Agents are often confused about what to focus on to earn their desired level of income. Their default focus is on closings, and while this seems to make sense, it’s actually not the right place to focus. It clouds your vision because you measure results after they’ve happened. What can you do about January’s results in February? Nothing whatsoever.
To achieve your desired results, you need to gain clarity by focusing not on the results themselves, but instead, on the activities required to produce the results. Here are three things that we believe a successful agent should focus on:
- Lead Flow
You must generate a minimum of 25 leads per month to close 24 deals per year. These leads can come from all sources. On average, you should be converting more than 5 percent of the leads you generate. You might even find it necessary to generate closer to 35 leads to close two deals a month. We keep up with our lead flow using a lead tracker, where we put 100 percent of leads on the first contact.
- Lead Management
This doesn’t have to be complicated. We use a three-category system we call the ABCs of lead management.
An “A” prospect is someone who is ready to buy or sell immediately and with whom you have an appointment. The appointment is the key here. If you don’t have an appointment with them, they aren’t an A. Always set the next appointment to show homes or move the process forward when you’re on your current appointment. This new way of thinking has been a game changer for us.
If someone is ready to buy or sell in the next 90 days, we categorize them as a “B.” You must follow up with a B prospect twice a month, during the weeks of the 1st and the 15th.
A prospect who is planning to purchase or sell in more than 90 days is a “C.” We follow up with all C prospects once per month, during the week of the 8th.
Regardless of which CRM system you use, and how the system categorizes prospects, use what I’ve outlined here, and you’ll convert more leads to clients.
- Face-to-Face Appointments
You should strive for two face-to-face appointments with new buyer or seller prospects each week. It doesn’t matter whether these prospects are ready to move forward now or won’t be ready for a year. As long as you keep meeting new prospects face-to-face, you’ll keep your pipeline full. These face-to-face meetings come in various forms, like showing a buyer prospect a home, meeting a prospect for a sit-down at your office, visiting the home of a seller prospect, or meeting up at Starbucks to discuss the home-selling or -buying process. You’ll never have to worry about the number of closings you’ll have if you focus instead on these important initial face-to-face meetings. We keep track of our face-to-face buyer and seller appointments using our Daily Success Habits Tracker.
There’s lots more to focus on to be successful in real estate, but if you start with the three basic activities outlined above, you’ll be well on your way to having clarity on the activities required to produce the results you desire.
If you’d like a copy of our lead tracker, the ABCs of lead management or the Daily Success Habits Tracker, email me at Cleve@WorkmanSuccessSystems.com.
Cleve Gaddis is a master coach with Workman Success Systems and a team leader with Gaddis Partners, RE/MAX Center in Atlanta. He learned sales the hard way, selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door and now puts those skills to use in helping his team close $60 million annually. He loves to share his systems and strategies to help others succeed. He hosts the Call Cleve Atlanta Real Estate Show, heard weekly on NewsTalk 1160 WCFO. For more information, please visit www.WorkmanSuccess.com.
