10 Characteristics of Successful Agents – Part 1
The days and weeks go by fast, so I hope you’re off to a fast start! The interesting thing for me is the majority of our clients are doing a lot of business between January 2nd and today. They followed up on all the great leads they had from the fourth quarter. They’ve set appointments, they’re going on listings. We need you to do the same! There’s a lot of business out there, don’t let anything or anybody tell you there’s not.
One of the fun parts of what I’ve done for the last 43, 44 years now is studying, talking to, listening to, questioning, spending time with people that are very successful real estate people. In the last six months or so, I focused on a group of about 95 of my clients, who earned in excess of one million dollars a year in personal earnings in 2018. Now yes, some of these agents had a small team, some had a big team. The people the bigger teams were earning three, four, five million dollars. The small teams were earning a million and a half, to say, two million dollars. A lot of these are just great agents like yourself that have learned what to say and what to do to be highly productive, and have earned over a million dollars in commissions.
Now I don’t know what you’re earning. I don’t know how much you’ve earned in the past, but I have to tell you, earning a million dollars takes a lot of work, a lot of energy, a lot of great thought, a lot of planning and most important a lot of action.
The 30 Characteristics of Great Real Estate Salespeople
At the production retreat this week, I’m going through what I’ve defined as the 30 characteristics of these great people that I’ve met. These great people that we’ve trained, that we’ve coached, that we’ve worked with in many cases for many years. What makes them tick, what they do, how they think to become so successful. Over the course of our next three weeks, I want to share with you 10 of those 30 characteristics each week.
I’m going to ask you to write them down and also think about them. To have a strong conversation with yourself about these characteristics. I’m going to ask you to talk to your role play partners—if you’re in a mastermind group, your mastermind. If you have accountability partners talk to your accountability partners. Talk to your spouse. Talk to your broker manager if they support your production, which hopefully they will all support your production. Because the conversations about these particular characteristics are what embed them in your great subconscious mind, into your computer, so you can add these characteristics into your life.
Mindset, Skills, Activities, Action
The mindset of a can versus I can’t. The mindset of a can versus I won’t. The skills knowing what to do what to say. The activities which you and I both know require a lot of work to be involved in activities that lead to listings and sales on a weekly basis. And then of course taking action every day. So all of these 30 points will be falling under the category of mindset skills activities action. Let’s go through the first 10 today. Let’s see if we can get you to incorporate them into your subconscious mind and get you using them in your day to day work. No order of importance on these 30 points, here’s number one.
1. Think Big Non-Stop
There’s two ways to think. I can think big about what I can do can, accomplish. Where I can go, what can happen in a positive way in my life. Or I can think small, hoping to get by from day to day, week to week. Most real estate people don’t think very big, and it’s not because they don’t want to. They don’t know how to! Thinking big is a learned process—a step by step process you can follow to change how you think so you can change the results you get. If somebody is earning a million dollars a year, they’re certainly thinking a lot bigger than most people think.
2. Focus on the Big Picture
There are many pictures we carry around inside our mind. We picture ourselves as being a good real estate person. Maybe we picture our selves driving down the street, seeing a For Sale By Owner and thinking we can list that property. Or we picture ourselves as being a person that can never be highly productive, that can never be very successful.
The big picture is your production, your income, your lifestyle. The people that are making a million dollars a year have painted a picture that they look at all the time. Of the levels of success that they’re going to achieve, that they’re going to accomplish. They focus on the big picture.
3. Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
They don’t sweat or worry about the small stuff. Somebody said one time you know, what is the big stuff in life? Birth and death. What’s in between? The small stuff. People that make a lot of money don’t sweat those little details. They’re focused of course and getting the details done, making sure they track their numbers, on learning what to say. But these are really the small things in life, because once you’ve learned the numbers and once you’ve focused on what you have to say, the big picture is what you want to focus on. Don’t sweat or worry about the small stuff. It’s always gonna be out there in your life.
4. Focus on What You Can Do (Not What You Can’t)
They think about what they can do not what they can’t do. I’ll say to a real estate person can you list three, four, five homes a month. “Oh, I don’t think I can do that!” Well you’re right. When somebody tells me they can’t do something, the voter is unanimous. Think about what you can do.
What are your assets? What are your strengths? Make a list of them as this new year begins. Think about putting those assets, those strengths to work for you in your business in your life every day. That’s what you can do. But if you’re only thinking about what you can’t do, you’re going to be overwhelmed. You’re going to be frozen, you’re not going to accomplish, you’re not going to move forward. You’re not going to follow your schedule, you’re not going to prospect. That’s not the kind of life you want to live.
5. Don’t Let Negativity Drag You Down
They work daily on keeping negativity out of their business and their life. We live in a negative world. The news is negative. Whether it be print news or listening to the radio or watching TV or having conversations with most people. The negativity is very strong. You’ve got to keep the negativity out. Which means sometimes you have to reduce the exposure you have to some of the people that you hang out with. You know, if you if you walk in the office and you’ve got a new listing in your hand, and you say, “gosh I got into a listing!” And somebody says, “Yeah it’ll never sell.” That’s not the kind of person you want to spend time with. Negativity is a very dangerous thing because it drags us down instead of building us up.
6. Stay Competitive for your Own Sake
They’re very competitive. The millionaires are very competitive. You want to work with them. You want to work against, them because if you’re working against a highly productive agent, you’re going to learn from the experience. And you’re going to win some of them, and you’re going to lose some of them. But these people are competitive. They are going to do what it takes to make sure they win the game. They’re not going to let one roadblock stop them. They’re not going to let one rejection, one expired listing. They are not going to let a deal that falls apart stop them. They’re competitive. They’re going to go after the goals they’ve set, and they’re going to achieve the goals they’ve set.
7. Stay Focused, Stay Energetic
Tremendous focus and energy on the goals they’ve set. OK. You’ve got a goal for the year. OK. What I wanted to write down right now what is your goal for production. What is your goal for income. OK. Watch. Tremendous focus and energy on that goal OK. You’re going to work five days a week, five and a half days a week. Why not give it five six seven hours of tremendous energy and focus to accomplish that goal that you’ve set. If you do it and if it’s true that you become what you think about—Earl Nightingale’s famous quote—you’re going to win the game, and you’re going to achieve the goals you have set.
8. Failure is Part of the Process
They accept failure as part of the business. Part of the business. If they list 70 percent of the sellers that they present to, they feel it’s a big win. And it is a big win. But that means 30 percent of the time, they did not get the listing, or in essence, they failed. But they don’t focus on the failure. They focus on the success. If you prospect, and you talk to 20 people, and you only get one lead, 19 people basically said no. They failed 19 times. But remember that failure is part of the process of succeeding as a professional real estate person.
9. High Levels of Discipline Daily
They exercise high levels of daily discipline. You’ve got a schedule, you’ve got to follow it! There’s gonna be interruptions. There’s gonna- be your cell phone is gonna ring. Somebody’s gonna send you a text, an email. People in the office wander by. There’s a hundred interruptions that take place! You’re late for an appointment. Then there’s an accident, you can’t get by it fast enough. This this is called life. You follow that schedule, you’re gonna win.
10. If Yes is Still an Option, Don’t Accept No
Don’t accept a no when a yes is potentially still available. In selling and there’s called what what we referred to as the “reflex no”. “Hi, are you thinking about selling your home?” “No!” “Oh, you’re not wanting to sell your home?” “Well yes we are.” People program themselves to say no. It’s called a reflex no. Well when you’re told “no”, and there’s still a “yes” looming out there, you work to get to the “yes”. How do you get there? By asking good, sound sales-oriented questions. Not by talking, by asking a lot of questions.
In Review
Work non-stop on thinking big. Focus on the big picture. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Think about what you can do, not what you can’t do. Work daily on keeping negativity out of your life. Push it aside. Be very competitive in your day-to-day work. Focus tremendous energy on the goals that you’ve set. Accept failure as part of the business, and is part of life (which it is). Exercise high levels of daily discipline. And don’t accept a no when a yes is available!
Production Retreat in Las Vegas
So we are in day one of our three-day Production Retreat here in Las Vegas. We have just under 2000 people in the room in attendance. It’s a great crowd. We have a great facility. We’re at Caesars Palace, we’re having a great time. I wish you were here, but if you’re not here, I’m going to be covering with you some of the things I cover with them. Over the next three weeks.
Thanks for today. Happy New Year. Hope you’re off to a fast start. If you’re not off to a fast start. Press your foot on the gas pedal and start today. Talk to you next week!
Mike Ferry is the global leader in real estate coaching and training. Watch Mike each week as he discusses a variety of topics to help real estate agents and brokers. Grow your real estate business by improving your mindset, developing your skills and creating a plan of action to increase your production!
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