At the end of March, I was fortunate to be asked to be a guest on a national radio show called The Takeaway. There is an accompanying blog post here and you can listen to the 8 minute radio interview from there. As fun as it might be to be a part of a radio show, I wouldn’t have done this if not for the basic premise that differed from much of what we hear from the media.

The premise here was that the market is shifting — for the better. The interview came because of another blog post I wrote that was picked up in the research of a national reporter showing something different than what we hear from most “media” sources. Basically, some professional insight backed up with statistics that shows something different than the gloom and doom we hear which is partially fueling the perception problems many of us are seeing in the market today.

What I’m really trying to say is that we are our local experts and when we take the time to articulate the information and experience that we have, we can make a difference and with the mindset of many buyers today, we need all the help we can give to each other! We are the professionals in our market and we need to actively participate in the dialogue lest we spend our time complaining rather than helping the cause.

There are lots of ways us Realtors can do this;

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I know that most everyone looks at me as an Internet guy who is good at lead conversion. As much as that is one of my strong points, one of my favorite things I do is teach my agents about Customer Education. Over the past few months I have spent a ton of money to educate myself on new concepts I could bring to the real estate world to help my company increase our business.  

One of our biggest obstacles, and most likely one of yours, is the lack of commitment that many home buyers are making these days. When I started my search a few months ago, I had no idea what I was going to learn.

I learned how to use Customer Education in our business to help drive sales.

Usually, as Realtors, we are quick to blame everyone and everything else about why a customer didn’t end up buying a home from us. I have observed this since I got into the business in 2001.  Since then I have realized that in order to become successful in this business, in fact in any business, is to accept responsibility and learn from our errors. Over the past year our Real Estate Agents have averaged 8 new buyers per month but only sold 1 home per 8 buyers per month.  

After analyzing these numbers, I realized that the reason Buyers were not commiting was because of the lack of information or more importantly their misinformation. After all, we are all products of the media these days and if they say the Real Estate market is bad, that’s a great excuse for Realtors not to become successful.  

If the Realtors don’t believe in the market, how can the buyer believe?

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What do you want to accomplish with your life? How do you want to be remembered? In the end what will people say about you and more importantly what would you say about the life you lived?

I am a huge proponent of goal setting because I know that if we set goals and then work towards them it is amazing how much easier it is to reach the goals and how much easier decisions become. Every year my wife, Donna, and I write down our goals like how many transactions we want, and what we want our GCI to be, along with personal goals like family time, or exercise goals, etc. These are very effective drivers for us, and we usually achieve most of the goals we set each year and many times exceed them. As we make decisions through the year, we analyze how or if a certain decisions will help us reach our individual goals.

The fact is that most people don’t really set goals.

They make new years resolutions or wish lists, but they don’t really make well thought out goals and then plan their year’s activities to achieve those goals. The ones who do are usually top producers or top achievers in whatever endeavors they undertake.

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A little regarded factoid has seemingly escaped attention as of late. With the current economic woes slapping many Realtors upside the head, numerous compatriots have decided to throw in the towels and get out of the ring. So far, no new news. However, it’s WHO has left the business that should be getting our attention.

And ever more important, who is LEFT in the ring? The Realtors who remain are the good ones.

They’re the ones who have enough skills to keep their businesses alive through these down times. They’re the ones who are succeeding in the face of hardship. They’re the ones who are GOOD! And they know they have to do two-to-three times the volume they did two years ago just to break even.

They are your new, leaner and meaner competition.

If you plan on going head-to-head with these folks and coming out with a paycheck, you’d better learn how to move beyond being simply “good.” I searched the web for a quote that would fit here, hoping that Churchill, Lincoln or even Ziegler could help pull us up by our socks. Unfortunately, none of them had a quote that worked, so I’ll quote myself!

“Times like these DEMAND greatness.”

Ironically, the move from good to great isn’t very far or even very difficult. Many good business writers stress that it’s the little things repeated consistently that ultimately make the difference. It’s true: the little things add up and do so VERY quickly.

So here are three critical “little” things to be doing consistently to help you level the playing field:

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Hi Everyone! I hope you all had a great holiday season and are on your way to success in 2009. 

I have been working on a lot of new stuff lately and new training programs for The eHomes Realty Network.  Most of what I teach are things that I have learned through my business at Tropical Realty or from books or seminars. 

This past December I had the opportunity to go to see Tony Robbins perform his miracles.  He was truly amazing and I took so much away from his teachings.

So much of what he says relates to our business. 

Here are a few points:

Change the Meaning and Change the Outcome

I’ve learned so many things in my life and never realized how simple something is to change and implement.  As easy as this sounds is as easy as it is.  Here is the deal.  Right now almost every real estate agent I deal with around the country is complaining about how bad the Real Estate market is right now.  I hear the same story from everyone. ” I have 25 home listings and they are not selling.  The home sellers are yelling at me and blaming me because their home is overpriced”.  Everyone is talking about this terrible Real Estate market. 

What if you took a second and looked at it differently?  Firstly, if you are a seller it’s a tough market…no question.  Believe me, our office is in Melbourne, Florida, one of the worst hit in the country.  What if you looked at our business from the buying side?

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“Buy this book.” ”This is the Ultimate Sales System.”  ”You can’t help but succeed when you follow our proven system.”  Blah blah blah.

“What do you attribute your success to?”

“Oh, I’ve always been unique.”

Let’s say that the person actually was unique, that he or she was correctly answering the question.  If that was true would there be any reason whatsoever to even bother listening to anything regarding techniques or methods they had to say about success?  If it couldn’t be replicated what difference would it make? 

Or if you wanted to learn to swim at a championship level would hearing Michael Phelps say, “The secret of winning each of those races was I swam faster than the other swimmers”?  Would hearing that help you to swim faster?  Oddly enough, it just might.

I’ve been in the house selling business for 31 years.  My first twelve years I was an ordinary 17 – 22 deal a year guy: living from one closing to the next, never really having a stable business.  I clearly understood that there was “something” that the stably successful mega agents had that I didn’t but I didn’t know what “it” was.  

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