2. Outwork ‘Em, Don’t Just Try to Out Smart ‘Em

So, you think that working smarter is better than working harder? Well, it’s certainly important to prioritize what you do. And, this month, I’m providing you an analysis tool so you can see how you spend your time. (See free giveaways in the September newsletter, or click here). But, how about those seminar gurus who tell you to just work 20 hours a week to attain your goals? Or, hire all those buyers’ agents so you don’t have to work? Personally, I’ve never found that avoiding work got you to achievement. I know that, of course, as a musician. If you don’t practice, you can’t play!

Scientific Studies Prove Outworking Works Better than Out-Smarting

Have you read the great book by Malcolm Gladwell, the Outliers? If you haven’t, get it today.  In an earlier newsletter, I wrote how Gladwell used studies of famous people to prove that practicing 10,000 hours was the magic number to master just about anything. (Read the Beatles’ story. It’s great). In addition, Gladwell provides stories and studies to show that hard work gets you to achievement. He provides the contrast of Chinese farmers with Russian peasants. The Chinese farmers believed in many proverbs, all of which have the theme of ‘hard work makes you rich’. Here’s one:

Don’t depend on heaven for food, but on your own two hands carrying the load.

In contrast, Russian peasants ‘ proverbs sounded like this:

If God does not bring it, the earth will not give it.

In other words, one set of proverbs put destiny in the person’s hands. The other, put destiny in someone else’s.

Which set of proverbs do you live by? Do you believe your own achievement is up to you? Or, is it up to the company? Your manager? The market?

Realtor Surveys Shows Higher Producers Work Longer Hours

The last National Realtor Association survey shows that Realtors who work 30 hours a week do four transactions, on average. Realtors who work 50 hours a week do 24 transactions, on average. In other words, if you want to achieve, work those hours!

Does it make any sense at all that working 20-30 hours a week can provide a successful career–when those who are actually making the money you want to make are working 50 hours a week? Step up to the line and put those hours in, and you’ll achieve past your dreams!

You as a System

I want you quit thinking of yourself as a creative individual, and, for a moment, consider that you can organize what you do just like software organizes tasks (well, almost!). In other words, you can systematize YOU, to some extent.

Choose or create systems—then harness technology. First, create your systems. Then, choose the technology to run those systems. You’ll spend less money and utilize your technological investments better if you’ve organized your business systematically first. Then, you’ll know exactly what systems you want to automate. In Up and Running, I’ve provided a Technology Planner, to help you prioritize your needs.

Five Steps to Systematize Your Business

1. First, itemize the tasks you do each day.

2. Prioritize your tasks as they relate to accomplishing your main objectives. What are the most important tasks you do to assure you make money consistently? (Up and Running provides lots of guidance on prioritization.)

3. Organize your high-priority tasks into systems–or purchase systems.

Should you create your own system, or buy one? Smart agents buy systems, if they’re available. An example is a listing presentation. Even though an agent could create a system, time spent on creation isn’t worth the price paid in ‘down sales time’ profitability. Don’t be a creator unless you just can’t find a good system.

4. Choose your technology to support the systems you already have in place. Let’s say you now how a manually-created listing system. You’ve decided who you will involve in the plan; you’ve decided which tasks you can delegate. Now, you’re ready to choose technology to automate your system. Because you know what you want this technology to accomplish, you can make a good choice. You can easily customize the software to meet your needs–because you already have a system in place.

5. Package your systems so you can promote your exceptional business organization to buyers and sellers. For example: If you’ve never worked with a particular buyer or seller before, that buyer can’t know if you’ll communicate regularly. Show the buyer your process/system for communicating regularly, so he can start trusting you as the professional you know you are. Remember, we believe what we see, not what we hear.

Start with just one series of tasks and get that systematized. Soon, you’ll be running your business much more like a business.

Do you have the qualities of successful real estate agents? Do you know what they are? In my three decades of working as an agent, and having hired hundreds of real estate agents, I know the qualities that assure success. Here’s the list that I came up with for my book, Become Tomorrow’s Mega-Agent Today. Most of you reading this list will already have been selling real estate. So, read this list and ask yourself which of these qualities is very strong in your character. Which do you find needs ‘shoring up’? To move to the next level in your business, you must exhibit these qualities in your sales and sales management behavior.

1.         High Personal Initiative

Your success depends on your being able to create programs and implement them on your own, with relatively little monitoring.

2.         Tenacity

Only those who “stick with it” will win.  Plan on dedicating one year to establishing your business. Plan on spending at least three to five years building the kind of business you want to have as  a ‘mature’ business.

3.         Mental Toughness

A positive mental attitude is essential.  Others who give up easily will try to influence the tenacious, mentally tough individual to also give up.  It takes courage to keep going in this long-term business.

4.         Belief in Oneself

We each have to know, inside ourselves, that we are capable, that we have the talent and the tenacity to succeed, and that we can depend on ourselves. How are you motivating yourself today to reach higher levels in your business? Do you have a deep belief in yourself?

5.         Willing to Take Direction and Be Accountable to Your Goals

Real estate is a constantly-changing field.  Those who win and keep building a stronger business learn new skills and apply them constantly. They also hold themselves accountable to their goals, and let others hold them accountable, too.

6.         Enthusiastic

A joy in doing, and a desire to accomplish shows itself in an enthusiastic attitude. Does your enthusiasm show to your clients? To your fellow agents?

7.         Creative

In today’s marketing-oriented world, an agent must be truly creative to design programs where he stands out as valuable and different.

8.         Educated and Communicative

Writing skills are a necessity today.  Our sophisticated target markets are well-educated.  Effective verbal communication is also paramount to success.

9.         Team Player

The preservation of our office spirit and cooperation is very important.  We are all more successful together. What are you giving back to your team mates?

I’ll bet you can add to this list. Write a comment here and tell me what you think is an important quality in a successful real estate agent.

When I phone an agent today, I have no idea where that agent will answer his or her phone—or from what phone the call is being answered. And, I don’t really care. Technology allows the phone to follow the agent. That’s great. Here’s what’s not so great. Many times the agent’s message is so dull, powerless, or mumbled that it doesn’t sound as though the agent wants to talk to me. Or, the agent’s message is so long, that I’m impatient by the time I get to leave the message.

What Impact Do You Want to Make?

Surveys show that consumers want their agent to be enthusiastic. So why do many of the agents’ phone messages sound as though they are terribly tired or uninterested in the caller? Here’s the principle.

We use our senses to make snap judgments about people.

The less senses involved, the more important it is that we communicate properly. On the phone, there is only once sense involved—that of hearing. You have no ability to communicate your warmth, your interest, etc. visually on the phone. You have only your voice.

Decide What You Want to Communicate

What conclusions do you want your caller to have about you? Write down the five most important judgments you want your caller to make about you and your business approach. Now, listen to your own voice message. Do you believe you are communicating your ‘best self’? Ask five other people to listen, too. Decide what you like and what you want to change.

Research your Competition

Don’t listen only for your own communications. For three days, listen carefully to the tone, intent, and messages you hear on answering machines or voice messages of other agents and brokers. Listen carefully to how agents answer the phone at their offices. What do you think those agents are communicating? Do you believe they are communicating the kind of qualities they want to communicate—and think they are communicating?

Four important tips to remember when recording your own message:

1. Stand up—you’ll sound as though you have much more energy.
2. Write out your script first—and be sure it’s not too long. I don’t really care where you’re going to be all day!
3. Modulate your voice pleasantly. Try to get some resonance.
4. Sound as though you’re looking forward to hearing from me!

These simple tips will increase your trust rate and your business. Get to ‘hearing’ today! Best news for budgeting agents: This tips cost you nothing, but reap you great benefits. First impressions: Create your best phone voice.

 I’ve compiled 10 questions you should ask yourself. In the last post, I gave you the first five.  In this post , I’ll give you the rest of the questions.

Ask yourself:

1. Do I know how long it will take to get a sale? To get a listing? To get a listing sold? (so you can project your income) (New agents tend to wait, and wait, and wait, to get into the business ‘stream’, thinking that there is no time frame to buyers’ decisions—wrong!)

Key point: Use the time lines in Up and Running to project your income. You don’t want to run out of money before you run out of time!

2. Do I have a method of setting goals and tracking accomplishments in the areas above—so I can analyze my specific strengths and challenges in this business? (Most agents never track what they do, so they don’t know what worked—or why what they’re doing isn’t working).

Key point: If you know how many listing appointments it takes, for example, for you to list one marketable property, you can project with confidence your income. You have truly become independent.

3. Do I have a budget so I know how much money I should be spending in marketing myself/marketing my listings?

Key point: Creating a marketing budget from day one assures you get paid for all that work you’re doing in lead generation (Up and Running has a prototype marketing plan for you, too).

4. Do I have someone to talk to regularly, to coach me, to keep me on track, and to help me if I fall off my start-up plan (to keep me from failing)?

Key point: Most new agents drastically over-estimate their mental toughness in the face of adversity. Studies show that having a mentor, a coach, someone on your side, greatly increases the chances of your success.

5. Do I have a method to keep myself motivated and inspired to keep on keeping on (like a coach or your manager)?

Key point: All the successful people I’ve ever met have a method to ‘keep themselves up’—diaries, logs, inspirational notebooks, readings, CDs, etc. That’s why I put so much inspiration and motivation in Up and Running—we all need it!

Give yourself every chance to succeed to answering ‘yes’ to all of these ten questions. You deserve success! Quit stumbling and get Up and Running!

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 and why by putting a comment on either of my blogs on this subject (1-2 paragraphs, please).   

And, the winner is……I’ll pick three inspiring comments, and send each of you a complimentary copy of Your Professional Portfolio, which helps you choose your best skills and talents and shows you how to share them with your clients to create loyalty.

 Deadline: Sept. 10. I’ll let everyone know who wins, and I’ll publish the inspirations for everyone in a later newsletter (and probably a blog).    

 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?