Planning Right. Agents at Keller Williams in Pembroke Pines Do

Planning Right. Agents at Keller Williams in Pembroke Pines Do.Do you plan the trip, or just go along for the ride? That was a question I recently came across in John Maxwell's book The 21 Most Powerful Minutes in a Leader's Day. The reason I ask this is that planning is the key to success. As John Maxwell writes anyone can steer the ship but few can navigate, which he illustrates in his book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. Recommended Reading

Let's take the example of us, Realtor's; on an almost daily basis I am looking at real estate agents stats on the listing end of our business. What I see varies between what I call the navigators and the agents just along for the ride, or maybe they just never learned to navigate so they are at the markets mercy like a ship would be at the mercy of the ocean without a skilled navigator on board. The skilled navigator gets the job done and closes the deal and in their stats they have more closing than they have active properties. The unskilled have very few and possibly no closings and many expired listings along with their active properties which do not lead to regular paydays.

The first part of a skilled listing agent's navigation and planning process begins with the comparables they choose and an effective professional presentation, they get on the right course by first pricing it right, and adapting their services and marketing plan to get the job done. Whereas the unskilled navigator fails to price it right, rarely has a closing which leads to lack of funds and a weak marketing plan. All of these problems really stem from lack of skilled preparation.


In The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Maxwell describe the difference in preparation skills of the two famed Arctic explores, Captain Robert Scott the Englishman and Captain Roald Amundsen the Norwegian and the vast difference in the outcome of their quest to be the first to reach the South Pole.

Due to the harsh weather conditions at the pole meticulous planning was of a life and death necessity. This planning encompassed setting up base camps with the supplies needed for the round trip journey, to the clothing they would wear, and to the animals they choose to haul the heavy loads over the tundra. Scott chose dogs; motorized sleds along with pony's to carry the load, Amundsen on the other hand choose only dogs to pull his supplies and equipment.

Very early on in the trip Scott's motorizes equipment failed due to the harsh weather conditions, and at the base of the mountain range the pony's could no longer continue and were killed for food, which now left the team carrying most of the load.

The clothing they wore was critical for their survival; Amundsen was meticulous in his research and planning and once again made a superior choice to Scott. Scott's poor choice lead to frostbite, the goggles that Scott also chooses left his men snow blind. Once again Amundsens preparation pays off. At the very last moment before departure, Scott decides to add a fifth man to the team, even though the base camps only had supplies for four men.

When Scott finally reached the South Pole on January 18, 1912 he saw the Norwegian flag flying and a letter attached. Amundsen had reached the pole almost a month earlier. Disheartened and exhausted they begin the long arduous trip back to base camp, where the poor planning on Scott's part becomes even more evident and painful. His men had such severe frostbite that it took them as long as an hour every morning to just put their boots on. To make matters worse they were low on oil which they would use to heat the ice and snow for drinking water, because Scott had positioned his supply stations too far apart.

March 11, 1912 only 11 miles from One Ton Depot, where supplies were available, a raging blizzard kept them from the depot, and the remaining crew died at this camp. They were found dead in their sleeping bags by a rescue party on November 12, 1912.

So are you meticulously planning your real estate career or just leaving it to chance?

If you would like to plan for success and not get caught in the blizzards, drop me an email, or just give me a call to schedule your visit with us.