As real estate professionals, we are forced to continuously adapt our services to match the latest developments in the national economy and our local housing markets. The world in which we conduct our business is dynamic and the only constant is change. To put it simply, if we refuse to evolve and improve ourselves, we risk going the way of the dinosaur.
With the pace of modern life, it can be a challenge to keep up sometimes. Our lives can become so complicated with activities that it is paralyzing. Should we spend most of our time on Facebook or Twitter or focus on creating mailers, cold calling or walking our farm? Or should we focus on expired listings, short sales and foreclosures?
People are always trying to sell us something, whether it’s a new marketing strategy or a new technique for serving our clients, a new flyer or sign or the latest technology. We are bombarded by the latest and greatest to such an extent that it can be overwhelming. The result is that, at the end of the day, we sometimes have to ask ourselves, “Do I even remember what business I am in? Will any of this actually help me sell more homes?”
Instead of trying to master everything at once, why not work on setting one important goal, on one important topic, five days a week? If you can simplify and streamline your process, you can increase your productivity by 100 percent.
The tried and true acronym—KISS—Keep It Simple Salesperson—may seem a little overdone, but the fact that we have all heard it before only proves its relevance and value.
We need to grow and maintain our businesses, stay current or ahead of the latest technologies, refine our infrastructure and improve our systems. Start by asking yourself, “How much time have I really spent on these areas on a daily basis over the past year?” If you were to set one achievable daily goal for one of these items, five times per week, it would have an extremely positive impact on both your mental well-being and your business.
Think about how many leads you’ve received or generated in the past month. The marketing companies are always asking me if I would like to attract hundreds or even thousands of leads to our business and website. How about keeping it simple and instead do something every day that creates one new lead?
What can you do to find one new lead a day? Wouldn’t you agree that finding five good new leads in a week would make a substantial improvement to your bottom line?
Maintain your existing relationships and your business will thrive as a result. Call your current leads, current listings, escrows and buyers. Analyze your systems and processes. Are they running efficiently? You don’t need to fix all of them in one day, but if you make it a goal to achieve one small victory every day, the results will follow.
Evaluate your proficiency with the latest technology. Are you behind the times or current with the newest developments? Improving this area of your business should be easy, just commit to learning or practicing one of your current technologies once per day for a small period of time.
Make it a goal to discover one old, current or new piece of your business that can be improved on a daily basis, even if that means discovering that you can do a better job prospecting the next day.
These are just examples. The thought process is that success can be learned. Learn to succeed on a daily basis and large-scale, overall success will be an inevitability.
Alan Shafran is the No. 1 REALTOR® in San Diego for Prudential California Realty, President of ShowingSuite.com and author of “Blueprint for 100 Deals Per Year in Real Estate.”
For more information, please visit www.AlanShafran.com.
