Buffini’s 100 Days to Greatness

Brian Buffini is one of the most well known figures in real estate. His coaching practice, Buffini & Company, has been one of the most popular among all of Real Estate Coaches for decades.

Say “Buffini” to most agents and they’ll immediately have thoughts of referral strategies. He even has a CRM “Referral Maker” which highlights the importance he puts on agents optimizing their real estate referrals.

Well the Buffini 100 Days to Greatness program continues along this referral based theme but it is more than just another online real estate training course. We’ll cover topics from the course in detail below and also offer both positive and negative reviews of 100 Days to Greatness.

Here’s what we’ll cover in this journey to greatness:

• What is Buffini’s 100 Days to Greatness?
• 100 Days to Greatness Modules and Weekly Course Structure
• Positive Reviews of 100 Days to Greatness
• Negative Reviews of Buffini 100 Days to Greatness
• Alternative Approaches

What is Buffini’s 100 Days to Greatness?

Buffini’s “100 Days to Greatness” is a comprehensive real estate training program designed by Brian Buffini to help agents enhance their skills and establish successful business practices within their first 100 days in the industry. The program is structured as a course with weekly modules and the same group of participants move together through the curriculum acting as a support group throughout the 14 weeks of modules.

Here are the pillars of the course:

1. Sphere of Influence (SOI): The course focuses heavily on leveraging existing relationships and working within one’s Sphere of Influence, emphasizing techniques like pop-bys, handwritten notes, and client parties.
2. Referral-Based Approach: Buffini’s approach, in general, focused on referrals so the course aptly focuses on Referral Strategies
3. Top of Mind Strategy: The essence of Buffini’s system is to remain top of mind for clients through consistent, personalized outreach, which some agents find valuable despite the course’s dated methods.

Participants of the program highlight the accountability, mentorship, and supportive community it fosters, which can significantly boost motivation and elevate success. The course emphasizes the importance of building and maintaining relationships, making it a cornerstone of any real estate business.

As we’ll get into below, some agents find the focus on relationships and referrals highly beneficial, others feel it might not align with their business strategies, particularly if they lack an established sphere of influence.

100 Days to Greatness Course Structure

Buffini 100 days to greatness is a 14 week program and each week has a new “module”. Below are Module Descriptions by Week:

Week 1: Launch Your Career

• Focus: Fundamentals of working by referral
• Summary: Learn the basics of building a client database that fosters high-quality, consistent customer relationships and income through referral strategies. The four modules in this week will teach you the fundamentals of Working by Referral and how to build a client database of relationships that will produce a consistent level of high-quality customers and income.

Week 2: Stay in Contact with Your Database

• Focus: Client relationship management
• Summary: Develop skills to maintain and nurture your database, build a sense of community, and implement successful referral strategies used by top agents. Learn how to stay in contact with your database, and how to care for your clients, all while building a sense of community in the three modules in this week. This is where you’ll implement the Working by Referral strategies that are used by the most successful agents in the business!

Week 3: Time Management and Self-Improvement

• Focus: Time management and self-discipline
• Summary: Utilize The 365 System to become a Time Management Wizard, leveraging your time, money, and energy effectively to achieve success. The three modules dive into The 365 System, how to become a Time Management Wizard and how to manage yourself. As a small business owner, you’ll learn how to leverage your time, money and energy and create the right mindset to be successful.

Week 4: Goal Setting

• Focus: Goal setting and overcoming barriers
• Summary: Learn to write and achieve goals, understand the power of goal setting, and overcome common obstacles to reach your objectives. Brian teaches you how to not only write goals, but achieve every goal you set! You’ll learn the power of goal setting and how to break through the common barriers that keep you from meeting those goals.

Week 5: Lead Generation Strategies

• Focus: Online and offline lead generation
• Summary: Develop effective online and offline strategies for generating leads, converting impressions into qualified leads, and utilizing social media to enhance professional presence. You’ll begin developing your online and offline strategy and learn the three ways to generate leads. Get the most effective online lead conversion methodology ever developed for an agent that will take your online lead from an impression, to a prospect, to a qualified lead. Plus, you’ll receive the Do’s and Don’ts of Social Media to help you create a professional online presence!

Week 6: Complete Buyer Experience

• Focus: Managing buyer interactions
• Summary: Walk through the entire buyer experience, from the initial phone call to hosting open houses and follow-ups, learning to handle each step professionally. Brian Buffini will walk you through the complete buyer experience from the initial buyer phone call, to hosting an open house through follow-up after the meeting. You’ll receive his complete buyer presentation that you’ll get to follow step by step.

Week 7: Professional Showing Techniques

• Focus: Professional home showings
• Summary: Continue learning the buyer experience with a focus on showing homes professionally, handling pre-showing, post-showing, and wrapping up dialogues effectively. The buyer experience continues — you’ll learn how to show like a pro! You’ll join Brian on an appointment for the pre-showing, see how to show a house professionally, then watch how to wrap up with the post-showing dialogue.

Week 8: The Listing Appointment

• Focus: Mastering listing appointments
• Summary: Cover the essentials of listing opportunities, including pre-listing appointments, to ensure success in securing and handling every listing appointment effectively. Covers the crown jewel of the real estate business — the listing opportunity! You’ll learn why the pre-listing appointment is the secret ingredient to getting each and every listing appointment you’ll ever go on.

Week 9: Securing Listings and Handling Price Reductions

• Focus: Listing appointments and price reductions
• Summary: Learn to secure well-positioned listings and handle difficult price reduction presentations effectively. Join Brian on a listing appointment and see him secure a well-priced, well-positioned listing. You’ll also learn how to handle the more difficult price reduction presentation.

Week 10: Becoming a Student of Success

• Focus: Personal development
• Summary: Gain insights from personal development experts on how to improve your philosophy, attitude, and physical energy to increase income and success. Discover how becoming a student of success can help you increase your income. You’ll learn the wisdom from the past 100 years of personal development experts on how to develop your philosophy, improve your attitude and expand your physical energy.

Week 11: Financial Management and Commission Handling

• Focus: Financial strategies
• Summary: Understand common financial mistakes, learn winning financial strategies, and manage commission checks to create a surplus and peace of mind. Learn the common mistakes agents make when it comes to their money, the winning financial strategies and how to handle every single commission check to eventually create a surplus and peace of mind.

Week 12: Lead Cultivation and Conversion

• Focus: Lead management
• Summary: Define criteria for hot, warm, and lukewarm leads, and learn techniques to cultivate and convert these leads into buyers and sellers. Defines the criteria to know which of your leads are hot, warm and lukewarm. Then you’ll learn how to cultivate these leads, and ultimately how to convert them into buyers and sellers.

Week 13: Customer Service Excellence

• Focus: Customer service
• Summary: Stand out with exceptional customer service before, during, and after each sale to inspire referrals and loyalty from your clients. Learn how to stand out with customer service and serve your clients before, during and after each sale in such a way that it will inspire your customers to refer you to everyone they know!

Week 14: Sustaining a Profitable Career

• Focus: Long-term career success
• Summary: Learn to sustain a long-lasting and highly profitable career by transitioning from a new licensee to an industry leader. Sustain greatness! Brian Buffini will lay out a complete real estate career path from new licensee, to producer, to professional and ultimately as an industry leader. You’ll learn how to sustain a long-lasting, highly profitable career!

Want a deeper look at the first part of the program?

The first month of Buffini 100 Days to Greatness focuses on the fundamentals of working by referral, building client relationships, time management, and goal setting. Here’s a look at a zoom gathering for the first day of the 100 day program.

On Coach Heidi’s YouTube channel she shared content from a group of agents going through weeks 1 & 2 and weeks 3 & 4.

As you can see from the discussions, the first few weeks lay the groundwork with the fundamentals of working by referral, fostering robust client relationships, shrewd time management, and goal-setting techniques. As agents continue get further into lead generation strategies, working with buyers, showing techniques, listing appointments, and demonstrating customer service that inspires referrals.

Positive Reviews of Buffini’s 100 Days to Greatness

The “100 Days to Greatness” program by Buffini & Company is highly praised for its comprehensive and structured approach to real estate training, particularly valued by agents looking to build referral-based strategies that drive long-term success.

The Buffini 100 days to greatness program extends beyond traditional real estate topics, emphasizing critical soft skills such as motivation and strategic planning. Its systematic approach empowers participants to recover lost ground by setting clear, achievable goals and sustaining consistency. With its focus on time management, goal setting, and financial strategies, participants are given tools not just to survive, but to thrive again in their real estate pursuits.

Here Lindsey Dreyer from City Chic shares a testimonial on why she loved the 100 Days to Greatness program. She highlights the importance of having a group that’s going through the program alongside you which is certainly something that this program offers that is uncommon.

Here are some positive testimonials from a class of REMAX agents that are going through the first few weeks of the course. These testimonials highlight how the course reinforces the basics of tapping into your Sphere of Influence and encouraging healthy habits.

This concept of building and maintaining strong habits around utilizing your sphere of influence (SOI) is a common theme among agents that love the Buffini system.

In the videos above the weekly action steps are commonly mentioned as a way to stay on track (so yes there will be homework!).

Also many agents highlight the course’s teachings on practical systems and financial strategies. Plus there are bonus resources included with the course like a training workbook, monthly mailings, and a free period to use the Referral Maker CRM.

And if you need another proof-point, here’s something we learned in our research. Many agents admit to taking the course more than once as a refresher of the tactics taught – signalling its valuable role in reinforcing key real estate principles for continuous career advancement.

Negative Reviews of Buffini’s 100 Days to Greatness

Well it can’t be ALL GOOD right?! Despite its many strengths, the “100 Days to Greatness” program has received it’s fair share of criticism listed here:

• Outdated content: many agents felt 100 Days to Greatness lacks modern tools and strategies, for example social media.
• Inefficient tactics: The course recommends a considerable time investment for activities like writing handwritten notes and conducting pop-bys, which some agents find impractical and difficult to scale as their business grows. Some agents claim these traditional methods may not yield proportional ROI on their time when compared to more modern tactics.
• Too focused on referrals: The course’s heavy emphasis on traditional referral-based methods may not resonate with all agents.
• Unrealistic expectations: Some agents have shared that the course’s accountability component sets aggressive and unrealistic sales volumes targets.
• Pretentious coaching style: yes, some agents found the style of the course (and Buffini’s personality) to be off-putting.
• High cost: the course costs approximately $400 so it’s not a “no brainer” for many agents with tight budgets especially when there’s so much free instructional content available online and especially YouTube.
• Better alternatives: We’ll cover these below but many observed that The Ninja System and Tom Ferry’s coaching are more beneficial and offer updated methods and tools for agents looking to modernize their approach.

Is the 100 Days to Greatness Program for New Agents

A common criticism on Buffini’s 100 Days to Greatness program is that it’s generally more beneficial for agents who have already established a sphere of influence (SOI) or have been in the business for a few years. For new agents in a new area without an established network, the course may not be as effective.

This includes agents operating in new areas with no established contacts – reason being, the course’s strategies leverage a pre-existing network for lead generation.

That said, the course is widely praised for setting agents on the pathway to develop good habits and a robust framework for their day-to-day activities which can be applicable to agents at any stage of experience,

Alternatives to Buffini 100 Days to Greatness Program

When evaluating the effectiveness of the Buffini 100 days to greatness program, it is essential to consider alternatives and compare differing methodologies. One notable contrast comes with the Ninja System.

The Ninja Selling System is a sales philosophy and methodology developed by Larry Kendall and The Group, Inc (a real estate company based in Colorado). The system emphasizes building relationships, listening to customers, and helping them achieve their goals rather than using aggressive selling tactics. Inspired by the non-violent martial art Aikido, the philosophy harmonizes energies between the agent and the client. Here are the basics of the ninja selling system:

• It focuses on building relationships, listening to the customer, and helping them achieve their goals rather than aggressive selling tactics.
• It’s based on four core principles: 1) Personal mastery of mindset and emotional energy, 2) Stop selling and let people buy, 3) Build relationships with people who know, like and trust you, 4) Be customer-centric by understanding their personality, decisions and life goals.2
• The philosophy is inspired by the non-violent martial art Aikido and the concept of harmonizing energies.

And as an alternative from a coaching standpoint, many consider Tom Ferry’s coaching organization a compelling alternative to Buffini’s. The differences between the two are too vast to cover here so check out our article on Top Real Estate Coaches here.

Regardless of our short evaluation here, remember that no one system reigns supreme – the right choice ultimately depends on you as the agent and all the nuances of your life, strengths, weaknesses, experience, and market. So don’t expect an unequivocal this system “works” and this other system doesn’t. It’s more about whether a coach and their program is the right fit for you.

---

Benjamin Franklin once quipped, “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest” but nowadays there is an abundance of courses to take and time is scarcer than ever. So is 100 Days to Greatness the best investment for you?

As we covered the answer is “YES…but…”. You didn’t think we’d make that easy right?

The balanced view is that Buffini & Company’s offering– the Buffini 100 days to greatness course– stands out for its comprehensive and systematic structure. While the Buffini 100 days to greatness course offers an extensive body of knowledge, its utility and output largely hinge on the agent’s career stage and the network they have already established.

Overall, the program is seen as an effective way to develop good habits and a systematic approach to client engagement, although its success largely depends on the agent’s commitment to following through with the prescribed actions.