Business Clarity

One of the most difficult tasks in life is defining your purpose. The pay off of clarity of purpose is enormous. In working with some of the top Agents across North America, I have found that clarity is a big concern. There is a direct correlation between clarity of purpose and success. The more clarity you have in your business, the more profit you will make, and the time spent in business mode will be reduced. The people with clarity achieve more with less time worked.

The most successful people spend time thinking, evaluating, and re-evaluating their progress. You need to spend a minimum of half an hour planning and evaluating daily. Agents should evaluate where their business is coming from and the trends in their market. Why not know the trends in the market, so your labor will be fruitful?

Far too often, I see the market adjusting, and Agents not adjusting with it. If the high end is not selling, why list lots of homes in the high end? Always move the bulk of your listing to where the market is most active. This will provide you an opportunity to move the product quickly and effectively with little time, money, and energy invested. You want to have inventory in all price ranges and all areas, but you want the bulk of your inventory in the hot selling pocket. Having inventory in all price ranges enables you to track the market better and react quickly to changes. You do not want too many listings in a market segment that is not moving. Spending time planning and evaluating is critical to success and growth in this industry.

To create clarity in your business of real estate sales, you need to determine your area of competitive advantage or expertise. Is it buyers or sellers? Is it expireds, FSBO’s, investment property, or new construction? What is your area of excellence? If you do not have an area of excellence, I would suggest you work on one or two areas in real estate that you enjoy. You need an area or two that you do better than most of your competitors. You need to develop something that will differentiate you from the competition.

Once you have decided, you need to determine the one or two skills that will translate into success in that particular discipline. As an example, in my career I worked expireds very heavily. I did 60% to 70% of my business from expireds. The areas of discipline I needed for success in expireds were a strong command of scripts and dialogues (sales skills) and solid evaluating and qualifying skills. These sales skills enabled me to set a few appointments daily with people who needed my services. The evaluating and qualifying allowed me to cancel the unmotivated, overpriced, and overly confrontational people before I invested the time to do a presentation with them. What are the skills you need to achieve massive success in real estate? Once you identify them, dedicate yourself daily to becoming highly skilled in those areas. Set specific goals to improve those disciplines.

When you are in your daily planning block, you need to evaluate your skills and determine where you can improve. If you have a staff, evaluate them. What are the skills they need for you to increase your business by 20%? Sometimes the difference in how we handle and coach our staff can increase our business dramatically. Clearly define their roles, so you both know how they are going to help you achieve success. Too often, we throw them into the firestorm without clear direction and the guidance to improve and prosper.

One of the most crucial functions of the planning time is future forecasting. Spend time viewing the future of your life and your business. In my coaching sessions with clients, we spend a lot of time initially looking down the road three to five years. Most of my clients had never looked further than this year, if at all, prior to working with Real Estate Champions. It is hard to achieve clarity when you first view things on a daily, weekly, or even yearly basis. You have to view long term then work backwards. You must work to craft the vision for your life and your business.

It is critical to decide what your business or life will look like in the future. If you do not make that decision, you are just making it up as you go along. Success does not follow people who make it up as they go. Success looks at your long-term plan. Then it says, “That looks good; I will follow you.”

The long-term plan will act as a target or a magnet. You will be drawn to it. Creating the plan is not enough. You need to clarify it and work backwards to the present day. You need to create the steps for you to get from where you are today to where you want to be in the future.