strategy is based on how well each of

us network with others. The quality of our relationships, what

we expect and what we offer is fundamental. There are no

gimmicks here. We aren’t going to sell you a monthly trinket

to pass out. You may want to create an annual calendar and

have an interesting way to stay in touch, but the greater value

lies in what we do for each other. You won’t be a fake, you

must be genuine.

Many experts projected the Denver Broncos to win over the

Seahawks. After all, they and their quarterback, Payton Manning, had just shattered many long

time NFL records. He even broke a passing record in the game. They were wrong! Seattle won

by a lopsided 43 to 8 score. Why did Seattle win? The answer why is illustrated in the tweet

below from a Denver cornerback, posted after the game.

How badly do you want to be a champion? Do you want it way more? Can you dream of it

happening for you? What price are you willing to pay? Here are some prices:

We must own our success or lack of success.

Believe that going forward there is no reason to remain in the masses. Being willing to move

forward with a confident approach is ours to own as of right now.

We must not be pretenders. I know, I’ve read the book too, teaching us to “fake it till we make

it.” I don’t buy the concept. It creates know it all’s that refuse to grow, thus they stay in the

masses.

20

Pretenders tend to come off as arrogant, a most distasteful trait. Pretenders often don’t admit they

are in the masses. I vote for being honest about our situations. I propose that you talk about your

new strategy rather than faking that you are a big time hot dog.

Which is best, a referral or a successful cold call? If you choose the latter you can close the book

now.

Focus on developing a world of referrals. Shortly you will see an example of an interview. I refer

to it as the Carol interview. I asked Carol “what percent of your business came from referrals last

year?” It turns out that last year almost all of her business came from referrals. I also determined

she was in the masses group the previous year and intends on being a champion this year. Carol

had been an elite producer for our mortgage company.

Based on the importance of referrals the goal of the strategy is to blueprint a path where those

who choose success will develop career changing results such as:

Experiencing an immediate increase in sales. Know that they are moving to join the 20 %

that earn 80% of the income. See it possible to enter the elite top 5%.

Not only earn more income in the short term but be developing their business for the long

term.

Value having control over time, choosing priorities first. Understand what the top

priorities are. Have a way of tracking the implementation of those priorities.

Have no fear, no call reluctance, and never avoid or hesitate in making connections.

Gain a better understanding of their market and know how to develop it, own it, and love it.

The Lights Are On, The Camera Is Rolling, and It’s Time For Action!

21

You Do Take Action, you say. How Many Times Are You Hitting The Target?

Have you ever noticed someone in sales that was so in your face that

they made you want to run and hide? They can’t seem to blend the

social part of their life with their business life in an appealing way.

I see them as bold, but also as abrasive.

I choose to not be like this. It has a negative feel for me.

As a result I have at times struggled with the opposite extreme, being timid in the exercise of

marketing myself.

This book and strategy came about because I found a way to overcome that reluctance

without feeling like I was in the abrasive camp. It recognizes that when I am at my best I care

more about serving others than prospecting. I love the response when I offer to promote

others. I love the feedback when people thank me or like what I have done. I am no longer

affected by the fear of feeling rejected. Call reluctance has just flat out gone away. It is only

because of this discovery that I deliver this book and website. It’s why I can confidently

encourage you to think How We All Win. It addresses that which blocks most salespeople from

arriving at the top, the personal issues and battles they face.

The result in my life is that the hesitant me has disappeared. A better Larry has appeared. He is

bold, yet not abrasive. I like him better.

I share that there are key components to this championship run that tackles many people’s

attitudes. Unlike professional football where physical skills are required the strategy requires a

mental strength and putting up with a little emotional stress in the beginning. Just as in

developing physical strength, we have to do a little stretching of our comfort zones. It’s really

not that difficult, in fact it is not only a path to the top, and it is fun.

22

Time Out

Football is football and talent is talent. But the mindset of your team makes all the difference.

Robert Griffin III

Up to this point I have mostly covered mind set ideas. We are soon to go into the strategy. Even

though the next chapters are about real estate and mortgage sales, it is really about any sales

profession.

It is my sincere hope that each of you will, regardless of your field, embrace the concepts.

When I ask you to list the activities you do each day that actually relate to the specific function

of obtaining or maintaining clients, make up that list. It might be similar to all of us in sales.

Chapter 10 begins to define the playing field. Understanding the playing field and the importance

to use or address the entire field is important. It is your market from those whom you do not

know and have never met to those who provide you referrals or are clients. The strategy deems

them all important.

23

Chapter 5

Especially For Real Estate Agents - Is it “CheckMate” or is it “Your King Is In Check”?

“In football, like in life, you must learn to play within the rules of the game.

Hayden Fry

I deviate from football to chess for a chapter. Football players play chess, don’t they?

Recent events cause all real estate agents to need have a better game plan. This must be a better

on-line plan and a better person to person plan. This must include a better use of your time. It

means you must dump denial and deal with facts. It means you must be willing to do some things

I know that most have avoided.

Speaking of denial, it’s a sales person’s trait. Please don’t be offended. Agents are of the positive

attitude type. They keep on keeping on even when it’s difficult. They wake up ready to win and

little discourages them. A bad year is always just ahead of greatness. Even so, as agents we do

tend to let that positive attitude place us in denial about important facts.

For example, it was about eight years ago when real estate agents flocked to the Marriott

Marquis New York for the Inman Connect Conference. Kathleen and I were among hundreds in

the keynote session where Professor Nouriel Roubini of New York University’s Stern School of

Business described in detail what was about to happen to the United States housing market. He

spoke in detail, details that did happen; in fact it was many times worse than what he presented. I

think it’s the closest thing to a lynching that I have ever been near. The response from the eager

agents was just ugly. If there were 1000 in the room I’d guess there were 1000 in denial. No one

wanted to hear his message. It wouldn’t surprise me if he left out the back door. Now I am only

guessing, but were you there you would be as I was, in denial when being presented such

negative information.

Also in an Inman Conference, 2005, we cringed as Brad Inman brought to the stage Zillow

founder, Rich Barton and his Zillow marketing team. Most in attendance quickly learned the

definition of the word disintermediation. That is because we all became aware that Rich was a

key player in the disintermediation of the travel agency industry. I would say that

disintermediation is analogous to destruction? Both panic and denial seeped through the

24

conference. Could Zillow do that to the real estate industry? Nah, we control the data we

thought.

A couple of years later two Stanford grads, Pete Flint and Sami Inkinen were on Brad Inman’s

stage in San Francisco introducing their new startup Trulia. Was Trulia a serious startup? Nah,

many of us with our natural denial instincts thought.

Here we are years later. Zillow announces their purchase of Trulia. Why would Zillow pay 2.5

billion dollars for Trulia? An even bigger question is why did Trulia agree to take that 2.5 billion

in Zillow stock? Is it because together they currently display 90% of the homes listed for sale?

And how do they monetize those billions of dollars in value? Where is the revenue that justifies

those values? It comes from agents. More precisely, it comes from the very agents that do the

grunt work, those who sit across the kitchen table, licensed, meeting face to face with the sellers.

Then those agents give the data to Zillow-Trulia so agents can purchase back the leads created

online. This sounds silly doesn’t it?

These sites aren’t out to disintermediate or destroy the agent industry they are out to CONTROL

it. They are out to charge agents for access to the consumer, these very agents who did the hard

work.

Check out this recent quote from Brad Inman. It should be upsetting and hopefully throw some

cold water on any tendency of denial?

Checkmate

“In my view, this is checkmate. Soon, Zillow will control the chessboard,

like Amazon does the publishing industry. The only meaningful consumer destination, Amazon, after many savvy moves, now controls pricing, merchandising, the data and the market. Soon, Zillow will control the pricing, the listings, the merchandizing and, for sure, the consumer.”

No one is in this real estate sector for philanthropic reasons. That should include us. So much

money flows through this business it attracts those seeking wealth. Checkmate usually means the

game is over. Is it?

This internet interception cannot be stopped now. So where do agents fit in in the future?

I see four options:

1- They can buy the leads. They will leave you some crumbs. The price is costly, and with these

online companies growing stronger the price will rise. I know of one agent that currently spends

up to $4,000 a month for leads. He is wondering how high that cost will rise. We see it now.

Realtor.com just doubled our offices price for the “Showcase Listing” option. This is a profit

machine for the NAR which is licensed to a separate company, Homestore. The intent is

supposed to be of a noble purpose, yet it still is about the big bucks that come from the agents.

My thesis here is that purchasing leads is not the way to build a business. I’ve purchased leads in

the past and won’t continue. My experience is that the bulk of people willing to be a lead do so

25

for despicable reasons. For one, most don’t feel any loyalty towards the agent that contacts them.

Therefore they can freely waste your time while feeling no remorse.

If buying leads is your strategy, and it works for you, you can keep on with that same strategy.

Just expect the prices to rise significantly.

2- Agents can be content to list or sell a few homes to friends, family, and acquaintances. The

bulk of agents do this now which is evident by the facts in virtually every real estate office. Look

at the production board. Eight out of ten produce little to mediocre results.

If you are comfortable with this strategy, and it works for you, you can keep on with the same

strategy. My belief is that this strategy creates short timers. You can also expect to lose some of

those referrals, friends, etc. as many get caught on these websites.

3- I will be emphasizing the objective to deliver for you a strategy that is a path to being a

champion or elite performer. The champions and elite performers are possibly going to continue

as such. I admire this crop. They have done something right that brings them a steady flow of

business. However I did speak last week with a former champion who is now struggling. Her

natural market left her. To the current champions and elite, my guess is that you can continue as

is, that is unless your sphere become enamored with the Zillow types websites and get captured

by them. It is also my thesis that they need to take pro-active steps to stay connected to their

sphere.

4- Embrace the “How We All Win” strategy. Be a part of the “Here We All Win” Network. You

can compete if you will. Doing so will take most into a new world of marketing.

If there ever was a time to do a few easy things where there has been a mental block stopping us,

now is the time.

The agents that want to do more than risk their future will be independent and develop their own

source of referrals. Note I say referrals, not leads. The agent that wants to be a champion may not

have a strong enough natural market, does not want to depend on the lead generators, and is not

content with being in the masses. That agent must latch on to a strategy that puts him or her in

total control of their success.

What is that strategy? It must provide the path to follow. It must provide the consumables which

takes you to the elite status in a natural way. It must overcome call reluctance by providing

agents something interesting to say to anyone. I and those I have asked for input on the “How

We All Win” strategy believe that it is here. These advisors have encouraged me to make it so

simple to do that those who want elite status are sure to have it. Jim Warner said to me: “Larry

you must do that and I know you can do it.”

What I believe is that you can compete with the lead generators. What they do is a proven

success. Yet you don’t need them. In fact, you can create loyalty that they cannot. You can

connect with others as a person not a company. They are working from a macro strategy. There

is little that is personal in their approach. What I am proposing gives you a serious edge. It gives

you a permanent success. This strategy is designed to make you as big a producer as you want to

be, and for as long as you choose to have it.

26

The internet part may or may not be a natural thing for you to do. That doesn’t matter. Part of the

strategy is natural for me, I like to write. Part of it took a total change of instincts for me. I tend

to think of me. Even last week Jim Warner had to correct me in a statement I made by saying,

“Larry you forget, it’s about them”. We get more specific on this in the chapters about core

relationships.

Wherever you stand, if you will move out of denial, see things as they really are, and take this

strategy serious, you take CONTROL of your success. You won’t lose to the Zillow-Trulia’s of

the world.

In the introduction I mentioned the strategy will introduce some walls to break through. If you

are willing to break through them, you can win. I am certain of it. I had one client who told me

the strategy pushed him from less than average production to a minimum of 10 to 12 million in

sales every year during the crunch. He is now a part owner of a real estate office. I want that kind

of success, and I want you to have that kind of success.

Agents, you are in a marvelous industry. It has been poached on by the technology geniuses. It

need not push you out. You can play at their game. More importantly you can play in the

relationship game. This gives you the edge. The strategy brings both to you.

On this checkmate issue I have “An Attitude” which is ….

“My King is In Check”

It is not “Checkmate”….

Sorry Brad Inman.

27

Chapter 6

Especially For REALTORS® Part 2

You are in the game - you can be a champion

Commitment is a big part of what I am and what I believe. How committed are you to winning?

How committed are you to being a good friend? To being trustworthy? To being successful?

How committed are you to being a good father, a good teammate, a good role model? There's

that moment every morning when you look in the mirror: Are you committed, or are you not?

LeBron James

I’ve seen it, I’ve done it, rejected a great idea. I’ve taught it and I’ve watched it ignored and

rejected, what I am sharing in this strategy. All that LeBron refers to in the quote above are a part

of being committed to being a champion. I am asking you to not reject what you are being

presented. Why? Because I am convinced of the simplicity and the reality of what can be done.

There is a point system being introduced in this championship game. It is a way to measure your

activity. If you only do as the masses do you will lose each weeks game. I’ve been playing it as

most play. I’ve lost this week’s game 32 to 18 and I lost last week’s 32 to 18.5. I have been

losing because I haven’t had all of the strategies tools. They are being prepared to be available

with the launch of this book. If I keep playing the real estate sales game this way I will

absolutely stay in the masses.

What is it that you do that makes you produce in the champion or elite categories? You will have

access to a score sheet that helps you measure your day and weeks effectiveness. This will allow

you to answer the next three questions 1- What activities did I do today? 2- Which were

specifically obtaining or maintaining clients? 3- Which were either other types of activities, busy

work, or social events? You might want to track those activities on a score sheet like this:

My emphasis is that we in sales are paid to obtain and maintain clients. I claim that 80% of our

work week must be spent doing one of those two functions. I can only say that I am excited to

have for myself the tools being prepared for you. I want them too. Don’t let your natural

rejection reflex do you in.

Embrace how I define your market segments. Be clear on what category everyone in your market

fits into. Now, what activities do you do that obtain or maintain clients? What activities do you

do that do not fit that objective? I will finish this subject toward the end of the book. Hang in

there. The game is about to begin.

28

Chapter 7

Especially For Loan Originators:

I have watched numerous loan officers leave the business when rates rise and some who return

again when rates fall. It’s like they never quite figure out how to consistently play in the pro’s.

Larry K Cragun

When interest rates go up, then what?

I write a chapter for loan officers because I understand you so well and know how to help you. I

have had a diverse background in your business. I started as a loan officer for a large Midwest

bank. The training was awesome. Fortunately for me it was in a refi boom.

I was also fortunate to have a mentor, a top producing real estate agent. He was one of the best

agents in the industry and being a friend was able to set with me with his clients and nurture me

through learning what I should and should not be saying in a client meeting. He was demanding

of me, had high expectations of what I would do for him, but he was patient. In a typical month

he was worth from 5 to 15 referrals. “Thanks for all you did for me Stan.”

This refi boom ended and I set out to expand my agent business. This part is pertinent to why I

write this chapter and how it fits into the How We All Win strategy. I didn’t find a way to

expand that agent business. I remained a good but not great producer for many years.

Two real estate agents asked me to teach them the mortgage business so I set up a branch office

arrangement with a mortgage company. By then I had been striving for the ultimate broker-

employer relationship. I had been recruited away from my bank by a mortgage company offering

me a much greater per file income. They then sold out to a bank. I left that bank for a large

mortgage broker. I think there were 300 loan officers at this new company. I spent two years

preparing to start my own company, allowing me to open with FHA approval. I started with the

two agents I had trained. That company grew fast to 100 loan officers. I later sold it.

This has been a great background. This varied experience and numbers of colleagues to work

with and employ provides the background for the simple message of this chapter.

The message - you can come and go during refinance booms, leave when the boom is over

through rates rising, or you can build a permanent business with agents.

This is not an easy task. Even with my friend Stan Merrill as my advocate I didn’t get it done.

One year for an entire year I canvassed every real estate office in two large Seattle suburbs. I was

consistent, visiting each office weekly. That year yielded exactly 0 new agents.

I am presenting to you in this strategy a better way. As I canvassed for agents I typically had one

of two responses. The first “I am happy with my lender’ or the second “bring me a deal so I can

29

see how good you are”. I thought why would I bring you a deal with no assurance you will

reciprocate?

Even though these seemed like undesirable responses they open the key to connecting with

agents. Sure they may already have a good lender. Sure they want deals and want you to bring

them one. Sure they are tough to crack. However, they can be the source of prosperity by your

seeing what they are saying. Securing the agents attention, and ultimately their business, needs a

strategy that will deliver new business for them. Sure I was good and had competitive rates but

their response to that line wasn’t really very positive.

In many cases I had a justifiable snippy response from agents. Rates had risen and I wasn’t the

only one focused on agents. I clearly remember one angrily saying, “I get it, interest rates are

up. I’ve been plagued by a dozen of you guys today. Where were you when things were booming?

Where were you is deserved. Where were you? You were busy cashing in and the agents know

it. They resented being inundated with lenders now looking to get their business.

Certainly, as interest rates start to raise loan officers realize that they must move into the

purchase market, or make much less income, or leave. I’ve been through a few of these trends.

I’ve seen colleagues who love the business forced out of it. One year we paid over $750,000 in

commissions to our top loan officer. She was a marketing “animal”. She lived on refinances. She

is in a different business now as she hadn’t built her business by being focused on agent

business.

So in anticipation of this rejection do you stay away from prospecting to prosper in the purchase

market? You do not. You swallow your pride. You stop thinking of yourself. You break through

the walls I describe. You embrace a strategy where we all win. This strategy gives you

something of value to offer others. It provides an interesting way to connect with agents. Instead

of rejecting you they will be interested in you.

How about embracing an approach where the opening message is one where you are offering not

asking? You will have a tool to promote them that they will appreciate. They have a problem and

if you read the previous chapter, now you know what it is. You can help them take CONTROL

of their future. I hope you grasp my message here. I know it can work if you will embrace it.

Now, let us go back to football and more about becoming champions.

30

Chapter 8

Especially For The Rest Of Those In Sales And Marketing:

There is no thrill like throwing a touchdown pass.

Joe Montana

Are you a CPA, insurance agent, or any of the others that you find in the Chamber of Commerce

or a leads club? These might include these other 98 careers: Accounting, Acupuncture,

Advertising/Marketing, Advertising Specialties, Artist, Attorney, Automotive, Banking, Bookkeeping, Business

Broker, Business Consulting, Career Counselor, Cooking, Chiropractic, Clothing, Direct Sales, Coaching,

Computer, Counseling, Computer Services, CPA, Hotels, Consultant, Contractor, Cards, Crafts & Hobbies, Day

Care, Dental, Document Management, Engraving, Eco-Consulting, Environmental Services, Fashion, Financial

Services, Fitness, Florist, Hair Care, Gifts & Incentives, Gift Baskets, Gourmet Foods, Graphic Design, Health

Insurance, Coaching, Interior Design, Accessories, Transaction Assistant, Pest Control, Home Security, Plumber,

Heating and Air, Hypnotherapy, Health and Wellness,

Heating & Cooling, Insurance, Home Inspections, Interior

Design, Jewelry, Landscaping, Life Coaching, Marketing,

Minister, Massage Therapy, Merchant Credit Cards,

Notary, Mortgages, Neurotherapy, Nutrition, Office Spaces,

Painting, Personal Training, Pet Sitting, Pest Control

Services, Photography, Physical Therapy, Pools & Hot

Tubs, Print Sales, Printing, Professional Organizer, Real

Estate, Promotional Products, Property Management,

Psychotherapy, Fitness Coach, Iron Man Coach, Computer

Training, Real Estate Appraisal, Real Estate Settlement

Services, Resume Writing, Senior and In Home Services,

Signs and Banners, Skin Care, Spa Salon, Social Media

Consulting, Tax Accounting, Tax Preparation, Title

Company, Travel, Veterinarian, Video Production,

Virtual Assistant, Web Development, Hotel, Printing,

Signs, Self-Storage, and Window Treatments.

You have a lot to offer agents and lenders. They have a lot to offer you. Real Estate is a

marketing business. You need to connect to it. The benefit of being connected to agents and

lenders is evident as these two slots are always the first to fill in leads clubs. I say this and I want

all of you to feel the joy of being a champion. In fact, I/we need you to grasp onto this strategy. It

is “How We All Win”. Reach out to the real estate world and connect with it. Follow the

principles in this strategy. Be a CORE to them, at least a deserving advocate.

We hired a CPA because Cliff, our advocate knew we were starting our own mortgage company

and shared that fact in a leads club. We later hired someone else that we met at the local

chamber. There is a reason that these two business networking models flourish. Those who

belong are there to find clients. You too can prosper from this strategy.

31

Chapter 9

Your Position

“If you are a quarterback, you want everything on your shoulders. You want to be the one to

make the decisions.”

Tom Brady

On this team you get to pick your position. Well, not really. Guess what? Like it or not, you are

the quarterback.

When you think about it, it’s really quite OK. After all who is usually the highest paid? Who

receives the fewest hits? OK, maybe the kicker on that question. You aren’t the kicker. Being in

sales you already have everything on your shoulders. Take this great strategy, call every play,

make every touchdown, be the leader of an important team, and win baby win. Leave the masses,

be a champion, join the elite.

While you are at it, why not be a great quarterback. A great quarterback is respected by his

teammates. A great quarterback is loved by the fans. Make it happen. Have fun while you

prosper, be a great quarterback.

As I have said, in his younger days Russell Wilsons father inspired him with this powerful

question, “Why not you Russ?” This is our question now; why not us? And you, have you been

looked over? I have. Are you the prototype? I’m not. Are you the unlikely champion? I am. So I

ask, why not us? Let us be champions, join the elite, and be a winner.

32

Chapter 10

The Playing Field

“The reason women don’t play football is because 11 of them would never wear the same outfit

in public”

Phyllis Diller

Being technically sound is important for our careers, being educated on how to excel is also

important. Understanding the playing field, your market, is the focus of this chapter. How to be a

championship sales person on the playing field is coming up.

As mentioned, there are seven categories which you as the quarterback can give the ball to. Each

of the seven categories is important, but the most important are the CORE and the POTENTIAL

CORE.

Your community is defined as your sphere, a geographical community, or a community of

common interest. You play here to score touchdowns, or sales. It’s an important place. It can also

be your fun place. Wouldn’t it be great if it were simple to be yourself and make touchdowns, or

successful passes or running plays any time you are on the field? This is possible.

A core relationship is one where each other benefit. Usually they provide each other referrals

each month. So, analyze your sphere and decide who are your POTENTIAL CORE. Soon you

will be speaking to them. More importantly, how can you be CORE for them? My friend Carol

provides referrals regularly to three loan officers. The relationship isn’t CORE as she receives

none in return. Having relationships that are CORE is core to your success.

RULE: Treat Every Prospect As A Potential Core

By the way, the more time you spend on the field the better it is. If you are not on the field you

are not in the game. This strategy is designed to place you on the field almost 24-7 in a

comfortable way. Applying this part makes it possible to fulfill the 32 hour schedule I now

33

propose. It makes your effective work week expand. I will illustrate this point later with a

medical exam I had.

I propose that to be champions we must spend 32 hours a week either obtaining or maintaining

customers. Keeping this 32 hour schedule can be a daunting task with the interruptions that

occur, the need to maintain our knowledge base, and the tendency for busy work most of us face.

We now begin to define where the How We All Win strategy builds your championship year. It

provides a way for every activity, even social events, to expand your sphere and a way for you to

be effective at all times. This makes it fun, just like football is fun.

When you are not obtaining or maintaining customers it is the same as being on the bench or in the showers.

Marketing To A Community

Marketing is most effective when it is focused on a community. It could be a town, a

neighborhood, or even a topic. It is best when it is something that you are or can be passionate

about. Kathleen and I were passionate about our town, Issaquah. I am passionate about

genealogy. We have a daughter that is passionate about horses. All of these create communities.

All have people with common interests. What then is your community?

Here I ask, are you like Sam or are you like Matt? Sam told me that he would never limit his

efforts to one community; he was the agent for the entire county of three million people in the

Greater Seattle area. He said he would never limit his efforts to a single geographical area, not

even the suburban town he lived in. In contrast there is Matt. Matt focuses on a community of

around 7,000 people. Sam cannot reach the attention of three million people. Matt is known by

almost everyone he seeks to serve. He has a booth at the community events. He is found at the

local eateries, smiling and friendly. He reaches out to them in multiple ways. He lives in one of

the nicer homes in the development. Matt’s office is visible on the main street. As a result of his

focus, during the years he has lived and worked there Matt has been in almost every home in that

community. He has sold many of them more than once. Three miles north of Matt lives Bob. Bob

has the same approach as Matt, focusing on a community. As a result Bob also dominates the

sales in his community. Bob has, in a business way, owned his market for over twenty five years.

If you are going to sell your home in these communities Matt or Bob are likely your guys.

I have had many conversations with Sam, the agent that would only consider all of Seattle. It

turns out that Sam is also a big producer. It also turns out that Sam has a community. It just isn’t

a town or a neighborhood. Sam’s community is first time home buyers.

34

Sam is talented. He loves to make presentations to groups. He is also an actor. I have watched

him in action. He is terrific. Sam has authored training courses focused around first time home

buyers. He has them approved by multiple agencies. They send him his students. During class

they happen to find out Sam is in the business. It is no surprise that many want Sam to sell them

their first home. What a coincidence. Yes, Sam has a community. What about you? Do you focus

on some sort of community?

Sam, Matt, and Bob are real people, these are their real names. They are just an example of the

success stories that make the point that if you are doing well, you are probably focused as these

agents are.

In all fairness: Sam, Bob, and Matt do make sales outside of their target communities. That is a

natural by-product of referrals, repeat business from old clients, being known, and being

successful. You will too, so don’t panic if the concept of focusing on a community is troubling to

you.

These other categories in your community are also important.

35

ADVOCATES are people who like you and trust you.

ADVOCATES say good things about you, they care

about you. However, it is possible that they have

neglected sending you a referral for quite a long time.

Unless they provide you a referral at least every year

you classify them as CONNECTED, assuming they

welcome your emails.

Some ADVOCATES can be transformed into

POTENTIAL CORE or CORE. Spending time with

people who could become advocates is being on the

playing field. In the strategy we spend a part of each week with ADVOCATES.

Some POTENTIAL CORE just won’t make CORE status. OK, you want them as ADVOCATES

or CONNECTEDS. You stay in touch.

Not METS, oh those NOT METS. How many of them are there in your playing field? Are there

thousands, hundreds, dozens, hundreds of thousands? Our playbook has a strategy for these

important people.

METS yes, simply I ask how many new people did you meet last week? CONNECTED folks are

different than METS. They do more for your goals too. They can become team mates where

METS rarely do, you only met them. We define CONNECTEDS as those who you made the

effort to obtain their contact information. You have the OK to get back with them. You will be

getting back to them.

Recently I had a medical exam example. It shows how to be playing

like a champion in any situation. It makes the 32 hour a week

commitment practical. It shows how to take a MET and create a

CONNECTED. It doesn’t happen by accident, you have to make it

happen. The story: My insurance company sends out a medical tech to

perform an annual wellness interview. They take vitals, ask about my

habits, and give me a good health pep talk. I just was given my

interview for this year. The medics name is Josh. Josh was open to

small talk so I asked about him. He has been married for a year, he

and his wife both are college grads with good jobs. “Do you live close by Josh?” I do he

answered. “Do you own your own home I slipped in later?” No we are saving for one he

answered. I then went on to CONNECT with Josh. I told him about my website, that I published

local content and real estate content. I mentioned I published a regular newsletter based on that

content. He agreed to the newsletter and was interested in staying in touch. Yes, on this occasion

I CONNECTED instead of just MET.

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Those in your community who you haven’t yet met, those whom you come into contact with,

these expand your sphere when you CONNECT. The more of these you add as CONNECTED to

your sphere the closer you climb to that championship and elite status.

I know of few in sales, maybe none, that can be elite without new customers, or without

prospecting. I do believe many stay in the masses this way. To make the point in my own mind I

am doing a virtual walk through of a large mortgage company I once worked in. Let’s see now,

the copy machine. There are always a few gathered around it spinning yarns. I see two offices

with 3 or 4 people talking sports. Out front, always a couple of guys chatting with the good

looking receptionists. Dave’s office, always a place to stop by. Dave waits for the phone to ring.

It rings at times, he’s been around for years. Dave is still in the masses. There is a group where

you can always drop in and discuss marketing ideas. The guy that sits next to me is constantly on

the phone to home. It’s ok, he’s a fairly new newlywed.

The point is that virtually all of these former colleagues needed more business. All of them are

capable of reaching out to the NOT METS. All of them can convert METS to CONNECTEDS.

All of these I know so well rarely CONNECT with new people.

At the same time I propose that we need to have more to offer our ADVOCATES, POTENTIAL

CORE, and CORE than discussed so far. I also propose that we need a way to meet those in our

community outside of the typical methods of marketing: flyers, newspaper advertising, post

cards, cold calling to offices, etc.

There are opportunities that many of us avoid or have difficulty taking advantage of such as The

Chamber of Commerce, meeting a stranger in a public place, or in the wealth of opportunities

that lie within our communities. This takes us back to that t-shirt.

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What is there which we could implement

that would make all opportunities easy for us

to captilize on? To answer this important

question I introduce the last and most often

neglected category, “Friends in the

computer.” I abbreviate as F I TC.

How is your website doing? Do you have

one? Has it created many friends in the

computer? For most almost no business can

be credited to one’s website.

Recently the National Association of Realtors published that those who spend marketing dollars

on typical websites, Facebook ads, search engine optimizing, internet advertising, direct mail,

newspaper ads, etc. should seriously reconsider whether the return justifies the costs.

I want you to benefit from the new media. I want you to reduce your marketing expenses. I want

you to be effective. I want you to have a bunch of friends in the computer. I know how to help

you do this part, inexpensively.

Take Note: I do not believe that you or I can win without this next tool! I see games

with scores of 32 to 15 but not 33 to 32 or better. On the other hand I see you

winning week in and week out, every week with it.

Time Out There is such a thing as time out in football you know.

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There is an elephant in the room! Do you remember that mentally tough chapter? It applies to

what is next. Did we mention breaking through or getting over the wall? Next is the sure fire

breakthrough. I mentioned we have to choose success and that the Seahawks became champions

because they wanted it more than the Denver Broncos. Now we really get to the meaning of

choosing success and wanting it more. I introduce the tool that makes good on every hint,

promise, or challenge that I have thus far eluded too.

Our job is to build numerous ADVOCATES and many CORE relationships. Becoming

champions requires us to connect with, not just meet, on a regular basis, those in our community

whom we have not yet met. This can be accomplished with a concentrated mission to reach out

in a “Here We All Win” approach. Embracing an approach to regularly develop CORE

relationships is a winning strategy. We can do great things by being vigilant in concentrating on

understanding and acting on the needs of those we could bring into our business life as CORE or

ADVOCATES. This can be accomplished without the internet. I want to stress, however, that

this initiative can be accelerated, multiplied, and guaranteed with our approach to this “friends in

the computer” part. There is a catch, which is this elephant thing. I have taught classes to

hundreds of REALTORS, genealogists, business owners, and sales people, teaching this tool. My

statistics are in line with all others I have seen. That statistic is that 97% of the people just won’t

do it, at least for more than a week.

Watch out for the elephant, he is real and he can stop you.

The solution, the tool that I propose which makes every component of the strategy a snap is

having your own blog even belonging to a blog network. I challenge you to open your hearts to

where I am leading you, to publish and do it by participating in our “Here We All Win” network.

Even doing your own blog, solo so to speak would have value with this strategy.

Yep, you need to publish a blog. Are you ok? Do you need CPR?

Friends in the computer is coined as people find or are sent to your

blog. They like it and keep coming back. Thus they become your

friend in the computer. This friend in the computer concept is very

real, is important, and is yours to prosper from. It is essential if you

truly want to be an elite champion.

It is your way to avoid “checkmate”.

It will be the touchdown play for all seven categories. When you answer the phone to one of

these not yet met friends the conversations are strangely strange. These people act like they are

your best friend and yet you don’t even know them. I have had this experience many times and

the best way to describe what will be your reaction is “huh”?

It’s a joyously weird experience. Teresa Boardman coined this phrase, beginning when she

phoned me.

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It was early morning in a hotel in Reno, Nevada. We were helping a neighbor move to their new

home in Reno. While having breakfast I received a phone call from a Teresa. “Larry, I’ve just

got to talk with you. You have been my friend in the computer for months.”

I was her friend in the computer? That seemed different. I liked it. She said that she liked me and

we hadn’t even met in person. She found me online, started reading my regular posts, and

months later called me. She just called wanting to speak with me in person as she wanted to

know me better. This friend in the computer thing can be very real and is yours to prosper from

over and over if you choose. She is a good friend to have. She is a writer for Inman News, is

very outgoing, and full of good advice.

Another example was this one; “Hi Larry, this is Bob. I am flying into town next Wednesday.

Will you pick me up at the Kirkland Marriott Courtyard at 1 PM? I want to buy a home in the

Highlands and I want to see what it currently available.” I had to ask, “Bob who?” I didn’t

know Bob but he had been following my blog postings for months. He knew me. I was his friend

in the computer.

Back to this elephant issue. He has people buying into all sorts of loser attitudes:

It’s too difficult.

It takes up too much time.

Someone might read it. (my favorite)

I can’t get going until its perfect.

I am not a good writer.

No one will read it.

I am too busy.

I have nothing to write about.

I’ve been told no one gets leads off of a blog.

Another in my field told me not to do it. (A Fake Expert)

I did it once and it didn’t work.

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With your blog we begin to successfully reach out to every part of your community. Here we

have a tool to overcome all that holds us back from being an elite performer. If steroids were

legal in football – this part of the strategy could be called winning with internet steroids.

Let me lead you to a strategy of elite success.

1. Have a blog with the purpose of having a way to promote others.

2. Have a blog to be found thanks to the search engines.

3. Have a blog to provide content, your passion on topics, your expertise, and your voice.

4. Have a blog to be CORE for those you are seeking CORE relationships with.

5. Have a blog to always have something interesting to discuss with anyone.

6. Have a blog about your community to send people to.

Since it is so important and a big part of the training camp chapter, let’s go into this part now, by

listing ways that publishing blog articles on your community or favorite topics helps.

It is easy to illustrate. Let me count the ways. Here are only fifteen reasons a blog can work.

1- It provides a valuable tool to discuss your strengths.

2- Talking about it with others overcomes call reluctance as you always have something

interesting to talk about.

3- It makes you a favorite contact; people want to be involved somehow.

4- You have gifts to offer, plug someone in your community. It makes for good content.

5- It is your elevator pitch. What do you do? I write a blog about…. It helps me in my

business. They usually want to know more?

6- It sets you apart at the Chamber, which you once thought to be a waste of time and

money. You are the one they need to meet.

7- It makes farming fun and productive, even in farming businesses.

8- It makes every event you attend productive, even those you go to for entertainment.

9- It gives you the benefits of being the press.

10- Even that giant corporation Google might send business to you. I will teach you how to

make this happen.

11- It makes you a better writer.

12- It makes you a better photographer.

13- It works for you while you play, sleep, and work - night and day.

14- You have a voice, publishing it is a good thing, others will love it.

15- Your time spent with this blog tool can perform double, triple, even more duty for you.

An hour spent here can count as seven, affecting all seven community categories.

Here are some important blogging facts:

Most people who start a blog dream about sky high subscriber numbers – You don’t need that.

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Most people think they have to be a great and accomplished writer – You only have to be

yourself. People choose you and become your friend in the computer because of your opinion,

your voice, your experience, your passion, or your knowledge.

Most people, salespeople (or businesses) want to be written about – This opens the door for you

to use others as part of your subjects, plus makes the ADVOCATE or POTENTIAL CORE

process easier.

Most people think you need to cram the internet with content – Of course the more you write

about your topic the better the search engines treat your blog. The search engines come back to

your site the minute you publish an article. The rankings improve the more often you write. You

are competing with every other site that posts on your topic. Your blogs current content is more

important than older articles on any site. The more you write on a topic the more important your

site is to the search engines.

Some people think writing an article takes all day – Oh the perfectionist, be thoughtful for sure,

but don’t be a perfectionist. If you are writing about a topic you are familiar with or passionate

about it might take an hour, sometimes less, sometimes more to write an article. The strategy

budgets four hours a week to publishing. I live by that, it works, is less imposing, and produces

great results.

Some people expect visible results the next day – being found on the search engines is usually a

long term initiative. What you write is there forever unless you delete it. So what if it takes

months to be found.

How you use it is more important. I will be talking mine up at 10 articles in pre-season. (I am up

now and did just that). I do propose that you quickly get ten articles up. After that, if it takes four

hours to write one article and if that’s all you have time for, so be it, that is good enough. One

article a week for two years is over 100 articles; yielding a pretty valuable site of content. In less

than two years without pushing hard I have almost 600 articles on my genealogy blog. People

now discovering my genealogy blog are sending me lots of friends in the computer type

responses. The longer I am publishing the more influence the blog has.

It is for the mentally tough - It’s human psychology, the more time you spend on something

without a reward the harder it is to continue with it. You counter this by being confident you

have a worthy site. That is why I push you to publish ten posts. The immediate reward you need

then comes from your being proactive. The finding you on line then becomes a bonus. Your

reward comes from using your blog to prospect, to invite others to let you help them, and as the

focus of your elevator pitch.

Some people don’t think they have a worthy topic - Not true. The most difficult challenge I have

seen comes straight from the interview with Carol. She can’t meet her goals about writing about

a town as she sells in more than one town. The majority in her sphere are not sales people. This

challenge set me back for a short time. But Carol can be effective by meeting with her sphere to

ask them what they are interested in. They can determine her focus. I am guessing Carol will find

42

real estate topics to be of interest as well as what is happening in Seattle. She will only know by

meeting with them to talk about it, and isn’t that what she should be doing anyway?

Some people think they have to trade links with hundreds of others – Exactly the opposite is true.

Links to your site help but don’t focus on that. Your priority at first is for you to drive visitors

and capitalize on your efforts with actions you take.

Some people think it difficult and a waste to involve social media marketing into their blog - In

most cases it’s just one click and your article is on a social media site. This is another effective

application of your blog initiative. Doing this regularly pays off big time. I am certain the reason

my traffic is already around 100 a day is because I forward my post to Twitter, Facebook,

LinkedIn, and Pinterest. This is where the hits are coming from to my new site.

Take note, social media sites can be a mental trap. It can be anti-social. This is why I suggest you

limit it to one hour a week. You can also spend too much time posting articles. Posting a few

articles week is enough, no more than going live with one a day should be the maximum. I have

written so many, way over 2000 articles and I compose fairly fast. I call it the mind dump when I

sit down. Work at what is comfortable for you, just put in those four hours. Oh, and remember

spell check before posting.

And finally and maybe the most important comment is to not worry if someone else tackles the

same subject. This is like football you know. What kind of a football game would it be if you had

no competitors?

Done right, your totally awesome website/blog presence will be effective in building CORE

relationships. You can have discussions and meaningful conversations with POTENTIAL

CORE. Clients find you on Google. ADVOCATES remember you. Those whom you write about

thank you.

When you post you are providing information to people seeking info on your topic. Your voice,

published, will often be the solution people are seeking. Sometimes they discover that you are

the solution. Sometimes they just quietly return. My genealogy blog has averaged about 150

visitors a day. It’s not a commercial endeavor. I enjoy comments such as the recent one that said

“just saddled down with your blog and love it”. She then went on to ask a question.

I am not a great blog writer. I don’t need to be, I am an expert on my topic and even more

relevant, I am passionate about it.

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Chapter 11

The Game Plan

“In every aspect of your life, have a game plan, and then do your best to achieve it.”

Alan Kulwicki

Marketing is too important to be left up to the Marketing Department. It’s up to you to make it

happen.

The Game Plan Summary:

Identify your community:

Place all your contacts in it into one of the seven categories

o Market to build in each category weekly

o Define the NOT MET market and let them know about your website

Get the Word Out.

o Start meeting with people with your new tools.

o Get permission from those in your sphere who are not likely to become CORE to

occasionally contact them with your newsletter.

Be an advocate for others:

o Focus on developing CORE both win relationships. First one, then five, then

many.

o Be about more than what you sell.

o Have a captivating elevator pitch.

Always win for consumers:

o Be recommended – stay recommended

o Provide visible content – be a friend in the computer

Plan tomorrow today; plan next week this week

Keep Score: Daily Score, Weekly Winner, and Annual Standings.

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Have a clear understanding of your community. Mix with it. Be involved. Know your banker.

Stop using the drive through at the bank. Participate in community events.

Some of you were invited to read this book by someone who considered you to be an

ADVOCATE, CORE, or POTENTIAL CORE to each other’s business success. They wanted to

explore that with you. They most likely told you that they were going to implement a strategy

they want you to consider. They may have also asked for an hour or so of your time to interview

you.

This interview would be to determine how to develop a trusted relationship, one that is mutually

beneficial, to help each other’s success. The strategy is a path to that destination. Understanding

the strategy in this book is an essential foundation for your next meeting.

There are two applications: 1- to those whom you will build strong both win relationships with

that will provide you an ongoing supply of referrals and 2- the consumer.

Look to create How We All Win relationships from all you connect with. Think of it, if you

allow us, or your POTENTIAL CORE to assist you in moving past those little things that stop

you, then you use your knowledge to assist others in the same endeavor, you are teaching and

helping in a way that can cement your value to others.

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Chapter 12

Training Camp

“The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary”

Vince Lombardi

Do you want to break through all walls of resistance? This is the way.

Get ready, for training camp you will need to make a decision. No decision is a decision. Ideally

training camp should last no longer than a week.

Like all training camps our training camp will exercise you. You will add some new muscle. You

will work out the kinks. You will practice parts of the playbook. You will meet some new

teammates. You will work with the trainers and coaches. Your skill level in training camp will

have some improvements to make. This is one of the purposes of training camp. Albeit

hypothetical, it’s also real.

Training camp is a time for evaluations. Where is your production really? Are you in the masses,

champion level, or the elite? Have you decided to step it up a level? Training camp isn’t for

sissies, it’s time to choose. It’s time to be brave and mentally tough.

First a mandatory exercise: Organize your entire database (sphere) with the following categories:

MET (those you don’t have permission to email), CONNECTEDS (those you do),

ADVOCATES (those you believe say nice things about you but not too referral driven),

POTENTIAL CORE (those who have given you a referral in the past year or those you believe it

is likely you could develop a CORE relationship with, and CORE (those who give you referrals

each month, you lucky person you).

46

You will touch base with them regularly. Identify which will receive your newsletters monthly,

quarterly, and semi-annually. Your blog articles will be your content.

Pick five POTENTIALCORE: Pick the five you think are most likely to want to participate.

Pick one: Pick your best option and call for an appointment. Follow the pattern I set out in the

Carol interview. Make and keep that appointment. Ponder your results and follow up.

Create a short elevator pitch and practice so it flows naturally in any sudden occasion. As an

example, my elevator pitch goes something like this: (Instead of it being about me or what I do,

it’s about them.)

I can strike up a conversation about them, what they do. When they ask what I do my answer is

“I write a blog about Salt Lake City and real estate. It helps my real estate practice.” They almost

always reciprocate. You are not pushing your career. The blog is a novel idea for a discussion.

You can elaborate bringing a latest topic into the conversation. You could be investigating if

their business or what they do is a worthy topic for an article. I rarely find those whom this does

not pique some sort of additional conversation with. The ease of creating a meaningful

conversation will become mind boggling. You are interesting. This is an easy way to

CONNECT. In most cases you have the chance to exchange business cards and leave with an

understanding you will be getting back to them. In some cases you will just add them to your

email list. These are examples of taking someone not met straight to CONNECTED, possible an

ADVOCATE. I have experienced having people go from NOT MET to CORE in only a few

days.

Decide from your blog options, which are:

Option 1: Don’t participate.

Option 2: Do a website not a blog. Many already have a website. The problem is websites

aren’t conducive to regular updates by non techies. They also have inferior search engine

benefits. It does make sense to link your blog to your website, an easy process.

Option 3: Publish your own blog on a free hosting service. This option has the benefit of no

cost. It lacks the benefits of a network. Your templates are usually bare bones, and the

providers often bug you to death trying to upgrade you.

Option 4: Publish your own blog on a paid hosting service. The advantage of this option over

free is in two areas: 1- the ability for you to advertise is not blocked or limited. 2- You have

more options regarding your template. (Called themes) The free versions are somewhat

limited – especially if you choose WordPress.

Option 5: Post as a co-author with others. For many years I was against team blogs. After all,

who is the author, who earns the friends in the computer? I have now concluded there are

definitely situations where it is a good option.

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Option 6: Be a part of our network. We have sought to make this option so appealing it’s a no

brainer. You can explore this at http://HereWeAllWin.Com/

Russell Wilson won the starting job as a rookie. At first it wasn’t obvious just how good he or

the Seahawks would be under his leadership. The coaching staff started the season of with simple

plays, giving him a chance to develop. That applies to you too. I am going to give you our

playbook regarding the blog. However, you are to begin the season with the basics:

Pick a relevant, not a cutesy, title to your blog. Make it relevant to your major topic. (You

can change this at any time) My title: “Salt Lake City and Real Estate” should clearly

define for visitors and the search engines what my site is about.

There is a section in settings for the text below the title: The search engines use this and

the title as a part of their deciding how to deliver your blog in searches. Enter a relevant

sentence. It is called a tagline. My tag line, “A blog about Salt Lake City, the Avenues,

Condominiums and Real Estate reinforce my blogs focus to visitors and also to the

search engines. This may seem somewhat repetitive. This is for the search engines and is

important.

Purchase your own domain name and forward it to your blog. Write your first article. I

know, someone might read it. I’ve heard that one a number of times. Are you in? Are you

really in? Then just do it. My URL that is forwarded is http://ItsGreatInSaltLake.com/

The last issue is if you join our network you will need to choose your name that is your

network URL. Mine is http://larrykcragun.HereWeAllWin.Com/. Like email you may

have to pick an alternate derivate if your name is already taken.

In basic training you need to know how to title, tag, and categorize your blog for search

engine success. That is in the training section. It’s simple but important.

Of course there is more you will learn about:

How to use your blog to create and publish a newsletter.

How to use your blog as a social media tool.

How to add videos to an article.

Search engine tricks and strategy.

When to or not to, and how to include something another has published.

How many words should a blog article have to be recognized by the search engines?

Also in training camp: (We discuss these and others in the training section of

HereWeAllWin.com)

Hire a coach: enough already. Training camp without a coach is like a Chocolate milk

shake without the chocolate – or the milk. Check out our website for tips and helps.

Visit the training site on our network. There is a lot there already and regular helps are to

be added regularly. http://training.HereWeAllWin.com

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Have or Open up accounts with the following: Twitter, Facebook, A Facebook page,

LinkedIn, Pinterest, and others if you choose.

Write down ten to twenty categories or topics. Knowing the topics first makes it easier to

get past the “what shall I write about brick wall”. In my case I will have two blogs; my

current genealogy blog and my new one.

I plan on categories as follows: (It will be modified as I go) Condominiums, Events, Historic

homes, Temple Square, Genealogy, Real Estate Laws, Staging your home, Marketing Homes,

Local Merchants I ADVOCATE, Marketplace, The Avenues, Real Estate Statistics, Featured

homes, Day Trips, Near Downtown, mortgage tips, and each condo development will be a

category. You can visit my site to see what is current. Too many categories can cause a site to

seem confusing.

Get a jump start. Write ten articles on ten different topics. Doing this in training camp week

accomplishes so many things. I have mentioned it makes the site look mature, but it also matures

you. With this many you will have mastered so much that you might be worried about. You

won’t be able to hold yourself back from exploring other parts of your blog. You might be like

me, in the first two weeks I posted about 40 articles on a variety of subjects. It is all so simple,

and in this time you will discover some fun options. Put photos in most or all of your articles.

Don’t use bad photos. Don’t pirate other people’s photos. You will learn to take good photos for

your blog. The newer technology makes quality photos easier. Your being out and about town

will expose you to photographical events, help you make more CONNECTIONS and help you

meet POTENTIAL CORE.

Next is an important message:

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In the past we would blog to be found on page one of search engine searches in our fields. There

are some definite procedures that we can implement. I call them basic rules for successful search

engine placement. Some of these search results are pretty valuable and as you might guess the

big boys have taken over. By the big boys I mean paid search and the large companies willing to

pay for placement on page one.

For example, in the plan A illustration, a Google search today for “Salt Lake City Real Estate”

delivers paid advertisement for every result that is on page one. Our approach is to not have you

worry about this paid option. Even when we could follow simple rules and in a few months

arrive on page 1 this wasn’t the most important accomplishment. Plan B worked a few years ago

and will work today, which is to be found on all other searches relating to your topic or

community. Not only is there less interest by the paying advertisers for these types of searches,

the numbers of website you are competing against drops significantly. Where a real estate term

might have 34,000,000 results for the search engines to select from the Salt Lake Terrace Falls

Condos has 250,000. This may still seem like a lot, but we teach how to be selected in a high

priority. You can consistently beat other sites when there are 250,000 competing against you.

The search engines give a high priority to a blog, they measure how often you post, how recently

you have posted, they consider the name of your website; does it match your title, your article

title, the tag, the category you give it, and other simple rules. It becomes a deliberate process, not

time consuming, to outscore the competition when it comes to search engine results.

This brings me to another point - your reach includes people from out of your area. Viewers may

be looking to move to your market and are searching all types of topics. These people hit your

site from research they are doing. An actual example is my genealogy blog. I am on page one for

the various family names I write about. Yesterday this blog had 192 page views and 142 came

from Google searches on some topic I had written about.

Even more importantly would be what I could call plan C - write about your market, use the

content in your newsletters, send people there on any advertising you do, and send people to your

blog when meeting them. This you have much more control over. To me and my marketing plan

I will rely totally on my ability to use the blog to reach out to others, to make connections, to

build relationships. The search engine results, they are all bonus.

Finally in this training camp you are to find 5 METS with the objective of turning them into

CONNECTEDS. Do it with everyone you meet, but this week you are to meet five new people

and CONNECT with them. You do this exercise to be effective, to build your sphere, and to

make every introduction important. Be conscious of the difference and the ease of moving a met

to CONNECTED. This exercise will bring you excitement as you see how successful you can

be.

A great way to keep score is next.

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Measure what hours you spend obtaining and maintaining clients: social when you connect with

someone, meet anyone anywhere and connect, meet with potential core, core, and advocates, or

work with prospects in any way.

Important but not worthy of earning points: active but not obtaining or maintain, busy work,

reading email, planning, and of course social or meetings where you don’t connect with new

potential core or advocates.

Blogging has a limit of 4 points per week. You can do more, but only 4 help you win.

You earn .25 points for any conversation that is with prospects, advocates or potential core, and

more if the conversation is longer. One hour is worth one point. If you attend a chamber type

meeting and connect with someone new you earn points for the hours in attendance and an

additional point for every new connection.

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Chapter 13

Pre-Season

“Every game I’ve played, regardless if it was pre-season or Super Bowl, meant the same to me,

and I laid it all on the line.”

Bret Favre

Many of you were invited to read this book by someone who considered you to be an

ADVOCATE, CORE, or POTENTIAL CORE to their business success. They also wanted to

explore being that for you. They most likely told you that they were going to implement a

strategy they want you to consider. They may have also asked for an hour or so of your time to

interview you.

This interview would be to determine how to develop a trusted relationship, one that is mutually

beneficial, to help each other’s success. The strategy is a path to that destination.

In this pre-season I want to share the Carol interview. Carol Miller has been an important part of

my business life. With Carol I conducted the following interview. As I include these interviews

as part of the pre-season activities I share with her permission my notes of that day. Later I will

share my response to her which wasn’t immediate.

The purpose of these interviews is to determine how I can be of value to her. This meeting can be

on the phone or in person. Carol was a salesperson who was an elite producer when she worked

for our mortgage company. That meant she was always in the top five of our 100 loan officers.

She successfully moved from mortgages to real estate sales over a decade ago.

I called Carol with this approach: “Carol, I am working on a strategy that I believe might help

your business. I am working on publishing a book around this strategy” (You could say that you

have recently read a book with a strategy that intrigues you. I think it might help our sales.) I

asked Carol if we could set an appointment, in this case over the phone, for me to ask her a few

questions.

Carol willingly set the appointment for the next day.

I want this to be an example to how you can implement the strategy. This interview was just a

first step. It was all about her. I care about her success. I trust that it was evident in our

conversation. I did not convey to Carol a solution. I wanted to consider what I had learned. The

conversation did go in a direction I had anticipated but it had some interesting surprises. It is my

intention to offer ways to assist her.

I didn’t get through the entire list of questions I had prepared, but it took an hour and a quarter

and it went great. Part of saying great is that both Carol and I connected on several fronts.

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Another part was that I think we both left the conversation in wonder. Carol might be wondering

when the book would come out. She may be wondering if I really had any way of helping her

with her goals. I hung up feeling challenged. For reasons you will see Carol wasn’t a perfect fit

for the entire strategy. At least it didn’t seem that way right after our interview.

As I share my notes of this interview I ask you to consider what kind of relationship you could

develop with others if you took this approach.

As I said, Carol willingly gave me the interview. Her answers were very candid and left me

committed to coming up with a strategy that would work within her unique situation. Of course

we both must win. I am sure we will.

The Carol Miller Interview

The first question after we did a little bit of fun small talk:

How was your 2013 for sales? “Terrible. It was like I took a whole year off. I let a lot of things

get in the way. But that’s not happening this year, I have taken on a coach and it’s already

changed for me.”

[Carol beat me to the coach question. I knew she once paid for a coach and was going to ask

about that.]

So you weren’t in the top 5% of your office? No, I was really distracted this past year, but one of

my goals is to be one of the top five agents in our office. To be in the top five I need to make

twenty sales this year. She shared her income goal too.

So Carol, what percent of your sales comes from referrals? This was interesting to me as at first

she said 40%. As we discussed it, it turns out that almost all of last year’s business came from

referrals.

At this point I briefly mentioned that the book divides our markets into seven categories. One of

them is those in her community she has not met, the NOT METS. I asked her if she had a way to

meet new people other than obtaining them by receiving a referral. She said no. I reminded her

that she used to be a part of an annual charity event. It turns out that she really didn’t meet new

people this way, but felt it was good PR for those who knew her already.

Carol doesn’t have a strategy to meet NOT METS.

What would you say is your strategy for 2014? “Pop byes” (This caught me off guard and I

asked her to explain it to me.) Carol has 300 in her sphere. She doesn’t like to appear insincere or

just out to get business. The result is that when she goes to visit she spends a lot of time with

them. She treats them as a friend. She doesn’t ask for referrals. A pop by would be to drop off a

treat and quickly say hi, doing this as a friendly reminder she is still around.

We discussed value again at his point of the interview. Carol wants to be valuable. We discussed

call reluctance. Like me, Carol cares how people interpret her motives. I wondered out loud how

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long she felt she could do this approach. I didn’t mean to, but I think I set her back a bit on this.

She may be second guessing her plan. This now makes it more important for me to develop a

strategy that works for her.

In the very beginning I had one question answered without my asking that of do you have

anyone that gives you at least one referral a month on a regular basis. The answer was yes. In

fact this one source had given her three that day. I pointed out that some would die for that kind

of relationship. We also know the vulnerability of depending on one source of business. I shared

again that I was seeking to begin with five and expand from that, pointing out that she was one of

the five.

Because of the nature of her CORE referral contact Carol’s community is diverse. With this

connection she is almost like a relocation agent. It’s not that official but in a sense it is like that.

These clients aren’t in sales. They come from out of state. They make good money. They don’t

all come to work in the same location. As a result Carol has a wide geographical market she must

be focused on. Her buyers end up living in one of three large counties.

With this in mind I realized one important chapter and part of the strategy was potentially down

the tubes. This refers to my question, what is your community? She has no geographical

community. Carols community is her sphere and its makeup is diverse. At first I wondered are

Carol and “The Strategy” basically toasted. I didn’t want to pre-empt the book and as a result

didn’t delve real deeply into this issue. I did ask if there were anything that the people in her

sphere had in common. She didn’t see an answer to that. I told her it might be important to

discover something that they had in common. This is another area Carol might now be

wondering about.

“Do you belong to the Chamber of Commerce?” “No, been there done that. It was a waste of

time and money.”

How many loan officers do you refer clients to? “Three”

Did you receive a referral from a loan officer last year? “No.” Have you considered collaborating

with them for mutual referrals? “Absolutely not! All they want is access to my database. It’s not

happening!” [I remembered that Carol had a very bad experience with a loan officer. He

basically used what leads he gained from her to recruit other real estate agents.] How about that

behavior for being short sighted? At the time she was pretty much just sending all of her clients

to him. He of course lost it all.

This brings up the issue of integrity. If I am only a taker or a user I do not develop lasting

relationships. A CORE relationship is what is emphasized here. ADVOCATES who give a

referral now and then are appreciated. We want ADVOCATES. But when we are approaching

another as I propose you do, you will not succeed if it’s just about you.

Do you send out newsletters? This was another interesting conversation as we had similar

attitudes on this topic. Carol said that she used to subscribe to a professional service but quit on

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it. She had fears others might send out the same newsletter, leaving her to not appear in the way

she wanted. We agreed on how important staying in touch was. Carol also was very concerned

about overdoing it – her correspondence basically becoming an irritation – like junk mail.

Do you have a team or any assistants? “My goal is to have an assistant by the end of the year.”

She shared she is very meticulous about her paper work. Her office doesn’t provide or offer a

transaction management coordinator. I then went into an important question: How many hours a

week do you spend either maintaining or obtaining customers? “I would say 16, it’s the most

important thing I do.” How many hours a week do you work? “At least 40, usually more, she

answered.” Would it be audacious of me to then propose you move that 16 number to 32? This

was a positive conversation. We discussed ideas. She had already said it was the most important

part of her job description. Instead of rejecting the concept she was interested in the idea.

Important information from the discussion about coaching: She once paid $3,000.00 a year for

the coach the office endorsed. She felt it was a waste of $3000.00. It was more of a reflection on

the particular coach rather than the concept. She had recently changed brokers and was excited

that they provided the coach at their expense. Carol gets a regular 30 minute session each week.

She likes how it’s going with him.

Tell me about yesterday, how was it spent? I would have loved to have had that question

answered but didn’t get it in.

Tell me about your last sale. This was fun for her to discuss. Much of what I have transcribed

here came from that question.

If you had a four hour window open up, due to a cancellation of an appointment, how would you

spend it? “That just happened regarding tomorrow. I would likely spend the time sending out

notes to people in my sphere.”

Other than the referrals we have discussed, did you meet anyone new last week? “No” We again

briefly discussed the value of meeting people, more than that, connecting with them.” We

discussed the importance of getting permission to contact those we just met at a later time; by

email or phone or to make an appointment to get together. I am not yet sure how she bonded to

that concept.

The interview ended. Is it obvious? The foundation for the strategy is building around

relationships that are mutually beneficial.

How would you feel if I contacted you by phone, told you I had an idea that might help us both

do more business, but first wanted to have an hour to run some questions by you? If my attitude

and tone of these questions was all caring and with an obvious attempt to find a way to help you

with your goals, would you appreciate this? I think you would. I know I would. So, let’s talk, so

to speak.

So our first task in the pre-season is to prepare for such an interview, hold that interview within a

week.

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Next: Publish 9 more articles. With ten articles up you are close to winning. It has been more fun

and easier than you think. Importantly your site now looks mature. The search engines have

found it and are starting to work night and day for you.

You also have something to talk about. Your conversation can shift from what you do for a

living to what you do for fun and to assist that career.

Stay close to our training and your coach through this process.

The WordPress stats are that 97% of those who start a blog quit within a week.

You just beat those odds in training camp.

Keep training camp to a maximum of one week. One challenge I have seen is that people stay in

the planning or pre-season state for long periods of time. As important as getting things set up,

this isn’t obtaining or maintaining clients. Push yourself to do these parts in a week or less.

Ponder the interview you are about to take on, come up with a plan of what questions to ask,

make the appointment, and just do it.

By doing training camp you have begun to set your championship season in a positive direction.

You have five POTENTIAL CORE or perhaps ADVOCATES. You need to be confident.

If you run up against a brick wall, get over it or through it. This is where the training section of

How We All Win is a big help. Don’t let anything stump you. So many get stopped at this point,

getting past that blockade sets you on your way to the elite. Those who have trouble at this point

are at the most difficult stage. It isn’t that difficult, really.

I need to insert here an important point that is a result of the following comment from my wife:

“ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND? With this 32 hour strategy you may not have a wife or

make any sales. Do these things and core things too? Not too family friendly.”

For my wife’s sake, I am going to write this in bold: time with clients is part of the 32 hour

schedule. It’s obtaining or maintaining. Social time can be in the 32 as you are likely to

connect. I wasn’t kidding about the 24-7. I am also not kidding about the importance of the

strategy.

Pre-Season To Do List

___ Have 10 articles posted

___ Conclude 5 interviews

___ Evaluate each interview given and make a plan

___ Make five follow up appointments

___ Co-ordinate with coach

___ Schedule next week’s 32 hour plan

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Chapter 14

First Game – First Win

“We didn’t lose the game; we just ran out of time.”

Vince Lombardi

What makes this game plan easier is that the game plan is consistent even though the

composition of your team grows.

Ideally you will be planning next week this week, working so that your calendar is booked with

meetings/interviews. Preferably you have budgeted time to work all categories. Be an expert at

controlling the time clock. It drives my wife crazy that at the end of a close football game it goes

on and on, even with just a few minutes to go. It’s a great quarterback controlling the game,

managing the time clock. It’s often a skill that sets a great quarterback apart from not so great.

Plan tomorrow today. When you have a hole in your schedule always have something

meaningful to do in the items below.

You will reach out to every category.

Budget 7 hours face to face with POTENTIAL CORE or CORE.

7 hours working to Connect with the NOT METS

7 hours meeting with ADVOCATES, even on the phone

7 hours writing on, developing and posting on your website. It counts if you are with one

of your POTENTIAL CORE or ADVOCATES and helping them.

4 hours blogging

1 hour with coach

This schedule places the emphasis on the most important part of the development process;

maintaining and creating new customers. Contrast that with the sales person who spends hours

planning, chatting, studying, driving around, playing, or any other diversion from actual being

productive.

Some of the effective things we do can do double duty; just make sure you commit to and follow

through, measure it, record it, executing at least 32 hours a week as proposed.

You may have teammates that can free you up to do the most productive parts of your

commitment to the 32 hour time budget.

I have discovered that enjoyable activities can produce productive results. These might be

community events, lunch with the Chamber members, going to a museum or city hall grand

opening, making friends with the local zoo keeper and writing about the new baby Tigers,

meeting with your banker, or numerous other things happening that just happen to have people in

attendance. Does your community have a HOA? Is there a city council meeting open to you?

Actually, the opportunities are everywhere and your attending is more recreational than

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occupational, yet can be motivational as you, the brave and wise strategists are connecting with

those attending. Your fears have disappeared as your style is bold not abrasive.

Regarding tasks by category, when it comes to your to do list, the tasks should be similar, but

you will be adding new people in your life regularly. As in football you want to upgrade your

team every time a great free agent comes along. In proposing that you focus on five as a

minimum it seems less daunting than say 50. In fact, you could end up with 50 ADVOCATES

and a lot more than five CORE.

Your first five will in almost every case need you to help them to educate and mentor their first

five. These five are likely to be new contacts for you. My experience teaches me that your first

five are very likely to need you to help them with the technology part. I am committed to both

teaching my first five, but also being there to help them with their first five. (OK, six if needed)

How much better could we ask for it to be, my contact asking me to build a relationship with

their contacts by helping the both of them? Is this prospecting? Nah! Yah! Nah. Whatever.

So the concept is simple, we can take a small group and have it naturally expand to many,

including many we only recently have met.

Not much has been mentioned about the training center. It’s designed to help you with every

facet of the game, the technology portion, the strategy itself, and new innovations we discover.

Don’t forget that your week begins with your meeting with coach. If that meeting is Friday, then

your tracking week begins on Friday. One of the first priorities for my week one will be to

follow up with Carol. Here is a summary of what I want to tell her.

My Response To Carol

Remember, Carol was one of our elite performers. She has been that in real estate, but not last

year. She hesitates on looking insincere or contacting people just to gain a referral. Carol’s

business, because of a strong CORE relationship, providing her referrals, takes her into three

counties. Her clients are not salespeople. As good as it is for her, last year was not a great year.

Carol. Let’s talk. First here are some things to consider.

I propose the following which includes your giving the full strategy an effort. Here is how I see

things working for your reach to the top five or elite in your office status. Instead of a pop bye

with a treat or small talk let’s build on this strategy; let me be the first in your network. Let me

help you get your website to a mature stage. I will help you with your elevator pitch.

Let’s both endorse each other on the network as ADVOCATES. I am going to send a newsletter

to my sphere. In it will be at least reference to 10 articles on the blog. One of them will be about

you, from an article I will post about you. I’d even consider something you posted.

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Let’s start with an article. Next I suggest you contact those in your sphere, since your market is

so vast geographically, and many in your sphere are not sales types. Visit them, phone them, or

even email them with the message that you are considering posting online. I suggest you are

looking for ideas that would interest them. You want to do this this in part to keep connected to

them. What would they like to see? This approach is positive. Many were transferred to Seattle.

They might want you to write about the area, or about what’s happening. They may want to

know real estate information about certain markets. Asking them what they would like to see you

write about. I have a hunch they will be interested in things going on that are interesting, and

perhaps real estate. I understand you sold many of them their first home – perhaps this will be a

prompting for some to move up.

Now, to those loan officers who don’t reciprocate, who take and don’t return. It’s time to meet

with them. Perhaps you should start with having them read the book. Tell them this is your

strategy going forward. You want to help them do more business. Explore how to do this.

Encourage them to do the blog network. They can at least do the online part. Rather than a chore,

this is an opportunity for them to reach out to other agents. They now have a new tool to discuss.

You are a marketer. You reach out to others. This should be a natural strategy. When we or

others endorse each other online it gives the public an opportunity to choose one of us based on

the concept of selecting a provider with future business at risk. It’s a unique online approach.

Many of the sites that rank others or endorse others lack credibility. This is a huge step forward

as the endorsement can be withdrawn.

Sincerely,

Larry

To Carol and to all of my readers: This is the key to breaking through all walls of resistance.

Now the game plan is consistent. It’s a matter of refining and learning a little more each week.

It’s building a network of valued relationships. Your duty as the quarterback is be a champion.

Always be looking to get better. Keep an eye out for your teammates. Help them be their best.

Recognize who you should pass the ball to. Be a 24- 7 leader. Study the results of each weeks

work.

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Chapter 15

Each Week - Another Win

The game has its ups and downs, but you can never lose focus of your individual goals and you

can’t let yourself be beat by lack of effort.”

Joe Namath

Take a plan into your coaches meeting. Be ready to review last week results. Have your calendar

ready to discuss next week.

Your frame of mind will be that instead of looking for a referral you will make appointments to

interview your CORE, POTENTIAL CORE, and ADVOCATES, even those you recently

connected with.

Also, look to calendar in social or networking events. Have you joined the Chamber of

Commerce yet? Are their local events, public meetings, council meetings you can attend?

The Chamber of Commerce is a gold mine in waiting. It is an example of all that is around us. It

could be any social group or organization. The great thing is that often the culture is that of

networking or obtaining more business. That is your reason for joining, but of course it’s also the

same for the others. All of them are there for the same purpose. The Chambers typically have

meetings where the only purpose is to meet others. Did I say gold mine? I did.

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There are some who think that belonging to the Chamber of Commerce is a waste of time and

money. These are usually salespeople. They base their opinions on the fact that their competitors

have been in it for years and they are deeply imbedded in key and visible positions. It seems like

they have a lock on obtaining any business.

Oh, how wrong this attitude is.

You will be interesting to many of them if you bring something beneficial to the table for them.

The majority, especially the new members will welcome the opportunity to work with you.

One important focus will be the new members. In this regard the old guard has no advantage

over you. They only have their shining personalities – you have the strategy. This gives you the

advantage. Your Chamber approach is simple, somehow meet and connect with others, at the

meetings, a drop in to their office, on the phone, whatever it takes to connect with them. Have

genuine interest in what they do. You have some ideas that could help them. It could work out

for the benefit of both of you.

A former client, a real estate agent, makes it a point to connect with every new member of the

Chamber. He offers to write about them on his blog. It is very effective. He meets them, he

connects with them. With one new chamber member, a landscape contractor the article did so

much for the landscaper that he began to give out two business cards, his own, and our clients.

He even showed up unannounced to landscape our clients yard in gratitude for all of the business

the article brought in. Now that’s a good CONNECTED, no it’s an ADVOCATE or

POTENTIAL CORE.

Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is a championship season. If you are consistently using

these concepts, if you aren’t attending or meeting to just take, but to give, you are on the path to

winning.

A similar approach could be applied to any social event making it a comfortable opportunity to

expand your business influence.

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This next topic is also important and falls into the category of obtaining or maintaining

customers.

How good are you at saying hello to your sphere? Dropping by can take some time. What do you

discuss when you give them a call? How do we make these connections effective? You can email

them effectively but how often? How do you keep it from being junk mail? Some industries have

companies that offer canned email flyers, but maybe others are sending out the same one.

Don’t be a stranger. Say hello every so often.

Have you seen the statistic published by Contactuallity.com stating that 74% of your clients will

give you a referral if you stay in touch? This is a good start in proper thinking.

There are two important issues here. First, how serious have you managed your database

regarding frequency? The second how serious are you about the content you provide? How often

do you send out information is important. Keeping in touch is part of the playbook.

The second issue, the quality of your contact with them, junk email or not is also important.

Clearly any contact might help. You can buy into newsletter services. I think that is fine. Even

better would be publishing a newsletter based around the content specific to your community. A

more interesting, probably more relevant contact would be to take items you have posted and

create an email newsletter. It’s a snap with a feature on our network. Staying in contact with

something of value on a monthly, quarterly, or semi-annually basis is an important thing to do.

In summary, you and I have an unlimited source of people to build a referral driven business

with. There is much more to discuss on the website. There will be lessons to share.

Let’s get going and just do it, and let’s do it together.

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Here is another way to visualize the 7 categories.

The closer to the bulls eye the more valuable the category. CORE is depicted by the bulls eye

strive to create CORE. However even those on the outer edge, the NOT METS can quickly

become CORE. METS rarely become important as CONNECTEDS, but most of the time can be

converted to CONNECTEDS.

Early in my personal strategy I am evaluating which METS, which are many, are the least likely

to become ADVOCATES, and are not POTENTIAL CORE or CORE. These are still important

and I will be reaching out to them, mostly by email for permission to include them in a periodical

email newsletter.

Let me wrap this up with a few important points.

Keep some sort of weekly score sheet and review it with coach.

Plan carefully for The Bye Week. The NFL understands that even in a 16 week schedule

players need some time off. As a result they get a bye week. You should have one too. Just be

warned, to the masses, a week off means 3 weeks off, the week before and the week after.

Schedule yourself so you work hard these weeks before and after. Be alert, while you are

enjoying the sun, a new connection might just come your way.

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In case you missed it – the call reluctance eliminator is your website/blog. It gives you

something interesting to talk about at all times and in all places without being in their face with

what it is you do. It is a way for you to network. It is a tool to endorse or promote others. To the

consumer it is the content you provide and those you endorse. You use the skill you develop to

teach others. It is about more than you. One Chamber meeting allowed all there to give a 30

second pitch about what they do. Did we talk real estate? No, we spoke about our blog about our

town. We did say at the end, “it helps us with our real estate practice.” That 30 second

presentation was fun for us to do. It brought terrific contacts who wanted to know more. Those

contacts led us to other very profitable contacts. If our presentation were about real estate, you

know what the response would have been? It would have been ho hum. Of course we weren’t the

only agents in the meeting. We were the only ones with a blog about our town. This chamber

example fits into every social, business, prospecting, and contact situation there is. There is

nothing like it and it isn’t expensive. The larger cost might be summarized in those 7 Hard

Things You Need To Do To Be Successful by Dan Waldschmidt

You have to make the call you’re afraid to make.

You have to give more than you get in return right away.

You have to care more about others than they care about you.

You have to feel unsure and insecure when playing it safe seems smarter.

You have to lead when no one else is following you yet.

You have to make mistakes and look like an idiot.

You have to try, fail, and try again.

And now here you are at the end, no, the beginning, a new beginning, because it’s not just about

you, and it need not be just about you. You are in control of the game.

This book, How We All Win, the website, Here We All Win, and the strategy can combine to

help you crush past records. The effects should begin to take place quickly. The larger effect is in

the long term. The principles create great relationships and make connecting with new

ADVOCATES so naturally that you should expect a continual growth in performance as you

embrace what is here.

The Winston Churchill quote below identifies the root of the strategy and a significant reason for

my claim of your potential. I include it because I love it. Embrace this concept and you will

come to see the relationship to this quote and the strategy I propose.

“We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give.”

Winston Churchill

I invite you to win.

Join the network, it’s simple and inexpensive. http://HowWeAllWin.com/

Will I see you in the championship game? Let me know. Larry K Cragun

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Post Game Coaches Interview

From Coach Larry Cragun

Hey Coach: You say anyone can do this, why do you say that?

Coach: I think anyone will admit that in sales it takes a strategy. This is the one strategy that

offers an ease in connecting with others. More importantly the “it’s about them approach is truly

a winning philosophy”.

I’ve coached hundreds, I know what holds people back, it’s all in their heads. If you want to do

it, you do it. The technology is surely simple enough. If you can talk you can certainly publish

what you would say by speaking. That’s why they call writing a blog, publishing your voice.

But Coach: So much centers around blogging and you yourself admit most won’t do it, at least

on a regular basis. What about those who won’t blog 4 hours a week?

Coach: I could quote another coach, Coach Williams who said, “Just do it”.

Coach: Here is the bottom line people can be driven to a blog by advertising, or by referral from

another person. I send people to my blog by from my business card. The difference in writing

occasionally and writing almost daily is all about the search engines. The more you write, the

more content you put on line, the more Google and boys like it. Championships are not

dependent on Google, being found by the search engines is a bonus. So at least get 10 articles up

and write occasionally or continue in the masses. It’s just that simple.