success

Why salespeople are successful!

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I recently wrote an article about why agents fail and thought I should counter that article and mention why salespeople are successful.  Here are a few tips to help you know why agents are successful:

· They are continuously prospecting.  When at their kids games, or at the grocery store and any place in between, they are adding people to their database to increase their chances of receiving a referral.

· They can communicate their value proposition to those they meet.  They know why they are in the business and how to let people know, in an informative way of why they should buy or sell and use them as their agent.

· They know the market, stats, and trends and can repeat them quickly and easily.  People love to speak about real estate and if you can be the information provider, you will become a trusted advisor to them and receive more leads.

· They know why today is a good time to buy or sell and can state 3 examples of why this is the case.  People need to know the “real” reasons why now is a good time to buy or sell a house that is factually based and personal to their situation.

· They further their education above and beyond the minimum standards of continuing education.  Agents who earn designations and can communicate why the designation is important to the client earn more money than agents who do not earn a designation. 

· They are continuously networking with business people, previous clients and other industry professionals.  They join BNI, chambers, or start networking groups of their own to increase their databases and get more opportunities for referrals.

· They have a plan and work their plan.  If you don’t have a business plan, develop one today!  Your business plan will give you the direction you need to be successful and give you a daily plan of action to accomplish your goals.

· They utilize social media as a tool to market themselves and their listings and services.  It is a fact – social media is here to stay.  It is time to embrace this phenomenon and get online.  Blog, get on Facebook, Linkedin, Plaxo and reach out to your database to let them know you are in the business and you are successful in it.

· They communicate the value of working with a Realtor and subscribe to the code of ethics.  They are professional and show it through their actions and interactions with others.

· They are results and solution oriented and don’t dwell on the negative situations they encounter.  They look for the educational value or learning experience in each opportunity they face.  Failure is approached as learning experience not a negative one.

· And lastly, they have positive attitudes and attack each day with enthusiasm.  Be an example to others in how you approach situations with optimism and passion and results will follow as they do with other successful people.  Get it?  Got it?  Good!

How do you approach failure?

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Failure and how you approach it can lead to more failure or tremendous success.  Are you afraid of failure and as such, rarely risk attempting anything new?  Are you a remedial failure – you fail a few times before you learn something from your experience?  Are you a habitual failure that fails every time you attempt to do something new?  Or do you embrace failure and look for the learning experience each time you do not succeed?

Analyze the last time you failed.  How did it make you feel?  Did you feel upset and distraught?  Did the experience leave you feeling puzzled and curious?  Did the experience make you analyze why you failed and how you could have improved to prevent the same result again? Or did you have an ah ha moment resulting in you knowing exactly what happened and why?  It is critically important to know what happened that lead to your failure and why.  If you tweaked your presentation, asked more questions, spoke with the decision maker, or reworked your numbers would you have won?  Ask for feedback from the client, your peers or mentors to determine how you could improve to gain more achievement.

People who have experienced tremendous failures understand and recognize the importance of what happened so they can grow from the experience and build toward success.  Keep an open mind when you fail – be optimistic that you will find a better way to accomplish your task – learn from you mistake and move on to finding an alternative solution.  Also, build upon the experience of other successful people to learn how they adapted to failure:

Henry Ford Failure Quote:

"Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, only this time more wisely."

~ Henry Ford

 

Thomas Alva Edison Failure Quotation:

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

~ Thomas Alva Edison

 

Benjamin Disraeli Failure/Success Quote:

"All my successes have been built on my failures."

~ Benjamin Disraeli

 

Sir Winston Churchill Quote on Failures:

"Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm."

~ Sir Winston Churchill

 

Thomas H. Palmer Quote on Failure:

"IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED, TRY, TRY AGAIN. Don't give up too easily; persistence pays off in the end.”      ~Thomas H. Palmer

In addition to this, you must try.  Don’t sit back and wait for something to happen.  Take action, massive action towards your goals and then remember it is imperative that you keep positive, be persistent, move on and concentrate on your next task and don’t lose your enthusiasm to get the results you are looking for out of your efforts.  Get it?  Got it?  Good!

Now, go sell something!

Why do sales people fail?

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Why do sales people fail, survive or thrive is a question I hear more often in the one-on-ones conducted with sales people in our office lately.  In real estate there are several factors that make up the answer.  The top producers in the business take each one of these tips to heart and work them to the best of their ability day in and day out consistently which helps them attain high levels of productivity and success.  Let’s review what is important to take you to the next level and what you need to avoid to become a sales failure:

Ø  The number one issue is lead generation.  They don’t do enough prospecting, networking or whatever it takes to get in front of people looking to buy or sell your product.  Without someone to sell to, there will be no income generated.  All of the knowledge in the world is useless if you have no one to communicate it to.  Get busy getting clients. 

Ø  Next is they can’t communicate their value proposition clearly enough to their client or potential clients.  Develop an elevator speech to build your value proposition around to becoming a success.

Ø  Also, they don’t know the inventory or preview homes which prevent them from keeping their finger on the pulse of the market and being able to communicate with someone a good deal when asked.

Ø  Additionally, they don’t have systems in place for success.  It is critical to have systems for prospecting, following up, following through, handling internet leads, or getting a sale to settlement.  If systems are in place, they are antiquated.  Get busy streamlining your systems to make yourself more efficient.

Ø  They don’t seek out coaching or accountability.  It is so important to ask for guidance, help, and direction so you can grow you business.  Taking counsel from your self can only get you so far.  You need to have someone with experience to bounce ideas off, help hold you accountable and give you advice to get you to the next level.

Ø  Salespeople who fail don’t further their education.  They don’t complete their continuing education, attend trainings or seminars, or obtain designations which are an integral part of success.  On the job training will only get you so far in this business.  Remember, when you stop learning you stop earning.

Ø  Because of the aforementioned items, they have difficulty understanding market trends.  Is it a buyer’s or seller’s market and why is so important.  They don’t know their own numbers, their company’s numbers, numbers relating to the marketplace, their competition’s numbers, etc. so it makes it difficult to give the right advice when buying or selling a home.

Ø  They fail to have proper database management.  Who is good, who needs to be deleted and most importantly, who to add to their sphere is paramount to success.

Ø  The communication level and message sent to their clients, sphere, and other agents will help ensure success.  How frequently, what is communicated, and when is it communicated sets top producing agents apart from the rest of the crowd.

Ø  Practice, practice, practice.  Either they don’t have or don’t rehearse scripts.  Get a partner and rehearse over coming common objections, listing presentations, buyer presentations, etc.  Video these meetings and critique your performance.  If you haven’t done homework how will you graduate to the next level?

Ø  They don’t have a business plan.  If you don’t have a plan, how will you know what your priorities are for your day?  How will you know what you want to accomplish?  The importance of a business plan cannot be overlooked and must be taken from your head and put on paper.

Ø  The right attitude is so important and top producers have the proper attitude.  Have a can do, positive attitude each and every day.  We all have set backs in life but it is how you approach and respond to these situations that set you apart from others in the field. 

Ø  Salespeople who fail lack taking responsibility for themselves and their actions.  It is the market, interest rates and loan programs, their clients just don’t get it, the weather, or so many more.  Take responsibility for your lack of productivity by implementing the right strategies previously mentioned in this blog.

Ø  They don’t manage their time well.  They put out fires consistently, don’t prioritize their activities and the day passes them by too often.  You must work each day to be intentional in your efforts.  Use your time wisely.  Block out time to get your most important things done without interruption.  Everyone has the same amount of time every day, it is how you use it that separates the good from the great.

You can see why it is easy to fail, there are so many areas of relevance and importance.  They are all intertwined and relate to each other on many levels.  If you take the time to analyze what you are doing in each area and improve daily in them, you will take your career to new heights.  Challenge yourself to improve and the results will follow.  Get it?  Got it?  Good!

How committed are you?

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Commitment – what is it and why do people have it and others don’t?  Is it motivation to achieve more than others that drives us to follow through on what we know is the right thing to do?  Is it respect for our self and others to do what we say we are going to do?  Do we have more desire to succeed and put for the effort to achieve what we say we are going to do?  Is it our belief that we need to live up to what we say we are going to do?  Do we have more discipline?  Is it better time management?  Is it because we have goals and the desire to achieve them?  Is it a matter of just being more responsible?  Is it loyalty?  Is the belief we need to stand up to our obligations?

What I have been experiencing a lot lately is a lack of commitment from others.  Is it fear of commitment and as a result lack of vision and focus?   Is there something missing in their belief system that allows them to drift or become complacent and not take responsibility for their actions?  Is it just easier to be lazy than do it right?  Is it lack of effort or the belief that they don’t need to follow through on what is the right thing to do? 

It is my belief is that people generally know what is expected of them and what they know they need to do succeed in our business.  Professional and ethics are at the top of the list.  People need to follow through on their professionalism and simple tasks that are required to take care of their business.  Is it laziness that prevents them from turning in paperwork, turn in escrow checks, returning phone calls, respond to emails, or simply just show up for appointments?  Is it lack of desire, not loving what they do, no goals, lack of respect for themselves, the business or their company?

It is my opinion that you need to have discipline, effort and desire to be successful and you must commit to these beliefs and live by them or get out of the business.  Get it?  Got it?  Good!

Now, go sell something!

D-I-S-C-I-P-L-I-N-E

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Recently we discussed change and in my opinion, one of the key ingredients to true change is discipline. Discipline is defined as conscious control over lifestyle – mental self-control used in directing or changing behavior, learning something, or training for something.  Here is a breakdown of discipline to help you continue down the path or perhaps blaze a new trail to incorporate this quality characteristic into your daily habits.

Desire – you must want what you have written or listed as your goal or objective.

Initiate – you must initate the proper behaviors or changes into your life.

Sacrifices – you must realize there are sacrifices necessary to implement in your life to achieve success.

Commit – you must commit to the changes you desire and stick with them to get the results you want.

Intentional – your actions must be intentional towards your new behavior and away from the old in order for true change to occur in your life.

Passion – you must have passion to achieve what lifestyle change you are implementing into your routine.

Learn – you must learn to accept the challenges you will face and fight through the “pain” of old habits.

Inspire – reward your new behavior to inspire yourself to stay on course and in the process, perhaps you will inspire others to do the same!

Numbers – it starts with small incremental changes, one by one that will add up to huge results.  As the saying goes, you eat an elephant one bite at a time.

Excellence – is what you will achieve if you stick with your plan of action through discipline.

In order to effectively implement change in your life, you must embrace discipline.  By writing your goals down, it will help you have focus, desire and the will to achieve, which will result in discipline becoming easier for you.  Remember, it all starts within you.  Get it?  Got it?  Good!

What are your daily habits?

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As I read John Wooden’s latest book – A Game Plan for Life – and review the habits his father had passed on to him through his mentorship, it got me thinking…what can I pass along to my children and those I encounter.  Here is what I discovered are my daily habits:

1. Always do your best…

2. Always do the right thing…

3. Always strive to learn something from every situation…

4. Be a continuous learner…

5. Always give back…

6. Live with passion and optimism…

7. Be strategic – in your life and in your relationships…

8. Be respectful and kind…

9. Have fun…

10.       Live your life to the fullest…

It is important in life to have your list of daily habits to improve yourself and the quality of your interactions.  Just a little food for thought as you set your New Year’s resolutions.

We are here to help you have a successful 2010.  Get it?  Got it?  Good!

Now, go sell something!