One of the most common challenges for real estate agents I coach is their ability to be consistent. Most are masters of being consistently inconsistent and just desire to find that even flow. Consistency is a great characteristic to build and implement in your life.
The key to consistency is setting and achieving specific goals. Start by determining how you want to be more consistent in your life and aim for these small goals. Over time, as you become more consistent, keep yourself motivated and accountable. This may require some change in thinking so you stay optimistic and productive throughout the process.
Create specific and realistic goals. It’s hard to be consistent if you don’t have a strong idea of what you need to do. When starting your new path, create easy, simple goals with specific, measurable results.
1. Start by defining what consistency means to you. Do you need to be consistent about your exercise habits? Are you aiming for a higher quality of work? Do you want to be more available and reliable in your relationships? Once you’ve identified your end goal, produce smaller steps to reach it.
For example, if you want to become more physically fit, you might set the goal to exercise for 5 days out of the week or to sign up for a class.
Be specific. Instead of saying “I’m going to consistently appreciate my significant other,” you might say “I’m going to thank my significant other when they wash the dishes, make dinner, or help out around the house.”
2. Create a schedule for yourself. It can be easy to pile on tasks and promises, but a calendar, planner, or schedule will keep you on track. A schedule will help you plan your day, so you get everything done on time. It will also help you understand what commitments you do and do not have time for.
Use a paper planner or a desk calendar. Alternatively, download a scheduling app on your phone, like Google Calendar or Outlook. Block off realistic amounts of time for each task. If you’re uncertain how long a task will take, give yourself extra time to complete it.
For larger goals, like writing a book or losing weight, set small, daily tasks you can do to work towards this goal. For example, you might set a daily word count to achieve or plan specific meals to eat each day. Don’t forget to plan in breaks as well! Don’t schedule anything else for that day or time.
3. Place reminders around your home, workspace, and belongings. Sometimes, it is easy to forget our new goals, habits, commitments, or promises, especially when we make them to ourselves. To remind yourself throughout the day, put messages to yourself in visible areas.
Write down your goals on post-it notes and place them on your mirror, computer, refrigerator, car dashboard, and planner. Slip a piece of paper with your goals into your wallet, desk drawer, or purse. If you are trying implement a daily practice, put a reminder on your phone. Set an alarm or use a reminder app to alert you when you need to do it.
4. Make promises only if you can keep them. Consistency often involves making commitments and keeping them. It is easy to get overwhelmed, however, if you make too many promises. If you think a request may be difficult to do, say no.
For example, if you tell your significant other, you’re going to handle half of the chores, make sure you have time after work to actually do them. In some cases, you may be able to negotiate a promise you will be able to keep. For example, if someone asks you to help them move, you can say, “Well, I can’t make it before 3 PM, but I could swing by after. Does that work?”
This includes making promises to yourself. If you know it is unrealistic for you to write 10 pages a day for your new novel, promise yourself you’ll just write at least a little bit each day.
5. Reward yourself when you get something done. If you do complete your goals, give yourself a reward. Even small goals deserve small rewards to help keep you motivated throughout the process. For example, if you’ve managed to complete your work by 5 pm every day for a week, take an evening off.
See a movie or treat yourself to a special dinner. If you’re training for a marathon and you’ve managed to hit your daily exercise goals, sign up for a 5k to give you a sense of your success. If you’ve managed to improve your relationships by being more consistent, your friendships may be the reward. If you’re proud of yourself, take your friends out or host a dinner.
So, there you have it. Some powerful ways to ensure a consistent personal and professional life. I challenge you to take these ideas and implement and execute on them and let me know how your next month or two plays out for you. To your success.
Establish your KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) – these should be specific, attainable numbers that you know you can reach every week.
Track your goals with the Prospecting Tracking Sheet – use this sheet to log your prospecting efforts and monitor your progress regarding your KPIs.
Have someone hold you accountable – find a colleague, friend, or family member who can push you toward your goal.
Stay focused
Don’t overspend
Think about what you want your future to look like
Maximize your time
Apart from putting in consistent effort, you also need to focus on only doing the actions that have proven to generate success for your business. If you concentrate on only these things and do them consistently, you will see almost immediate results.
You can adapt this Prospecting Tracking Sheet depending on your business and your own goals. It will look different for everybody since each agent has their own plan for their business. But as long you track your weekly in the Prospecting Tracking Sheet, you will increase your success. Below, I’ll show you the goals that I track for my own business and break down how I use the Prospecting Tracking Sheet.
1. Establish your KPIs. – One of the first and most important things you can do as a real estate agent is set up a real estate business plan to outline your goals. Once you’ve set goals, you can then establish your KPIs to measure the progress towards those goals every week. Focusing on your KPIs allows you to easily get an overall diagnostic of your business plan, so you can analyze patterns in your business and make any necessary adjustments. Real estate KPIs might track metrics such as the number of transactions, face-to-face appointments, buyer presentations, listing presentations, or lead generation for the week. Your KPIs are also important tools for calculating your monthly or yearly conversion ratios. Be careful not to choose KPIs that are unattainable for you. You want your KPIs to be achievable so that you stay motivated. Eventually, you’ll want them to become a weekly habit that isn’t challenging for you to keep up with.
2. Use The Prospecting Tracking Sheet. – Now that you’ve come up with the KPIs that are important to your business, you can customize the categories in the Realtor Prospecting Activity Tracker to fit your specific needs. My Prospecting Sheet is set up to track all my metrics on a weekly basis. The goals on this spreadsheet don’t necessarily have to be your goals as well. You can change them to better fit your business since everybody will be a little bit different. Whatever your goals are, consistency is the key.
In addition, as mentioned above, don’t choose unreachable goals. On the contrary, you want these to be easily achievable so that they become like a habit to you. This should be a number that you know you need to hit each week, no matter what. Remember, you can always raise or lower the goal to fit your business. The goals I use personally for my business are:
Events. – One of the metrics I’ve found helpful to track in my business is the number of events I attend. Attending events is a great way to get in front of people, and in turn, foster a relationship with potential clients. You should strive to attend at least one event every week, such as a training, marketing event, or social gathering. Strive to attend at least one event every single week. What you consider an event is up to you. This could be a training, a marketing event where you’re trying to get more business, or it could be a party or social gathering.
Lead Generation. – Another metric I’ve found helpful in my business is tracking lead generation. Here, I’m looking to add at least three new leads per week to my database. This number includes leads from any source; I don’t go into details of the breakdown on this sheet.
Hours Prospecting. – Tracking the amount of time you dedicate to prospecting every week is important since it should have a direct correlation to your productivity level. When it comes to prospecting, a good KPI to aim for is about 10 hours per week.
Conversations. – Good prospecting should generate meaningful conversations with the people you are reaching out to. Use this space to document your conversations in more detail. Jot down the names of the people you have conversations with within the cells provided, then go back and tally the names at the end of the week. Personally, I aim for 60 meaningful conversations per week. These are more than just quick phone calls; this number represents substantial conversations or text dialogues with the people I want to keep in touch with. Statistically speaking, only about one-third of the phone calls you make will turn into a meaningful conversation. This means that if you make 180 phone calls in a week, only about 60 of those will be truly meaningful conversations. The same idea applies to text messages or emails.
Face-to-Face Appointments. – At the end of the day, the ultimate goal of your conversations is to set a face-to-face meeting with the person you are talking to. Depending on your situation and comfort level, this could be grabbing coffee, meeting at a neutral location, or going out to lunch. I would recommend a KPI of 10-15 face-to-face appointments per week. Try and do this with your top 50 closest people. These are people you want to be going out on a regular basis with to lunch, parties, or getting coffees with. These could also be people you want to add to your top 50 list, maybe someone you think could make a good referral partner for your business. Use your great conversations to get face-to-face appointments with these people.
Buyer and Listing Presentations. – From there, the goal is to transform your face-to-face appointment into a subsequent buyer or listing presentation. This is important because buyer and listing presentations are your bread and butter as a real estate agent. Aim for at least two a week. That means eight per month, which is a huge opportunity to increase production. Remember, you won’t get a client out of every buyer or listing presentation. For this reason, aim to set up enough presentations to meet that eight per month goal.
Signed Up. – Here you’ll track the number of people who have taken the next step and signed a buyer’s representation or listing agreement with you. Your KPI should be to get at least one new listing agreement or buyer’s representation signed per week. Ideally, if you put the effort in, 50% of your buyer and listing presentations will result in some kind of agreement. If you set eight appointments per month, this translates to four new clients every single month. While having the buyer’s representation or listing agreement signed doesn’t guarantee you will close a transaction, the more you schedule, the greater opportunity you have to close a deal. This means that 50% of the time that you go to an appointment, you should be coming back with an agreement. This translates to around four new clients every single month. Not every single client you take will actually buy or sell a home with you, but even if just two of them do, that’s a great opportunity for your business.
Thank You Cards. – Another great way to get in front of people and stay top of mind is to send thank you cards on a consistent basis. Try sending at least six thank you cards per week. If you attend six face-to-face appointments every week, then you have a reason to send six thank you cards. Commit yourself to sending a thank you card after each listing appointment or buyer consultation, whether or not they sign up to work with you. Or send them to people you haven’t talked to in a while to get back in touch with them. Sending cards really do make a difference, and it makes you memorable as an agent. A great tool to use for this is Mailbox Power. Remember, you don’t have to track these KPIs in your own Prospecting Hack Sheet. You can follow all the goals I covered above, add your own, or adjust the numbers to fit your own business better.
3. Find Someone to Hold You Accountable. -T he third tip on how to be consistent is finding someone who can hold you accountable for your goals. Being accountable to someone else means they know the goals you are working toward, and they encourage you to reach those goals. Establishing accountability helps to maintain your focus and motivation because now you have to answer to someone else if you don’t follow through with your plan. For more motivation, check out the post I made here on the top real estate quotes. A good accountability partner might be a friend, family member, or colleague you can depend on to give you an honest evaluation of your business efforts. Or you can also partner up with a fellow agent who is in the same position as you, and then work to hold each other accountable to your goals. Working with someone who understands where you’re at and shares many of the same problems as you can help motivate and inspire you.
4. Stay Focused.– A key part that goes hand in hand with being consistent is staying focused on the goals you have outlined in your business plan. For this reason, you need to make sure the goals you set are achievable. You can adjust them if needed to make sure you can meet them consistently over the long term. When your goals are achievable, it makes it easier to stay focused and not get burned out. This also means not adding any new goals to your list, and instead of making sure you stay focused on your current goals. If you keep adding new goals, you will likely end up spreading yourself too thin and get overwhelmed. When this happens, it will be hard to maintain consistent action and achieve your desired outcome. So develop a plan, and then stick to it strictly for at least six months or even a year before you start making changes. But staying focused also applies throughout your workday. For example, if you are easily distracted by social media and find it’s cutting into your work routine, then come up with ways to limit that distraction from your life. In the case of social media, many smartphones let you set timers to limit how long you can spend on different apps. As a real estate agent, social media is part of our business. But if you find it distracting you, find ways to stay focused on your work.
5. Don’t Over Spend. – Related to staying focused is not to spread yourself too thin when it comes to your finances. In the beginning, especially as a new real estate agent, it can be tempting to purchase several different tools or services for your business. However, this usually isn’t the best strategy for success and can actually have the opposite effect. You might end up hurting your business in the long run. While it seems like you can’t go wrong buying the latest tech platforms, it can hurt you by distracting you from actually putting in the work to grow your business. This also goes for purchasing leads. When you’re just starting out your real estate business, it’s best to focus on generating leads and growing your sphere of influence within your market, rather than throwing money at internet leads. Ultimately, you should be conservative with your money if you want to develop habits of consistency as a real estate agent. Stick to the tried-and-true methods that you know for a fact are bringing success to your business. Only once you are consistent with these should you start building off of that foundation and trying out new tools in your business.
6. Maximize Your Time. – Staying consistent will be easier if you make use of every minute of your time. Create a set schedule that you can easily stick to. Have dedicated times for work and leisure, and have enough self-discipline to stick to your schedule strictly. A great way to maximize and track your time is by time blocking. This is a technique where you break down your entire day into time slots so that every hour in your day is put to use. A big part of maximizing your time and developing consistency is getting rid of any bad habits that are taking up time in your day. If you already know what these habits are, make a list of them and then try to monitor your behavior with a habit tracker to make sure you are avoiding them. As long as you know what’s holding your personal development back, you can make an effort to avoid doing those things, and replace every bad habit with positive behavior.
As American author and leadership mentor John Maxwell said, “Small disciplines repeated with consistency every day lead to great achievements gained slowly over time.” And it is true. Being consistent is at the foundation of any successful business. Consistency is a commitment you make in the realization of your goals. Of course, the goals listed here on the Prospecting Hack Sheet shouldn’t be everything you do for your business. These are just the activities that you know for a fact you have to do every single week. If there are other activities that bring success to your business that you want to track, you can add them in as well. The important thing to stay consistent is writing everything down and tracking your progress. Now, you don’t have to hang on to these sheets forever. You can eventually transfer your numbers into a database, like a CRM system or spreadsheet. This way, you can add them to your monthly or yearly numbers to see how your business is growing. You’ll be able to see your conversion ratios and other KPIs and track the number of touches with your leads.
Do you have any tips to help you stay consistent in your own real estate business? Let me know in the comments below!
Let me ask you a simple but very important question? “Do you find yourself consistently inconsistent in your real estate business and personal life?” How do we hold ourselves accountable and stop procrastinating? How do we break that consistently inconsistency trend in business and life? One simple answer is to get an accountability buddy.
Think back to school. What motivated you to finally finish a paper? Was it a love of learning? Knowing how valuable this skill was going to be in the future? No. It was probably a looming deadline and the threat of a failing grade for turning it in late.
During school, we have built-in accountability. For grown-up goals like starting a business, losing weight or writing a book, there’s typically no accountability for us to get it done. Accountability buddies can help us make meaningful progress. Surrounding ourselves with people invested in our success is the best way to make progress on our goals. Follow these steps to set up an accountability buddy.
1. Create a schedule and commit. – Decide how frequently you’ll meet. Once a week is a good starting point. You’ll have time to get things done in between your meetups (either in person or on the phone), but not so long that you start procrastinating or forgetting what you agreed to. Then set a time and commit. Put it on your calendar and don’t let anything get in the way.
2. Help your buddy (and yourself) set better goals. Then we have a broad goal like “get healthy,” the failure comes in not knowing where to start. What do we do this month, this week, today, to make that happen? If we can’t answer that simply, how are we supposed to act on it? Create SMART objectives that follow these guidelines:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Time-oriented
3. Be honest with each other. – My friend recently told me about an event he attended. A group of women were brought in to give direct feedback about how they perceived a group of men’s clothing and demeanor. Try to imagine what happened. “The guys were crying,” my friend said. “Nobody had ever given us this kind of brutal feedback.” My friend realized he’d never before received brutally honest feedback on how he interacted with women. We should subject ourselves to uncomfortable situations where we take on the “beginner’s mind” and force ourselves to grow. An accountability buddy gives us the rare opportunity for brutal honesty.
4. Ask great questions. – Smart people ask questions because they know it’s the best way to get to the true heart of a matter. When you say you were too busy to work out this week, what are you really saying?
Chances are you had time to watch Netflix or go out for drinks, so what really held you back? Maybe you were nervous about walking into a new gym. By asking great questions, you and your accountability buddy can break through invisible barriers.
5. Gamify accountability with your friends. – I love bets. There are myriad psychological studies about public commitment, which is highly persuasive. If you tell a group of people you’re going to stop smoking, you’re highly motivated to hit that goal. You can do this with your accountability buddy, too. If you each set a goal, bet who will hit it first. Or you can keep score of who completes more of their weekly tasks. Make it fun!
If this was so easy we wouldn’t need to be held accountable and we all need to find that accountability. That consistently being inconsistent happens to us all. I challenge you to take one step towards accountability this coming week and in a few weeks text me 250-212-8220 what changes you have noticed from those steps you have taken!!
One of the most common challenges for real estate agents I coach is their ability to be consistent. Most are masters of being consistently inconsistent and just desire to find that even flow. Consistency is a great characteristic to build and implement in your life.
