YOU DETERMINE HOW MUCH YOU MAKE
This is a question everyone should ask themselves every day. For those in sales, especially those whose income in totally commission based, it is essential to address this question many times a day! I am currently a personal coach to many real estate agents, to help them reach their desired financial goals. When they first contact me, inquiring about coaching possibilities, I ask that question. Most of them will immediately tell me how many transactions they are currently moving toward closing. Some will say, “I advertise through yard signs on listings, business cards, fliers, farming a particular area, and etc.” At this point I know, without a question of doubt, that I can help them increase their income.
Before a commission based sales person can determine what they can do to improve their business, they must first determine where their business is right now. That’s a no brainer. Right? You can’t travel from one location to another without knowing where you’re located at the point of beginning. The first step in productivity coaching is to have the person being coached develop a Business Plan. A business plan will reveal the current level of income, where it came from, expenses involved in producing that income, exactly what you need to do in order to reach your financial goal, the number of people you need to speak with on a daily bases, and many other very important issues that need to be addressed before moving forward. The Business Plan is too lengthy to discuss today so I will cover it in more details at a later time.
Today I want to address “What Are You Doing To Increase Your Income?” I am not concerned with generalities. I want to zoom in on this very moment in time. You see, regardless of what level of production a person is, there are only 24-hours in a day. Thus there are only so many hours a person can work without food, and rest. For understanding purposes let’s use the standard work day of eight hours. How can top producing sales people across the County accomplish so much in a given day while some only accomplish a small amount during the same time period? Let’s examine both scenario’s individually.
The top producing real estate sales people, nationally, manages their business like a Fortune 500 company. They have carefully developed a business plan, they have budgeted all their expenses, they are ecstatic about managing their time, and they have a personal coach to help them maintain their focus on performing actions that are important in reaching their desired goals; while not letting non-productive actions interfere with their plan.
Real estate agents that are less productive during the same eight hour day generally do not have a business plan. Not only do they not budget their expenses, most can’t tell you what their total expenses were last year; let alone last month or last week. These people are poor at managing their time and commonly waste a lot of time each day talking to people in the office around the coffee pot, copy machine, or receptionist area. Nationally, very few of these people, if any, have a personal coach to help keep them focused on performing productive actions and provide accountability for allowing non-productive activities to interfere with their work.
Everything I have mentioned is very important to anyone that desires to reach a high level of success. I think the most important attribute a successful person possesses, regardless of the industry in which they work, or the level of success they have achieved, is focus. Having the ability to maintain focus on doing productive things, and not letting anything or anyone interfere with them accomplishing their daily work plan is of utmost importance. Common sense helps all us better understand anything. What happens when you’re driving on the highway and allow something to interfere with your focus on what’s ahead? Many times the results is a wreck, or at least possibly an opportunity to wreck. Master the ability to focus on everything you do, and you will realize a more desirable outcome. I can guarantee it will increase your income.
Should you have specific questions concerning various issues, please let me know and I’ll research the answer for you. I also want to encourage you to subscribe to our “News & Updates” weekly report so you can stay abreast of issues that might affect you when buying or selling real estate. If you haven’t visited my website, please go to www.AlabamaRealEstateInstitute.com and view previous articles.