5 Elements of an Effective Real Estate Business Plan
Want your real estate sales associates to start the year strong and carry that momentum through the following quarters? Help them develop a business plan with these five elements.
1. Learn from last year.
What worked? What didn’t work? Where did business come from? How many listings and sales did you have? How can you improve? Unfortunately, many sales associates never take the time to evaluate their business and progress. They drift from year to year as by-accident real estate professionals.
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2. Set goals.
Concentrate your efforts in these four areas:
- Your why, your life list, your reasons for living. What is the rocket fuel that motivates you to get up and go to work?
- Your Financial Goals. Your Why has to be funded!
- Your Net Worth Goals. Do you want financial freedom someday? Real wealth comes from income-producing net worth, not ordinary income.
- Your Database. Do you have enough relationships to achieve your financial goals? A good measure is one contact for every $1,000 of Gross Commission Income.
3. Set activity goals.
Unfortunately, a lot of sales associates skip this step. They are good at setting goals, but the key to achieving those goals is the productive activities called flow. There are two types of flow: Live-flow (face-to-face and voice-to-voice) and auto-flow (mailings and electronic communication). Set specific flow goals—number of calls, mailings, lunches, etc. Research shows that 50 live-flow contacts result in one contract. Want to increase your income? Increase your flow and measure it. As we say, “Flow Fixes Everything.”
4. Schedule your activities.
Schedule time for your flow activities. We tend to do what we schedule. The system used by nearly every top producer I’ve studied is time-blocking. They control their agenda rather than drifting through the day. They make appointments with themselves to accomplish their flow activities.
5. Take action!
A great business plan is only useful if you execute it. Sales associates who schedule their activities through time-blocking (Step 4) are much more likely to take action. Consistency is the key. What you do every day is more important than what you do once in a while. #
Focus on these 5 daily habits
“When I go over these five pillars with sales associates, owners and managers, they seem to get a stroke of insight and clarity,” says Larry Kendall, founder of Ninja Selling. “They stop being confused and afraid of the disruptors and the new technologies. They start focusing on their relationship-building skills, empathy and finding ways to create a WOW! experience for their clients.”
Do these five things every morning:
- Go over your gratitude, affirmations and reading to get your positive energy going.
- Show up for work and time-block your day and week, so you stay on your agenda.
- Write two personal notes.
- Focus on your Hot List (people you want to recruit in the next 90 days).
- Concentrate on your Warm List (people you want to recruit in the next year).
Larry Kendall is the founder of Ninja Selling and Chairman Emeritus of The Group, Inc.