Welcome back to Mike Ferry TV. My name is Tony Smith, the Vice President of The Mike Ferry Organization, and I am happy to step in for Mr. Mike Ferry today for this edition of Mike Ferry TV. Here we are, the 29th, the week of the 29th of August. If we look forward in our calendar, the first part of September starts here in just a second. Right? We have September, October, November, December. There’s four months left in the year. Think about the power of a 90-day cycle. Have you really thought about for yourself? Have you taken a second to really start to understand how great of a holiday season I want to have? What are we going to do? What’s something really exciting we’re going to do? I know it’s early. Here we are. Please don’t put the Christmas decorations in the stores yet. Okay? But in business, one of the things we have to look at is our ability to see the future a little bit. And what we really have in front of us is an opportunity for a pure 90-day cycle. Think about this. If you’re to run an aggressive, solid, pure, 90-day cycle. September, October, November puts you right up to the 1st of December. Will that, in essence, dictate how great your year turns out in good old 2022? We think so. Is that going to set you up in a big major way for 2023? More production, more profitability? We believe so. So wouldn’t it be a great idea right now for you to get clear on a 90-day cycle? And we all know that the money that you’re going to get paid this year actually closed transactions. If they’re not in escrow by the 1st of December, what are the odds? In fact, they probably need to be in escrow by the 15th of November if you’re going to get paid this year for it. So would you like to make a lot more money this year? There’s a golden opportunity. It has been proven in the Mike Ferry Sales System that a 90-day cycle can do magical things in your business.

So I’m going to go through a little series of thoughts today, some things you might want to consider if you wanted to really rock it for the last 90-day cycle leading up to December 1st. I wrote down, set very specific listings taken, listings sold, Buyer sales, closed transactions and income goals. Could you sit down right now and say, “Okay, between now and December 1st, here’s the number of listings I’m going to take. Here’s the number of listings I’m going to sell. Here’s the number of Buyer sales I’m going to make. Here’s the number of closed transactions I’m going to strive for. And here’s how much more money I’m going to put in my pocket between now and the end of the year.” I would put those in writing. I’d get very clear on it.

Number two, decide specifically which days you’ll be working for the next 90-days. This is the big challenge in Real Estate … The reason that many agents productivity drops off in the fourth quarter … decide, does yours? The reason it often does is agents simply won’t commit. Am I working or am I not working? How many days for Christmas? How many days for Thanksgiving or other holidays in North America? Am I vacationing at all? When am I working? When am I not? And because there’s no commitment, then we end up being a little sloppy with workdays. I’m going to ask you if you want a great … decide specifically exactly which days you’re going to work between now and the end of the year. And then you need to tell people about it. Tell your family, tell your Broker, tell your Manager, right? Engage others and get clear on the days you’re going to work because now it’s set in stone. The rest of the world will play this game of working or not the rest of the year. Please don’t do that.

Number three, I would commit exactly to how many contacts I’m going to make per workday for the rest of this year. How many people are you going to talk to? Is it 25? Is it 30? Do you need to step it up a bit? Let’s get specific on a content goal. Get specific on the hours. How many hours per day? How many hours per week? Who are you going to call? I would literally sit down and figure out my prospecting directive between now and the end of this 90-day cycle. Get clear on it, put it in writing.

Four on the list, I would commit or recommit to tracking everything. Right? One thing we know is if you get really clear on tracking everything, you can expect better results because you’re tracking it. And how are you going to know? I would track things like, what time do I get to work every day? You know exactly what time of my starting my prospecting. Be very, very specific and accurate on contacts and hours of prospecting, listing appointments, listings taken. Right? Let’s track everything we do. You know, if you go on an incredible weight loss program, they have you track everything and you get good results. It’s the same thing here.

I wrote down number five. I would ask you to really make a concerted effort. I mean, maybe the best effort you’ve made all year between the hours of 8:00 AM and noon to eliminate every distraction you have. If you want to make this 90 days, great. Is that the computer? Is that the cell phone? Is it closing the door to your office? Is it telling your family or staff to leave you alone? Is it, you know, is it some of your own bad habits that you do where you create distractions for yourself? If you want a 90-day window, let’s clear out the junk. What’s getting in your way between eight and noon? Clear it out. I wrote down this 90-day cycle. I would ask you to immediately create, recreate or refresh your Pre-Listing Packet for those of you in the Mike Ferry Sales System, you know what I’m talking about. When is the last time you upgraded? Kind of refresh that Pre-Listing Packet. Are you still working from the one in 1992? I hope not. Let’s get that ready because you’re going to use it a lot. If I made a decision that I was going to take 30 listings between now and the end of this 90-day cycle, I would have 40 Pre-Listing Packages made in advance. Why? Because it creates my mindset that that’s what I’m doing. So I would ask you to refresh it, upgrade it, share it with some people, which actually then leads to. Are you going to commit at the highest level possible to using the Mike Ferry 5-Step Listing Process? Boy, if you really want to have a great 90 days, commit to using what works the 5-Step Listing Process.

Number seven. This is a big one. Any listing taken for more than 5% over the suggested price? I would have you ask for a price reduction within seven days. One way to have a great 90-day cycle is to train yourself that if you make a mistake on price, get very aggressive, very quick. You go out and list a property today. “Ooh, I listed that too high. It’s kind of my old habit.” I would go back within seven days and ask for a price reduction. It teaches aggressiveness. It teaches you to make movement quickly.

All right. Next on the list. If you want to do it. Number eight, prequalify 100% of every Buyer and Seller to the highest level you possibly can. If you want to have a great 90-day cycle, I would dramatically improve my prequalifying. We need to find motivation, right? I would upgrade, I would enhance and I would write the answers out. I would turn every single prequel I did into somebody. If you have a Coach, turn them all into your Coach. If you have a business partner, Accountability Partner, turn those prequalification’s in. That way, it holds you accountable.

Number nine on this list, I said it just a minute ago. I would review, refresh, recommit to using the 5-Step Listing Process verbatim for the next three months. You know, what part of it are you leaving out? What part are you skipping over? What part were you able to get away with for the last couple of years in the 5-Step Process that you can’t get away with now? Pre-Listing Packages, calling back and confirm, 100% prequal, showing up mentally, using the dialogs that Mike has created. I would recommit and I would do a very serious look at that to be sure you’re next to it.

Number ten on the list. I would set up immediately an even stronger accountability for the next three months. I would get with Accountability Partners, friends, family, Brokers, Managers. Box yourself in. Put yourself in a position where you’re held highly accountable for this three-month window. Figure out what it is for yourself. You know what works. Do it. Okay?

Eleven, I would commit to honestly completing and tracking every number. Like we talk about tracking the numbers. I would commit to tracking the numbers, keeping close tabs on the contacts, everything. And I would commit to reviewing those numbers at the end of each week. More than ever. What is it, number 12? I would recommit to an even stronger practice and role-play program for this three-month window. Could you come out of this three months, a much better skilled agent than you were? We know you can. I would set up a curriculum for the next three months to take my skills from here to here. Why not? Wouldn’t that mean you bring better skills into 2023? I think it’s a great idea and we’re going to need them. I wrote this down. I would use 3, 3, 3 rule and really start a strong rule system for the leads I have. This whole idea at this time of the year of accumulating massive amounts of leads. We understand, you’re going to run into a lot of people that say next year, next year or next year. Well, if a market is stabilizing or possibly leveling out or even possibly declining in value, is it really smart for someone to wait till next year if they don’t have to, they should list now. I made a little side note. Pretty soon we’re going to be asking you to bring out all the reasons why you should list during the holidays that’s going to come up in the next two months. You want to get your mind wrapped around that list now versus later?

Number 14, on this list, I would decide what value you’re going to bring to your Past Client and Center of Influence for the rest of this year. Have you been sending the mail out every quarter? Could you get a nice strong postcard out to your database and talk to every single one of the people in your database between now and the end of the year? And how are you going to bring value? How are you going to ask for referrals? I would take a close look at a program for that.

Fifteen on the list. I would study the market stats more than ever. I would have a goal to become the most knowledgeable Real Estate Agent in your marketplace over the next three months. Nobody is going to know more about the stats of what the trends are. Active listings, pending sales. Nobody’s going to know better than you because knowledge equals confidence. Ignorance equals fear. Right? Study the stats.

I wrote 16, every afternoon between 3:00 PM and 5:00 PM. Now hear me on this. Every afternoon between 3:00 PM and 5:00 PM. If you don’t have a listing appointment, I would go find 4 to 5 For Sale By Owners and or Expired Listings and I would go talk to them by phone or door. Every afternoon between 3:00 PM and 5:00 PM for this 90-day window. Let’s dig into those For Sale By Owners and Expireds. They’re coming.

Number 17. If I were going to do this 90 days, I would maintain a top-five hottest leads list and I would carry it with me every single place I went for this three-month window. I would be sharing and holding accountable that, “What are my hottest leads?” Talk to your Coach about it if you have every single week. What are my hottest leads that I need to convert? Let’s get locked in and understand. Do we have five-hot leads? It’s very powerful for production.

Eighteen … The last one on the list. I would commit to previewing property every single day. Okay? There’s nothing stronger than you learning more about the market when everybody else is not learning about the market. I would commit to previewing two or three or four homes every single day for this 90-day window. You can do it while you’re out there knocking on those Expireds and FSBO’s can’t you? Right? How about if you knock down 7, 8, 10 doors around all the preview properties? Does this sound like an aggressive plan? Yes, it sounds aggressive. Does this sound like more work than maybe some of you have been doing? Possibly. Probably. But the truth is, would you like to finish this year strong and would you like to start 2023 even stronger? I like the money. I hope you do, too. Thanks for your time.