Willpower and stubbornness are close relations. One attribute you want. The other you don’t.

Stubborn people steadfastly hold onto ideas and, right or wrong, will not be persuaded to see any other point of view. You could argue that this is misdirected willpower.

When it comes to forming new habits, willpower is what you need. With willpower you can say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to yourself and mean it.

If you feel that you lack willpower, take heart. Willpower can be exercised. Start small. Make a short-term commitment and stick to it. Then increase the time and difficulty of the commitments. Your willpower will strengthen.

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So often you hear people complain, “I make the calls, but I’m not getting any results!” If you find yourself in this position, perhaps you should do something about it. Prospecting, like all tasks a salesperson performs, must show a healthy return.

There is no delicate way to say this: if you cannot find sellers, and lots of them, then you probably won’t master the skill required to list them. You might as well face the fact that real estate is not for you and save yourself months of misery. Failing that, you have no choice but to get good at finding new sellers for your agency. Becoming good at this takes dedication, determination and courage.

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Have you ever put off doing a chore that you thought would be difficult? You dreaded doing it but eventually you got stuck into it, and what happened? It was much easier than you thought. You couldn’t imagine why you thought it would be so hard.

Prospecting is like that. It’s just not that difficult. All you have to do is start, keep going, and it will become a habit. A winning habit.

There are only 3 reasons why salespeople don’t prospect:

1. They are scared;
2. They are stupid;
3. They are rich.

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Do you have a problem with unethical competitors ‘jumping’ your signs? People who approach the owner of a property whom they know, or suspect, is exclusively listed with another agent, are  acting unethically. If attempting to induce another person to break an agreement – a promise – with a third party isn’t unethical, what is?  This seller gave his or her word to allow the agent, whose sign the ‘sign jumper’ walked past, to sell the property, and the seller gave the agent an agreed time in which to do it. How sniveling and cowardly it is to try and convince that person to break their agreement with their agent.So if you are the agent whose sign(s) is being jumped, let’s begin by looking at the positive side. You are fortunate to have competitors who are so weak and desperate that they have to resort to pilfering other agents’ sellers in order to survive. Close the door on this source of sellers and you will send them broke. Fast.Closing this door is easy, too. There are some things you MUST remember to say during the listing, and some things you MUST do after you have the property listed.DURING THE LISTING PRESENTATION

• When Setting Up To Sell, advise the sellers that strangers may call.

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Last year I recorded an interview with Adam McMahon, from Dignam Real Estate in Thirroul, NSW.

Adam is a keen goal setter, which explains why he is so focused. In the twelve months prior to that recording, Adam produced around $730,000 in fees for his office, without the aid of a personal assistant.

Inevitably the conversation turned to ways of avoiding erratic performance. This is what Adam had to say about goals and how to reach them:

“You have ups and downs, like everyone has. To start with, you sometimes set easy goals that you think you’re going to reach quite comfortably. Then over a period of time you push yourself and take your goals higher”.

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Your weekly sales meeting should be the most important part of your business week. If you’re interested in making more sales, pay attention when your leader asks you, “What have you got cooking?”

The definition of a cooking sale is a sale you believe you have a reasonable chance of closing.

Some sales are obviously cooking, for example, the buyers are coming back for a second inspection. These sales are usually the only ones that are given in answer to the “What have you got cooking?“ question.

To get the obvious cookings is not why your leader asks the ‘cooking’ question. The purpose of examining the cookings is to help you to uncover the hidden sales.

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Following the November 2011 sales bulletin, ‘So You Think You’ve Got Plenty of Listings’, Phil McGrath from Impact Property requested ideas on how to develop relationships with sellers. It’s a good question, one whose answer would fill a chapter of a book.

Building relationships requires contact. Lots of it.

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