by markjohnson | Nov 3, 2019 | Action, Appointment Setting, Growth, JPAR, Outcome Goals, Performance, Perseverance, Process Goals, Real Estate, Taking Action, Top Producer, Weekly Newsletter
These statistics will shock and surprise you. So, get ready. We recently did a blind study on incoming leads. 85% of the new leads received a follow-up, 15% got crickets.
So what is the psychology of the 15% of sales professionals that never follow up on a new lead? Even more shocking is we found that of the 85% that did make the initial follow up, only 25% made a second attempt! And of that 25%, only 12% made a third attempt. So what’s going on here?
It’s the voice inside your head. It’s a growth vs. fixed mindset.
- 2% of sales are made on the first contact
- 5% of sales are made on the third contact
- 10% of sales are made on the fourth contact
- 80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact
Persistence is the key to your success. In a study specifically related to real estate sales, sales professionals that made three attempts vs. those that made five or more attempts had more than a $100K difference in annual income.
Today we are bombarded with information. We are in information overwhelm. But that does not mean someone doesn’t want to buy, sell or invest. It might be, like me, right now, it isn’t a high priority.
Staying connected is the key. Using content from tools like Keeping Current Matters can help, yet so can a casual check-in call, text, or video chat. It’s you vs. your baby, and nothing is in your way except for your growth vs. fixed mindset.
by markjohnson | Sep 22, 2019 | Action, Best Practice, JPAR, Real Estate, Taking Action
Unplanned events can disrupt everything. I’ve experienced that several times in my life. And we all know there’s nothing you can do to prevent unexpected events. There are some strategies to cope with. And coping, especially for self-employed business owners, is critical to maintaining the resources to recover and ultimately thrive.
Work In Short Bursts
While it sounds simple, working in short bursts is not that easy, yet very useful during uncertain times. After all, you can’t truly focus when your world is in chaos.
Working in short bursts only works if you know what you have to do. So, creating and keeping a list of things that you have to do becomes very helpful. When you work in short bursts, the question “what’s the most critical task I can work on right now” becomes useful and essential.
Every time you plan a moment to yourself, don’t play with your phone, but instead, squeeze in some work even if it’s only 8 or 10 minutes. Pick one thing that you feel like doing at that time or is critical for you to get done. Your goal is not to work like this forever. When you’ve weathered the storm, you’ll get back to your regular routine.
Fuel Yourself
Life is very demanding and even more so during a crisis. You need proper fuel, rest, and support to handle the physical and mental stress that you endure. As a business owner, the weight is on your shoulder yet it’s ok to permit yourself to:
- Decide what matters
- Scale back
- Rest and refuel
Stay Focused On Your Tasks
When something important interrupts your life, it’s easy to develop tunnel vision. Before you know it, your whole life is disrupted.
- Prioritize and delegate
- Use your support system
- Stay in the moment, what needs to get done now
For self-employed business owners coping in a time of crisis is critical to maintaining the resources to recover and ultimately thrive. Preparing in advance can make coping easier.
by markjohnson | Sep 16, 2019 | Action, JPAR, outcome, Outcome Goals, Real Estate, Taking Action
I was recently reflecting on some coaching conversations and thinking about vectors. Let me explain:
In math and physics, a vector is a quantity having direction as well as magnitude, especially as determining the position of one point in space relative to another.
If a pilot makes the slightest one-degree error in the aircraft’s flight path, after traveling one mile the plane will be off the course by 92 feet. And after going 60 miles, that error adds up to being a mile off the path.
A minor off course adjustment over time and distance magnifies the error. If a pilot were flying from New York to L.A. a one-degree shift in the flight path over the entire course would put the plane 40 miles to the South in Orange County at SNA not Los Angeles at LAX.
“The secret of your success is found in your daily routine. You alone are responsible for what you do, don’t do, or how you respond to what’s done to you.” Darren Hardy, The Compound Effect
I work with a lot of entrepreneurs, and many times they call with a complete overall idea – overwhelmed and burned out – yet many times it’s just the 1-degree change that compounds over time. Yes? Who can relate?
The compound effect, it works both ways. What small course correction can you make this week?
by markjohnson | Aug 12, 2019 | Action, Coaching, Don't Settle, Goal Setting, Goals, Growth, JPAR, Real Estate, Success, Taking Action
K minus A equals 0
K plus A equals W (Winning)
I’ve coached a few folks that told me, “I want to produce more… my desire is to be more consistent.” Some have been saying this for way too long. Why… fear. Fear keeps our behavior inconsistent with our goals.
Those of you that know me, know I’m a life-long learner. Although I agree with life-long learning, I agree much more with a life-long application – taking action – on what we’re learning.
At the end of the day, the winners are the doers.
Figure out where you want to go, start with the end in mind, and work your way backward to the moment at hand.
Example… what would happen if for every 12 people you know you set a system to touch them 33 times throughout the year? Could that “system” create 1 new transaction for every 12 people in your database?
What would happen if you added 1 new contact to your CRM everyday… and that contact was then touched 8 times in the first 8 weeks of meeting them and then 33 times during the next year? What would happen?
Here’s the best of the blog series, the highest engaged post about taking action:
Number 1:
5 Lessons From The Death Crawl Scene In “Facing the Giants.”
Too often our own perception, surroundings, and beliefs get in the way of victory and success. Or said another way, the meaning we assign to things becomes the lens through which we see the world.
Number 2:
What Would Happen If You Never Tolerated Inaction In Yourself?
There is a common mistake that often happens to too many of us. The mistake has to do with the difference between being in motion and taking action. They sound similar, but they’re not the same.
Number 3:
Tired Of Not Getting What You Want?
Ever wonder why so many of us have to hit rock bottom before we find a breakthrough?
Number 4:
If Information Was Enough…
If information was enough, we would all be top performers in our profession, exercise every day, eat more vegetables, be within the government height and weight standard, and have a ton of money saved for the future.
Number 5:
3 Steps to Mastery
Who doesn’t want to be a better agent, better team leader, a better entrepreneur? If there is one concept that can lead to more powerful performance with immediate impact… this is it: “It’s difficult to control our thoughts and feelings, yet we have total control of our actions.”
In summary, information overload creates a lull in productive activity, so let’s look at three simple, fuss-free steps to get you the results you need:
Step 1: Move beyond the learning phase. While knowledge is a powerful thing, don’t make the mistake of thinking your good intentions count. It’s time to stop procrastinating and trust the tools you have to start taking positive steps.
Give yourself permission to execute on the things you know now… nothing good happens when you wait.
Step 2: Skip out on perfection. Perfection is a stall tactic. Typically, nothing big and drastic needs to happen in your routine. Small changes are what really count.
Just take action, now!
Step 3: Execute an action plan. Knowledge is only power when combined with action.
What actions can I take? Here’s one approach to consider:
Daily
- 5 or more check-in calls that create 1 or more appointments
- 3 or more personal notes
- 1 addition to your database with an “8 touch campaign” over the next 8 weeks
Weekly
- Grab a beverage of choice with a top client or prospect that creates 1 or more new appointments
- Host at least 1 business to business networking session
- Complete 7 pop-bys that create 1 or more new appointments
- At least one video about local events or local market conditions
Monthly
- Start of the month and mid-month eReport of value to your database – with video content that creates appointments
- Targeted FB or Google ads that create appointments
- Strategic text messages to an opt-in database that create appointments
Knowledge plus action is power. Figure out where you what to go, start with the end in mind, and work your way backward to the moment at hand. #GO #GSD
by markjohnson | Jul 19, 2019 | Appointment Setting, Best Practice, Checklist, Goal Setting, Goals, Goals for 2019, JPAR, Real Estate, Sucess Goals, Taking Action
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by markjohnson | Jul 6, 2019 | Action, Newsletter, Taking Action, Weekly Newsletter
Have you ever had a tough decision to make in your real estate practice?
As the CEO of your realty enterprise, have you ever delayed a decision and looked back and said, what took me so long to take action? Think about it:
- To delay is to make the right decision harder.
- Indecision is a decision… not to decide is a choice.
- Decisions are made whether we make them or not.
- Time is our enemy and time ALWAYS wins.
The desire to make the best decision can paralyze us. In truth, there really is no way to know which the best decision is. Every decision will have consequences, so what we end up doing is comparing the consequences. This is all well and good, but it makes for an unclear decision. It doesn’t actually get anything done.
Think about it, from experience we know it is much more useful to consider whether a particular decision will be effective or not. By studying critical situations, we can quickly learn the keys to success in decision-making skills.
I’ve studied military personnel and Gary Klein has studied firefighters and medical personnel, all professionals who make decisions in life or death situations. So many times, these first responders just don’t have time to weigh every pro and con. They are asking themselves about the effectiveness of a particular option.
Based on instinct, if they think it will work, they go for it.
If at any point along the line they realize it is not working, they choose a different route that they think will work. Then they do that. They will cycle one option at a time until they find one that works. They improve their decision-making skills with experience in their area of expertise, so their first option is not random. It is the one most likely to work.
So, we can conclude it’s much more useful to be effective and get the job done than to spend endless hours trying to determine the best decision.
Leonard Bernstein famously said:
“To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan and not quite enough time.”
What I’ve found working with myself and others, decisions are delayed by fear of making a poor choice. Fast Company, wrote a great article on the 4 Common Traps That Lead To Bad Decisions. In summary, making good decisions is as much about recognizing and avoiding traps as it is about evaluating available options. What are those traps?
- Anchoring – Research suggests that our minds give disproportionate weight to these first impressions, and we end up with a bias centered on that perception
- Overconfidence – We have an innate tendency to be overconfident in our judgments, especially when we think we’ve made all the right choices so far.
- Confirmation bias – We become attached to our opinions, instincts, and points of view and try as hard as we can to find evidence that supports them.
- Sunk Cost Trap – It’s easier to keep throwing good money after bad in the hopes that your bad decision may turn out okay. It rarely works that way.
How to move forward? Follow your instincts and ask why 5 times!
Ask Why 5 Times
Sakichi Toyoda, the Japanese industrialist, inventor, and founder of Toyota Industries, developed the 5 Whys technique.
The method is remarkably simple: start with a problem and why it occurs, you drill down to its root cause by asking “Why?” five times. You make sure that your answer is grounded in fact and then ask the question again. Continue the process until you reach the root cause of the problem, and you can identify a counter-measure that will prevent it from recurring.
Follow Your Instincts
Research shows that people who make decisions quickly, even when lacking information, tend to be more satisfied with their decisions than people who research and carefully weigh their options.
Some of this difference is simply in the lower level of stress the decision created, but much of it comes from the very way our brains work. The conscious mind can only hold between 5 and 9 distinct thoughts.
That means that any complex problem with more than 7 factors is going to overflow the conscious mind’s ability to function effectively – leading to poor choices.
Our unconscious, however, is much better at juggling and working through complex problems. People who “go with their gut” are actually trusting the work their unconscious mind has already done, rather than second-guessing it and relying on their conscious mind’s much more limited ability to deal with complex situations.
So, what decisions do you need to make about your real estate business today?
What’s holding you back?
Here is what I know:
- To delay is to make the right decision harder.
- Indecision is a decision… not to decide is a choice.
- Decisions are made whether we make them or not.
- Time is our enemy and time ALWAYS wins.
What’s your choice?
