By Rich Levin,
A Harvard Business School study discovered that the 3% of people who had written goals and a plan earned ten times as much as the other 97% together.
Why don’t Real Estate Agents create written goals and the solutions?
The process is too complicated. Keep it simple.
Planning is done in one long session. Schedule it in a series of brief sessions.
The plan is unfinished. Structure to complete a portion at each session.
It gets “put on the shelf.” Build it to be a simple and enjoyable regular activity.
It ignores important parts of an Agent’s business and/or life. Include them all.
Four Phases
With this structure your subconscious mind and creativity stimulate ideas normally unavailable to you.
Your Dreams and Vision: Ideally, how you want your business and life to look and feel? In your business; marketing, prospecting, social media, presentations or other business priorities? In your personal life; relationships, family, leisure, finances, health or other personal priorities?
Your Annual Goals and Plans: How much do you plan to sell, list, and earn? What do you want to achieve with each business category above (marketing…)? What do you want to accomplish in your personal priorities above (relationships…)?
Your Monthly and Weekly Measurable Goals and Benchmarks: How much will you sell and list each month? Benchmarks: within the business categories (marketing etc.) what will you accomplish each month; within your personal priorities (relationships etc.) what visible or measurable progress will you make each month?
Your Action Plans and Habits. Plan and schedule the actions to accomplish your highest priorities to be done at the same time, on the same day of the week, which turns them into habits that you can depend on for consistency. (E.g. Monday 9 a.m. one hour prospecting; Tuesday marketing)
Get It Going – Ensuring Success
You don’t have to get it perfect. Just get it going; then keep improving it.
Start your planning with a thirty minute session. Use the simple details in the four phases above to prompt your thinking. Complete each phase in order before moving on to the next. Schedule thirty to sixty minutes weekly, on the same day at the same time. Choose completion dates for each phase and honor them.
Also, schedule just five minutes at the beginning of each working weekday to review your plan.
To ensure success, each day as you begin, put your mind and emotions in an empowered state by standing proudly, stomach tightened, shoulders back, chest out. Take five deep, deep breaths. Smile. Walk around a bit, briskly. Pump your fist. You will feel happier. It’s physiological. You can’t help it. Immediately sit down and spend your five minutes or longer planning.
Keep this routine up throughout 2012 so that your planning and the strategic thinking that arise out of it become a business habit. You will rise to the personal records of production, income, personal satisfaction and peace of mind.
Rich Levin is a Master Coach and Real Estate Productivity Consultant. He conducts a live 15 minute Webinar daily that teaches and reinforces the details of this planning process. Register at www.FreeCoachingWebinars.com. For coaching and speaking information you can contact him at 585-244-2700 or Rich@RichLevin.com.