Monday Motivation - If at First They Don't Succeed
If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. But wait - insanity is repeating
the same course of actions and expecting a different result - so what are we to do? Personally, I think persistence is a virtue, but it's important to know when we're spinning our wheels, too. Some things just won't work, no matter how badly we want them to. Those things aren't what this post is about.
This post isn't about what you've valiantly attempted only to eventually concede. We've all been there. This is about the influence we let others have over us, often erroneously.
"Open houses don't work". "Door Knocking is synonymous with Amateur hour". "Mailers are the easiest way to toss away your money". I've heard all of these things (some here in the rain), and for some people these things might be true. Maybe these things don't work - for THEM. That does not mean they won't work - FOR YOU.
I've always been the type to learn by doing. For better or worse, someone can tell me a million times something is impossible, or something is a bad idea. Until I've done it myself, I have trouble accepting that. Is this a character flaw? I don't think so - a lot of times it's served me quite well.
Would you believe me if I told you I became a successful loan officer by doing a whole bunch of things people told me didn't work? A LOT of loan officers told me that networking with real estate agents was a bad idea. Most of those people are no longer loan officers. TONS of people told me that trigger leads & aged leads were just a waste of time. For a long time, they were my lifeline, and made me a good amount of money. To this day, aged leads gave me the best ROI of any marketing dollars I've ever spent.
My point is, just because something isn't working for someone, doesn't mean it won't work for you. BUT, that doesn't mean you should shut out outside opinions - in fact, listening to the naysayers is one of the best ways to discover "what not to do". I watched the people that called aged leads once, sent them an email, and then forgot about them. I saw that it didn't work - I took a non-aggressive, but consistent approach, and discovered that WHOA, aged leads can be great if you stick with them over time.
Maybe an open house didn't work for someone. Ask what they do at their open house - how they advertise it, what they have there, how they follow up with any traffic. Then ask yourself - What can you do to make it better? Is there a better approach? Likely, there is. Just ask Karen Fiddler, who recently wrote a great post about an outside the box approach to something many say "just doesn't work". Same goes with door-knocking. And floor time. And just about any other marketing idea that anyone's come up with over the years.
I created an entire business model based on things that "didn't work". I put my own spin on credit repair, customer follow up, client retention, education, and lead generation, and with a couple pieces of creativity, most of it worked and worked well.
If at first someone didn't succeed. You should learn from their mistakes, and try, try again.
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