Century 21 All Islands is the second largest real estate company in Hawaii with 14 offices on 4 islands and 480 agents, brokers and staff.
James Wright, CEO
James.Wright@HawaiiMoves.com
808.564.5106
The company had experienced rapid growth in the red hot Hawaii market. However, by 2007 the market started to slow significantly. By the summer of 2007, sales in the market were running well behind the previous year.
In October of 2007, James Wright, CEO, invited Larry Kendall (author of Ninja Selling) to come to Hawaii and teach the basic Ninja Selling CRS class to all of his agents. Larry taught the class on 4 consecutive days on each of the 4 islands – Oahu, Kauai, Maui, & Hawaii. On the 5th day, he facilitated a one-day session with all of the managers on how to install the Ninja system in their offices in order to help support their agents on the Ninja Path.
In May of 2008, 7 months after the Ninja training, James Wright wanted to measure the effectiveness of the Ninja system. By this time the Hawaii market was down 42.5% in sales compared to the previous year.
Jim contacted each of his 14 managers and asked a simple question, “Please give me the names of two people in your office who are working the Ninja System the best.” Jim did not ask for these names based on production. He asked for the names based on who was working the Ninja System. (They could have been working the system and if the system was not working for them, their production could have been down. Jim wanted to find out if the Ninja System was working.) After the names were given to Jim, he checked their production figures and compared them to the previous year and to the market.
The results showed that the 28 agents who were working the Ninja System the best at Century 21 All Islands were experiencing a 25.95% increase in income over the previous year in a market that was down 42.5%. Jim equates this to a 68.45% increase in performance relative to the market conditions.
On June 2, 2008, Jim sent an email to his 480 agents, brokers and staff with the following comments about Ninja:
“How would you like a tip that could earn you a 25.95% increase in earnings? Follow the NINJA PATH! That’s right. The people immersed in the Ninja program are up on average 25.95% over last year at this time. Now, considering the market in the islands is down approximately 42.5% year over year, that means the Ninja Masters are actually up 68.45% against the market.”
“When you decide to change, ‘grasshopper’, a whole new world of opportunity opens up to you. The Path is easy. It just works.”
“You can keep doing what you’re doing and look at your checkbook to gauge those results. Or, you can change your mind and attitude to embrace the Ninja tools and programs to reach a new level of professional awareness and performance.”
“The managers, Directors, Brokers, Vice-Presidents, Cheryl and myself are here to help. We have a guide to your success (Ninja Selling). Please don’t waste it. Let’s work together as a team and really win.”
Note: When Jim uses the term “grasshopper”, he is referring to the movie Kung Fu, where the martial arts master calls his young student a grasshopper.