Doug Doebler earned a multiple seven figure personal income last year. I started coaching Doug three years ago when he was earning mid five figures.
Cathy McWilliams is the number one Agent in her company. She sold one hundred and fifteen homes last year. My work with her began seven years ago when she sold nine homes.
What are Cathy and Doug and all other highly successful agents doing every day that you are not?
First, they are conscientious with lead follow up. Average Agents are often very concerned with generating more leads, yet they lose many of the leads they already have.
Highly successful Agents know how many listings and sales they need each month to reach their “Exceptional Goals.” They focus and follow up on enough leads to achieve those goals.
This is a subtle point. Notice that I do not say they follow up on all their leads. Highly successful Agents who coach with one of our
Some Clients accomplish this, following up on enough leads to reach their Exceptional Goals doing it ad hoc without scheduling specific time for it.
If you are not doing this ad hoc we coach our Clients to set aside an hour a day, three days a week to follow up and manage their leads. We call these Success Hours.
Putting these three Success Hours on your calendar, showing up for them, and using the time to manage and call your leads is the first thing you may not do that more productive Agents are doing.
The second habit of highly successful Agents is that they are conscientious on Service.
- Do you speak to each of your listed seller’s each week?
- Do you speak to each of your pending seller and buyer clients each week?
- Do you speak to your hottest few buyers every day and your less urgent buyers each week, in addition to their automated receipt of new listings?
Highly Successful Agents always agree with our belief that, “There is more business in good service than in most forms of good prospecting.”
So we coach our clients to set aside one hour a week to call their listed sellers; call their pending clients; and update their active buyers. We call this your Service Hour.
Occasionally, we get the comment that there is no time to schedule this additional “Service Hour” in your already busy days. That is dangerous thinking.
That thinking costs you business, peace of mind, and makes every phase of every transaction more difficult for you.
Many Agents comment that their clients are in the habit of calling all the time and nothing will prevent that.
The reason for client’s constant calling is that they don’t know when (or if) you will call. They don’t know if they can depend on you.
As you build the Service Hour habit you train your clients to expect your call at the predetermined time. If you are true to your word and you make the calls when you say you will, you’ll soon discover that your clients appreciate your dependability and you recapture a lot of your time… and your life.
Here is your priority: Implementation of your Service Hour is more important than your Success Hours habit.
The most important habit, I call your Leadership Hour. This is one scheduled hour each week that you step out of working in your business and you work on your business.
During this Leadership Hour you look at your numbers, your appointments, your sales and listings. How did you do this week? How are you doing this month and year to date? Where are you in relation to your goals? What marketing campaign is next? What service system needs to be established? Are your presentations working or do they need work?
This one hour soon becomes the driving force for your business. For our coaching Clients, that is their coaching hour and when their coaching agreement is complete we teach them to apply the same coaching practices for themselves during this Leadership Hour. Those that do this find that their business continues to grow and their quality of life continues to improve.
The final thing that highly successful Agents do that you may not is a Success Habit. It is not scheduled, like those above. It is a mental and emotional habit.
When something goes wrong they get past it quickly and get back into action toward their goals. They have a habit that I break this habit into four steps.
They acknowledge the error (whether it is their error or someone else’s). They forgive themselves. They re-commit to their goals. And they get back into action.
Lesser Agents allow errors, theirs and other’s to slow them down for hours, even days.
Highly successful Agents are just as bothered by errors, perhaps more so. But, they learn to quickly get past their thoughts and feelings and get back into action.
That’s it. What do $10,000,000 Agents do one hour day that you don’t?
- They are conscientious on Lead Follow-up – the three Success Hours.
- They are conscientious on Service – the Service Hour.
- They take scheduled time to stop working in their business and work on it –the Leadership Hour.
- When they err, they quickly get past it and back on in action.
Be patient with yourself. Yet, be persistent. By implementing these four habits into your business, you will achieve very high levels of production and a life of greater control and happiness.
