Is your business filled with peaks and valleys? Even though the real estate market is cyclical, and each market has its own busy season, there are people buying and selling homes all year long. Do you ever wonder why top producers always seem to be doing business while many others seem to do all of their business in spurts? While there is more than one reason for top producer consistency, the main reason is that they continue to prospect while they are busy with their current clients and customers.
Many agents convince themselves that they are too busy to prospect, because they feel that they need to focus all of their attention on their current clients and customers. While working with current clients and customers is important, failing to prospect for future business virtually guarantees inconsistent results. The only way to have consistent business is to always be prospecting for new business. There are only a few reasons that agents sporadically prospect for new business: time, money and mindset.
Time management is the key to any good business. Top producers have created systems for managing their time and maximizing their efforts, whereas many other agents have not. Brian Buffini eloquently states in his Turning Point Retreats that "we all have all of the time that there is." This simply means that we all have the same amount of hours in each day, but we don't all manage time in the same way. The simplest solution to time management is delegating responsibilities.
While many agents will not delegate because of control issues, others may be willing to delegate, but cannot afford to do so, or at least not in a traditional way. It's a bit of a "catch-22" for these agents. Delegating non-money making activities will free up the agent to regularly prospect, but it costs money to hire an assistant. The ideal solution may be to hire a virtual assistant. Virtual assistants will work on an "as needed" basis, which can save time, while also remaining more affordable than hiring a full-time assistant that gets paid regularly. To learn more about how virtual assistants work, I would recommend contacting Laura Monroe. She runs the Real Estate Virtual Assistants group on Active Rain.
Perhaps the biggest stumbling block for agents to prospect consistently is the mindset that they "have enough business right now." This is an "employee" mindset, which is a problem, because REALTORS® are business owners, not employees. Some may believe that only the broker of record is a business owner, but it is simply not the case. REALTORS® are independent contractors, which is really just another name for a business owner. Business owners are responsible for generating new business, either directly or indirectly. Could you imagine the owner of a mom & pop retail store saying that they "had enough business right now?" Not likely, since this mindset is the first step to going out of business.
What if REALTORS® approached prospecting with the same tenacity that children do when they want something badly? As the father of a toddler, I witnessed something recently that was actually the inspiration for this post. I was giving my daughter her morning bath, and she was playing around the way that she usually does in the tub. One of her favorite bath toys is a bag of colorful shapes that stick to the tub and the walls once they are wet. These shapes hang in our tub on a hook, inside of a mesh bag with a drawstring.
My daughter is a few months away from turning two, and much of her communication is still non-verbal. However, when she points at something, she makes a distinct sound letting me know that she wants it. As she pointed to the bag of shapes (over 50 pieces), I took it off of the hook and started dumping it out in front of her in the bath tub. When I finished, all but 2 of the pieces were floating in the water. You would think that this would have kept her satisfied, and that she would have had enough to play with. As she pointed and let me know that she had to have the last 2 pieces, it hit me that she was like a top producer that is always prospecting for new business. As I gave my daughter the last 2 pieces, the lyrics to one of my favorite songs popped into my head ..."Always one for more...you're never satisfied." (Van Halen, "5150")
That one lyric sums up the top producer / tenacious child mindset. If all REALTORS® approached their business this way, wouldn't it lead to more consistent production? In fact, isn't it easier to prospect when you don't need the business today? After all, when you don't need the business, aren't you more selective of the people that you choose to work with than you are when you have nothing going on?
Are you satisfied with the amount of business that you are working on right now? If you are, then you may be heading toward some tough times in the near future, because standing still in real estate is tantamount to going backwards. To achieve true success and balance, it is important to spend time each day focusing on current business as well as future business. The next time that you decide to take a break from prospecting, think about the little girl that just had to have ALL of the pieces to play with in the bath tub.
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Beautifully done. I am flagging this one, my friend. Thanks for the great reminder! I have been neglecting my own prospecting lately, and I needed a kick.