“The difference between agents making a million dollars a year and agents making 25-40 thousand dollars a year isn’t always the fact that one is better than the other. Oftentimes it’s that one chooses different activities to focus on during the day.”
These words provided by Verl Workman, founder and CEO of Workman Success Systems, were just one slice of wisdom offered in the latest RISMedia webinar entitled: “New Year, New Business! Chart a Course to 100 Transactions in 2016.” Sponsored by Homes.com and moderated by Terri Murphy, president of Terri Murphy Communications and CIO of U.S. Learning, the webinar aimed to teach agents ways they can be more productive and efficient in their work flow in order to increase their number of closed transactions and win more of their marketshare.
Workman suggested that agents need to approach their job from a “CEO mindset.” Looking at their business as a business, rather than a job for themselves, can be the start of a more positive and productive line of thinking that will set them up for success.
A business plan is also crucial toward fueling activity in agents’ businesses. At a recent conference, Workman polled his audience asking how many had their business plans for 2016 ready, and the number was disappointingly less than 10 percent. Creating business plans three months out is imperative, because as Workman noted, plans done today won’t be effective until 90 days from now. He recommends that agents start planning for the New Year by the end of October in order to ensure that revenue is coming in as soon as possible.
Workman then informed attendees about SWOT analysis, which are the keys to a good plan. The acronym stands for “Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.” By examining themselves and their work flow, agents can start to see where they falter and which parts of their job take up a majority of their time. They can also pinpoint unique opportunities available to them in their markets that they should gear toward.
“People say, ‘you need to focus on your weaknesses, take training and make them your strength!’ My response is ‘Why?’ You’re already bad at it, why focus on it? Delegate those things or hire people who have strengths where you’re weak. Then you can focus on the things that you’re really good at in your business,” said Workman.
While creating business plans, agents should ask themselves what they want their business to look like in 6 months, a year, five years, etc. Create a goal achievement system so that next year you can try to double what you did in 2015.
“How would your behavior change if you didn’t get any money in 2016 unless you doubled your income in 2015?” posed Workman.
Setting goals and building out plans have never been more important for today’s real estate agent. Here are a few more words of insight for agents looking to increase their business next year:
Form good habits. Good habits are the key to success. Form them and become a slave to them. Celebrate the activities that generate desired results, and not the results themselves.
Replace current habits with better ones. Prospect for 2-3 hours a day. Create a schedule and/or use a time blocker. Have daily huddles with team members in order to properly set up your days and weeks.
Have systems for everything. If you routinely do a task three or more times, create a system! This includes systems for things like lead generation, web strategy, marketing, lead incubation, conversion, etc. Use a CRM system to help stay organized. Set up systems first and consider an assistant second.
Find your bottlenecks and eliminate them. Where is your process getting stuck? Is it in lead generation, presentations, or negotiations? Find what stands in your way of closing faster and bust that open by focusing on that area.
Stop doing fake work. What do you do all day? What should you be doing every day? What are your excuses for failure? Spend time on money-making activities because now is the time to build for the rest of your career!
For more of Workman’s tips on planning work and working your plan, view the webinar in full below:
