Real Estate
sales are changing and growing at an alarming rate. Even with all the
mergers, sales, and consolidations of the industry, there is one constant.
The agents who learn to be better business and sales people will be more
successful in this industry. Agents who learn the five disciplines of
increasing production will have a thriving business.
The first discipline
is creating a schedule. That schedule should encompass their whole life.
Their personal life must be factored in to create balance. I have seen
far too many agents sacrifice their family to achieve a production goal
or certain amount of commission earned. When they finally reach their
goal, they have no one to share it with or they realize what little importance
that goal has compared to their family. I have a friend who tragically
lost a child and now is reflecting on the years of decisions made for
the sake of a few plaques and personal production goals. Those plaques
or even the money earned are little comfort to her at a time of great
sorrow. What a hollow feeling for that highly successful agent!
The schedule should
encompass the "time block" system. By time blocking
I mean to schedule specific time for each daily activity in
real estate. Schedule time to prospect, qualify buyers and
sellers, negotiate contracts, return phone calls, listing presentations,
and show property. The better you "time block" the
more effective you will be. The more that one adheres to the
schedule the more success one will have in sales. Remember
to allow for a little "play time" or "flex time." You
will need some time to relax and decompress. This relaxation
will enable you to stay focused and sharp during the "up
time." To give yourself 15 minute "flex time" every
two to three hours should be sufficient to break the tension
or catch up so you stay "time blocked."
The second discipline
is to prospect daily. There are as many ways of prospecting
as there are people. The key is you must do something daily
to bring in the business. You can prospect via the phone or
in person. You can prospect expired, FSBO, cold call, apartments
for buyers, investment properties, your sphere, and out of
area owners. The list is truly endless. The truth is if we
are not spending a minimum of one hour everyday prospecting
for new business we will have difficulty during stretches of
our career. Even calling your past clients and asking for referrals
is an excellent way to prospect.
Often when agents
get busy, prospecting is the first discipline to be shelved.
Their theory is I am busy; I do not need to prospect anymore.
This is the time to pour it on. You have momentum, so keep
going. The analogy I like to use is if a plane is on the runway
it takes a tremendous amount of energy to climb to 20,000 feet.
Once the plane is at 20,000 feet it can throttle back a little
and easily maintain its cruising altitude. If the plane trottles
back completely, it will soon be back down on the runway. Do
not throttle back in your prospecting or you will find yourself
on the runway quickly. By continuing to prospect, you can then
climb higher or do the same production in less time. Consistency
in your prospecting leads to consistency in your pay days.
The third discipline
is qualifying the potential client. This one is crucial to
success. I see more agents make mistakes in this area than
in any other. They are afraid to qualify people to the point
of excluding them out. The whole goal in qualifying is exclusion
of the unmotivated. If you do not become skilled at excluding
out the unmotivated buyer or seller, they will waste your time.
They will eventually drive you out of the business, both emotionally
and financially.
The most valuable
commodity you have in life is your time. We all have a finite
amount of time here on earth. We do not even know the amount
of time we have left. If we choose to work with unqualified,
unmotivated, unloanable, unable to sell people too often, we
are out of business. By properly qualifying all leads, you
are saving yourself from putting them in your car or going
to their house to find out they are not a lead at all. Spending
five hours showing property only to find out that they are
working with another agent, unable to buy due to bad credit,
have no money, or are unrealistic of the value of homes today
is a painful experience. Any one of these people cause us frustration
and macaroni and cheese for dinner. Do not allow these people
to control your business. The majority of the agents in our
industry really need to strengthen this discipline dramatically.
They allow their clients to be the CEO of their real estate
sales company.
To all of us, leads
are like security. If we have them we feel secure and we do
not have to find new ones. The truth is a lead by itself has
no value. What is the true value of your leads? What would
someone pay you for all your leads? Why not make them worth
something to you and your family by qualifying them well, and
then setting an appointment or throwing them out if they are
of no value (which are most of them). Leads have little value
warehoused in your computer. If you are not following-up on
them, chuck them. You can always create more leads. You can
get more than you can handle. Why not pick only the best ones?
The fourth discipline
is understanding your business. By understanding, I mean know
where it comes from. What are the top three income producing
activities that you do? Where do you spend your time daily?
Compare those two answers, what are you worth per hour? Take
your gross commission and divide by the number of hours worked.
Take that per hour dollar value and determine the activities
you can do to earn that amount per hour. Then do those activities
the bulk of your day. I will give you a hint it is not putting
up signs and lock boxes unless you want to make less than $10.00
per hour. You are a business owner of a company that sells
millions of dollars a year in product. You need to know about
your business.
The fifth discipline
is developing a philosophy. By philosophy, I mean guidelines
for doing business both personally and professionally. If you
understand your value per hour and your average commission
check, you can determine the type of people you are willing
to work with. You may not be able to work in a certain price
range or with certain types of people. When a buyer does not
give you the exact answers you need, you can refer him to another
agent or drop him because he does not meet your philosophy.
We were not put on this earth to help everyone. There are people
we cannot help. This does not make them bad people. That also
does not make you a bad person. It just makes you a business
person who expects a reasonable profit for the time invested.
Once I was clear on my philosophy of what was a client and
what I expected of a client, I did not have to deal with people
who did not conform to my philosophy. You need to concisely
define your world of business. This definition will enable
you to better select the people to work with. We have all selected
the wrong people, bent on our beliefs, spent large amounts
of time and money working with people we should not have and
felt awful afterwards. Then we never were paid or appreciated
for our efforts. You will feel much better turning them down
before you invest your time, energy, and money in a losing
cause. This understanding of your "core" philosophy
will enable you to seek out the people meet it rather than
finding than those that are not. You will generally find what
you are looking for. You will also be able to quickly dispense
with those that do not meet your standard operating procedures.
By learning the value
of control in your life you will be able to create a growing
thriving business. You will also be creating a thriving life.
We've made available to you a FREE Business Review & Evaluation Coaching Call with one of our Professional Coaches. These are the same coaches that have helped our clients achieve an average $100,000 increase in income, and they're here to help you as well!
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