15 Ideas On How To Improve Your Fourth Quarter
Welcome to another edition of Mike Ferry TV on “15 Ideas On How To Improve Your Fourth Quarter.”
Well, here we are. We’re officially in the fourth quarter of 2022. Welcome to the fourth quarter. Exciting times.
With everything going on in the marketplace today, the changes and normalization of the market, the time of year that we’re in. The distractions that typically pop up for people in the fourth quarter, the holiday season, all those things going on.
We couldn’t be more excited for people that are paying attention right now of this being an opportunity to really take advantage. You know, there’s going to be agents that are distracted at the highest level possible.
There’s going to be Real Estate Agents that are frustrated and discouraged with the changes in the market. There’s going to be agents that are suffering to some degree because they’re not producing at the levels they had gotten used to in the frenzy.
If you add all this together, what an opportunity for you if you’re paying attention. So I made some thoughts from Mike Ferry, some things you might want to consider adding into or improving on as we go through the fourth quarter, if you really want to take full advantage of it.
So here’s some thoughts for you.
The first thing I wrote down is, Hey, let’s take a couple of 15-minute mindset breaks throughout the day.
Boy, with the distractions going on, some of the negative chatter that’s going on out in the marketplace, you know, this talk of interest rates and all these things, you’re going to need to spend some more time strengthening your mindset.
So how about taking a little 15-minute mindset break in the mid-morning, you know, get reconnected? How about taking a 15-minute mindset break in the early afternoon as you get set up for presentations that you’re going on, right?
Your job is to remind yourself, convince yourself and continue to sell yourself on the fact that this is going to be the best fourth quarter for you in the history of selling Real Estate.
Let me ask you a question. Is there anything physically stopping this, physically stopping you from having this become the best fourth quarter in your career?
If there’s nothing physically stopping you, then the only thing that could stop you is mentally. Let’s not let that be the case. Let’s take those mindset breaks.
Number two on the list … Set higher than normal listing’s taken and sales goals for the fourth quarter. Why not?
If you trust in us that the competition decreases to almost its lowest level, and if you trust in the fact that there’s still a large number of people buying and selling Real Estate, why wouldn’t you then set out to take a listing or two more than you normally would in a quarter?
Let’s say you’ve been averaging two listings taken a month. Well, two listings a month would naturally be six in the quarter. Why not strive for seven or eight? Let’s say you’ve been normally selling one or two properties a month.
Why not work at nine, eight or nine? Set some higher goals for yourself. Challenge yourself! Just by challenging yourself you’re going to force yourself to be more productive when everybody else is not productive.
Three … If you’re currently off track, find a way to not mentally quit before you physically stop for the year.
This is so common. Agents start checking out mentally, but they’re still showing up to work every day. Does it make any sense? If you’re going to work … work! Don’t mentally quit before you physically stop for the year. Push yourself.
Challenge yourself to get through the entire year if it’s a workday, start checking your performance. Here’s something we know. If you are on a quest and a strong quest to really be improving self-improvement, it doesn’t leave much room for self-doubt.
So could you go on a really strong quest to do the best you know how to do and improve as a salesperson between now and the end of the year? If you do, there’s no room for self-doubt to creep in there. Focus on doing your job. Don’t mentally quit.
You know, I put a little note. Great agents work 11 months, not eight. Right? Typically, you know, Halloween is the stopping point for most agents. Don’t let that be you.
I wrote down … Remember the power of momentum. It can be positive or negative. You know, it’s so interesting in our industry that agents will let their train roll to a complete stop right before Christmas. Why do we do that?
You know, you take a 200 ton locomotive rolling down the tracks and it comes to a complete stop. You know, you could set a penny on the railroad tracks and hold that train still. A penny will hold back 200 tons.
But, man, if you have the momentum, if a train is going, 25, 30, 35 miles an hour down the tracks, you could park a Buick in front of it and that train is going to obliterate that car and roll right through it. That is an example of momentum.
So shouldn’t the fourth quarter be designed to keep momentum, build momentum, maintain momentum and come into the new year? Fully in momentum. Why not? I would consider it.
I wrote down number five on this list … Identify the sources of every deal you’ve done so far this year. Now is the time to take another look at every transaction you’ve gotten this year.
Where did every listing come from? Where did every sale come from? Where did each pending come from? And let’s look at how we can make a plan to duplicate the ones that are duplicatable.
You know, in the fourth quarter, if you focus on well, I took two listings from Expireds. If you focus on those Expireds, try to duplicate it. You can take a couple more. Right? Let’s be sure that we’re clear on focusing on where we can duplicate our business and not focus on the places we can’t.
Six on the list … Create a specific schedule for the rest of the year. Holidays, days off, a couple of days to go shopping and take care of things, days off for Thanksgiving, Christmas, whatever other holidays you may have. Why not decide? This is one of the big ones.
Agents spend a lot of time in the fourth quarter contemplating whether it’s a day off or a day on. So what they end up doing is spending a fair amount of days around the office, around the job, but not working. We’d rather have you decide.
Be generous with yourself. If you’re going to take three days off for Thanksgiving, go ahead. If you’re going to take four days off for Christmas or the week between Christmas and New Year’s, go ahead.
If you need a couple days for shopping, days to enjoy the family, go ahead. But whatever’s there after that, are workdays. This puts the lines clear. There’s no gray area here. You’re working when you say you’re going to be working.
How about this? Understand the value of the lack of competition right now. If you’ll just take a minute and truly recognize and understand what value there is in a lack of competition.
You know, look around your office, Listen to some of the things that the other agents are doing about taking days off, showing up, having two hour lunches, you know, all the parties and all those things that go on this time of year, they are not thinking “productivity”.
If you’re thinking “productivity”, if you’re following your schedule, if you have clear-cut goals, if you know when you’re working, when you’re not, there is so much business you can do simply by the lack of competition.
How about this? Treat this more than ever like a real job just for the next three months. Can you treat this like a real job? Can you show up on time? Can you follow your schedule? Can you get the tasks done that you said you were going to do each day?
Boy, if you treated this like a real job, what would your employer, if you had a real job, would your employer allow you to not show up or not work? No. The rest of the world is out there working. Regular people with regular jobs have to show up and do their job every day.
Why not pretend and treat this like a real job? I put a little note next to this. Don’t complicate it either. You know, in real jobs, people have a very usually a really clear-cut description of what their job is.
Do you have a clear-cut description of yours? Why not keep it simple? Don’t make it complex and complicated. Simple.
How about nine on this list? How many listing appointments do you want to have set in January? This is very common. You know, many of our agents will literally come into January with two, four or five, six, seven, eight listing appointments booked to start the year.
Why wouldn’t we set some firmer accountability around the prospecting we’re going to do? Why not set up a mindset and have some goals of how many listing appointments we’re going to have in our schedule come January 1. Boy, that’ll help you stay in the game.
How about ten? Work to understand that people will be buying and selling Real Estate in the fourth quarter. Don’t let anyone sell you the fact that there’s no business out there.
Boy, if you haven’t heard Mike Ferry at all this year. Does this sound familiar? Keep going … There’s a lot of business to be done.
You know, every single year somebody lists right on Christmas Day or Thanksgiving Day or New Year’s Day or any other holiday that comes up. Somebody lists and sells their home every single day.
There is so much business going on out there. Don’t buy into any stories of anyone trying to sell you on the fact that there’s no business out there. Let them keep thinking it.
Eleven on the list … Make a list of all the holiday objections you know you’re going to receive. If you check out our website, we have something called the 11 Reasons to List during the Holidays.
I would take a close look at that because if you’re clear on the objections you know you’re going to receive, “We want to wait till after the first of the year”, right? “There’s no agents out there”, “There’s no business”, “No reason to put our property on the market right now”. Right?
If you really start understanding the objections, you’re going to receive and work to answer those objections, practice, rehearse, role-play them. Then when those objections come up … they will … you’re going to handle them better.
Worst case is you end up with a whole bunch of appointments in the next year. Like that’s the worst-case scenario.
Twelve on this list … Contact every single person in your database over the next 90 days. Contact every single person in your database and ask them for referrals. They have referrals. You just have to ask.
How many people are in your database have you not spoken to so far in this calendar year? We’ve got to make sure and speak to everybody in our database. Let’s commit to it.
Thirteen on this list … Determine the average number of hours you’ve prospected. Follow me on this. How many hours have you prospected on average per day this year?
Let’s say you’ve averaged 1.5 hours per day this year. Add 30% to that number. For most people, they could add 30 to 45 minutes to an hour of prospecting every day. And it certainly wouldn’t hurt you, would it?
Why not focus on adding 30% to the amount of prospecting we do just from now to the end of the year? You’ll get rewarded for it. You’ll certainly do a lot of business because of it.
Fourteen on this list … Work to eliminate distractions. Boy, the added distractions today, you know, the parties and the get-togethers and the shopping and this and that and the other thing, all the political stuff that goes on.
There’s so many added distractions. The amount of posts and Facebook and texting everyone does goes through the roof. Can you get really aggressive with removing distractions right now?
Put that cell phone in the drawer. Give it to your assistant. Shut off that computer unless you’re prospecting from it. Stay out of that email and all those chatter boxes. If you can keep yourself distraction free, you will be in a high-productivity mode, which pays a lot.
And then the last thing I wrote down … How about writing a three-month wish list? What do you want for your family and what do you want for yourself in the remaining three months of this year? How about thinking big for a second?
Can you make this time of year absolutely spectacular for yourself and your family? We believe you can. We believe you deserve it. You should. So how about get that wish list together?
That list is going to support you right now. It’s going to encourage you. It’s going to hold you accountable. It’s going to be something to strive for to do the hard work.
We know this, if you’ll work when others are not working, if you’ll have a strong mindset, when others don’t have a strong mindset, who wins the game? Of course you do.
Thanks for your time on another edition of Mike Ferry TV.