Note: Through November and December, I’m going to help you with your 2012 business plans. You’ll find free documents from my business planning system and an invitation to a complimentary webinar. Why not subscribe and be sure not to miss a thing?

Let’s get real. You aren’t motivated to build that business plan, are you? We know we’re supposed to write business plans. Yet, if you’re like 95% of real estate professionals, doing that seems just like an exercise in futility. Your business plan doesn’t inspire you. In fact, it bores you or fills you with dread even to think about it!

 Leaving out the ‘Magic’?

There are components left out of most plans—components that put the inspiration and motivation into your plan. I’ll give you specific guidance for you to put that magic into your plan, so you are inspired every day—not only to complete the plan, but to use it as a very personalized and specific guide to your success.

  Why Are Most Business Plans Useless? 

Unfortunately, when most people write business plans, all they do is fill in some blanks with ‘guess numbers’. The problem here is that numbers in blanks aren’t inspiring. They aren’t motivating. They don’t call out and suggest to you that you should look at those numbers once in awhile!

 What Really Motivates Us? 

If numbers inspired us, we’d all be gazillionaires selling real estate. After all, we say we want to sell more homes than the average agent. We want to make more money than the average agent. You know the drill, and I’ve heard it from hundreds of agents hundreds of times. Yet, if numbers and money were motivators, our results would be different than they are.  The fact is that money, in itself, is not a motivator. It’s 

what we want to do with the money 

And that’s as individual as we are. Martin Luther King didn’t say, “I have a business plan.” He said, “I have a dream”. You must include the ‘dream’ part of your future in your business plans to make that plan useful to you.

 Building the ‘Why’ Into your Business Plans 

That’s the motivator. In other words, we have to have a big ‘why’. Most business plans don’t build in the ‘why’. That’s why they fall flat, and leave us cold. That’s why agents don’t want to go through the exercise of creating them. Managers always commiserate that they can’t get their agents to write business plans. You wouldn’t want to write a plan, either, if you know it wouldn’t help you with your business the next year.

The Tools to Find that ‘Why’ 

Most people think of business plans as projections of numbers. But, that’s not all there is to a real strategic plan. There are three parts of a business plan that provide that inspiration, that motivation, and that ‘why’. And, those are the parts of the planning process that are most frequently left out: 

1. Your vision—why you’re in this business; how you see yourself after you retire
2. Your review—what happened in your business that will make an impact on your business in the future
3. Your mission—who are you in the business

 In the next few blogs, I’ll show you how to create these parts of your business plan, so you give yourself the inspiration and motivation you need to create and implement your plan.

Want the whole planning system? It’s specially priced at $25 off regular $99.95 (plus shipping), through November. I’ll provide you specific coaching  tips on the audio CDs, along with the dozens of planning documents included here. There is no other planning system like this! Click here to learn more. 

So, am I telling you NOT to create a business plan at all? No. I’m telling you not to create a plan using the same ‘template’ you’ve used in the past. Here’s what you’ve been leaving out: The parts that inspire you, keep you motivated, and give you the ‘why’ of your plan. Without those parts, you’ve just got some ‘generic’ numbers.

 Numbers Don’t Inspire. Visions Do. 

Martin Luther King didn’t say, “I have a business plan.” He said, “I have a dream.” Put your dreams in your business plan. You need a vision as your foundation to your plan. That vision inspires you to keep doing the right thing, not the expedient thing. After all, your goal is to create ecstatically happy clients, not  merely to do a ‘next’ kind of business.

 The Second Thing You’re Missing 

How do you know what moves to make? Do you pack your business plan full of tactics that you heard from the seminar gurus? Do you do the lead generating tactics your friends do? Do you spend your marketing money by trying to copy that ‘gorilla agent’ in your office? If so, you’re really missing the point!  You need to do a thorough ‘review’, to find out what worked in your business, where you spent your money, and how your lead generating sources worked out for you. Finding out those things guarantees you’ll know exactly how to create a business plan for success next year. 

The Third Component  to Make your Plan More than Just Numbers 

Do you have a mission statement? I’ll bet you left that out, too. The mission statement tells exactly who you are in the business, the areas you serve, and your specialty services. It does not have $$$ in it, and it is not a ‘future’ protection. It portrays you in your ideal situation as an agent, so you can use that mission to inspire you during the tough times. 

An Example 

Here’s my mission statement for my coaching company: 

Our Carla Cross Coaching Credo 

q    Provide a solid foundation with a proven game plan, from which to coach, so our clients have the ‘music’ for which to create their own successes 

q    Create an encouraging, positive, supportive, and uplifting experience, so clients are motivated to step out to reach their goals 

q    Provide insights, expertise, and real estate guidance to help our clients go further, faster, and with greater confidence 

q    Remember that each of our clients’ well-being transcends all other considerations! 

How My Mission Works for Me

What does the mission do for me, as owner? It helps me choose the right coaches. It helps me communicate our values. It helps me choose the right clients! It helps me remember that it’s not the dollars we’re getting that’s important—it’s the clients we help have a better career and life. 

Your Next Steps 

Round out that ‘numbers’ business plan with the inspirational and motivational parts of your plan—the parts that are uniquely you: 

Your vision

Your review

Your mission 

Now, you have a real business plan you can follow and use for guidance and inspiration all year.

Help in business planning for you: Through November and December, I’ll be providing guidance for you as you plan–right on this blog. Plus, you’ll get free planning pages and many bonuses. Why not subscribe and get all the information?

Also: I’m creating a very special resource series for you, where I’ll take you through my planning process and help you create that great business plan. Watch for more information in the next few days.

Business Planning for the Real Estate Professional

Finally: Here’s the resource to walk you step by step through your plan: Over 170 pages of help, plus 3 coaching audio CDs, AND a document CD with all your planning pages. Step up to a professoinal plan today. Click here to learn more.

Remember what Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “Planning is everything. The plan is nothing.” Put the vision, review, and mission in, and you’ll see what the former US president meant.

 How Long Does your Tenacity Have to Last?

 Staying motivated means staying tenacious—holding onto the goal. On this call, we discussed the quality of ‘tenacity’. In interviewing hundreds (at least) of would-be agents, I never once heard one of them say they weren’t tenacious. In fact, most of them tried to convince me of their abnormal strength of tenacity! However, once they got into the business of selling real estate, that tenacity vanished like smoke into the atmosphere. Why? Because everyone thinks they are tenacious and determined when there are no challenges. Yet, when challenges appear (like handling objections, making sales calls, getting repeated ‘nos’), that tenacity disappears. 

How’s your ‘compass’ set for attaining a sale? In my survey of hundreds of agents under three months in the business, I asked when they expected a sale. The majority said in the first month! But, we know that the majority of new agents don’t get a sale  in month one. Most don’t even get a sale by month three (and Up and Running tells you why someone is successful fast, and why someone isn’t successful, so there is no mystery).

 So, how long do you think it is until the agent is de-motivated? You’re right:  About 32 days.

 The Secret to Staying Motivated

 Who is in charge of motivating you? Many agents will say ‘my manager.’ It is true that managers and coaches can encourage. They can be positive. They can pick out areas to celebrate. But, the real person in charge of your motivation is YOU. Why? Because you are in charge of your own attitude. No one is inside your head and heart except you. If you don’t feel you’re going at managing your attitude, you have a task: Create that skill. In fact, there are many chapters on attitude and motivation and how to do it in Up and Running, because it is truly a skill that can be developed.

 Big idea: Instead of looking to a sale as the only ‘win’, choose small ‘wins’ all along the way. Up and Running has the numbers in black and white. You know what you need to do to keep on that sales path and ultimately sell a home. So, figure out how to reward yourself in small increments. That keeps your motivation high and protects that tenacity you need to ultimately succeed.

Develop the skill of self-motivation and you will ultimately be successful. Remember, you are on no one’s timeline except yours. If you’re doing the Up and Running activities, you will be successful. Believe it. Act like it. Get help. Get coaching. Be honest with yourself about your skills and needs. Then, you will succeed.

Questions: What do you do to stay motivated through all those challenges? Why do you think agents become de-motivated? Share your insights and advice to help other agents succeed. 

About those bonus tele-conferences: As my ‘thank you’ for purchasing Up and Running in 30 Days, and the coaches’ companion resource, I’m providing coaching tele-conferences in October, both for agents and their managers. I will be offering them three times, also, in 2012. So, if you’re thinking about purchasing Up and Running yourself or as a manager for your agents, you’ll be able to take part in these bonus coaching calls, where I personally coach you in using the program most successfully.

I just did my first tele-conference (of 2) for purchasers of Up and Running in 30 Days (past 2 months). On this tele-conference, I helped them bash the barriers they were getting in their way to a sale in 30 days. Here were the top three:

Keeping focus

Time management

Staying motivated

Interesting, yes? So, in the blogs this week, I’m going to share some of the tips I gave the attendees for ‘moving the mountain’—bashing the barriers to getting that sale.

Keeping Focus

It sounds so easy, doesn’t it? Just do the activities in Up and Running weekly and you’ll get a sale in 30 days. But, then life gets in the way. One of the most common ways people get bogged down is that they slow down their lead generation to ‘learn stuff’. What category is ‘learn stuff’ in?

Business supporting.

You know, from doing Up and Running, that the more business supporting work you do, the less business producing work you tend to do. That principle is so important, I’m going to put it in quotes:

The more business supporting work you do, the  less business producing work you tend to do.

Tip: Do your weekly schedule from Up and Running each week, and analyze your balance of business-supporting vs. business-producing work.

Coach’s note: I teach agents how to analyze their daily schedules–a very important time management tool that each agent should grab in their own ‘personal management’ game bag.

Engaging your Coach

Get together with your coach, and go over your analysis. What’s getting in your way of doing lead generation? What do you feel you need to know before you get started? Why are you putting off getting started? What’s scaring you? What can your coach do for and with you to help you get past those barriers and start lead generating ‘with a vengeance’?

Big idea: The business starts when you start lead generating. Why not start now and guarantee a great career in our business?

About those bonus tele-conferences: As my ‘thank you’ for purchasing Up and Running in 30 Days, and the coaches’ resource, I’m providing coaching tele-conferences in October. I will be offering them three times, also, in 2012. So, if you’re thinking about purchasing Up and Running for your agents, you’ll be able to take part in these bonus coaching calls, where I personally coach you in using the program most successfully.

Although there are as many approaches to the real estate business as there are people, there are certain qualities that are common to successful real estate professionals:

 1. High personal initiative. Do what you know needs to be done even if no one else is doing it!

2.  Tenacity. Studies show most salespeople give up after the second ‘no’. Yet, most customers only say ‘yes’ after they’ve said ‘no’ 5 times! Never give up.

3.  Risk taker. Doing it before you have all the answers–taking risks–is a big part of starting your career successfully.

4.  Accountability to yourself. Plan your week and work your plan. No one else will do it for you in the real estate business.

5.  Reliability to others. The consumer rates “trustworthiness” as the most important attribute they need in a real estate agent. Keep your promises.

6.  Willingness to learn. In this warp-speed changing business, being a life-long learner is critical to success in a real estate career.

7.  Enthusiasm. Would you buy anything from anyone who wasn’t convinced himself  that the product or service was important to you? And could convey his excitement and enthusiasm?

8.  Handling rejection. Absolute faith in your own convictions and your own self-worth helps you weather those thousands of ‘nos’ and keep going to get a ‘yes’.

9.  Creativity. Doing it like we’ve always done it just won’t work in this changing environment. Try it differently. Put you into the sales equation for great success.

Help me Out.

I’m preparing a new edition of my book for would-be and new agents, Become Tomorrow’s Mega-Agent Today. What characteristics should I add?

So, do we need to get a move on and stop nurturing those sacred cows?

We real estate professionals are creatures of habit. One of our favorite sayings is “we’ve always done it that way”. Or, “it won’t work in my area.” However, in this time of great change, we must take a hard, honest look at how we do business—and ask ourselves if it’s really in our best interests to continue that business practice. This is an especially important thing to do right now, as we head into winter, and start to think about business plans.

What’s a ‘Sacred Cow’ Anyway?

So, let’s get right to the looking. To do this, let’s use the ‘sacred cow’ approach. What is a ‘sacred cow’? In animal life, is a “plodding, bovine mammal of numerous stomachs and dubious intelligence regarded in some climes as holy in origin and therefore immune from ordinary treatment.” In business, it’s “an outmoded belief, assumption, policy, system, or strategy, generally invisible, that inhibits change and prevents responsiveness to new opportunities.”

Some Sacred Cows That Need to be Put to Pasture

If you’re newer to real estate, you may not realize that our industry even has   ‘sacred cows’. That’s when you should be extra cautious. So, heads up.

Here are four sacred cows that real estate professionals need to examine for their viability (and perfect for reviewing your business plan):

            1. ‘If you don’t list, you don’t last’. How much money did you spend on listings last year? How fast did they sell? Change that sacred cow to “if your listings don’t sell, you don’t last!

            2. ‘The best way to establish trust is to have all the answers’, Are you talking too much and finding out later that you’re missing a critical piece of information about your buyer or seller? Quit talking and start asking great questions. Take the ‘consultative’ approach.

            3. ‘Any client/customer is better than none’. Really? How much time are you wasting with buyers who can’t or won’t buy—and sellers who won’t list at the right price? Change your paradigm to ‘I work with people who value my time.’

            4. ‘An experienced agent doesn’t need a visual presentation’. Sure. They’ll believe what I say if I just talk a lot. Not anymore. Substantiate your claims of excellence with sophisticated visuals such as testimonials and statistics. That’s professional sales. We believe what we see, not what we hear, should be your new presentation mantra.

Taking the ‘sacred cow’ approach at least yearly is the way you can assure your business strategies are up to date. You can’t afford to put your head in the sand as changes are occurring with warp speed around you! Are you ready to kill your sacred cows—or, at least, put them out to pasture?

Hey–what are some of the sacred cows I didn’t mention?

Motivation on Steroids: How a Homeless Girl Got to Harvard

Khadijah Williams’s mother was last spotted living in a storage unit in Los Angeles. But, Khadijah isn’t living there. She’s on her way to Harvard. What an improbable—yet inspiring—story. For as long as she can remember, she and her family, consisting of her mother, and her sister, have drifted from one homeless shelter to another. Yet, she’s still not drifting. And, she’s not just graduating from high school, or getting an entry-level job, or going to a community college, she’s actually enrolled in Harvard. (Don’t get me wrong. It’s a terrific feat to go from homeless to a job, or to graduate from anything. But, Harvard?…..)

Where did Khadijah Get Her Tenacity? 

What aspects of Khadijah Williams’s life caused her to veer off the homeless, dependent path and toward higher education? Who inspired and motivated her?

 Five exceptional points stand out from her story:

 1. Hear the positive about yourself 

Someone told Khadijah she was smart. In the third grade, she scored in the 99^th percentile on a state exam. Her teachers told her she was gifted, and put her in special programs—even though her schooling was intermittent—and she moved schools constantly.

 Question: Are you able to block out the negative and focus on the ‘positive you’?

 2. Believe in your unique talents and skills 

Khadijah believed in herself because she believed what her teachers told her about herself—the positive.

 Question: Do you have the tenacity to turn the positive comments into unshakable belief?

 3. Seek out encouragement/inspiration from mentors  

Khadijah realized she couldn’t do it herself, and sought out organizations and mentors.

 Question: Do you seek out mentors who encourage and inspire you?

 4. Never give up    

Fueled by her belief in herself and the faith others had in her, Khadijah developed unbelievable tenacity to put herself into programs, stay in school, and ignored the taunts of the other students (you’re homeless, you can’t do this, etc., etc., etc.)

Question: How long are you willing to fail to succeed?

 5. Create your own environment  

Even though her mother and sister continue to live the homeless lifestyle, Khadijah has never blamed her relatives or her environment.

 Question: How good are you at putting yourself around winners?

 Yes. It’s a challenging market. But, if this homeless girl with absolutely none of the advantages almost all of us have can put these five attributes to work and step so very far out of her comfort zone, our challenges don’t look so huge, do they?

 Who/what inspires you? Let me know who and what inspires you .

Managers’ tip: Why not do this as an exercise with your agents? You’ll inspire them and re-light the fires of desire so they’ll be eager and enthusiastic to do what needs to be done to get back into the action.

 Read Khadijah’s entire article here.

Who’s inspiring you?

I wish I could give you a tight, proven formula. Yet, there are variables that make specific formulas difficult to pin down.

Success by the Numbers

 I set the expectations for the Up and Running in 30 Days business start-up program based on my experience on the number of contacts it takes to get a lead, then a sale. But, it also depends on several variables, as explained in Up and Running:

1. Type of contact–how warm or cold is it?

How much trust has been established? The warmer the contact, the more trust is already there. So, it takes less contacts in a ‘warm’ target market (like people you know or past clients) to convert to a lead, than to a ‘cold contact’. For example, the Internet marketing companies say it takes 200 contacts to equal one sale.

2. The agent’s sales skill, competency, and tenacity.

How good are you at opening sales conversations? How good are you at finding out needs? Asking insightful questions? Listening? Guiding the conversation with focus toward a goal of moving the sales process forward? The better you are at sales skills, the easier you’ll find it to sell–and the better your lead and conversion ratios.

3. The market–buyers and sellers are more hesitant to ‘turn themselves in’ today.

Sales skills come back into play here. It’s not a market where people just fall all over themselves to buy and sell real estate. You have to have skills, tenacity, and competency.

How can you tell the numbers it takes?

Track your numbers for each target market and track your conversion rates. Now you know the specific work it takes for you to generate a lead, create an interview, work with buyers and sellers, and get sales results. Armed with those numbers, you can customize a program like Up and Running.

The problem: Most agents work way too few lead generation numbers and sources. In fact, they have so few, it’s impossible to extrapolate ratios. That’s why Up and Running and the four -week regeneration plan in the On Track to Success in 30 Days System (for seasoned agents) have such big numbers–it’s an insurance plan.

Getting to the Finish Line

Grab your tenacity, get armed with your business generation plan, and get started. Set your goals and keep your accomplishments. Analyze them. Work your best sources of business with consistency. Polish your sales skills. Now, you’ve positioned yourself for success!

Although there are as many approaches to the real estate business as there are people, there are certain qualities that are common to successful real estate professionals:

 1. High personal initiative. Do what you know needs to be done even if no one else is doing it? (You will, or have seen, many unsuccessful people in your office doing the wrong things….)

2.  Tenacity. Studies show most salespeople give up after the second ‘no’. Yet, most customers only say ‘yes’ after they’ve said ‘no’ 5 times! Never give up. What are times in your life when you’ve been very tenacious?

3.  Risk taker. Doing it before you have all the answers–taking risks–is a big part of starting your career successfully.
Name a few times in your life that you jumped in before you had all the answers.

4.  Accountability to yourself. Plan your week and work your plan. No one else will do it for you in the real estate business. Who have you been accountable to in the past? Have you ever been coached? How do you feel about accountability?

5.  Reliability to others. The consumer rates “trustworthiness” as the most important attribute they need in a real estate agent. Keep your promises. What do people say about your reliability? How often have you let people down because of your own needs? 

6. Willingness to learn. In this warp-speed changing business, being a life-long learner is critical to success in a real estate career. How do you learn? When was the last time you learned something and tried something new that was really challenging to you?

7.  Enthusiasm. Would you buy anything from anyone who wasn’t convinced himself  that the product or service was important to you? And could convey his excitement and enthusiasm? Listen to your own voice mails. Do you convey enthusiasm and confidence?

8.  Handling rejection. Absolute faith in your own convictions and your own self-worth helps you weather those thousands of ‘nos’ and keep going to get a ‘yes’. How many ‘nos’ are you willing to get to get to a ‘yes’? How long can you put off success?

9.  Creativity. Doing it like we’ve always done it just won’t work in this changing environment. Try it differently.  If you’ve found yourself saying ‘I tried that before. It didn’t work’–you are running away from new solutions. Jump in instead.

Your Conclusions

What other traits and qualities do you think are important to succeed in today’s market? I’m not talking here about skills. They can be learned. But, our character and our behavioral profile are pretty well established by the time we’re five years old.

What did taking the evaluation tell you about yourself?

About Those Standards

Have you heard the saying, “it’s the pot calling the kettle black”? Okay. I confess. When I was a new agent, I put anyone in the car who would go with me to look at houses! I had no qualifying questions, and I certainly didn’t have any standards for buyers! My motto was

if they got tired before I did, I sold them a home. If I got tired first, I didn’t.

Even with that lousy motto, I sold 40 homes my first full year in real estate–and really tuckered myself out!

Better Too Many than Too Little

Yes, you’ll get practice putting everyone in your car. And, as a coach, I’d rather have you put too many people in your car than not enough (read Up and Running to find out how many you must put in your car to reach your personal goals).  We can always help you qualify better. But, if you’re not willing to take a risk and try selling someone a home, it’s hard to get you to do that!

Develop your Standards as You Go

If you’re a natural salesperson, you’ll dive right in and worry about the rest later. If that’s ‘you’, just start creating your standards and develop them through your first year in the business. Up and Running has suggestions, checklists, and qualification questionnaires to help you do better faster.

No Standards–No Big Successes

Having been a top producer, and studying top producers and surveys of top producers, I’ve discovered that absolutely no top producer has low standards. Why? They just don’t have time to fool around with those who won’t or can’t buy. Make that your long-term goal, and you’ll keep getting better and better clients.