Saturday, September 5, 2009
Part 2
Day 6 of the Up & Running 30-day plan. I began the week with a positive attitude. This program can change my life, my career, my way of doing business day-to-day. Had a monkey wrench thrown into my first two days with some unexpected meetings and phone calls. This set me back but I truck on. Part of the plan is to call or personally visit 400 people each month. This is supposed to return 8 qualifying appointments that will result in 8 showings that will result in 1 sale. From the listing perspective 400 contacts a month will result in 4 Seller-qualifying appointments that will lead to 1 qualified listing which will sell in normal market time. 400 contacts a month? Wow. Very overwhelming. I realized that the author of this book is on the mainland (the continental U.S.) and this way of doing business does not relate to my market. I can't go knock on doors to get a listing because that owner is not there. They are only there 3 months out of the year - when? I don't know. And they may also have it in a vacation rental program. This is not suburbia, but I can use the 400 number as a goal. It's all about goals. My biggest fear as I wrap up Week One is I may not want to be in Real Estate after this, but I don't think that will be the case. What I am learning so far is to make a plan, stick to it, focus, make lead generating contacts - in person or by phone, and not spend so much time on "business support" which we do to support our business such as creating marketing pieces and this does not make us money. Lead generation does. I first started off the week by compiling a list of people I know - friends, acquaintances, old co-workers. I discovered I know more people than I thought I did, but I don't have any of their phone numbers! Emails, no problem. Our world today is electronic. I can't recall the last time I spoke to my old college roommate, but we emailed each other 5 times yesterday! So, I emailed all these friends and acquaintances for their mailing address and phone number. Embarrassing to ask someone "I've known you for over 10 years but I don't have your phone number!" I'm either a really bad friend or I just don't use my phone much. Maybe a little of both. This needs to change. Since I don't have a huge client base to pull from I am starting with these acquaintances. You never know who they know who has wanted to buy real estate on Maui for ages and now they finally have a connection! People love to refer. I think about when I refer people to a restaurant I like and they go there and tell me how much they liked it - this gives me satisfaction that I introduced them to something new. The same can be applied with real estate referrals. I think today will be good day and I hope today will set the tone for the rest of the week. I submitted an offer today for a buyer I've been working with for months. I also had two walk-ins during my floor duty today. I'm looking forward to next week....Stay tuned for Part 3.
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