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You've read the self-help goal books. You set sales goals.
You do this because goals are important. Don't listen to John Polito, over at REMonline (you can have goals without becoming a rigid and unspontaneous bore).
But if you feel goal setting hasn't made the impact on your life than you expected-- their is a reason. You are simply doing it all wrong.
Their is an enormous disconnect between what realtors know they should do to generate clients and sales (goals), and what they actually do do.
Why?
Because they have weak, cob-web connections between actions and the expected results (goals)-- not cables. If their focus or memory temporarily short circuits, they become unclear of the reasoning for the goals they've set to generate business and why they are important, even if they just set the goal a few days or weeks prior.
For example: Every realtor, at one time or another, has heard that you can build a business around cold-calling. But many realtors don't cold-call. Why? Because in their minds and emotions, they down play the upside, and over exaggerate the hardship.
A simple tactic can get you seeing things clearly and making solid connections between actions and results-- which will get you following through on your game plans more often.
- Step 1- Get out a piece of paper, place it in front of you width ways, and draw 2 lines vertically down the paper to make three columns.
- Step 2- In the far left row, mark down your business building goal. An example might be "Get more clients who list and buy with me".
- Step 3- In the middle column, write down what needs to happen immediately before your goal to the right can occur. For example, what needs to take place before a client decides to list or buy with you? Well, that's easy. People need to be aware that you are a realtor that has the ability to do a great job for them, and they need to like you (more specifically, like your reputation/brand/image). Your name needs to come to mind when they think to sell or buy (awareness). They need to know how to contact you. In summary, reputation, awareness and contact.
- Step 4- In the far right column, what needs to take place before what you've recorded in the middle row, can occur? To continue with our example, you need to transmit a message to specific people that fosters the right level of awareness and reputation. They also need to know how to contact you. This isn't the right place to get detailed on what that message should be, or what that reputation/brand/image is that you want to build. You are just identifying the objective.
- Step 5- Get another piece of paper, put it to the right of the first paper, and create three more columns. What steps can you/should you take to send the message? You can list tactics like cold-calling, mailings, door knocking, social networking, community outreach programs, community and organizational based volunteering (executive/participant levels). You now have clarity, as to how simple your message and goal in these forums and channels is. You just want people to know who you are (awareness), that you are a proficient and likable person that is also a realtor (brand/image) and that you are reachable in a number of ways. How hard is it to cold-call once you realize that all you need to say is something nice and simple like "Hi, I'm Tom Smith, I drove by your house and I thought it was beautiful. If you ever have any thoughts about selling, I'd be happy to offer some free advice. I could certainly move a house like that. If you're planning to stay, I can see why :)". If you do this in volume, and call each house hold with a nice pleasant update or voicemail every 3 months, you are taking some smart steps.
- Step 6- Now you can move to the next column and list the specific actions that you need to take. These could be specific tasks or more short-term goals. The idea, is you are connecting what might have once been ambiguous goals, with clear objectives and actions.
You can connect as many columns and papers together as it takes to get to the root actions that your goal requires. You want to get as detailed as specific actionable steps like "get brochure publishing software", "get quotes from web page developers", and "researchorganizations to get involved in".
We hope you enjoyed this post and take the time to put this technique into action. Often, it is the simple things like this that sway the tipping point to your favour.
