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Success is often determined by what we avoid by what we do. The best agents are constantly evaluating your business and identifying areas to refine. These are the six habits I avoid great agents and what they do instead.
I’m trying to do everything
Confucius once famously said, “The man chasing two rabbits caught neither.” Meaning a lack of focus rarely leads to success. Most new agents have a season that does everything at the beginning of their careers. They handle the rental. They show you homes and condos. They drive for an hour outside the main market to show their homes. But great agents ultimately realize that wealth is truly in the niche.
They understand that introducing your business to professionals in other fields and specialist types will make them better use their time and ultimately better for prospects. A great agent finds a specialist field and becomes the absolute best in that field. This could be a geographical farm or a specific type of customer.
The key is that they know that they have to specialize in order to be their best. This knowledge leads them to avoid the trap that they try to do everything.
Be reactive rather than aggressive
The average agent starts the day without a plan. They are not aggressive and respond to what happens during the day. Their lack of daily plans is a clear indication of a business doomed to fail.
The best agents control their schedules and write specific tasks on the pen calendar instead of pencils. They are the lead time block. They block time to call people in their territory of influence. They remove speculation from their schedules and develop an action plan that they trust will lead to their success.
John Maxwell talks about his five-man rule. This rule is based on the analogy that he wants to cut down on the trees in his backyard. He says the best way to know to cut down a tree is to pick up x and hit the tree five times a day. He goes on to say that if he attacks the tree five times a day, it’s not a problem, and not a problem when the tree falls.
He suggests that our business is the same. If you know that you can just find five things every day and get closer to the goal you want, then achieve that goal. I created a 5-4-3-2-1 daily action plan based on five rules. Every business is different, but developing a daily plan of action for your business will lead to more success.
This is an example of an agent’s 5-4-3-2-1 plan.
The best agents have daily action plans and are proactive rather than reactive.
It never changes
Change can be difficult, and not adjusting or changing anything in your business is a trap that many agents fall into. Many agents continue to do the same thing they always did, even if it’s no longer productive. They often have strategies that have done well for them in the past, and they will not let it go, hoping that the consequences it gave in the past will come back.
The best agents are constantly assessing whether what they are doing is still generating value or decreasing. They adapt to change quickly, which positions them to take advantage of trends moving forward, allowing them to avoid getting stuck in the past.
These agents are currently leaning towards AI. These are the agents who currently film the most video content. These are agents who are enthusiastic about building personal brands, and others are doing what was still working.
How long has it been since you changed something in your business? Resisting stagnation. Find a way to consistently reinvent yourself and your business.
Scroll without purpose
According to a survey conducted by the University of Maine, the average person spends two hours and 24 minutes each day on social media. Many agents fall prey to unconsciously scrolling on social media for hours and hours each day. Yes, almost everyone spends their time on social media, but the best agents spend this time intentionally.
Great agents turn what is negative for most people into positive for them and their business. They understand that social media is a tool for business, but tools are only effective when used properly. Based on this understanding, the best agents use their time on social media for three main purposes.
The first way they use it is to connect with their realms of influence and outlook. Social media is called social media because it is built to become a place of social connection. Once you understand this, the best agents use their time on the platform to comment on prospect posts. They DM personalized messages to people in their influence realms. They use it to connect with people who are important to their business and build better relationships.
It is also used to investigate what is functioning for agents in other markets. The second word on social media is media. The media side, or the posting, is important to agents who are as successful as the social side. They are studying the types of agents in other markets. They identify what is working for those agents and model them on their pages. This leads to more engagement with the audience and more effective outcomes.
Finally, they use it to rate the content their followers are responding to. They evaluate the posts they make and how their followers responded to them. They constantly refine posts they create based on top-performing content. This will lead to better posts, more enthusiastic followers, and deeper connections.
Learning does not take action
There’s no shortage of ideas. There are not many agents to execute the idea. Most agents take training classes and watch videos on how to grow their business, but few people act according to the knowledge they gain.
The best agents are systematic about taking action. They understand that they can’t do everything, so they choose one or two ideas to implement in their business each month. These could be systems for creating efficiency or new lead generation strategies. The main difference between an average agent and a good agent is that it is running.
Blindly optimistic
Optimism is great, but blind optimism usually ends badly. Blind optimism is based on hope and feelings, and usually involves waiting. Great agents may want things to get better, but they don’t wait for them to get better.
If they’ve been looking at sales in their business since the same time last year, they don’t want things to get better. They assess why their outcomes are different. They question whether their strategy is still effective and search for ways to get back on track. Instead of waiting for things to get better, they take massive action to change the tide of the outcomes they are experiencing.
Be optimistic about the future of your business. But it’s not a blind optimism that things will naturally improve based on the actions you are taking.
What habits and negative patterns have you been victimized? The good news is that you can change. You can re-adjust your business for success. You may not be able to change the results you get, but you can change what’s going on today. This will change the results received in the future. Make the necessary changes and the best ones haven’t come yet.
Jimmy Burgess is a real estate agent and national team builder serving actual brokerage companies, 30A, Destin and Panama City beach markets in northwest Florida. Connect with him on Instagram and LinkedIn.
