The goal of our company is to create Champion performers. The other day I was working on the thought, what is a Champion? What does it take for someone to become a Champion? What makes some people Champions and other people not?

I came up with seven key concepts that Champions adhere to. See how many you put into action regularly. I would encourage you to post these and work on them daily.

1. A Champion realizes there is a price to pay. To be a Champion in any area of your life there is a price to pay. The price is either in time or resources. You have to be willing to invest your time and resources, or both.

To be a great salesperson you have to invest your time practicing scripts, dialogues, listing presentations, and buyer interviews. You must prospect regularly. You must invest your resources of money in training, coaching, audiocassettes and seminars to give you tools you need but don’t have today. Are you willing to pay the price?

To be a great parent you have to invest time with your children. Your time investment is the price you pay to bring your children to full maturity. You also invest your resources of money, emotions, and knowledge. Are you willing to pay the price to be a Champion parent?

2. A Champion is ready and willing to make the sacrifice that is necessary. All success requires sacrifice. A Champion will access what is necessary and put forth the effort of sacrifice plus a little bit more. The key is aligning the right sacrifice needed for the situation. Many Agents will stop short of what is needed.

Some Agents will sacrifice much more than is needed and are on the road to burn out. Remember you can kill a fly with a bomb but it’s really too much energy and sacrifice to use when a fly swatter would be just as effective and also more efficient. Are you currently making the right amount of sacrifice to be a Champion?

3. A Champion has the skill to focus in the moment. The most successful people have the power of focus. They are intently able to do what needs to be done even when the world around them is falling down. They put aside the distractions and put into action the top priorities for the day. They take things to completion before moving onto the next activity. Do you have skill of focus that you need?

4. A Champion accepts nothing less than excellence. For a Champion, great is not good enough. That does not mean they are paralyzed with perfectionism. There is an element of diminishing return beyond excellence. A Champion knows that fine line between perfectionism and excellence. To execute with excellence the fundamentals is enough to be world-class at any endeavor. To execute excellently your prospecting, lead follow up, listing presentations, buyer interviews, objection handling, planning processes, cost analysis and leadership will create an income beyond your imagination. The question is, are you exceptional in all these skills or just good? Are you maybe even below average in some of these?

5. A Champion realizes it’s not what happens but how you react to it that counts. A true Champion has as many slumps, challenges, or struggles as the average performer. The Champion has deals that fall out, difficult sellers and assistant problems as well. The difference is the span of time they let it affect them. They understand their reaction is more important than the situation. If you control your reaction, you have a chance to control the situation. If you don’t control it you have no chance.

The more someone is a Champion the shorter the span of time they let adversity affect performance. The deal falls out and some Agents take a month to recover, others a week, others a day. The Champion performer lets it affect him for less than an hour. They move on to what they can control. You can control your prospecting, your lead follow up and your ability to practice the skills you need, if you focus on them.

6. A Champion is intent on self-improvement and creates inner pressure to achieve the desired result. The ability to seek improvement is reserved for only the most elite performers. Most people are not born with that desire of self-improvement. It is either instilled through relationships or circumstances. If self-improvement is spurred by relationships, you are around the right people. It means that you are proactively improving yourself. If self-improvement is sought because of circumstances you are reactive. You are seeking improvement because of a problem or challenge you are facing. When the problem is resolved, you will stop your self-improvement. Are you constantly investing in self-improvement? Are you reading books, working with a coach, or attending seminars? Do you have the skills today to be a Champion performer? If not, where are you going to get them? Who could help you get there?

The truth is, no one has all the answers. Your job is to search for the answers that will craft the life you desire. Where are you searching for the answers? I can tell you it’s not contained in nightly TV.

7. A Champion always has a game plan and thinks and works on their plan. Most people just take what life gives them. They have no real plan to accomplish more and achieve and acquire more. You have to have a plan to achieve what you want out of life. How is your plan? Does it need work, or even to be written for the first time? Take the first step and write down a series of goals for the next year, three years, five years, and ten years. You have to know what you want.

Back in the 1950’s they did a study of a group of recent Yale graduates. They asked each of them if they had goals for their future. They also asked them if they were specific and written down. Only 3% of these graduates had specific written goals.

They did a follow up study years later. The researchers found out that the 3% that had written goals had achieved much of what they wanted. They evaluated the net worth of the Yale graduates in this study as well. They found out the net worth of the 3% was more than the net worth of the 97% combined! You have to have a plan and work on it regularly to become a Champion!

I would encourage you to re-read this article daily for the next thirty days. I would set some specific goals around each point on a separate sheet of paper. If you don’t have the skills necessary to execute all seven points I would encourage you to seek wise counsel. There is a Proverb that says, “plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisors they succeed”. Do you have advisors in your life? Do you seek their counsel on important matters? A Champion seeks wise counsel.

If you are determined to become a Champion performer, if you need help with a plan, the skills, or any of the other steps to become a Champion, the very first step is call us at Real Estate Champions. We will offer you a complementary coaching session if you truly desire to become a Champion. You can reach us at 541-383-8833. Becoming a Champion performer is a process that we have applied to hundreds of people. We have created hundreds of Champions. The truth is everyone deserves to be a Champion!

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