Habits are a foundation of success.
As you progress through your sales career, your results will improve as you replace bad habits with good habits.
I’m a great believer that being a salesperson who operates at the mediocre level is much harder work than working towards Greatness. I also believe it’s a lot more stressful.
Think about it:
What habits would you foster if you were the greatest salesperson in the world?
- Would you set GOALS to help you focus?
Winners don’t ‘wing it’. They set goals, carefully calculating what TARGETS they need to achieve if they are to reach those goals.
Once they have their targets, winners formulate PLANS. They calculate how many potential sellers they need to speak with each working day, how many presentations they will attend, how many listings will come from those presentations, and how many of those listings will sell.
They know how many price reductions they must achieve each month, and how many buyer appointments they need. Nothing is left to chance. Everything is carefully calculated and planned.
Winners know that actions without purpose are a waste of time. If you were the greatest salesperson would you have goals and follow a plan EVERY MONTH?
- Would you prospect heavily?
Mediocre salespeople are too busy to prospect. Winners aren’t. So if you were the greatest salesperson in the world, how many potential sellers would you speak to each day?
Winners know that they must be working on listings to replace those that will inevitably sell. Incoming leads provided by the office will be insufficient to reach their goals. Winners know they need to prospect.
Speak to 40 potential sellers every working day – 200 a week – and your results will soar.
- Would you communicate with your sellers, or would you play ‘Duck & Hide’?
Whether or not there have been inspections on their sellers’ properties, winners stay in touch. They know that nothing happening IS something to talk about. When there have been no inspections on a seller’s property, winners visit the sellers and recommend a price reduction.
Mediocre salespeople play ‘Duck & Hide’. They avoid their sellers, and quickly reach a stage where the sellers blame the salesperson for lack of interest. These salespeople don’t realise it, but effectively they are conditioning those sellers to list and sell with the next agent that takes over the property. Through their lack of care and courage, these mediocre salespeople are working for the opposition. They just don’t know it.
- Would you pay special attention to the pricing of your listings?
If a property is not selling, it is overpriced. Winners know this. Mediocre salespeople don’t want to face this fact.
In ANY MARKET, you will make sales if your listings are priced at or near FAIR MARKET PRICE. Mediocre salespeople have great difficulty deciding what fair market price is, and even more difficulty recommending fair market prices to their sellers. They don’t want to risk their sellers’ displeasure.
Winners know that if a listing is to sell it must be fair value for the current market. Winners don’t blame the market for lack of sales; they take responsibility for their results and coach their sellers so that they confidently reduce to the right prices to sell.
- Would you work with qualified buyers, or anybody with a pulse?
The sure sign of a desperate salesperson is one who works with a lot of ‘buyers’, that is, anybody with a pulse who has indicated they would like to ‘look at houses’.
Winners work with a small number of qualified buyers and actively seek out properties that will suit those buyers. They are active prospectors, so why not prospect in an area where a qualified buyer wants to buy, they reason.
In real estate sales, the greatest time waster is spending too much time with the wrong people. It is a recipe for a disastrous career (I think it’s a recipe for a disastrous life actually).
Work with qualified buyers and show them properties that are priced to sell. This formula will beat auctions or open inspections hands down.
- Would you read, study CDs, attend seminars, and mix with winners?
Winners train. They know it takes as long to get a listing as it does to miss out on a listing, so why not train and do your best to turn every appointment into a result?
You never have to force a winner to train. Winners constantly look for ways to do things better.
Summary
No doubt you will be able to think of more habits of the greats. This is good: you are thinking. But thinking is only part of the equation. You also have to act.
Perhaps you already have instilled these habits into your work life, but if not, think how much better you would be if you:
- Had clear written goals, and followed a clear plan every month;
- Spoke with a minimum of 40 potential sellers every working day;
- Communicated with your sellers instead of playing ‘Duck & Hide’;
- Worked at pricing all of your listings at fair market price;
- Worked with qualified buyers only;
- Trained hard, constantly working toward Excellence.
These are the habits of the ‘Greats’.
I hope they are your habits.