The dreaded SHIFT: You CAN have a Great End of Year and 2023
Having lived through several recessions, I am of two minds:
- I hate to see agents struggle when the market shifts into “low”> They act like a shift car that’s trying to go uphill without shifting—they’re just grinding gears….
- I love to see agents polish their careers, become more professional, and protect themselves from the violent swings real estate can bring. The good news is that this is the time they can build unassailable habits that take them through all times, not just great times
So, how do you do it? How do you start practicing real estate ‘on purpose’? How do you adjust to a shift?
Here are the three steps:
- Honestly examine what you’ve been doing (use the analysis tool in this blog)
- Put a shift plan together that is so professional you’ll surprise even yourself with your exceptional results
- Execute the plan every day with great tenacity, enthusiasm, and belief that the plan will work (it will).
In this blog, I’ll address the first step.
Step one: Honestly examine what you’ve been doing
This is the most important step for you. If you don’t know what you’ve done, how can you create your plan for success?
In the strategic business planning process, that’s called ‘situation analysis’. This means you look back on your last year in the business. This is the very process the most successful businesses in the world use to assess their progress and make a plan that fits them.
You don’t just look at the results, though. Look at the activities you did as a professional real estate salesperson:
- What was your lead generating plan? (Agents caught unawares in the Shift don’t have one. They just waited for people to come to them).
- What were your best sources of leads? How much money did you spend generating these leads? How much effort? Do you have a marketing plan toward generating more of these best leads? How much time did you spend generating leads? Did you spend enough time, effort, and money to realistically generate the number of leads you need to meet your goals?
- What percent of your leads came from proactive work (you went out to find them). What percent came to you?
I’m including an analysis tool from my comprehensive online business planning program, Beyond the Basics of Business Planning.
Grab your Internal Review of Lead Generating Sources here.
By the way, my Business Planning program has more analysis tools that reveal what you’ve been doing, and provide you insights in what you need to keep doing–and what to change to get much better results.
Your Conclusions
What did you find out from reviewing your business? What changes do you want to make in your plan for the next three months? For next year? What do you need to do to become proactive and professional in your business?
In the next blog, I’ll discuss what your analysis means and what it means to creating your success plan for 2023.
