It’s a Marathon, Not a Sprint
Mon, Jan 12, 2015
With the new year comes a whole new set of goals, ambitions, and expectations. And I’d be willing to bet that most of your goals sound a little something like this:
I want to make more sales each month.
I need to spend less time at work and more time enjoying my personal life.
I will hire an assistant to help me cold call and drum up business.
Do you notice anything in common with these statements? Every one of them is focused on one thing: Y-O-U.
Now, please don’t think I’m calling you selfish by pointing this out. It is completely normal to put yourself first when creating plans for your real estate business and your career. But I want you to realize that “normal” isn’t necessarily the best way. In fact, “normal” can sometimes be the kiss of death.
Self-Focus = Sprint
Having a self-focus is natural. We’re programmed to meet our immediate needs, and your immediate needs may be more money, shorter hours, and less work.
If you put your mind to it, I’m confident that you can find ways to achieve those goals over the next few months. You can sprint your heart out with the single focus of achieving those goals and you will be able to ride it out for a little while. But if you’re not looking further ahead, you will sabotage your future performance. Long-term, sustained success is focused on one thing…and it isn’t “you.”
Other-Focus = Marathon
One tenant I’ve found to be true over my many years in real estate is also one of my favourite quotes by Zig Ziglar:
“You will get all you want in life, if you help enough other people get what they want.”
By this, I mean that if you want long-term success in real estate, you must start adding other people — specifically your prospects — into the equation.
Let’s take those goals above and flip them into ones that are other-focused:
I want to connect more people with beautiful homes they can afford.
I need to re-structure my schedule with sustainable hours so I can be fresh and focused at work.
I will hire an assistant so I can focus more on delivering excellent service.
The funny thing is, when you put others first, what you’re really doing is setting yourself up to deliver truly outstanding service. And when you overdeliver on service, you will grow a network of not just satisfied customers, but raving fans.
Adding An Other-Focus to Your USP
Let’s extend this idea all the way back to one of the earliest steps of the prospecting cycle: your USP. I want you to step out of your agent shoes and step into your prospects’ to answer these questions:
- What will my ideal prospect be thinking as they look through the classified ads? What worries will they have? What are they hoping to find?
- What are my competitors offering? How can I go above and beyond to provide a better experience?
- How does working with me benefit prospects? What are the tangible and intangible benefits I provide?
- Can I offer a promise or guarantee to put prospects’ minds at ease?
Take the answers to those questions and look at your USP. How does it do at addressing these? If you were your ideal prospect, would your ad compel you to pick up the phone?
Go back and re-work any areas of your USP that don’t clearly communicate your focus on your prospects. When you can present your USP in a way that is other-focused, you’ll be surprised at how many more leads you receive as a result.
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