By Julie Escobar, Director of Corporate Marketing, ProspectsPLUS!
There’s no time for “cruise control” as we head into the new year with high expectations and often, even higher challenges. Making sure you’re on track and in the right lane to reach your destination should be high on your to-do list, even during these busy holiday times. How can you make sure you’re on the right road? Let’s take a look at a few helpful strategies for success:
1. Park it.
That’s right. Park yourself in a quiet spot for a day, a weekend or even a week if that’s what it takes to iron out a true business plan for the year ahead. Make sure that as you develop your plan that you also take into consideration the goals and needs of your entire family and support system. After all, you’ll need their support on those long days and sometimes long nights when you’re busy negotiating on your client’s behalf. Take a long look at your fixed costs, plus your desired income level to determine the true numbers you’ll need to hit in the year ahead.
2. Re-tool it.
If you’re like many agents, your market is beginning to turn a bit. Make sure that your marketing materials and presentation reflect those changes. Today’s top agents ensure their marketing tools are always fresh and timely. Home buyers and sellers in this market are more often than not savvy consumers. Having the right message for the right person at the right time helps you instill confidence and build rapport with new customers and clients.
3. Call it in.
Communicating with the masses is easier than ever. Consider hosting a weekly conference call or webinar for local home buyers or sellers on various real estate topics such as “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Short Sales,” “FSBO 101,” “Making the Most of Your Real Estate Investment,” and more. Talented agents across North America are using this cost and time effective strategy to reach more people at a time, establish themselves as the local expert and broaden their real estate reach.
4. Create it.
If farming is your best prospecting method, jump in and create a blog or Facebook page for those communities you wish to “own.” If one is already established, contact the administrator, introduce yourself and offer to provide regular community real estate updates. It’s a great reason to collect email addresses, Facebook friends, and of course, expand your book of business and promote yourself as the turn-to agent in that neighborhood!
5. Build it.
There has never been a more important time to build your database of customers. Albeit a daunting task for many, when you consider how many agents have left this business over the course of the last tough few years without anything to show for their time in the industry, you begin to understand how crucial it is to “begin with the end in mind.” In other words, make sure that you’re building a viable, SALABLE book of business. We provide a great resource for agents to do just that in our Free Resource section on ProspectsPLUS.com. Look for the BusinessBASE™ system and get started today! It can walk you through the 250 people who should be in your book of business, what information you’ll need to gather and an effective “Send-Call-See” method of staying in touch. Try it – you’ll like it!
6. Think it.
Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich message is just as powerful today as it was all those many years ago. So much of what we can and can’t accomplish in this business and in life is tied to our mindset. Expand your thoughts, your belief system and your skills each day, each week and each month of 2010 and watch the possibilities unfold for you and your family. A powerful motivational site to bookmark for yourself as well as your sales meetings is walkthetalk.com. If you haven’t watched their movie 212 Degrees yet, I highly recommend it, in fact it would make a great holiday gift for friends as well as a terrific addition to your own library!
We wish you every success and abundance in the coming year and want to take this opportunity to thank you for your readership, your attention and your business! We’re here to help ensure you’re ALWAYS in the driver’s seat for your success. Need help? Call me at 1.866.405.3641 today!
