I have never spoken to an agent who says they aren’t making money and haven’t been able to figure out why. There is always a reason, a cause, an excuse and often an absence of completing critical tasks. There is also a trail of obvious facts that lead me directly to the cause, the reason, the problem and then ultimately the solution to the agent’s lack of money.
Here are some of my favorite questions I ask agents to help them figure out their challenges and how to get past them:
TIME – How much time are you honestly spending working in your business and on your business. This does not include surfing the web or wasting time socializing with people that aren’t going to buy or sell real estate. Make an honest assessment of the amount of time you are spending on things that will never lead to a listing or a sale. To do this, I ask agents to color-code their calendars for one week to audit how they spend their time. Highlight in green only high productivity tasks and appointments. Highlight in pink the time issues that are not highly productive. This exercise clearly shows the agent where they are wasting time and just how unproductive they have been. Once you see it you can fix it!
MONEY – Are you wasting money or investing money in your business. It’s that simple. If you are wasting money on apps and tools and services that aren’t bringing you a return, that is a waste of money. Are you investing in your business or are you wasting the resources of your business?
FOCUS – How focused are you on your business, your clients, and your projects? Are you giving your business your all or are you coasting along hoping new business will find you? Are you spending time working on your projects in a setting that is not disruptive? Do you have a plan for what you are going to be doing tomorrow, next week, and next month in terms of marketing? Building a strong real estate business requires focus and energy. Don’t allow the craziness of our industry and or your life to erode your focus.
CONSISTENCY – This is by far one of the most important traits of successful real estate agents. Have you been consistent with keeping in touch with your past clients? Are you consistently taking care of your potential clients? Does your sphere hear from you on a regular basis? Consistency is the foundation of most successful business and without it you will certainly struggle with the feast and famine side of real estate that no agent likes.
CONNECTIONS – Are you connecting with people in your business? Connections are the life blood of every real estate agent’s business and without connections you will struggle. Making high quality connections is critical to building a strong real estate business. You need to get to know how your clients like to be communicated with. Some may prefer connecting in person while others would simply prefer a phone call or something from you in the mail. Make sure you learn how to wow your clients with high quality connecting.
SELF DISCIPLINE – Without personal self-discipline an agent will struggle to keep their business from becoming a feast and famine juggling game. Self-discipline is what will drive you to make sure your past, current and potential clients are all taken care of. Self-discipline is what you must have to make sure that the tasks that need to get done on a regular basis get done. Without self-discipline you are like a boat floating at sea with no direction.
MAILINGS – Sending out good old-fashioned mail is still one of the most effective forms of communication and lead generation. Mailings must be targeted and consistent and part of a well-thought-out campaign. When done correctly mailings can be a faucet of regular income for an agent.
PLANNING – How much time do you spend planning out your day, your week, your month, your year or your business tasks and projects? Planning is an integral part of any successful real estate agent’s business. I spend an hour every day working on my planning and tasks and I could not do what I do without the planning part of my day.
SAYING NO – A big part of a successful agent’s business includes the power of “No”. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. That means learning how to gracefully bow out of something. If what you need is more time in your business, saying no is critical to being able to manage the time required to reach your real estate goals.
Building a strong real estate business requires that you protect your time and energy and that you use that time wisely. If you aren’t making the money you deserve, start by answering the questions above to see where you have room to improve. Every agent deserves to make a great living but in order to do that you need to get honest about what is draining your business resources.
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