If you’re like most agents, time management is your biggest challenge. No wonder. We’re dealing with people, not widgets…..Yet, we could work harder at organizing our ‘people systems’. That way, we could run a more predictable business–which is what clients want, by the way.
Systemazing your Business for Better Time Management
Use my lists below to see how well you’re managing your time managerment.
Here are the minimum systems I believe you need:
For sellers:
- Lead generating system (should be run with contact management software)
- Automated process for following the lead from first contact through listing
- Visual marketing presentation and a system for having them pre-done and always ready to go
- Pre-first visit presentation and a system to have them packaged, ready to use
- System for following the listing from first listed to after closing (can be automated with use of a contact management program)
- After close/client retention system (can be automated)
- Your personal marketing system—a marketing plan that can be automated and delegated to someone
For buyers:
- Lead generating system—driven by contact management
- System to follow the buyer from first contact to sale (can be automated)
- Visual buyer presentation—packaged and ready to use
- Pre-first visit presentation—packaged and ready to use
- Checklists: process during buying/before closing/after closing—client retention
- Your personal marketing system
How to begin. Real estate professionals are doers. We talk our way through processes. We dread organizing things, and frankly, we’re not good at it. So, how do we begin?
Start with one system or process at a time. Get a group of agents together, if possible. Make a list and prioritize it for the systems you believe you need first. Put a date to start, and a date for completion (I know, there’s that organization again!). You’ll find that the first is the hardest, and then, it starts to actually get easy! It’s a skill like anything else. Bottom line: Systematization allows you to actually run a business, not just run after buyers and sellers.
Note: If you want to make it easy on yourself, get The Complete Buyer’s Agent Toolkit and Your Client-Based Marketing System, the complete buyer and seller systems, with dozens of checklists, processes, and presentations already created for you.
Now, you’re on your way to ‘unclutter’ the clutter!
