Are You Open To A Shift In Your Thinking?

I've decided to make a shift in my thinking and in my business plan for 2010.

It's a very subtle change in mindset!

While designing my 2010 business plan, I had a crazy thought! I asked myself "What's the difference between setting monthly goals for closings versus pendings?"

When working on business plans in the past, I've always focused on number of real estate closings I wanted to have each month. For some reason, now it appears more passive.

But this time, I wondered...what if I were to focus on getting pendings? It seems to keep me more in the present. It helps me stay in the mode of continuing to generate new business.

Always generate leads before servicing them!

When your mind is focused on closings, you're doing a lot of servicing of your buyers and sellers from pending to closing and that can take you off track of doing what you need to do to have a consistent business model month after month.

There's also more chances that a closing may not happen, so if you tie up all of your time trying to get it closed and it doesn't happen, just think of all the lost opportunities of putting together other transactions.

In today's market, you have to increase your numbers to get more transactions closed. In the past, you may have needed to average 2.5 or 3 pendings to get 2 closed. Now you may need 4 or 5 pendings to get 2 closed.

2 questions to ask yourself each day:

• What can I do today to get another PENDING in (month)?
• Who can I call today to get another PENDING in (month)?

I've thought about this in my head and also repeated it to myself out loud and it seems to make sense.

I'm going to make this change to my business plan this year and see how it works out.

In 2010, focus on the number of PENDINGS you have at any given time!

I'd love to hear your thoughts about this idea. Please post a comment here and share your opinion.

To your success,

Dan

P.S. Please join my Facebook Fan Page today!

I'm SHOCKED...or Should I Be?

I sent out a short survey last week and got many responses.

I want to thank you if you filled yours out.

If you haven't had a chance to take 1.5 minutes to fill it out, it's not too late. Just click survey link:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GZHFM87

One of the questions asked in the survey was:

Have you completed your 2010 business plan?

I was SHOCKED by the response!

As of this moment, 80.6% of the agents said 'NO'.

Now the holidays are almost here and people are easily distracted, so that's one excuse.

Maybe some agents wait until after the holidays and New Years Day to work on their business plan.

Yet I wonder how many of the 80% will even get around to writing their business plan at all.

But then I asked myself should I really be surprised?

Real estate sales is a numbers business, where you have to do the activities and then track your results.

If you're not doing either, then you're probably doing no where near the amount of business you COULD be doing!

A simple, written business plan is a POWERFUL tool in helping you achieve your goals and dreams.

Without a business plan, it's like you're sitting in a boat in the middle of the ocean without a GPS system. You don't know where you're headed and you'll probably never get there. You may pick up a few listings or buyers by accident, but you'll continue to be 'lost at sea'.

A business plan that you personally write and decide which target markets you want to focus on can help you stay focused on what you need to do every day, so that you don't get off track.

I believe there's too many business plans floating around in the industry are far too detailed and laborious to follow.

If you're earning $500,000 - $1,000,000 per year in commissions and have a large team, then there's nothing wrong with using a more detailed business plan. Yet for most agents, simple is better!

I have my main goals and target markets selected for 2010. I'm working on designing a simple, 2-page business plan that I can laminate and review every morning and every night.

My business plan includes:

• income/transaction goals
• database size goal
• daily/weekly activities
• monthly transactions goal
• my top 4 target markets
• periodic rewards when hitting my goals
• 2010 year-end vision for my business
  

Finally, I believe that by just having and following a business plan can help you stay on track to do at least an additional 15% - 25% more business, because you'll have fewer lost sales falling through the cracks.

Is Your Listing Presentation Good Enough?

If you were going up against the number one agent in your market, how would you feel about your listing presentation?

Would you be ready to take them on?

Here's 5 components of a winning listing presentation:

1. Pre-Listing Call - When you schedule your listing appt, let the seller know you need to ask them a few questions to prepare for your appt. The more information you know about the seller and their situation, the better chance you have of getting the listing. You may also find out that you don't want the listing.
   
2. Home Preview - If you do a one-step listing appt, ask the seller to allow you to preview their home yourself as a buyer would. Then take notes of highlights and items that need to be addressed.
   
3. Market Statistics - When you sit down with the sellers, it's important to educate them on the entire market, their community market and then their home in comparison to the market. Never get into comparable pricing until they have an understanding of the entire market conditions.
   
4. Pricing - It's real important when sharing the active listings and recent pendings and closings that this is what the market is bearing in price...it's NOT your opinion! Make sure the seller understands that. It's not your opinion of what the list price and eventual sale price will be, it's the market's opinion.
   
5. Marketing Plan - I always save my marketing plan for last, because if any of the prior steps cause a roadblock and either of us doesn't want to move forward and work together, then I don't have to waste my time on this step.

So once you have designed your listing presentation into a flip chart or PowerPoint presentation, it's time to practice, practice, practice. When it comes out naturally and free-flowing, it won't be considered canned and you'll exude a lot of confidence...no matter who you're up against.

One final thought...never assume you're the only agent doing a listing presentation. Even if you are, don't take shortcuts in your presentation. Every seller deserves your best and it will show.

Don't Stop Activities While Planning!

Can you believe it's Dec. 1st already? Where did the year go?

Well, during this month, many real estate agents take time to re-evaluate their business plans. While this is good to do, you have to be careful not to fall into the dangerous trap of something called "Prospecting Neglect".

Because of all the distractions this time of year, it's easy to "forget" to the important activities while you're thinking of ways to improve your 2010 business.

So, it's real simple.

You need to write down 3 action steps that you'll commit to doing every day, Monday through Friday. If you can get them all done in the morning, all the better. They can be:

• making your prospecting calls
• working on updating your clientbase
• continuing to show listings

Even if you work on your action steps between now and Wed, Dec. 23rd, you'll be ahead of many agents when 2010 comes rolling in. The holiday season is a time when many people are enjoying all of the parties and shopping, etc, but work on helping those clients, who want to take advantage of a great buyer's market. Serious sellers have their properties on the market over the holidays. You should help sell them.

So, if you're finding out that most people aren't interested in doing anything now, that's okay....you're building list of clients, who will be ready to buy or sell after the 1st of the year.

Do all of your daily action steps each morning and then you'll have every afternoon and evening to work on your business plan as well as take some time out to enjoy the holidays with your family and friends.