Fail Your Way To Success!

Are You Failing Fast Enough?

Weren't you always told as a kid that it's bad to fail? As we were told that over and over again, it became ingrained in our minds that if you can't do something well, you better not do it.

As adults, we're sometimes afraid to do things, because if we fail, we'll look stupid and incompetent. But the reality is the more you practice something, the better you'll get at it.

The reality is the only way to get better at something is to keep doing it again and again until you build up confidence in performing it well at a high level.

Professionals in any field all started in the same place in the beginning. ("This is a football." - Vince Lomabardi) But they learned, assimilated, and performed until over time they got better and now they play at a high level of skill.

In real estate, it's easy to find rejection. It's all around us. Being in sales, we all get "NO's", but what you need to realize is people aren't necessarily saying NO to you, they are just saying NOT NOW.

Think about it. We all are going to different phases of life. Most people will move 3 - 5 times during their life. You need to find out which phase of life people are in and see how you can help them. If you ask questions in the right way, they will even share their future plans with you?

Come up with a simple script that you can use when talking with people, whether on the phone or in person. How about something like, "So Bob, looking down the road, where do you see yourself moving to next time? (REPLY) Really, that's great. When might that happen?"

You're digging for information that can be useful to you at some point in the future. When you keep in touch with people over time you can find out other pieces of their puzzle and when they're ready to make a move, hopefully you'll be the person they call.

Now go get 'em!

To your success,

Dan

Join FREE Network For Real Estate Referrals & Ideas: ActiveRain Real Estate Network

All content copyrighted © 2008 - Dan Weis, Agent Success Coach

Are You In Control of Your Business?

You can only control two things in your real estate business - your attitude and your activity!

Attitude is so important, because life is not always fun and easy. There are disappointments and frustrations that we go through, but a good attitude will help you maintain a positive attitude through hard times.

When you find a new client, you don't know if their home will sell or if they will buy. You hope they get to closing. You take them through all of the steps to get to that point, but sometimes s---- (stuff) happens. I had a transaction this past week, where the sale fell through on my listing and the seller then couldn't buy the new home. It's back to square one, but it's a great home and I know it'll sell soon.

You don't have control over other people, but you have control over your own activity. How many appointments do you have in a typical day? What prospecting activities are you doing each day? Remember, don't focus on the results. When you're consistent in doing your daily activities, the results will come.

I watched the BIG IDEA last night on CNBC. It's a great show on weeknights at 10pm. I've posted on it before. They had John Assaraf, founder of OneCoach and associated with The Secret on the show with others.

They talked about two words: interest and commitment. Interest means you have an idea of what you'd like to do or have, etc. Whereas, commitment means you'll do whatever it takes to accomplish your vision or your dream.

Tiger Woods spent 5 grueling days (91 holes) last week playing against his doctor's orders and won the U.S. Open, on essentially one leg. That takes commitment. How many other golfers in the field would have played with a double fracture?

Do you want to know how to improve your business over the long-term?

Determine which dollar-producing activities you need to do every day (Monday through Friday) and just do them every day. Most agents, who start with a new business plan, stop doing it within a matter of days or weeks. They get too busy doing "busy work" and don't continue to do the consistent activities that will bring more transactions.

I challenge you to write down which dollar-producing activities you'll do for 90 days. Most agents won't. Then do it. Most agents won't and they're the ones complaining that real estate stinks. Don't overdo it though. Don't set yourself up for failure saying you'll make 50 calls a day, when you haven't even called 5 clients or prospects consistently a day. Set a goal and as you master it, increase the number on a weekly basis.

Every night before you put your head down on the pillow, ask yourself, "Did I complete all of my activities for today?" and "Did I do the things necessary to increase my chances of being successful?" It's got to become a habit and if you do it for 90 days, it's a habit you'll continue.

To your success,

Dan

Join FREE Network For Real Estate Referrals & Ideas: ActiveRain Real Estate Network

All content copyrighted © 2008 - Dan Weis, Agent Success Coach

Are Open Houses Losing Effectiveness?

It depends on where your market is.

From around the country, I hear everything from 'they're a total waste of time' to 'sellers demand open houses' to 'I get lots of prospects from open houses'.

There's always a lot of discussions on this topic.

With high gas prices looking like they're here to stay, many consumers may very well decide to do more home searching on the Internet instead driving aimlessly around neighborhoods near and far.

Consumers also have busier lives and don't want to have to drive to open house after open house if they can target in on fewer properties by viewing virtual tours and photos online instead.

I believe it's more important than ever to expand the Internet presence of your listings. Put them on as many local and national web sites as possible. In addition to your own web site (you do have a personal web site, don't you? It's a must!) and your company's web site, go to other sites, like Zillow, Trulia, Craigslist, Google, Yahoo and many others and post your listing information there. Make sure that you post the open house dates as well.

You also want to see how you can track the number of people visiting your various web sites, so that you can report that back to your sellers.

Some other open house strategies are:

• Notify other agents with nearby listings of your open house and that you'll honor their clients.
  
• Have a "Neighbors Only" open house for an hour on a week night right after you list it.
  
• Reduce the open house hours down to 1 hour or 1.5 hours. (If prospects want to see the home, they'll make the time frame or call you for a private viewing.)
  
• Ask one of your preferred mortgage lenders to attend the open house with their laptop and pre-qualify the prospects.
  

Again, different areas have different results to open houses. Find out what works best in your area and try some various strategies to make your open house as effective as possible.

If you've been holding open houses, please share with me what's been effective for you and I'll pass on the strategies here on my blog.

To your success,

Dan

Join FREE Network For Real Estate Referrals & Ideas: ActiveRain Real Estate Network

All content copyrighted © 2008 - Dan Weis, Agent Success Coach

4 Rules For Competing In Real Estate Today!

Here are 4 rules that, if followed, can help you through our current market:

1. Expect Volatility - We're in a period of time, where we're seeing unpredictability of the market and new complexities in the real estate and mortgage industries. There are changes occurring in the marketplace monthly, and sometimes, weekly. You can be in the middle of a transaction and, all of a sudden, some mortgage guidelines change that cause your transaction to be in jeopardy. You need to inform your clients upfront, that changes are happening and that there will be bumps in the road, but that you'll be there to help them as best as possible.
   
2. Innovate or Get Passed Up - What competitive advantage do you have other other Realtors? What service guarantees are you offering to potential clients? In the sea of real estate agents, it's easy for the consumer to consider you as a commodity, just like everyone else. If you have a system that's working for you, but your competition is starting to use it, then it's time to improve upon it and take it to the next level. You must identify what's effective and what's not effective in your marketing and advertising. Implementation is important and the quicker you do it, the better. It's better to be at 80% effectiveness now than 100% right 3-6 months from now. Just get it going!
   
3. Measure Systems Performance - You need to constantly be aware of how well your business systems are working. Do parts of them need to be tweaked, because they're not doing as well as in the past? Are you still doing everything the same as you used to or have you slacked off and tried to do shortcuts? If, for example, you have a For Sale By Owner prospecting system that is not resulting in getting as many listings as in the past, you need to analyze why that's happening. Review your steps and see which step has broken down or maybe you changed it. It's a good idea every 3 months to "PLAN - DO - REVIEW". Set up the system, do it and then review the results. Depending on how intensive the system is, you may be able to REVIEW it more frequently, but you need to give the system time to work.
   
4. Constant Learning - Never think you know it all. Even after 23 years in real estate, I know there's more to learn about or ways to fine tune my skills in certain areas. Don't be a 'jack-of-all-trades' and master of none. Master the skills you do have and take it to the next level. It can be more profitable to be a big fish in the small pond than a small fish in an ocean. In professional sports, all of the players are skilled, but a few of the players are at a much higher level of proficiency than the rest. Why is that? Because they want to be better.

Don't ever rest on your laurels. It's important to have a business plan, follow it and update it as often as possible.
Follow the four steps above and you'll be a step ahead of your competition.