Last week we introduced Essentialism and I set out the Five Essential Steps to Real Estate Success. They are:
- Find people that need to buy or sell.
- Build trust and rapport
- Get an appointment
- Get a listing or buyer contract signed
- Fulfill the terms of the contract
Let’s take a deeper look at each step.
- Find people that need to buy or sell: This is known as prospecting, business development, marketing, lead generation, building a sales funnel and many others names. Call it anything you like as long as you do it effectively. The essentialist measures the effectiveness of their sales activities. Just like there are 50 ways to leave your lover, there are hundreds of ways to find people that need to buy or sell. You only need one way that works. The non-essentialist dabbles in many different sales activities that don’t work, usually because they are avoiding the uncomfortable work of talking to people about real estate. If you want to be successful in real estate, find one or two things that work for you and do them consistently.
- Build Trust and Rapport: This isn’t the kind of trust that our friends and family have for us based on years of consistent behaviour – this is quick trust and rapport that is built in the moment. This is the art of getting someone on the phone to laugh, someone in an open house to let down their defensive walls, sharing a meaningful conversation at a networking event or having someone on the street tell you a private thought. These are high level sales skills and for 99.99% of us they need to be learned. When you have them, it all gets a lot more fun and lot more effective. Essentialist spend the time develop these important skills.
- Get an Appointment: Essentialist qualify who they want to have an appointment with and then they ask for it. Essentialist don’t waste time on appointments with people that are not selling (or buying). Essentialists don’t waste energy by failing to ask for the appointment because they fear the possible “no”. They have the courage to ask the questions that matter. A no is nearly as good as a yes because it creates clarity and allows you to move on to essential activities.
- Get the listing or buyer contract signed: Essentialists have honed their skills to increase the number of appointments that they convert to contracts. When you go on a listing appointment and fail to earn the listing at the right price and the right commission, you have wasted a huge amount of time and energy. Essentialists don’t wait for the appointment to practice their presentation.
- Fulfill the terms of the contract: If you have done a great job in steps 1-4, this one is pretty easy. If you have a qualified client who trusts you and needs to buy or sell, you should be able to satisfy their needs and surpass their expectations relatively easily. The Essentialist builds systems to make managing listings and buyers simple. Don’t reinvent the wheel each time.
Take a look at your day and see how many of the activities that you do are essential to your success. Say no to the rest. Next week, how to say no gracefully.