Despite a very tough and competitive climate, many sales professionals succeed—and flourish. Those who are happy with the outcomes they’re achieving are typically more focused and disciplined than the rest. Just as important, they set objectives for their business, they understand the market they are going after, and they understand the risks and investments that they are undertaking.
In other words, successful sales professionals tend to be those that have a strategy; one that is a fit with who they are; and, one they are focused on carrying out. Do you have a strategy? Start with your personal objectives:
Whether you’re completely new to real estate, or have hundreds of sales under your belt, we believe the answers to the following questions should be the foundation of your business:
What do you want to achieve in residential real estate sales?
How much time and effort do you want to invest in building your business?
How much risk are you willing to take on?
What level of sales do you desire to achieve—and in what time frame?
What kind of practice do you want to build or be part of—an individual practice or part of a larger team or workgroup?
What market or niche do you want to focus on?
What brokerage firm best fits your personal and business interests and style of working?
As with any business, you need a detailed business plan. You should develop your plan based on your answers to these questions. Get feedback on your plan from people whose business smarts you respect both within and outside of the industry. If you’re new to this business, make sure you enlist experienced real estate professionals (ideally those you don’t compete with) to give you their perspectives.
Concurrently with building your business plan, you should be determining the kind of brokerage firm you want to work for. Your answers to the questions above should be pointing you to the best model for your ambitions and strategy.
You may be attracted to a real estate team model, for example. If so, you should be interviewing with teams to discover what they offer you in terms of your lifestyle goals, skills and compensation objectives.
If you’ve determined that you’d rather build your own business, your next task will be to put the processes and systems into place that will help you succeed. These include:
- Building a database of potential clients and customers.
- Developing a written marketing plan for prospecting into your target market area.
- Including in your written business plan a budget that outlines the financial resources you can afford to invest, assuming that many of these investments will not begin to pay for themselves in the short term.
- Creating a schedule that puts in writing how, where and when you will invest your time in prospecting for and servicing customers.
This article was adapted from Game Plan, by Marketleader’s Ian Morris and REAL Trends’ Steve Murray. The book provides a specific, how-to guide for both brokerage companies and real estate professionals to capitalize on these fundamental changes and create thriving real estate businesses in the years ahead.
CLICK HERE TO ORDER GAME PLAN today!
Tracey C. Velt is a writer, blogger and editorial strategist who specializes
in the business of real estate. For the past six years, she's been writing
and editing for REAL Trends. Prior to that, she served as an editor for
Florida Realtor magazine and continues to contribute to multiple real estate
publications, both in print and online.
