So you’re thinking, “What’s this guy going to tell me that I don’t already know?”
Probably nothing. Sometimes it’s about reinforcement. Sometimes it’s just knowing that someone else understands.
So many experienced people start out by saying something like, “I’ve been doing this for 25 years so I’m going to tell you blah blah blah blah blah.” Then they leave you with the impression that if you deviate from their Commandments Of Living that you are a moron.
False!
We are all individuals and all have our own point of origin. By point of origin I mean the place in life you come from not just physically but emotionally, mentally, spiritually and ancestrally. All of those origins bring you to the place you are today so to expect any of us to be exactly alike is a long shot. To demand so is outright lunacy.
However – there are best and worst approaches to any situation which have been tried and proven by our predecessors and which should never be abandoned and at worst be modified in nearly immeasurable changes. Albert Einstein knew that it didn’t matter how many years of experience you had if that experience was incorrect when he said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results.”
Having observed a wide variety of success levels among my own real estate agents who are licensed with my firm as well as the hundreds of others for whom I have provided assistance I can tell you that it’s pretty easy to pick out the ones who will be successful and the ones who will not within about a 5 minute period of time. However the results can change when the methods are modified.
Now then to get to the point of this posting and the Three Things Every Real Estate Agent Needs and how to get them if you don’t have them.
DRIVE – A car never gets anywhere until someone takes it for a drive. Neither will you. If you don’t care whether or not you ever get a listing or make a sale chances are you won’t. First you need to create a goal. Don’t forsake a small goal but by all means set a goal and be hungry for it. A weak goal won’t do you much good so create a solid goal even if it’s “I will get one listing and sell one property every 3 months.”
For some of you that’s all you need and all you want to do and that’s fine. For other you want to reach a particular revenue level. Maybe you want to gross a minimum of $100,000 per year. Perhaps you want to make the million dollar sales mark every month. You know what it takes to reach the goals but you won’t follow the necessary steps until you have some DRIVE.
Where do you get drive? I get it from coaching myself, reading books and magazines, going to conventions, seminars and association meetings. I leave notes for myself in strange places so when I find them it ignites a spark in me.
Does it work? Well, I went from struggling to closing over 350 deals every year since 2001 so something happened. And trust me, if I can do it YOU CAN DO IT!
PERSISTANCE – If you get in your car and you put it in drive and start out toward the bank but get to the end of the parking lot or driveway and just sit there you’ll never reach your destination – to get to your destination you must continue to drive.
For those of you just now getting drive it may come as a challenge to be persistent. This need and gaining persistence can dramatically change your life. Let me share a quick story with you about two different men whose lives were changed by gaining persistence or forsaking persistence.
First there is Carlos (not his real name). Carlos worked for me for about 3 years. When he first started he had been in the pesticide industry for some time and then took a job with a very unscrupulous mortgage broker. Since I already knew him I offered him a job to keep him out of trouble and to enhance my company. Since Carlos speaks fluent Spanish, being Mexican, it was a good fit for us. He came in with a bang!
Carlos and his wife had a new baby, lived in a tiny little home and had one old clunker car. Within the first year Carlos had closed enough deals to earn about $55,000 in commission … more than 2 times as much as he had ever earned in the past.
During the second year Carlos soared. He joined the Million Dollar Club and on more than one occasion surpassed his monthly goal. The family moved to a much nicer home, purchased a much nicer vehicle and filled their home with new furniture and ate whatever they wanted whenever they wanted.
Skip around to Kevin (again, not his real name). Kevin has worked with me for one year – just now going into his second year. When he came he had been in a situation where he earned a small salary and a small commission on each closing. He was doing okay but felt limited where he was. He heard our ads on the radio and on television and wondered what it would be like to work for an aggressive company like mine. Then he saw the help wanted ad and applied for the job.
During his first few months Kevin seemed like he was still working on a small salary. He worked every day and made a lot of phone calls and marketed himself but still didn’t get the closings he needed to really move forward.
Kevin and I talked one day about leaving notes for ourselves and talking to ourselves about our goals and creating our own drive. Since Kevin has a one hour drive to the office he has a lot of time for self coaching but it can be done anywhere. I do mine in the shower and while I’m getting ready for the day.
Then I made the discovery; Kevin was creating need and excitement but was failing to be persistent until the closing so leads were drifting away. We dealt with that by limiting his number of leads and getting him to concentrate on the smaller number.
Bingo! Now he was being extremely persistent because he knew he had to close those deals to get more. No closings = no leads. Now he’s in his second month in the Million Dollar Club!
Back to Carlos who in his third year, having had a second child an purchased a beautiful new home with a great yard on the hillside lost not only persistence but drive. If he had been on the way to the bank he would have put his car in park within site of the front doors. He also lost our third element. He was headed for a dismal year in performance mostly because he lost the third element. Now he’s struggling in the construction industry as a manual laborer.
Persistence means never giving up, never letting the deal get away. Soon I’ll deal with how to overcome objections when you know you have the right deal for your client.
FOCUS – So you’ve got your car in drive and you’re on the road headed to the bank. Along the way you spot a yard sale and stop for a minute just to look. One hour later you’re back on the road headed to the bank when you see a sale at the local Harley shop and remember your niece wants an HD skull cap for her birthday. While you’re there you look at all the bikes and choppers and watch a video about how to order a customized springer soft tail. 2 hours later your headed toward the bank again. Along the way you get hungry so you stop in at Spicy Tini’s for a salad and burrito and bump into a couple of old friends who are headed out to see a movie and invite you to join … right now.
Did you get the point or should I continue?
Focus – go to your destination. In almost every staff meeting which we have on Thursday mornings (mandatory attendance) I ask, “What are we doing here?” The answer should never change it should always be “Facilitating real estate transactions.”
That’s what we do. We don’t sell popcorn, we don’t do oil changes and we don’t run a fashion store: We sell real estate. In fact, if we’re doing something other than selling real estate we’re not doing our jobs. Some of us are no longer a part of us because we weren’t selling real estate.
Unlike some of the big national companies my company has minimum performance requirements. Since we are a split commission company which provides almost all of the sales leads we don’t make money leasing desk space to people who really aren’t focused or have low or no goals.
If you want to be successful learn how to have Relentless Persistence with Focused Drive – that is our mantra. We all know it. That’s why we have more high level performers on a percentage basis than the vast majority of companies. You can do it to.
You can be DRIVEN.
You can be PERSISTENT.
You can be FOCUSED.
You can achieve your goals, please your clients, make new friends, and support your family and lifestyle by acquiring and keeping these simple elements or Three Things Every Real Estate Professional(and human) Needs.
— admin