Staying Motivated
Even if you are a brand new real estate agent, you’ve already heard the word motivated in many different contexts. What is being motivated? How can I get motivated? How can I
stay motivated? These are just some of the questions that might taunt you when you are getting ready to pick up the phone and make a cold call or meet with new home-buying prospects who say they need a “motivated agent” that will work for them.
Most people say they are motivated by money. While that’s probably true, some people are motivated by the fear of not having money and yet others are motivated by awards and accolades from their peers or managers. However, even these are based on the sales the agent makes.
Specific Goals Motivate
But my experience has been that those who really become successful Real estate agents are motivated by specific goals or dreams, rather than generalized statements such as I want to be wealthy, or I want to be the best I can be. I’ve heard of one successful real estate agent that was motivated by making enough commissions to buy his first of many rental properties. As part of getting himself psyched up every day, he will tell anyone who would listen that he needed to make enough commissions by a certain date in order to buy a rental property that was up for sale. He even had a photograph of the property taped on the wall in front of his desk. Now, you might think this sounds a little strange, but guess what? He always reached his goal because it excited him and that translates into motivation. By the way, I understand he is no longer in the real estate business. He retired and lives on an income from his many rental properties.
Find Out What Motivates You
So, the first step in becoming a motivated real estate agent is to discover what motivates you. Sit down and really be honest with yourself. Is it a certain vacation home? Maybe it’s a trip to Greece or Rome. Maybe it’s a sky box at your NFL team’s stadium. Of maybe it’s a certain amount of income you want to make each year. Whatever it is, find out. Once you settle on what motivates you, now it’s time to put a price tag and time frame on it. So the trip to Rome and Greece first class for 10 days will run about $23,000. Ok, then. That’s the amount of money you have to earn. When are you going, three months, six months or perhaps a year from now? Whatever the answer is write it down and commit to it.
Plan Your Work; Work Your Plan
Getting to the stage of knowing what you want and how much it will take is often as far as many real estate agents get in their motivational quest. You see even though you are excited, have defined what you want and how much money it will take to make it happen, you haven’t yet broken that down to a doable plan. For example, if your average commission for each property you sell is $1,800 and your trip to Europe next year has a price tag of $23,000, you will have to make 13 sales in the next 12 months to pay for it, over and above any other income you need. The next calculation you have to make is how many properties you will have to list in order to make that many sales, etc.
Break Your Goals Down into Specific Actions
The key to staying motivated is breaking down your goals to daily tasks that will get you what you want. A sales manager I know told me about an agent he knew that created a scoreboard to keep him motivated and focused on his goal. This agent, the manager said, hated to make cold calls, but when he figured out the ratio of how many cold calls it took to get a quality prospect, he assigned himself a high-number of cold calls to make every day. The agent then made them one after another, marking each one off on a score board he created to show himself how he was moving toward his goal. When he reached his allotted number of cold calls, he stopped.
Here’s the thing: The sale manager said the agent who hated cold calls became the cold-call champion of the real-estate office and always reached his goals. He did so, because he learned the secret of doing great things begins with breaking them down into doable daily tasks.
To summarize:
• To become a motivated agent, you must first choose what motivates you.
• Create a plan to achieve your goal and break it down to daily doable tasks.
• Executive the plan.
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