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Solving a Sales Slump

By
Real Estate Agent with Mapleridge Realty, CT 203-206-0754 REB.0759001

The negatives feel like they are piling up. Listings are expiring. Inspections are turning up problems. Deals are dying. Buyers won't make up their minds. Sellers are needy and insistent on overpricing. You keep working and it feels like the problems multiply. You don't want to answer the phone or face the next day.

You are in a slump. By definition a slump is, "An extended period of disappointing results." There are two types of slumps. The easier of the two to solve we call "The Success Slump." The more challenging of the two, we call "The System Gap Slump." This latter dilemma has less to do with poor results than it has to do with the maturity of your business.

The Success Slump

This, easier to solve situation occurs in the middle of a rhythm of activity when you are working with motivated clients, you are making calls and following up, you are getting the listings you pursue and buyers are buying. Offers are being accepted. The phones are ringing with new leads.  Suddenly, you don't get a listing. An inspection result kills a deal. A closing you were depending on is delayed. It feels like a dark cloud is appearing over your business. You begin to get concerned. You want this string of disappointments to end, immediately, if possible. You are experiencing the signs of a Success Slump.

The reason a Success Slump occurs is because the very rhythm and consistency that creates your success becomes a little too much of a routine. You are no longer bringing your keenest attention, enthusiasm and focus to your work. You are getting tired and maybe a little bored.  Subtly, below your consciousness you have lost perspective. Your business has become more important than your life. Until you choose your life over your business, both will suffer.

There are two solutions to a Success Slump. One of the two always works.

First is to take a break. Start to take a day off each week. Take a couple of weekends off. Take a vacation.  Start to go to movies or the theatre. Start a new exercise routine. Take up a new hobby. Get a massage. Change your daily regimen. Take a break mentally, physically or both.

The goal is to remind you that, "Your business should serve your life and not your life serve your business."  You come back refreshed with your head and your heart back in a place that better serves you and your business. 

The second way to solve a Success Slump is to work through it..  "Keep swinging." Make the calls. Take out the buyers . It feels like wading through knee-deep mud. But sometimes and for some people it feels better to work through it than to take a break. Be careful though, usually if you choose the option to work through it, the slump will only dissipate temporarily.

To solve a success slump this way you must also bolster your self-esteem and self-confidence with positive self-talk. Listen to your favorite motivational tapes, read books and spend time with people that have unconditional confidence in you.  When you try to work through a slump without this positive contribution you often sink deeper into the funk.  Working through slumps with our clients for over a decade we've learned that this latter solution, working through the slump is nearly always a temporary fix unless you also implement the former solution, a break in routine. The two create a permanent solution.

The System Gap Slump

Now the tough slump to solve, if you suffer this, you know it because it occurs cyclically, two or three times a year. It is predictable and recognizable because it is preceded by the same series of events. A string of sales activity precedes it.  When the very sales activity you desire is the repeated catalyst for a slump, you are experiencing System Gap Slumps. Your business lacks adequate systems. Your business requires your constant and continuous attention without which problems arise.

Your business feels like juggling a bunch of activities, like one of those jugglers trying to keep a dozen plates on separate sticks all spinning in the air at once or they all come crashing down. This is tiring for you in and of itself. Then when you have a flurry of activity, even though it is the activity you have been working toward, problems arise. It saps your energy. It feels like you can't win. You know there is a better way. You know that without finding that better way you are destined to continue to experience this cyclical slump. You know that this creates a frustrating limit to your growth and development. This knowledge also saps your energy. There is a limit to how much business you can accomplish without adequate systems. So, when that limit is exceeded you know that while you are accomplishing one set of things another is falling apart. Bottom line, it de-motivates you.

A successful and dependable Real Estate business is built on planning systems that measure your results; lead management systems, systems for preparing and presenting, service systems, marketing systems, advertising systems, and more. We coach that anything that is done more than three times a month should be systematized. Without dependable systems, a period of activity often triggers a series of issues, problems, and/or complaints. As those problems begin to build up you enter the System Gap Slump.

Natural talent, momentum, and luck only take you so far. Systems take you the rest of the way to consistency, confidence, and continuous growth. Recognizing the systems that need work and then perfecting them both prevent System Gap Slumps while increasing your production, quality of life, and the quality of your business. A simple analysis of your business can identify which areas of your business have the system gaps, that is, which need systems or improved systems.

Once you identify the systems that will lead to your growth, it is simple to recognize which systems is a priority for you to address. Often you already know what it will take to improve them.  As you improve and perfect each system, the positive motivated time between your System Gap Slumps expands until the only slumps you experience are Success Slumps as described earlier which are easier to solve.  Slumps, "extended periods of disappointing results" are a natural part of every successful career. Addressing them is necessary for your continuous growth and unlimited success.

This is an article that I had read and kept, written by Rich Levin about 3 years ago. First appeared in Broker Age News.

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Edward (Ed) Silva
Broker Associate

Serving Central Connecticut Sellers and Buyers

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Comments (4)

John Secor
EXIT Real Estate Results - Winter Springs, FL

 

Ed:

excellent post and very timely.  I just had a couple of deals flop so I am a little too familiar with the subject.  Thanks for sharing it!

John

Apr 14, 2009 02:40 AM
Cherry Wings Realty
Cherry Wings Realty - Traverse City, MI
Your Traverse City Michigan Realtor

Ed:

Great article, thanks for passing it on.  We all need to remember to keep those systems in place.

Apr 14, 2009 02:40 AM
Karen Fiddler, Broker/Owner
Karen Parsons-Fiddler, Broker 949-510-2395 - Mission Viejo, CA
Orange County & Lake Arrowhead, CA (949)510-2395

Thanks for the post! You know....it's tough to keep on going at times, but then many things hit at once. Last month I only had one close.....but kept on blogging and calling and emailing. This month, I have 4. Two are from old offers which just finally got approved, but 2 are brand new one-day closes. So you never know....it's great to be in an industry where the deal can originate in the morning and open escrow by night.

Apr 14, 2009 02:45 AM
Miranda Moser
Century 21 Bamber Realty - Calgary, AB
Calgary Real Estate Agent

I enjoyed the post... I sometimes forget " "Your business should serve your life and not your life serve your business."

It is so easy to get caught up in all real estate craziness sometimes.... focuss of the systems and all will work well...

Apr 14, 2009 03:52 AM