To continue with our Attributes of Successful Agents series, we want to acknowledge that successful agents are rainmakers. In other words, they have become proficient in prospecting.

The single most important skill you need to acquire and master is prospecting.  What is prospecting?  It is the process of initiating new business opportunities by targeting potential real estate clients.  I know that that may sound dreary to some of you, but at the end of the day, it’s an important aspect of your business to master.  Whether you are a single agent who is only concerned about yourself or a Team Leader with the added responsibility of supporting other agents, it is a must for you to master this skill.

How to get motivated?  

Getting started is always the hardest part when completing a task that you may be reluctant to do. So, understanding your ‘why’ is a good way to start.  For myself, I had a family that was counting on me to be successful.  When I started my real estate career I had a very young family with 3 small children and was completely broke.  There were a lot of FSBOs in the early 1990’s so I started calling them until the cows came home.  All I knew was that these people needed to sell their homes and why not with me?   Did I WANT to do it, or feel like it?  Heck no.  But I did it anyway because my family was counting on me.  Before I knew it I became good at it and it was a habit that I did automatically, like brushing my teeth in the morning.  It was an adrenaline rush to get an appointment and to see how many I could get in a day!  I made it fun for myself.  Find a way to do this for yourself as well.  Enjoy your business and discover compelling reasons to go after it. 

Moving on to Chapter 3 in our Attributes of a Successful Real Estate Agent series we'll take a look at adopting an everlearning mindset.

Lifelong learning is the idea that you are never finished educating yourself and growing. A very significant trait that is possessed by successful business people is that they are ever-learners.  They possess a type of curiosity about life in general, which of course extends to their business life.  

The pursuit of knowledge is easier than it has ever been before, as technological advances can relay information instantaneously to our fingertips. It’s a modern-day privilege to take this convenience and utilize it in productive ways.

Learning can take on many forms; from learning new software or skills in your job to getting new certification or training. Listening to podcasts, taking online classes, teaching new skills to someone else. Simply reading books are all a way to continue to educate yourself throughout your life.

We tend to overestimate what we can do in 1 year and underestimate what we can do in 5.

To continue our discussion on planning for profit from my last blog, I want to reemphasize how successful people are planners who set goals and then design and implement tactics to reach those goals.  

If you want to have a thriving business practice, you must first build a business plan. It means being focused on the big picture. Once you've got your big picture, you can then itemize the steps that will enable you to achieve your goals.

Having a plan provides a gauge for you to measure your activities against what you want to achieve for the year.  You need to have a roadmap and feel like you’re moving towards your goals.  But how can you do that if you don’t have any goals in the first place?  Or if you don’t have a clear idea of what you want?

You have to start out by writing it out.  Having it 'in your head' is overrated and will get you nowhere.

I want to encourage you to put pen to paper and write out your goals with timelines and action items attached.  

What to Include In Your Plan

Let’s talk about what you should be thinking about in addition to just saying ‘I want to gross $400k this year (as an example)

PLANNING FOR PROFIT

Continuing with our series on 'Attributes of a Successful Real Estate Agent", one of the most important attributes of successful real estate agents is that they are planners.

Let’s start off with a discussion on planning for profit.

I firmly believe that planning is the most important first step to operating a successful real estate business. How do you know where to go unless you have a roadmap of sorts to follow? What is your vision? What does your business look like? What are your goals? If you don’t have the answers to those questions, then you are just haphazardly winging it and hoping for the best.

As my friend, Ben Franklin says, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

We all want to be great salespeople, but we also should want to be great business people. It all starts with having a plan.