What is The "SW Rule"

Many people all over the world, even in a Dallas Suburb like Frisco, are afraid to fail. Failure is not something you become. Failure is an event, not a destination or a determination of who you are as a real estate agent or as a person. Larry Lawfer wrote an interesting post entitled Failure is part of my every day. Whoopee!. He said some very wise things which included - Learn to fail and learn to move through failure. This stirred up images of some of my favorite people, Cold Callers.

Cold calling is an art and takes courage, strength, resiliency, and perseverance because I don't know many other jobs where failure occurs so frequently. This in turn led me to this post about the SW Rule. The SW Rule states: Some Will, Some Won't,  So What, Someone else Waiting. Sales for the most part, and most definitely cold calling, is a game of numbers. Whether you are cold calling, mailing postcards, networking, answering phones in your office, holding an open house or simply marketing to your SOI, the SW rule will always apply. 

Some Will, Some Won't

It is important to realize that you are not going to close every client or even move every potential prospect to the next step. That does not make you a failure. In fact, it is this step that you can learn from. As a past corporate sales executive, I use to perform win-loss reviews all the time. I do that now for myself.  While it is important to know why you win, I think it is even more important to know why you lose. It is not critical to dwell on a "failure" but it is important to learn from your past mistakes. By the way, it may not always be a mistake.

For example, I was working an open house recently and while I thought I was establishing rapport and a relationship, it turns out that I must have been wearing my happy ears. For those of you that don't know, happy ears are those often invisible filters that make you think you are saying and doing everything right. In this case I clearly was not reading my visitor correctly. I was excited about this house and as I look back I can see that my excitement was probably more energy than what this person had in mind when speaking with me. Even though we left on good terms and he said he would get back to me, I clearly understand now what I did wrong,

So What, Someone else Waiting

I go back to the SW rule. Some will., in this case some won't. So what- I stopped and looked back and learned. No it is off to find that someone else waiting for me to help them. This is how I move through failure. Yes I failed to address this person the way they wanted to be addressed and they decided to move on to someone else. I learn and then I move on to the next person I can assist. OK I failed at that particular meeting. That does noo make me a failure. From now on when you feel like you failed or are a failure, take a look back and honestly review what happened. There is certainly a learning point in that event. Learn, make yourself better and move on as there are plenty of people that need your assistance. This will lead you to success.

For those that I have addressed and became one of my "some will" clients, they are most often very happy . Because they no that when they work with me—Their Success is My Focus.