One of the
most difficult tasks in life is defining your purpose. The pay-off of
having clarity of purpose is enormous. There is a direct correlation
between clarity of purpose and success. The more clarity you have in
your business, the more profit you will make, and the time spent in business
mode will be reduced. Now clarity is a big concern with the top agents
across North America, because people with clarity achieve more even though
they work fewer hours.The most successful people spend time thinking,
evaluating, and re-evaluating their progress. In order to be successful,
you will need to spend a minimum of half an hour planning and evaluating
daily. Good agents should evaluate where their business is coming from
and the trends in their market. Why not know the trends in the market
so your labor will be fruitful? Why not know where you business comes
from exactly, so you can put your labor there?
Far too often I see
the market adjusting and agents not adjusting with it. If the
high end is not selling, why list lots of homes in the high
end? Always move the bulk of your listings to where the market
is most active. This adjustment will provide you an opportunity
to move the product quickly and effectively with little time,
money, and energy invested. You want to have inventory in all
price ranges and all areas you work, but you want the bulk
of it in the hot selling pocket. Having inventory in all price
ranges enables you to track the market better and react quickly
to changes, but you do not want too many listings in a market
segment that is not moving.
If you wish to create
clarity in your business of real estate sales, you need to
determine your area of competitive advantage or expertise.
Is it buyers or sellers? Is it expireds, FSBO’s, investment
property, or new construction? What is your area of excellence?
What is your competitive advantage? If you do not have one,
I would suggest you work on one or two areas in real estate
that you enjoy in order to create an area of excellence. You
need an area or two that you do better than most of your competitors.
You need to develop something that will differentiate you from
the competition.
Once you have decided
what your area of excellence is, you need to determine the
one or two skills that will translate into success in that
area of excellence. As an example, in my career I worked expireds
very heavily. I did 60% to 70% of my business from expireds.
The areas or disciplines I needed for success in expireds were
a strong command of scripts and dialogues (sales skills) and
solid evaluating and qualifying skills. These sales skills
enabled me to set a few appointments daily with people who
needed my services. The evaluating and qualifying allowed me
to cancel the unmotivated, overpriced, and overly confrontational
people before I invested the time to do a presentation with
them. What are the skills you need in your area of excellence
to achieve massive success in real estate? Once you identify
these skills, then dedicate yourself daily to improve the skills
in those areas. Set specific goals to improve these disciplines
or skills.
Ultimately success
comes from proper planning. You need to plan for success daily.
You must reserve a half-hour to one hour daily for planning.
When you are in your half-hour to one hour daily planning block
evaluating your skills, you need to determine where you can
improve? Evaluate your staff, if you have them. What are the
skills they need for you to increase your business by 20%?
Sometimes the difference in how you handle and coach our staff
can increase our business dramatically. Clearly define their
roles so you and your staff know how they are going to help
you achieve success. Too often they are thrown into the firestorm
without clear direction and the guidance to improve and prosper.
One of the most crucial
functions of the planning time is future forecasting, which
is spending time viewing the future of your life and your business.
In my initial coaching sessions with clients we spend a lot
of time looking down the road three to five years. Most of
my clients had never looked further than this year, if at all,
prior to working with Real Estate Champions. It is hard to
achieve clarity when you first view things on a daily, weekly,
or even yearly basis. You have to view long term then work
backwards. You must work to craft the vision for your life
and your business.
It is vital to decide
what your business or life will look like in the future. If
you do not make that decision, you are just making it up as
you go along. Success does not follow people who make it up
as they go. Success looks at your long term plan. Success says
that looks good, you have thought this decision out well. I
will follow you. Success is not acquired, it is attracted.
The only people who attract success have thought it out well.
Have you ever noticed that some people make success look so
easy? These people attract it at every turn. The truth is they
have worked diligently at planning and attracting success.
You did not see them up late thinking, planning, then writing
out their plan of success. You only watched them collect the
fruits of their labor.
The long-term plan
will act as a target or a magnet. You will be drawn to it.
Creating the plan is not enough. You need to clarify it and
work backwards to the present day. You need to create the steps
for you to get from where you are today to where you want to
be in the future.
For more information and help with your real estate business, click here.
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