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10 Best Questions to Answer for that Business Plan

January 18th, 2021

Got that plan done? Check it now against these 10 questions to answer

Have that business plan done? If you have even half of it done, congratulations! I hope you did it in the right order. If you’re ready to create your action plan, you’ll love this post.

Don’t Start at the End of the Planning Process!

“What actions should I put in my business plan for next year?” “What should I do?” “Give me what to do so I’ll do everything right next year.” Unfortunately, that’s doing your business plan backwards. It’s like starting at the end of a piece of music and playing it to the beginning.

Creating your action plan is the last thing you should do in your business plan.

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What You CAN ‘Copy’ for a Great Business Plan every Time

Another thing you may have heard from agents: “Give me a business plan.” or “I want to use _______’s plan.” That’s another big mistake. It’s your business and it needs to be your plan. However, what you can copy is the process for a great plan. In fact, Dwight D. Eisenhower (former US President), said, “The planning is everything. The plan is nothing.” What he meant was that it’s the thought process that’s important. So, use a planning process that takes you and your agents through the necessary steps. (See Beyond the Basics of Business Planning, for an online business planning system based on the strategic planning process).

10 Questions to Ask Yourself to Create the Right Action Plan for You

Your Answers will Inspire you to Make AND Use your Plan

Using these 10 questions will motivate you to create plans that work. Let me know your results!

Want more free business planning advice? See my recorded webinar on my website. My latest business planning webinar and planning docs are there for you–Free!

Categories Business Plan, free business planning, new agent business plan, New Real Estate Agents, Pivot business plan, Real Estate Sales, webinar
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Your Mission: How to Inspire Yourself to That Business Plan

by Carla Cross

January 7th, 2021

Unfortunately, most business planning systems just ask you to fill in some forms. Boy, that’s really inspiring….not!

So, how do you inspire yourself (and your team) to create and use your plan?

Create your mission.

What is it?

A statement that defines your real estate career in these areas:

What you do
What you specialize in
What you are selling in real estate
What areas/target markets you specialize in
What kind of services you provide

As important as your mission is in defining what you will do, it also is restrictive, because it guides you in deciding what you won’t do.

Mission statements are:

Not lightly changed
Written in the present tense
Not objectives
Not tied to time

Some examples:

To take my clients step by step through the home buying, selling, or building process as a consultant who approaches each transaction with empathy, integrity, and professionalism, resulting in a nearly 100% referral real estate practice.

We provide superior service to each individual represented by The Farnsworth Team. Our goal is to ensure that our customers and clients have every advantage as we begin, process, and conclude our real estate transaction.

I am a real estate professional.
I specialize in residential properties.
My clients and customers are upwardly mobile and established professionals.
My premise of service is to find out what people want and help them get it.
I proceed with honest, intelligent effort.
I bring to my clients a sincere concern for their welfare.

Gain my mission worksheet here and inspire yourself, your team, and your clients.

Let me know how the mission works for you. I’d love to see your mission statement, too. Email me at carla@carlacross.com. Thanks!

More Help in Business Planning

Want more guidance, specific, targeted worksheets, and help in creating that awesome 2021 strategic business plan? See Beyond the Basics of Business Planning, my online program–one for real estate agents, one for leadership. I’ll guide you right through the process.

Bonus: Invest in Beyond the Basics of Business Planning before Jan. 15 and I’ll also coach you through your plan, with 3 coaching sessions, starting the third week in January.

Less than 2 years in the business or have you done less than 8 transactions: You need my business start-up planning program for agents under 2 years in the business: Up and Running in Real Estate. Regularly $249, it’s $199 for you if you register by Jan. 15 and use the code make $ now.

Categories Business Plan, free business planning, mission, new agent business plan, Pivot business plan, Real Estate Sales
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Make an Action Plan that Works for You: Business Planning

by Carla Cross

December 22nd, 2020

Trying to make your action plan before you’ve answered these questions is a big mistake.

At the end of each year, I dedicate these blogs to all my real estate friends who are doing business plans.

Don’t Start at the End of the Planning Process!

We managers have heard these questions many times: “What actions should I put in my business plan for next year?” “What should I do?” “Give me what to do so I’ll do everything right next year.” Unfortunately, that’s doing your business plan backwards. It’s like starting at the end of a piece of music and playing it to the beginning.

Creating your action plan is the last thing you should do in your business plan.

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What You CAN ‘Copy’ for a Great Business Plan every Time

Another thing you may have heard from agents: “Give me a business plan.” or “I want to use _______’s plan.” That’s another big mistake. It’s your business and it needs to be your plan. However, what you can copy is the process for a great plan. In fact, Dwight D. Eisenhower (former US President), said, “The planning is everything. The plan is nothing.” What that means is that it’s the thought process that’s important. So, use a planning process that takes you through the necessary steps. (See Beyond the Basics of Business Planning, for an online business planning system based on the strategic planning process).

10 Questions to Ask Yourself so You Create the Right Action Plan for You

Recently, I did a business planning webinar for an association. I provided attendees with 10 questions to ask themselves. The answers to these questions provide the guidance needed to create that effective, individualized business plan. Here are those questions for you to use as you create your plan. [pdf-embedder url=”https://getarealestatecoach.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Strategic-Business-Planning-10-Questions-to-Ask-1.pdf” title=”Strategic Business Planning 10 Questions to Ask”]

Let Me Help You Create that Plan

Contact me to find out how I can educate your company or association on business planning and support and coach you. Give me a call at 425.392-6914 or email me at carla@carlacross.com. I can do a webinar series for you, supply you will all the planning documents, and help your leadership coach your agents–at a very affordable cost with big pay-off for you.

Categories action plan, Business Plan, Coaching, free business planning, inspiration, Motivation, new agent business plan, New Real Estate Agents, online training, Pivot business plan, Real Estate Sales, Training
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How to Motivate Yourself to Create that Great Business Plan

by Carla Cross

November 23rd, 2020

Dreading creating that business plan? Start here and you’ll be inspired!

Through November and December, I’m going to help you with your 2021 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?

Many times, we launch right into business planning by trying to create an action plan. Unfortunately, that’s like starting at the end of a tune and trying to sing it backward. Instead of struggling through action planning, start with your vision. Is your business plan missing vision? Below is an explanation of why having a vision is so important to the success of your business plan. In fact, I believe the lack of vision in a plan leads to a demotivating and certainly uninspiring plan.

Why Vision is Important

A few years ago, business professors, Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, studied very successful companies to find out the differences between ‘stunning’ (high profits and highly regarded), and other like companies who were almost as profitable, but not so successful). They published the results in the best business book I’ve ever read, Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies.

What did they find was the common difference between the highly profitable and merely very successful?

A common vision and values shared by every person in the company.

Porras and Collins’ conclusion was that the desire for profits isn’t the main driver for profits. The focused and tenacious vision, shared by all in the company, was the biggest determinant for profits.

Components of Vision

Your vision is made up of your core ideology and your envisioned future.

As you can see from the chart on the right, excerpted from my business planning system, your core ideology is made up of your core values and core purpose. If you look at your life, you’ll see that the things that inspire and motivate you are the things that adhere to your belief system. That’s what this part of the vision statement says about you.

Your envisioned future is made from a vivid description of this future, and BHAGs—big hairy, audacious goals. Those are goals five years out, that you really don’t think you can attain.

The Power of BHAGs

Surprisingly, as Porras and Collins found, when companies stated these goals, they actually attained them in three years! (Inspirational goals that are congruent with your core values and core ideology are powerful motivators!).

What Vision Does for Companies

Here’s Porras and Collins’s function of a vision statement:

Provides guidance about what core to preserve and what future to progress toward. Made up of core ideology and envisioned future.

Here’s an example of a vision of one of the book’s stand-out companies:

Our basic principles have endured intact since our founders conceived them. We distinguish between core values and practices; the core values don’t change, but the practices might. We’ve also remained clear that profit – as important as it is – is not why the Hewlett-Packard Company exists; it exists for more fundamental reasons.”

– John Young, former CEO, Hewlett-Packard

How to Construct your Vision

How do you want to see yourself in this business? How do you want people to talk about you and your business after you retire? What values are most important to you? What ideology do you follow in your business?

Looking back: Imagine you are at your own memorial, watching from above. What are others saying about you? What’s most memorable about you?

Voicing those BHAGs

What is a great goal you would love to accomplish in your business, but really don’t feel it’s possible for you within five years? Write it right now.

Why We Don’t Reach Those Lofty Goals

Is that goal that’s been eluding you congruent with your core values? What I mean by that is, does that goal feel comfortable to you? For instance, if that goal is that you’ll make two million dollars, and you don’t like the feeling of that much money, because your values are aligned differently, you just aren’t going to reach that goal. That, I believe is the reason many of us don’t reach some of our goals. Those goals aren’t in alignment with our core values.

Here’s what great motivational speaker Zig Ziglar said about goal-value alignment:

You can’t consistently perform in a manner that is inconsistent with the way you see yourself.

Finding your Alive, Powerful Motivation

Click here to get a copy of my vision worksheet.

I’m convinced that we reach or don’t reach our goals based on the intensity of our desire, driven not by cold numbers, but by the warm emotion of aligned values and inspiring goals

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. Yogi Berra said it well:

Life is like baseball; it’s 95% mental and the other half is physical.

Ready to step up to a business grade strategic plan? Here are all the documents you need, the planning advice, and 2 webinars to take you right through the planning process. Check out my online business planning system, ***Beyond the Basics of Business Planning:*** http://beyondthebasicsonline.com

Categories action plan, Business Plan, goals, inspiration, new agent business plan, New Real Estate Agents, Real Estate Sales, vision
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Business Planning: Before You Write that Action Plan, Take This Step

by Carla Cross

November 12th, 2020

Throughout November and December, I’m focusing my blogs on #business planning, so you have plenty of information to create a great plan. Look for checklists, processes, business plan templates, and systems--ready to use, too.

Business Planning Mistake

Many people think that a business plan consists of actions to take. Yes, that’s one of the parts of a business plan. But, it’s actually the last step in creating the business plan. If we don’t think through the other steps that precede the action plan, we end up

in indecision

in a impractical action plan

Instead of leaping right to an action plan, use a #business planning process and template (business planning steps) that guides you through the right thought process.

Grab my strategic business planning template and process here. I created this process just for real estate professionals, to help them accurately think through each part of their businesses. This is a #business plan sample of the entire process I created for Beyond the Basics of Business Planning.

Start with the Past: What Happened?

If we don’t know where we’ve been, how can we decide on best strategies for the next year in our business plan?

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Here are the business plan tools you’ll need in your business planning toolkit:

Time analysis (watch my next blog for a questionnaire to analyze your time management)
Business plan activity review
Expense/budget review
Profit and loss statement review

1. Your time analysis. Do you have the business plan analysis tools to see where your business is, and where you want to take it? With a time analysis tool, you can see what your priorities are. It’s amazing how many agents and managers have no idea where they spend the bulk of their time. Look at your schedule for the last week. Did you spend time in the areas that are most productive for you? If not, why not?

2. Business plan activity review tool. This allows you to capture the history of your business in a way that clarifies your direction. For example, does the tool you use ask you where you got your business last year? Does it ask you the percent of your listings you sold in normal market time? Find the tools that ask you the right questions.

3. The expense and budget review. How many agents have a budget? How many managers and owners? All businesspeople set budgets and review them. After all, it’s about profitability in a business, not productivity! At best, you want to use tools that are similar to the ones used by others at the same business level as you, so you can analyze like problems and solutions.

4. The profit and loss statement review. How many agents do you think have a profit and loss statement—and review it? I believe, less than 5%. Yet, if you don’t know where your money went, you can’t analyze its effectiveness. Use Quicken or Quickbooks to get a handle on your money.

Analyzing your business in these four areas gives you a great ‘handle’ on your business habits, your strengths, your challenges–and the areas you want to change for a more successful year next year. Now, you’re ready to create that next step of your business, your mission.

With the right #business planning process, templates, and samples, you’re on your way to a strategic business plan that actually will work for you next year.

Free webinar: Step up to a real strategic plan this year!

It’s been a chaotic, year, where our best laid plans have been tossed upside down. That’s why doing a fresh, creative business plan is so important right now.

Register here for How to Build the Best Business Plan Ever. (complimentary webinar).

You’ll gain:

A new way to think through your business so you have a plan that works
The missing planning step that assures your plan will work for you
The biggest change to make to thrive in 2021
Insights with 10 questions to answer BEFORE you commit to action
The seven best recommendations to put in your plan

Included: Strategic business planning handouts and 2 bonuses for managers

When: November 16 (Monday) 1-2 PM Pacific Standard Time

Register now.

I created the only internationally published book for real estate agents on business planning, and I can help you build exceptional plans.

Categories action plan, Business Plan, FREE real estate coaching, free webinar, new agent business plan, Pivot business plan, Real estate systems, webinar
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Business Plans: Are You Intentional?

by Carla Cross

November 4th, 2020

Time to plan. If you’re like many agents, you’ve tried planning and it just didn’t work for you. Read why, and how to fix it.

In November and December, I’m featuring business planning. Why? Because we’re all told to make business plans. But, it’s estimated that less than 20% of agents actually have plans.

What is ‘Intentional Planning’?

It’s making a behavioral-based business plan, that focuses on action. It answers the questions

What are you going to do?

When are you going to do it?

How are you going to go about it?

The Science Behind this Component

A study in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology conducted with 8000 participants found that intentional planning was the key factor in a successful habit change. This approach increased the chance of successful change by 50-80%!

The ‘Secret’ to Change

We regularly declare our intentions. But, we rarely get specific about them. When we’re not specific, we don’t have a roadmap to chart that change. We don’t know the actions to take. In order to change our intentions from ‘general’ and ‘philosophical’ to action-based, we need to answer these questions:

What

When

How–what shall we practice? How shall we do it?

The Reason Most Business Plans Fail

As a manager and trainer, I’ve seen all sorts of business plans. I’ve seen all sorts of business planning templates. Unfortunately, many plans stay in the ‘what’–the philosophical statements or just the numbers. Inferior templates encourage this flawed thought process. So, people blithely create these business plans, focusing only on the ‘what’, set them on the shelf, and continue doing exactly what they have been doing!!! So, they get the same results.

When You’re Intentional, You’re Fired Up

I’m always looking for tips in motivating others (and myself). I found a great article from my personal trainer. It says that ‘intentional planning’ is the biggest component to obtain your goals.

My Business Planning System ‘Forces’ This Thought Process

Having used those flawed plans and having seen my agents and other managers fail with them, I built into my business planning system and templates the when and how. So, My system actually forces the user to think through the whole process–to get to the weekly/daily action plans that will help change their business habits for the better. (see Beyond the Basics of Business Planning.)

How Specific is YOUR Plan?

The acid test: Could I take your business plan, follow it, and see results? If it’s not that action-oriented, you can’t follow it either!

As Michael Gerber, author of the E-Myth Real Estate Agent and the E-Myth Revisited, stated

The integration of your systems is your business plan.

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Note: You’ll sell your business much more successfully (whether it’s a brokerage or a sales business), if you have specific systems. That’s salable! [/ctt]

Be sure the business planning system and templates you’re following direct your thinking from the ‘what’ to the when and the how. Now you’re cooking!

Complimentary Business Planning Webinar

Join me to find out how to make your business plan really work for you this next year.

It’s been a chaotic, year, where our best laid plans have been tossed upside down. That’s why doing a fresh, creative business plan is so important right now.

You’ll gain:

A new way to think through your business so you have a plan that works
The missing planning step that assures your plan will work for you
The biggest change to make to thrive in 2021
Insights with 10 questions to answer BEFORE you commit to action
The seven best recommendations to put in your plan

Included: Strategic business planning handouts and 2 bonuses for managers

When: November 16 (Monday) 1-2 PM Pacific Standard Time

I created the only internationally published book for real estate agents on business planning, and I can help you and your agents build exceptional plans.

Categories action plan, Business Plan, free webinar, goals, Motivation, new agent business plan, New Real Estate Agents, Real Estate Sales, Real estate systems, webinar
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What Do You Wish You’d Known?

by Carla Cross

October 22nd, 2020

Did you feel like you were flying by the seat of your pants when you went into real estate? What do you wish you’d known before you committed?

What do you wish you had known before committing to real estate as a career?

After interviewing dozens of would-be agents, I had compiled a stack of paper that I handed out to interviewees. I was trying to educate them so they could make a good career decision. One day, one of my recent recruits said, “You should put that in a book.” So, I did. Now, I’m creating a new edition of the book. I’ve renamed the book

Launching Right in Real Estate: What They Won’t Teach You in Pre-License School.

What should be in the book?

What’s most important for that would-be agent to know prior to committing to a career in real estate?

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What mistakes do would-be agents make in choosing companies? If you had to do it over again, what would you do differently?

Saving You Time and Effort

From all those interviews, I found I wasn’t really interviewing. I was educating. What could I include in the book that would save you interview time, and prepare you for an interview?

What misconceptions do would-be agents bring into the business that cause them to start slowly or fail?

Blast-Off for Launching Right

I’m planning on having the edits done by Dec. 1, so the eBook will be available a few weeks after that. Please add your experience and expertise so I know the contents will be useful to real estate managers.

Just leave me a comment and contribute to our industry. Thank you!

Categories expectations, income, Interviewing, Launching Right in Real Estate, new agent business plan, new agent interview, new agents make money, New Real Estate Agents, onboarding
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Making It Big: The Three Skills You Need

by Carla Cross

September 11th, 2020

Going into real estate because you love houses? You want to be independent? You can name your own hours? Probably the three worst reasons to become a real state salesperson!

Making it big: The three skills you need.

Perhaps you went into real estate because you wanted to be independent. You wanted to be your own boss–name your own hours–work at your own speed. You had heard real estate agents make lots of money. Maybe you thought this was a business were you just looked at pretty houses. Not so fast! Even though real estate is considered to be a career where ‘you’re in business for yourself”, taking that thought too far can result in failure.

Whether you’re new or in business for decades, read on. You may be deluding yourself about your path to success.

Selling Real Estate: Skills Needed

There are many skills required in this business that people new to it just don’t have. Too often, agents believe all they have to do is to start in this business and go to training. They will be successful. Then, when they start failing, they can’t figure out why. In this blog I’ll name 3 qualities and skills you need to develop fast. My question to you is: How are you going to develop or refine them?

Skill # 1: Time management

Most people go into real estate from a field that required them to show up on time, do specific work, and work for at least eight hours. If they didn’t fulfill the minimum requirements of the job, they were fired. Understandably, many people don’t like to work under those strictures. So, they go into real estate where they can name their own hours, work at their own speed, etc. etc. The problem is they don’t understand that working at their own speed many be working at a failure speed.

My question: How are you developing your time management skills? Did you bring them from your former business? (Most agents don’t). If you don’t have dynamic time management skills, how will you develop them?

Skill # 2; Being accountable to a plan

When I was regional director for a very large international franchise company, I screened people for leadership positions. I was stunned to find most potential owners and managers had never had anyone hold them accountable. In fact, there was a negative feeling about being held accountable. When you have a ‘boss’, you are accountable to that work plan and to your boss. In real estate, we’re so careful not to step over the boundaries of the independent contractor concept, we rarely hold anyone accountable to anything. The result: Most people never know what the job really is, and whether they are on track to attain their goals.

My question to you is: Who is helping you be accountable for your own success? Who is your coach? (And don’t tell me it is YOU…..) If you don’t have someone coaching you, how do you know you’re on the right track?

Skill #3: Implement a plan of action.

It is just amazing to me the kablooey plans of action out there. Most of the time, in fact, an agent isn’t provided a plan of action. He/she is just told suggestions or 50 ways to do something. The result: The agent has no idea how to prioritize activities and proceed. He has no idea whether what he is doing every day actually is leading him toward a goal. That’s like my musician friend who says every piece of music is the same: It all uses the same 88 keys–just in different arrangements. But, if you were to try to play a piece of music without knowing the sequencing of the melody, you couldn’t play it. It’s the same as picking out the best methods from those ” 50 ways to do something”.

My question to you is: Do you have a proven, prioritized plan of action and are you executing it? How do you know it is a plan that will get you exceptional results? (all plans aren’t the same!)

I’ve given you 3 skills agents need to succeed. What do you think? Is real estate an ‘independent’ or dependent business? I believe it needs to be a ‘dependent’ business at the beginning. That is, I coach the new agent as he/she starts his/her business. I am the leader. The new agent is the follower (or the struggling agent). There is the dependence. Once the agent ‘has it’, I step back, and become more of a consultant. Have you been a successful follower, so you can learn the business right? If not, why not? If you went to a piano teacher to learn to play the piano, you wouldn’t start your first lesson by telling the teacher how to play!

If you haven’t read the great book, Outliers, get it and read it now. One of the great lessons in the book is that no one succeeds alone.

Give me your feedback on the ‘independent’ or ‘dependent’ concept. What do you think?

Do you have a training plan that includes a proven plan of action? Why not get started (or re-started) right with my online program, Up and Running in Real Estate. Coaching is included!

Categories 5th Edition Up and Running in 30 Days, Coaching, expectations, FREE real estate coaching, lead generation, new agent business plan, new agent online training, New Real Estate Agents, online training, Real estate as a career, Real Estate Sales, time management, Training, Up and Running in 30 Days, Up and Running in Real Estate
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Giving Up is NOT an Option for You!

by Carla Cross

September 2nd, 2020

Boy, have things ever changed! Real estate sales is not for the faint of heart. You’re in it: Keep going!

Giving Up is NOT your option–I hope!

Did you think, when you went into real estate, that you’d sell a house the first month? Well, according to my survey in my eBook, What They Don’t Teach You in Pre-License School, the majority of real estate agents thought just that! However, you’ve found that’s probably not the case. So, what will you do now? Give up, or persevere?

If Giving Up is Not Your Option….

What if there’s a magic measurement of success? Would you be willing to meet that measurement? You know that the Beatles attained pop music mastery. You know Bill Gates did the same with technology. But, did you know what they have in common-and that you may have, too?

The Simple Answer

Before I tell you that, let me share something that happens to me often. I’m a pianist-and have been a musician since I was four years old. In my speaking, I often tickle the ivories-just a little, of course…..Invariably, someone comes up to me and says, “I’ve always wanted to play the piano.” I tell them, they certainly can. How? here’s the simple answer:

Practice one half hour a day for one year. You’ll be able to play well enough to play pop tunes at parties, lead those sing-alongs, and wow your friends.

You’ve heard the old chestnut, Practice Makes Perfect. I certainly know that as a musician. But, how well do we apply that principle to our business lives? Is this something that is a key to our attaining our goals? I think so. Read on.

The Commonality between the Beatles and Bill Gates

In his fascinating book, Outliers, author Malcolm Gladwell studies performers–from Mozart and the Beatles to Bill Gates. The commonality he found was that high achievers spent an average of

Ten thousand hours practicing and honing their craft to get to mastery

In other words, it isn’t just talent, it isn’t just circumstance (although Gladwell points out being at the right place at the right time is important, too)–it is just slogging it out, practicing your craft, logging in ten thousand hours.

The Beatles: Having to Work Seven Days for Eight Hours a Night Was the Best Thing that Could Happen to Them

When I read that the Beatles played in Hamburg 8 hours a night, 7 days a week-for 2 years, I instantly felt tired! I know what it’s like to play piano bar for hours! But, the Beatles said that experience was key in making them the performers they became. In an interview, John Lennon said, “We got better and got more confidence. We couldn’t help it with all the experience playing all night long…..we really had to find a new way of playing.”

Bill Gates: Practically Living at the Computer Lab

Gates describes his early years: “It was my obsession….I skipped athletics. I went up there at night. We were programming on weekends.”

Isn’t There a Shortcut?

For those of you who have never attained high performance, you don’t–and can’t realize the importance of practice. You may think that it’s just a matter of talent or luck. But, haven’t you known extremely talented people who just extinguished themselves like a flaming rocket? Haven’t you known people with all the advantages who just didn’t attain what you thought they could-or should? Of course.

Are You Willing to Put in those Ten Thousand Hours to Excel?

From the many examples in Outliers, and from my own experiences as a pianist (I have a degree in piano performance and a master’s degree in music theory), I know that practicing your craft provides the only true competence and confidence.

You don’t gain mastery by talking about it. You don’t gain mastery by someone trying to motivate you. It’s practice.

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So, get out there, and practice and perform. Rack up those ten thousand hours, and you will achieve your goals. If the Beatles and Bill Gates didn’t take shortcuts, we shouldn’t try it that way, either. Isn’t devoting enough time to your goals important enough to you to feel the joy of attainment-of mastery?

Perfect Practice Makes Perfect

Personal note to you: Be sure you’re practicing the right things the right way. You can put in 8-10 hours a day and get nowhere if you’re practicing the wrong way. To be sure you’re practicing right, use the right start-up plan. My online training/coaching program, Up and Running in Real Estate, will work for you!

Ten Traits Needed to Succeed in Real Estate Sales

by Carla Cross

August 27th, 2020

You may have heard ‘you’re a great talker’. You’ll do well in real estate. Think that’s true? Think again!

Here are the ten traits I believe are needed to succeed in real estate sales. If you’re thinking about entering the wide, wonderful world of real estate, you’ll benefit from reading my list.

In my three+ decades managing and owning real estate offices, I’ve interviewed hundreds of potential real estate agents. I’ve watched many thrive–coming into the business quickly and making money fast. And, some I’ve watched fail. From these observations, I know the qualities that assure success.

Here’s the list that I came up with for my eBook, What They Don’t Teach You in Pre-License School. Some 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 my character? Which needs ‘shoring up’?” To succeed fast, or 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 business and implement it on your own, with relatively little monitoring. If the interviewer tells you he/she’ll give you leads, I’d suggest a polite ‘thank you’ with a quick exit. Why? Because no one makes much money waiting for leads from anyone (and someone will be taking part of the commission for the lead, too). Another word for this is “self-starter”. No one is going to call you to force you out of bed!

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. If you’re getting into real estate just to see if it’s for you–don’t bother. Chances are you won’t have the tenacity to do the tough work, and take the rejection needed to build a career.

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. You’ll get much more rejection than you ever expected. Those who keep going in spite of that rejection succeed.

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 stronger businesses learn new skills and apply them constantly. They also hold themselves accountable to their goals, and let others hold them accountable, too. They gain a coach early in their career, take skills classes, and keep getting better–not just to make money, but to take pride in how they do business.

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? No one enjoys working with a ‘downer’. No one will help someone who constantly tells the helper, “I tried that once. It didn’t work for me.” Guess what: You won’t get any more help!

7. Creative

In today’s marketing-oriented world, an agent must be truly creative to design marketing where he stands out as valuable and different. How have you demonstrated your creativity?

8. Able to Communicative

Writing skills are a necessity today. Our sophisticated target markets are well-educated. Effective verbal communication is also paramount to success. Do you need to polish your communication skills?

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? Are you ready to reciprocate help? Are you ready to grow by contributing? You’ll get much further by contributing, because others will be compelled to help you.

10. Technology-savvy Enough

Notice I said ‘enough’. You don’t have to be a tech genius (in fact, too many of those types stay buried and married to their computers!). You do need to be able to use the basic technology available to fill out forms, market, use social medial, and communicate with your clients.

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.

Don’t try to go it alone. Developing your traits and skills is so much easier when you’re in a proven program. Get the skills, coaching, accountability, and business plan you need to succeed. Check out Up and Running in Real Estate.

Categories accountability, attitude, Business Plan, Coaching, communication, expectations, goals, income, lead generation, new agent business plan, New Real Estate Agents, online training, Real estate as a career, Real Estate Sales, Real Estate Success, team, Training, Up and Running in Real Estate
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