I have been writing hiring advertisements this past month and it got me thinking. As I listed the benefits of a real estate career I thought, “This is truly a great career. I wonder how many real estate salespeople actually appreciate the golden opportunity their real estate careers offer them”.
The more I think about Sales, the more I love it. When you landed a real estate career, you won the lottery.
Do you need reminding how good you’ve got it?
Selling dreams
So many people dream of owning property. It’s a talking point at most parties, in the media; I’d go as far to say that real estate is more talked about these days than is the weather.
Freedom
Your time is your own. Although you may have to attend sales and training meetings, you don’t have a boss looking over your shoulder. Get results and most of the time you are left alone.
Nice clothes
You don’t have to put on high-vis vests and work in hot, dirty environments. You wear nice clothes, work most of the time in air conditioning, and if you know what you’re doing you make more money than any miner.
Nice car
I am not advocating that any salesperson leases a flashy car that ends up costing three times the list price by the time it’s paid out. I prefer salespeople to buy good cars with cash. Sure, your tax deductions are less, but then you have less chance of getting into financial trouble if you only spend your money and don’t exceed your limits. But you still buy a nice car and enjoy it.
Satisfaction
Salespeople can experience career highs every day, when they sell a property and see the faces of happy sellers and buyers. For the sellers, selling, buying and moving can be traumatic. For the buyer, equally so. What a great feeling it is to help people and to get paid well for it.
Huge income potential
This is down the bottom because this is where most people put income on their lists of the most important things they want from a career. This does not mean that money is not important, it’s just that some things are more so for many people.
Let’s face it: money is a reward for service. The better trained you are and the more people you serve COMPETENTLY, the more money you make.
The big point about a high income is that it is entirely in your hands.
Brian Tracy says, “Do you want a pay rise? Then go to the mirror and negotiate with your boss”. So true.
Competence + Activity + Client Care = High Income.
Competence, Activity and Client Care are all within your control. How wonderful!
Real Estate is not for job seekers
If you are looking for a job, don’t go into real estate sales. If you are in real estate sales now and are treating it like a job, I suggest changing your attitude, or changing jobs. Real estate is a career, not a job. Believe me, there is a huge difference between job and career.
Macquarie Dictionary definitions
job: 1. A piece of work; an individual piece of work done in the routine of one’s occupation or trade. 2. A piece of work of defined character undertaken for a fixed price. 3. A post of employment.
People with jobs work for people. They are paid an hourly rate. They work for other people’s goals.
career: 1. A general course of action or progress of a person through life, as in some profession, in some moral or intellectual action. 2. An occupation, profession, etc. followed as one’s lifework.
Progress of a person through life… followed as one’s lifework…
Poles apart from a job.
When I see real estate salespeople ‘working’ 9AM to 5PM, and then complaining about how tough things are, I think, “You are wasting a golden opportunity. Stop acting like a paid worker and start acting like a self-employed entrepreneur. Get out and look for business!”
Take control
Think career and make the most of it.
- Set goals
Decide what you want to achieve in the coming year – meaningful goals you want and are willing to work for, but goals that stretch you.
- Make plans
Decide what you need to produce in order to achieve your goals. Calculate the targets required and plan how to reach them.
- Study
Income is not the focus. Income is the reward. Competent people earn more than do incompetent people. Study. Learn how to be better at your career.
- Don’t make excuses – NEVER blame the market
Leave blaming the market to losers. If you cannot learn how to survive and thrive in any market, you are at the mercy of the economy. Winners know how to find customers, to convert leads into business, and to leave clients happy, happy enough to pay fair fees for the services rendered.
- Personal accountability
Play the blame game and you lose, even if people believe you. Plenty of salespeople are winning, so why not you? Inventing excuses to disguise mediocrity is as time consuming as devising plans to win. Steer your thinking toward success, not failure.
- Be grateful
A little gratitude always makes us feel better and helps us see life’s possibilities. Be grateful for your career, your clients, for your family and your health. Expand your list – there is plenty to be grateful for if you think about it. Grateful people see abundance. Pessimists see lack.
Realise how good you’ve got it
Make the most of this golden opportunity wrapped in a real estate career. If you are coasting, realise that you are wasting time, losing money, and whittling away perhaps the greatest opportunity you will ever be offered. Get to work.
Look after clients. They are not a limitless reservoir. Burn them and they will see that you are punished. Look after them and they will stay with you for life.
Sales can set you up for life.
Appreciate this wonderful career and make the most of it.