Technology TransactionsDog Days Of Summer
The dog days of summer are upon us. I think that expression came from the way dogs can lounge in the summer sun. They relax as if there isn’t a care in the world. It’s easy for us to lounge as well.
The summer heat can make us lazy, too. I often see Realtors lounging in two ways:
We lounge in our improvement of skill because we are so busy.
We lounge in our performance because we don’t work with the focus and intensity we did earlier in the year.
Let’s look at each one of these ways.
We are too busy. We have buyers and sellers coming out of our ears. We are running from morning until night. We often are out of balance with our family because we work too many hours. We are more focused on the business than we are on them. We also are behind in the improvement and developing of our skills. This focus goes out the window.
Don’t ever forget! The property sale we make today is temporary. The money we earn from it is gone shortly. The client, because we fail to follow up long term after the close, is gone. Statistics tell us that 80% of consumers don’t go back to their previous agent for one simple reason? The agent never called them again after the sale. The sale for most agents is temporary, but the skill acquired through the follow up process would be permanent. The ability to replicate business through the long-term connection with past clients is a skill. This skill is often never cultivated because we are too busy. We get in the dog days of summer and forget the fundamentals of sales. We don’t adhere to the details for building a long-term business.
The present pressure squeezes the skill of practicing our scripts and dialogues out of the way. It’s easy to get out of the routine and never get back on track. It’s easy to become indifferent. We tend to be indifferent to qualifying the prospects because there are so many. We also tend to be indifferent to getting price reductions from over-priced sellers. We can be very indifferent to the many steps we need to insure success. (What short cuts are you taking now that you know you shouldn’t?) It’s easy to drift along in life. We just go with the flow of the river, drifting down it because right now the river is fast moving. We can drift along for a while; get out of practice and out of shape to be able to paddle hard. The river will slow down sometime. Are we prepared for the slowdown? Will we have the conditioning to paddle hard, long, and fast when it does? The truth is, we can’t drift our way to the top in peak performance. If we talk to the most successful people they didn’t drift their way to the top!
Work intensely, then take time off. Be intense in the game and out of the game with your down time. I am 100% for time off. I am sure that for years I took more time off than many agents. The difference was the intensity and focus when I was at work. There was no drifting at work. Are you 100% focused at work? Are you completely in the game with intensity? Think of racecar drivers. Can they drift while in the cockpit? Drifting would cost them their life. Do we have that kind of intensity of focus for a few hours a day? I would submit to you if you did, the income you earn and quality of life would radically change. There is a time to drift, but it is not at work. We all must be in the moment.
Let me give you a few steps to help you be more in the moment.
Establish a routine:
Show up at the same time to work daily. Do the same activities at the same time. Don’t just allow the day to happen. Plan for the outcome you want. Apply yourself in your routine to create that outcome. Dr. Norman Vincent Peale said, “Plan your work then work your plan.” The routine you set will enable you to achieve success. When I started in real estate, I established that at seven a.m. I would begin work. I still do that today. It is very hard for me not to be in my office at seven a.m. working with intensity. What does your routine need to be? When do you need to be at work? When do you need to practice skills? When do you need family time or workout time? These all need to be in a routine.
When you are not 100% focused, get there or get out.
Too often agents are half at work and half at home. We are at work thinking we have shorted our family. We are at work in body only. My advice is go home. Go home and focus 100% on your family. We have all been in this unfocused position. We feel like a piece of salt-water taffy. When they make taffy, they tug and pull it until it gets mixed and smooth. Getting pulled between work and home accomplishes nothing.
I realized many years ago that for me, Friday was a tough day to stay focused. I would have put in four focused days in a row. I truly dreaded Fridays because I was maybe at 70 – 80 % effectiveness. The difference between incredible success and mediocre performance is a couple of percentage points. I was mediocre at best. The choice to get out on Friday changed my mental attitude, my expectations, and the results. The year that I went from a 5 1/2 day workweek to a 4-day workweek, I had my largest increase in commission earned ever! Get focused or get out!
Don’t let the dog days of summer affect the outcome for 2000. It’s easy to let off the gas if you got off to a great start. Don’t coast into the finish line. Make sure you are investing in your skills daily.
We all need to be better today than we were yesterday!