Behind the Phenomenon

How and why the Buffini & Company program works
By Maria Patterson

Talk to someone who’s been through any element of Brian Buffini?s coaching and training program and you’ll find some amazingly consistent similarities: enthusiasm, confidence, calm control, and, oh, by the way?success?traits that often escape many in the dog-eat-dog world of real estate. For outsiders looking in at the Buffini phenomenon, there’s a degree of skepticism, a sense of disbelief that one fairly simple business strategy could yield such tremendous results across the board for so many. While outsiders may doubt, however, insiders just smile, well aware of the reason why they’re sticking with the Buffini system for the long haul: quite simply, it works.

Not Your Average Referral

In operation for more than a decade now, Carlsbad, California-based Buffini & Company currently serves more than 12,000 clients in the real estate, lending and professional services industries. Through the combination of services it offers?seminars by company founder and chairman, Brian Buffini; business coaching; management programs; regionalized small-group meetings, etc.?Buffini & Company brings ?the good life? to its clients by carving out a clear path to not only business success, but significant personal growth, as well.

Incredulously, this powerful system begins with the simplest of concepts: working by referral.

While real estate professionals have relied on referrals since time immemorial, the referral business that Brian Buffini teaches is not simply word-of-mouth, but rather a systemized method of seeking and cultivating business. By intentionally asking for referrals and building client relationships through a strategic system of sending personal notes and Items of Value (helpful and informational materials for homeowners), conducting Pop-Bys (in-person visits with tokens of appreciation), and hosting client get-togethers, Buffini clients are able to generate and sustain a referral-based business. To be truly effective, this system needs to be practiced consistently and thoroughly throughout the life of the service professional?s career. No exceptions.

The difference between word-of-mouth and selling by referral may seem subtle, but it’s actually vast. You are being proactive and following a system and actively looking for leads,? explains Cathy LaMon, a licensed broker and veteran Realtor with Keller Williams Premier Atlanta. You are actively putting yourself out there and asking for referrals versus waiting for the phone to ring.

Like most Buffini clients, LaMon can put her money where her mouth is. Since signing on with the Buffini program almost seven years ago, she averages six to eight high-end referrals a month, and has seen the average sales price of the homes she sells increase from $250,000 to $500,000.

Jeremy Stoddart, owner and president of Portland, Oregon-based lending firm, Source One Financial, has been following the Buffini system for almost five years now. Stoddart explains that the program offers a way to avoid the constant unknown of running your own business by providing very systemized strategies.

?These are common-sense principles,’ says Stoddart, ?But I didn?t have a proactive way to apply them to my business. Brian put these principles into a system that I could put my arms around and make work for me. This isn?t rocket science?these are age-old principles. But without Brian’s system, people don’t do it.?

?People are linear logical,? Stoddart continues. If you give them a step-by-step on how to go about the system, they will do it. A lot of people say they work by referral and what that usually means is massive peaks and valleys in your business. Buffini says, ?here are some activities and if you do them consistently, you’ll have these results.?

Three years ago, when RE/MAX 2000 Realtor Christin Jackson had just transitioned from a career with America West Airlines to the Chandler, Arizona-based real estate business, she hesitantly accepted the invitation of a lender colleague to attend a Buffini & Company Turning Point RetreatTM where she was introduced to the philosophy of working by referral.

According to Jackson, ?I sat and listened to Brian for two days and knew he had the answers I was looking for. I signed up for ClubNet CoachingTM and by the end of my first year I had closed 52 houses. In my second year we tripled our business. Now, in my third year, I am literally receiving a referral every single day.?

What’s significant about the referrals Buffini & Company clients cultivate is their quality. Through Buffini?s system of building, sorting, and qualifying an ?A+? database, clients are able to relinquish the prospects that generate little-to-no business, and instead zero in on the customers who are most likely to send serious business their way.

Bryan Felder, a personal real estate consultant with the Virginia Realty Group?part of Chantilly, Virginia-based RE/MAX Gateway?is a perfect example. For many new agents like Felder, the Buffini system provides an invaluable structure. For Felder, getting referrals was never the problem; it was the quality of the referrals that slowed him down.

?I would get leads from the Burger King drive-thru,? Felder laughs. I?d give everyone my card?talk to the postman, the maid service?I didn?t care. The problem was, I?d get people who said, ?Oh yeah, I want to buy a home,? who didn?t have a dollar in their pocket. My (Buffini & Company ClubNet) Coach told me, ?be specific. When I got specific in asking for what I wanted, I started focusing more on the move-up buyer and generating business-to-business referrals. One banker referred me to eight clients, seven of which closed.?

?My first six months in the business I sold 17 homes and worked 90 hours a week,? he continues. I joined Buffini in 2004 and closed 71 deals, working 65 hours a week by the end of that year. I was the Buffini Rookie of the Year for 2004.

At press time, Felder had already sold 87 homes for 2005. More significantly, of those 87 homes, 85 were referrals.

Says Felder: ?I’ve built down quantity and built up quality.?

Doing Business Your Way

Many are first drawn into the Buffini system because it promotes a way of doing business that makes sense to them and that they are comfortable with.

?The Buffini system is common sense,’ says Brian Krohn, president of the Kirkland, Washington-based mortgage business he founded, West Mutual. But people have common sense in bits and pieces, scattered around like a puzzle. The Buffini system pulls the bits and pieces together to make it more cohesive.

Making Goals a Reality

For Stoddart, goal setting, a key element of the Buffini system, is one of the most beneficial components of the program. Before I started with Buffini, I had goals, but they were mental goals,? he explains. At that first Turning Point Retreat, I was taught how to set goals and write them down and now it’s one of my most enjoyable activities. I write them down and have them laminated and put them everywhere?in the shower, on my desk. There’s never a time when I’m not clear on where I need to be going. Without having it on paper and in front of me, I can?t get there nearly as fast.?

By systematizing something as fundamental as goal setting, Buffini is tapping into the very powerful psychology of the human mind. As Stoddart explains, it’s not only critical to put pen to paper when goal setting, but to write the goals in the form of positive affirmations.

Krohn can certainly attest to the power of goal setting. Four-and-a-half years ago, when he was a loan officer working for a Seattle-area company, he attended his first Turning Point Retreat. One of the goals he wrote during the Retreat was to open his own business within three years. He achieved this goal within nine months.

?The goal-setting session made things crystal clear,? Krohn explains. I had set goals before, but this made it real and vivid. I could really see myself there. Before that, my goals were more like wishes. When you start achieving short-term goals you gain more confidence and energy to move onto the next one. It’s all about momentum.?

Coaching for Consistency

After attending their first Turning Point Retreat, many Buffini clients believed they could self-sufficiently put the system into action and be off and running. What they found, however, was that an important piece of the puzzle was missing?the coach.

?I tried the referral systems on my own for six months,’ says Stoddart, …and then I signed up for coaching and had more than a 250% increase in my business. Brian has given you the system, but the coach helps you be accountable to your goals and to see the stuff you don’t see.?

By being part of Buffini & Company?s ClubNet Coaching program, clients receive a biweekly coaching call from one of the company?s specifically trained, in-house coaches.

Stoddart has been a ClubNet member for approximately three-and-a-half years. At the beginning, the coach keeps you on track with the referral systems, but over time he becomes a sounding board, an outsider looking in who can say, ?hey, have you thought about doing this,? or ?you’re doing better than you thought you were. It’s another vantage point from someone who’s been indoctrinated into the system and understands it?I can?t see when I’m in the middle of it and there’s blood and sweat in my eyes, but the coach can.?

Coaches also buoy their clients spirits in the often isolated business of real estate. A lot of people in this business are fairly driven and hard on themselves and don’t give themselves a lot of grace and mercy,? Stoddart explains. The coach will say, ?well, you could have done better here, but look at your progress here. They help you see the bigger picture when we’re usually focused on the little pebbles in the path.?

?After I went to my first Turning Point Retreat and I got all the information and the workbooks, I thought, ?I don’t need to get involved in coaching; I’m as disciplined as anybody,? Krohn recalls. After I started my own business, though, I thought, ?What would happen if I had a coach I could communicate with on a regular basis?if I had someone to talk to every few weeks and that person was congruent and consistent with my thoughts?? I realized that that would give me even more momentum.?

Before beginning with the Buffini program, when Krohn was on his own, he averaged about 27 transactions a year. Today, his company averages about 290 transactions a year.

Felder’s take on ClubNet Coaching is an extremely pragmatic one.

?You gotta let the coach coach you,’ says Felder. Brenda (Reynolds, Felder’s ClubNet Coach) has helped me lay out a game plan. I take it very seriously. She knows how to coach. Why am I not going to listen to what she is saying??

For Felder, the proof is in the pudding. In his first year, he closed $9.5 million in sales; in his second full year he closed $24.4 million; by the end of 2005 he predicted closing more than $42 million.

For Pam McCoach, an eight-year branch manager of the Annondale, Virginia office of Long & Foster, ClubNet?s one-on-one coaching differentiates Buffini & Company from other coaching entities. You can do the seminars and get all revved up and then lose your zip,? she explains. It wears off and you don’t get the bang for your buck.?

A Partner for Brokers

Buffini & Company also addresses management concerns. Through Buffini & Company?s 100 Days to Greatness ProgramTM, managers and brokers are trained to become Certified Mentors, which means that they are now qualified to teach the Buffini system to current employees and new hires. The 100 Days program is not only a way to effectively spider the referral systems, but a way for managers and brokers to create a like-minded environment.

Although McCoach has a wealth of industry experience?from the local to state to national association level?she is committed to the Buffini & Company system, including the 100 Days to Greatness Program. In fact, she attributes the success of her 62-person office largely to Brian Buffini.

?I like to say that Brian built my branch for me,’ says McCoach, who came across Buffini & Company in the summer of 1998 just after taking over the Long & Foster branch. She was replacing a branch manager who had recently lost a long battle with cancer.

?My agents watched her disintegrate and when I got here, everything was a reflection of her illness. The morale was not good. I had to give them a shot in the arm and the Buffini program did just that. It brought us all together into a common purpose. It gave the agents something they could be a part of and a sense of belonging.?

According to McCoach her involvement as a manager in the Buffini system is essential. A manager is the glue that holds it all together. We all need to get on the same train and take it to the station.?

McCoach, a certified mentor for the 100 Days to Greatness program, requires that all new agents go through the program and sign up for the next local Turning Point Retreat. One reinforces the other,? she explains. We are a ?Working By Referral? office. If the agents have an office culture in mind they have something to cling to and something to be a part of.?

For Krohn, teaching the 100 Days program has had a critical personal impact. My personal production is very important. In the past, I would provide one-on-one training for my loan officers. Many times, I wanted their success more than they did. That would cut into my personal production time, and then six months later, they would decide the job ?wasn?t working? out and I had nothing to show for my time and effort with that person. With the 100 Days program, within 30 to 40 days, they know and I know if this isn?t working out.?

Krohn adds that through teaching the 100 Days program, he improves, as well. It keeps me on track and accountable to my employees, as far as my personal notes, and calls and Pop-bys,? he explains. If I have a bad week, I say, ?I didn?t hit my numbers that week? and everyone respects that I’m being honest with them.”

McCoach, who has also had top producers go through the 100 Days program, underscores the fact that the program is not just for the new agent. While the program is designed for new people, it’s even better for continuing people. I’ve had a couple of top producers take it this past spring and they have ripped up the road this year. Their business goes to another level.?

The Continuum of Growth

While it would certainly seem like attending Buffini & Company seminars and participating in Coaching would be a finite process, it is actually just the opposite. Long-time Buffini clients know that staying the course means benefiting from continuous growth.

?The program always means something different depending on where you’re at in your life,’ says Krohn. When I first came on board, it was about the basics?what are the scripts, what am I supposed to do. Now, four years later, it’s about what can I work on that makes me a better person. The areas of growth are constantly changing. My coach and I rarely talk about the same things. There’s always a different direction and different things to explore.?

According to McCoach, the Buffini program will serve an even greater purpose as the market cools slightly from its record-setting years. The marketplace is taking a turn. I’m totally sure that the culture we’ve built here is right and who we are is right. We will be able to work through any snags we’ve hit because we have a good plan.?

For Jackson, the deeper message she takes away from Buffini & Company is a life and business philosophy that she will follow indefinitely. Ultimately, effort is not judged by peers, but rather, it is judged from within,? she explains. Patient, purposeful effort?staying the course and not giving up or giving in despite inevitable roadblocks and obstacles. The heart of a Buffini coached realtor is not just something you do or have, it is something you are.?

The Key to Success: The Five Circles

?Before, the business used to run me,’ says Brian Krohn, president of Kirkland, Washington-based lending firm, West Mutual.

?Now I run the business.

This is a common sentiment voiced by many Buffini & Company clients. Not only have their bottom lines improved dramatically, but their lives have moved toward balance, as they work on what Buffini has termed, the five key areas of life: business ? financial ? family ? spiritual ? personal

By moving from stability to success to significance in any one of these five areas, or circles, improvements automatically happen in the others. Buffini?s message?

Each one affects the other. All the time.

Case in point: Krohn. In July and August, I found that I was really tired,’ says Krohn. I realized that my financial and business circles were good, but my personal and spiritual life had flat tires. Krohn spent the next couple of months, therefore, prioritizing family and spirituality and putting business on the back burner. Interestingly enough, ?October and November turned out to be

my best months ever financially.?

Promoting the importance of success in all five areas of life has shifted the focus of many real estate professionals?typically driven for business and financial success?toward putting family, health and spirituality first.

?I used to want to ?blow up? by making money,’ says Bryan Felder, a personal real estate consultant with the Virginia Realty Group?part of Chantilly, Virginia-based RE/MAX Gateway. Through the Buffini program I learned that ?blowing up? can also mean taking care of your

family, having some savings, and taking some time out to work on yourself.?

Many Buffini clients have successfully tapped into the various elements of the system, like goal setting for personal situations, as well. For example, Krohn decided that he and his then 11-year-old son would train and participate in a 206-mile bicycle race. We trained for five months together, three times a week. My son learned that when you dedicate yourself to something?you can go from ?no chance? to ?no problem. His letter grades went up in school by a full grade and I feel this was directly related to the bike race because when you dedicate yourself to something and accomplish it, you have your confidence.?

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