Would you set off on a cross-country trip without your GPS? If you’re like the agents who lack a written business plan, that’s exactly what you’re doing. There’s no need to worry though, because setting your real estate GPS for success is much easier than you might realize.

  • Your job description as a real estate agent comes down to six words: generate leads, convert leads, close transactions.
  • Every night before you go to bed, write down your top three business priorities and your top three personal priorities that you must complete tomorrow.
  • Plan on spending a minimum of at least an hour per day personally contacting your sphere, preferably face-to-face.

Would you set off on a cross-country trip without your GPS? If you’re like the agents who lack a written business plan, that’s exactly what you’re doing. There’s no need to worry, though, because setting your real estate GPS for success is much easier than you might realize.

No matter how long you have been in the business, your job description as a real estate agent comes down to six words: generate leads, convert leads, close transactions.

If you’re ready to speed down the real estate expressway to success, follow the five-point GPS success checklist below.

Simplify your daily business plan

A written business plan is highly correlated with success. Whether you have already composed a business plan, have issues following it, or haven’t gotten around to doing one, the biggest hurdle is staying on track each day.

Here’s a simple way to address each of those issues that is also easy to follow.

Every night before you go to bed, write down your top three business priorities and your top three personal priorities that you must complete tomorrow.

Business examples include: “list or sell a house today,” “comment on at least 10 social media posts my sphere made today” or “meet at least two people today who will either do business with me or send me referrals.”

Complete your business items as early in the day as possible. Personal examples include “exercise,” “go to my daughter’s recital” or “have dinner with my family.”

Focus on face-to-face lead generation strategies

There are roughly 2 million real estate agents in the U.S. Once an individual decides to transact, he or she usually hires the person that he or she has seen face-to-face most recently.

NAR’s most recent Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers survey shows that the typical seller has recommended an agent twice since selling his or her home — 33 percent of sellers have recommended their agent three or more times.

Consequently, plan on spending a minimum of at least an hour per day personally contacting your sphere, preferably face-to-face.

Utilize 3 best-of-class online lead generation resources

Depending on the type of prospecting you plan to do, here are three best-of-class prospecting solutions from real estate’s most talented experts.

  • Best practices for using Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook Stories: Katie Lance has a terrific site called Get Social Smart Academy that is a goldmine filled with the resources you need to succeed on any of these platforms. Tune in to her podcast to get started.
  • Use LinkedIn to generate leads effortlessly: Sherry McCormack walks listeners through how to set up their LinkedIn profile, handling connection requests from those you don’t know and improving your placement on Google.

Use the top listing appointment conversion tools

These tools should be used at listing appointments to convert the prospect into a client.

  • Matterport 3-D virtual reality tour: The Matterport 3-D virtual reality tour allows your buyers to do a virtual walkthrough of what the property really looks like as opposed to just a rendering. Better yet, you can capture all the high-definition pictures and do fly-throughs without having to use a drone. This tool is a powerful listing appointment converter and an absolute necessity if you are competing for a luxury property.
  • A predictive analytics CMA: HouseCanary.com and WeissAnalytics.com have created the next generation of CMA that not only give you the current value of a property, but the history of the values going back as far back to 2001. They also provide you with the predicted values at both the market and the individual house level as well. Your competitors’ old-fashioned CMA will seem about as current as a 10-year old desktop computer.

Try these 4 powerful scripts

Communicate your value to buyers

You receive a call on a listing that is under contract. When you offer to help the buyer find another property, the buyer responds, “I’ll just contact the listing agent.”

Try saying this: “I have a brand new tool that will allow you to determine the actual lifestyle cost of the various homes you may consider buying. This includes commute times, utilities and other factors. Is knowing the actual lifestyle cost of the house you want to buy a service you want?”

Two services that provide this information are TLCEngine.com and SpatialMatch.

Two proven commission defense scripts

“So Tom offered to take the listing at a lower commission, is that correct? How effective do you think he will be in helping you negotiate the best possible price for your property when he can’t even negotiate a full commission on his own behalf?”

After reviewing the unique services you provide and the seller still asks for a discount, say:

“I only work with sellers who want to get the highest possible price for their property through maximum exposure to the marketplace. Would you like a referral to a limited services agent who doesn’t provide this level of service?”

When a deal goes sideways and your client is very angry

“It was never my intention to make you angry. What can I do to fix it?”

Note that you’re not explaining or defending your position. This script almost always defuses even the most difficult situations.

Because there are thousands of ways to achieve success in the real estate industry, it’s easy to be pulled off focus. Use the simple success GPS checklist above to have a stellar year in 2017.

Bernice Ross, CEO of RealEstateCoach.com, is a national speaker, author and trainer with over 1,000 published articles and two best-selling real estate books. Learn about her training programs at www.RealEstateCoach.com/AgentTraining and www.RealEstateCoach.com/newagent

Email Bernice Ross

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