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Great years don’t just happen. They are the result of strategic planning and relentless execution. This article provides a framework for turning your dream year into a reality.
Get real and stop playing
Having your best year starts with you. Are you being honest with yourself about the effort you are putting into your business, or are you just blaming the market for your reduced production? Are you waiting for your prospects to reach out to you or are you initiating value-driven conversations?
Success in real estate starts with accepting personal responsibility for your success or struggle in this business.
It’s OK if you’ve been in a season of struggle or have longed for the ease of business we saw during the pandemic years. It’s not OK to stay there. If things are going to change, then you must change. You must do the tough stuff — the things you know you should do but don’t want to do.
Most people don’t need to be taught; they need to be reminded. Let this be your reminder that everything you want in your business is right on the other side of pushing through your discomfort or unease and executing on specific tasks. I’ve found it practical to identify and act on what I call the “tough three.”
What are three activities you know will grow your business but are hard or uncomfortable? A few examples of these for many agents are:
- Cold calling
- Follow-up with cold leads
- Shooting video
- Posting consistently on social media
- Attending a networking event
The list goes on and on, and it is different for everybody. But the key is to identify the three activities that you know would have the biggest benefit to your business that you find hard to do. If you will identify these “tough three” for you and execute on them daily over the next few months, your business will respond, and you will set the stage for your best year ever.
Need a little extra tough love to get you moving? Check out this article that shares 7 brutally honest truths you need to hear right now.
Develop a daily plan of action
Having a goal for this year is needed, but without a daily plan of action, your goal is just a dream. One of the frameworks I like to use is what I call the 5-4-3-2-1 success plan. This plan involves identifying five activities for your business that you will execute consistently.
This is an example of this strategy:
- 5 – Real estate-related conversations per day
- 4 – Conversations with people from your sphere of influence per day
- 3 – Handwritten notes per day
- 2 – Coffee or lunch appointments with someone from sphere of influence weekly
- 1 – Unsolicited video CMA per day
The key is that the results are easily trackable and uncomplicated. If you are in a season of building momentum, you may need to do a 10-8-6-4-2 program. Whatever you decide to do, consistency is what leads to success.
Expand your reach
If you’re going to have a growing business, you must have a growing database. If I was able to review your database by understanding the number of leads flowing in on a weekly basis and the communication that is going out to the people in the database, I feel confident I could predict the type of year you will have.
Do you have systems in place that bring new leads into your business consistently? Do you have a systematic approach that nurtures the leads you are generating? If you answer yes to these two questions, you are heading in the right direction.
Leads can come from paid lead sources or from organic lead generation strategies like geographical farming, hosting open houses, or content creation online. Whatever it looks like to you, focusing on expanding your reach is a fundamental part of building a business that has the capacity to exceed any previous levels of success.
If you aren’t sure how to generate leads, check out this article with 24 unique ways to generate leads.
Shrink your circles
You only have so much time. As mentioned above, expanding your reach by growing your database is important, but the people and areas you focus on will determine the results you receive.
One of the best ways to ensure success is to shrink your circles or areas of focus. Put differently, get focused on dedicating your time to a few impactful areas and people that increase your ability to exponentially improve your business and life instead of spreading yourself thin.
The three areas I suggest you apply this to include your prospects, your business spending, and the people you spend time with. When it comes to your prospects, identifying your most likely to buy or sell in the near future and focusing your attention on them creates an opportunity to build momentum in your business.
You should be systematically producing new leads for your business and nurturing those leads. But I suggest putting together and focusing the majority of your attention on a Next 10 list of buyers and sellers along with an MVP list of the people who are most likely to refer business to you. This list provides the ability to keep the most valuable prospects and referral partners front and center in your focus.
I did this with a whiteboard in my office, but many of the agents I work with now use a spreadsheet. The key is to review this list daily and focus your efforts on staying in constant communication with this group.
The second area to shrink is where you are spending regarding your finances. This is not just about reducing wasteful spending; it is about focusing your spending on the areas that are generating the most bang for your buck.
But let’s start by eliminating your wasteful spending. Most of us have ongoing services we are paying for that we don’t even realize. Rocket Money has a tool that reveals all your ongoing subscriptions, and it allows you to cancel the ones you no longer use with a simple click from the dashboard they provide.
Most agents have areas they spend money on for their business that simply do not produce. Maybe it is a lead service, a tool you never use or a social media company that doesn’t get you results. However, if you do a deep dive into where your leads and business are coming from, you may find specific areas that yield most of your business. In this case, eliminating the ineffective and redeploying the funds to the effective strategies can lead to growth as well.
The last area to shrink is the people you spend time with. Focus on spending more time with leaders and less time with needers. Surround yourself with fewer people that drain you and more time with those that encourage you. When it comes to people, quality time spent with a select few who inspire you to become a better version of yourself is way more valuable than the quantity of time with the masses.
By focusing on fewer impactful things and surrounding yourself with the best people, you will see a dramatic change in your business and life.
Have a season of massive action
There’s a reason rocket ships have booster engines attached to the side of them during takeoff. It takes more energy during the launch to get started, but once the rocket reaches a certain speed and altitude, the rocket boosters peel off because they are no longer needed. It is the same way with creating momentum in your business.
For you to reach the level of business you want, there will need to be a season of massive action. You will not have to operate at this level forever, but to launch your business to a new level, it will take extra effort.
Depending upon the level of success you want to achieve it may be a month or it may be three months. Whatever it is for you, decide to go all in for that season. Make more phone calls than you’ve ever made. Host more open houses than you’ve ever hosted. Bring more value to the marketplace than you’ve ever brought.
It’s the end of January; are you on track to have your best year ever? If not, get in the game. There is business to do, and someone is going to have their best year ever. Why not you?
Jimmy Burgess is a real estate agent and national team builder with Real Brokerage in northwest Florida, servicing the 30A, Destin, and Panama City Beach markets. Connect with him on Instagram and LinkedIn.
