What’s your plan for the next 4 months? Do you have one? Have you had one for the past 8 months?

If you started the year with a plan, did you follow it? Every day?

Did you meet

your targets? Surpass them? Fail to meet them? What happens now?

There’s the real question – what happens now?

I read recently of an agent in Washington whose team has closed 302 transactions YTD; he raised his annual goal to 600. Think he’ll get there? I do.

Why do I think he’ll get there? Because success is built on systems, scaleable systems, and once the system is set, it’s a fairly simple step to turn the dial up just a bit. How are your systems doing?

Do you lead generate every day? For how long? How many contacts do you make? How many past clients do you ask for referrals every day? What do you do if you don’t have an appointment on any day? Golf, or lead generate?

What questions do you ask yourself every day about your business?

There’s a reason for the saying ‘Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail’.

Want to talk about where you are at and how to get where you want to go? Email me. No charge for a conversation – we both learn from it.

STOP IT! NOW!! RIGHT NOW!!!!!

Seriously, stop spending so much money. I bet, really, I bet that you are throwing away thousands of dollars every year in your business. Come on, look at yourself in the mirror, be honest with yourself (yes, I know this is hard for some of you, but do it anyway – your spouse will thank you later)

I’ve been thinking about the topic of this post a lot lately, and was inspired to write it by an email I just received that tells all about how some rockstar gets a couple of referrals every week from the mail he sends out, along with all these newsletters, thank you cards and everything else.

I’m sorry (not really) to contradict the ‘guru’ who promotes this methodology, but I know far too many agents who have bought into the hype and had to get a JOB because of it.

Now don’t get me wrong here – I do accept that referrals are a critical part of the business; that’s a no-brainer. What I cannot accept is that people get these email tips from all kinds of coaches, and they never mention the one critical component of any program. They just push their passive-business tools that line their pockets (while mostly emptying the pockets of the people they sign up).

Know why they do that

? Because they know that 75% of their target sucker group won’t do the real work, and they don’t want to scare them away from buying the system or the coaching they offer by telling them they have to do it to get results.

Some of these guys are incredibly lacking in integrity in the way they push their programs. You know, you get these emails that say ‘this special ends on Sunday at midnight!’ And then, Saturday, you get another email saying that the response is so great that the special has been extended until Wednesday because their staff can’t keep up with demand. And then Tuesday, you get another email saying that they are just blown away by the response being so great, they are finally going to cut off the special on Sunday at midnight. I get these emails all the time, as I’m sure you do too.

Well, I hope you look at those emails and dissect them into the different piles of codswallop they really are. Think about it for a second – if the product or service was so great, it wouldn’t be on sale, and if they were so busy filling orders that their staff couldn’t keep up, why would they encourage more orders? Could it be they are trying to trick you into buying stale inventory of a product? Or services that people don’t want? Just a thought thrown out there.

Here’s a newsflash for ya . . . .

There’s one sure way to get business . . . . .

Ready . . . . .

PICK UP THE PHONE!

Okay, you can drop by and visit with friends, acquaintances, former co-workers, etc., but that is such an inefficient use of your time. Besides, even if you do mail them stuff, you’ve still got to pick up the phone to finish the service you started offering to them by mailing them something in the first place.

If you’re the kind of agent who needs 5, 6, or 10 extra sales in the next 90 days, claim your free coaching call (it’s a $597 value!) by submitting the form over there to the right. I won’t lie to you, deceive you into thinking that this business is easy, and I certainly won’t tell you to spend your money. Invest it, yes; spend it, no.

So, I’m talking with this group of agents the other day, and I asked them what they have done to generate leads over the past week.

For some reason, I really wasn’t surprised that not a single one of them had hit any of their goals! Of course, part of that is taken care of because only 20% of them even had goals for the week, however, at least some of them had goals.

What gets me is that this is such a typical situation – the majority of agnets not have goals, and those with goals just not meeting them.

Why is it that agents consistently fail to meet their goals?

Experience (backed up by statistics) tells me that there are a number of excuses that agents have for not achieving their goals, the most common one being that they just don’t have time! Time – a great acronym for ‘This Is My Excuse’ and that’s all it is, given we all have the same amount of time.

Speaking with one guy, I intentionally let him go on and on with all his questions, and suddenly, his lead generation time block was over – his intention for sure, because you could see the fear and anxiety leaving him when he realized the time was over.

I gotta wonder why on earth someone would lie to themselves in this way

I see it all the time – agents deluding themselves, delaying the inevitable. It really is true – you either lead generate, or you go out of business.

And that’s the way it should be!

I also see people taking a leap into the uncomfortable and going through the ‘You Call To Success’ program, taming those fears, and making hundreds of calls a week.

It sounds simple, doesn’t it – feel the fear and do it anyway, OR fade out of the business.

What do you choose?

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Where are you losing YOUR business? Recently, while coaching a group of agents with an average of 1-year’s experience in real estate, I posed this question to them.

Their answers were indeed predictable.

Without fail, the reasons (excuses!) given were all externally focused, placing blame on prospects for not being loyal enough, or blaming prospects for not understanding the value the agent would bring them.

And, I wondered aloud, how fair is it, really, to blame the prospects for not being loyal, not understanding the value you bring, etc.?

After some more probing, the group answered the questions for themselves, and did a turn-around by taking responsibility for losing the business.

I heard a great line from Diana Kokowska recently: ‘If you are with the prospect, the business is yours, so what are you saying/doing to lose it?‘

More probing of these rookie agents revealed that they all believed they were doing sufficient follow-up with the prospects, and felt that doing any more follow-up would be being too pushy.

Aha! Bingo! Flashing Lights & Sirens Going Off, as in a Jim Carey movie!!!

Here’s the message I shared with them – perhaps it will help you in your follow-up:

If you truly believe that the prospect is going to do business with SOMEONE, and you truly believe that they DESERVE to do business with YOU, you would not feel that you were doing too much follow-up.

Now, maybe you could be doing different kinds of follow-up, I explained. If you are doing an email or postal follow-up, are you also making phone calls to them? If you are making phone calls to them, have you stopped by, un-announced, to drop off something of value and to allow them to see the humanoid behind the emails, letters, and phone calls?

If you are following up with someone and you lose the prospect to another agent, your follow-up was not good enough. Period. End of Story.

So, where are you losing your business?

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A number of agents have asked me lately, ‘How is it possible to make 130 phone calls an hour, leaving voicemails and sending emails automatically?’

The answer is two-fold really – it’s part technology and part mindset. I write almost every day about the mindset part of the equation, so today I want to talk a little about the technology I use.

I use a system called REPhoneburner, which you can check out here (get the 15-day free trial). This excellent system is a powerful calling – voicemail – email dialing system that is in complete compliance with all Federal, State, and Provincial laws regarding phonedialers, unlike many of the multi-line dialers.

I use my Skype account to call in to the dialer service, not only to make my calls, but also to record any special voicemails I want to use. For a headset, I use a Logitech that I picked up about 3 years ago.

Here’s the FAQ’s from the site: