You know what to do, but do you do what you know?

This is a great question that we all need to ask ourselves in real estate sales everyday. I see agents every day and most want to tell me that they are finding;

• Hard to find buyers
• Hard to get listings
• Its a tough market
• People dont like auctions
• vendors wont pay for marketing
• etc etc

These are all simply excuses as to why we are not achieving and performing at our best. To be the best we can be we need to make sure we not only learn what we need to do, but more importantly we do what we need to do!

This comes to the question of prospecting. Agents know that they need to prospect for new business, however most agents simply do not prospect. This is all about over coming fear, stepping outside your comfort zone.

Real Estate sales success is about three key factors;

1. Managing relationships this includes managing and meeting expectations!
2. Managing a sale process
3. Conducting appropriate and effective prospecting.

Of these three items the least important at this stage is the sales process, I am not saying its not important, just not as important as the other two.

Agents have a real problem with prospecting and communication, it usually comes down to a lack of confidence or an oversupply of confidence. I say both because agents are usually to scared to call or to important to bother! Either one does not impress a potential or active vendor.

I say the sales process is the least important because if you manage expectations, you manage the vednor/agent/buyer relationship and you have prospected well then the sale process will simply happen. We also have many templates for a sales process, I obviously support and like the auction sale process as it is a clear template from which we can help guide our buyers through a program and deliver a competitive market value to our vendors at the end of the process.

The template to any process is;

• Clear objectives
• Detailed action plan
• Superior product knowledge
• Understanding of market and competitors
• Knowing limitations of your self and your product
• Specific feed back intervals
• Communication outlines, results and reports
• Set expectations
• Desired outcome
• Conclusion

This basic outline does not change from a sales process to a prospecting process – The only difference is most of us do not have a prospecting process at all.

If you sit down and create a ‘prospecting process’ and follow it the way you would with a sales process we would see results within a similar timeframe. This scares us – sometimes we dont want to see the results because we are afraid they will not be where we want them to be and the prospecting will have  been a failure. We need to overcome this fear because there is no such thing as failure, there is only results! How we process these results, how we communicate these results determines the ultimate success, failure and improvement of our business.

So sit down today and using the outline above create a prospecting process, and then implement it! yes that’s right take action and implement your prospecting plan, you will see the positive results immediately. I say immediately because even by the undertaking of this task we will feel a sense of clarity and energy towards your real estate business, as we have now moved from being a reactive business to becoming a proactive business. The control this decision will give to you the business owner cannot be underestimated because when we are in control – ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!

Get energetic, get enthusiastic and take Action!

Nick Cleary – Adrenaline Coach and Auctioneer