Make 2019 the best CRE year yet with SMARTER goals for your team.
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The Best CRE Year Yet Is Possible with SMARTER Goals
Get SMART with CRE
All commercial real estate professionals only have one objective in mind: make 2019 the best CRE year yet.
It should be easy to do, right? Teams can meet and brainstorm on various ideas for business growth and goal setting.
In reality, the amount of work necessary to reach a goal can be a lot more than you think. It can feel overwhelming and frightening.
It’s also possible for teams to come up with all sorts of random objectives. In the end, they come up with nothing concrete or doable.
They may even be no longer in line with the company’s vision for the business.
It’s not enough to have a list of goals to make it the best CRE year yet. You need the right objectives, the actions that will get you there, and, most of all, the consistency that makes these actionable steps into habits everyone can follow.
To do all these, you need SMARTER goals.
Why Are SMART Goals Important?
SMART, and its more comprehensive variant, SMARTER, are actually acronyms. You will learn more about what they stand for in a while.
Michael Hyatt, a virtual mentor and best-selling author, developed the concept. The question is why.
What is the purpose of SMART goals? The answer is simple: you want your goals to become a reality by making them into actionable and measurable steps. With consistency and practice, you can make these steps into habits.
To understand the importance of SMART, let’s look at the data on the number of people who make New Year’s resolutions.
Most everyone begins the year with a lot of hope and an “I can do this” attitude. Here’s the problem, though: by the time February rolls in, over 75% of them can no longer stick to their list of resolutions.
A person can cite 1,001 reasons why they fail with their to-do list, but you may be able to summarize them into one thing. They didn’t plan well when it comes to their goals.
In spite of their well-meaning objectives, they set themselves up for failure. It’s something you don’t want to do with your CRE business and team.
Creating SMARTER Goals
Using Mr. Hyatt’s SMARTER definition and approach, here are seven goals that may apply to you. They will certainly play a part in making 2019 your best CRE year yet. I also provided some SMARTER goals examples to make each point clearer:
1. Specific
Identify exactly what you want to accomplish. Why is this necessary? Losing yourself among broad objectives is easy.
A simple example is “I want to be healthy.” If you don’t make this more specific, it can mean many things to you, such as physical, mental, social or spiritual health(or all of the above). If it’s physical, are you referring to nutrition or exercise?
Now, let’s apply the concept of being specific to your CRE business. Refer to the example below:
Bad: “I am going to start an e-newsletter.”
Good: “I am going to publish a bi-weekly newsletter, and call it ________________.”
Which of the two sounds overwhelming and makes you feel like you’re a headless chicken? The first one is bad because it doesn’t point you to any actionable step. Worse, you are likely to allocate your finite assets to areas that don’t bring you closer to reaching your actual goal.
2. Measurable
A useful goal is one that can let you quantify the result. I can never stress enough to the importance of analytics, especially in the commercial real estate industry.
Our teams deal with big-ticket portfolio, different types of clients, and loads of money put on real estate investing.
The problem is you also face various challenges. These can include marketing costs, lack of high-quality property managers, and the volatile real estate market.
You want to make sure you are putting your efforts on goals that give you the best returns.
To help you make a measurable goal, here’s an example:
Bad: “I am going to call more.”
Good: “I am going to attempt 100 prospect calls every week.”
With the second goal, you will already have a clear idea of how many people you need to contact to meet the goal. You can also compare your results with the expected outcomes, which can help you determine whether you need to adjust your objectives.
3. Actionable
A goal without action is nothing but a dream or even wishful thinking. It needs to be actionable.
In almost any language, nothing else denotes an action than a verb. Even these verbs, though, can also have moods or mental effect. Look at the examples below:
Bad: “Be more consistent with my networking.”
Good: “Meet with two market influencers each week.”
Notice the difference between the two. If you didn’t, then let me ask this question: which of them compels a more decisive action? It’s the second one, right?
When you want to make your objective actionable, start with an action verb, not a to-be verb.
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4. Realistic
Why do a lot of people fail when it comes to completing or reaching the goals? One of the common reasons is their expectations don’t meet reality.
All things in life and in this world take time.
If you believe in the Bible, then you know God made the Earth in days, not in an instant. If you’re more scientific, it took millennia before humans came to be.
It’s the same with your CRE business. You can’t make the team overnight or earn millions in a snap of a finger.
Recognize and implement the power of incremental change over time. Just look at the example below:
Bad: “I am going to earn $1 million in commission.” (Your best year, though, is $150,000.)
Good: “Increase my income by 20% this year over last.”
As they say, take baby steps. As you attain the goals, aim for realistic but loftier ones. This gradual progress also gives you enough time to strategize and assess your growth thoroughly.
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5. Time-Bound
Set a specific deadline. Otherwise, you’ll never be able to do anything at all! Look at the examples here:
Bad: “I am going to rewrite my proposals.”
Good: “I will draft, edit, and finalize our new pitch book by January 31.”
What do you think will happen if you don’t set up a deadline? Well, there are many scenarios:
- You will end up forgetting about it.
- You will not make it a priority, so other tasks will eventually take control of your time.
- There’s no way of measuring your milestones or how close (or how far) you are in reaching your goals.
- You will not make yourself or your team accountable.
- There’s no strong motivation to do something about it.
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6. Exciting
I have been in the business for many years, and one of the reasons I am still here is because I love what I do.
The reason I love what I do is that I do things I also like. In the process, work doesn’t feel like work.
You may be wondering how I can do it. I make my goals personally compelling. Let me explain this further with these examples:
Bad: “I will prospect more.” (but I HATE making calls)
Good: “I will hire an assistant to call on prospects, freeing me up to meet with more prospects.”
By now, you already know the essence of prospecting in CRE. It’s non-negotiable.
The problem is not everyone loves it. Perhaps the options available such as social media or even a telephone call can be dreadful.
How do make sure you can still make it the best CRE year yet while avoiding one of the things you hate? In this example, you let somebody else do it for you!
I always believe if a goal is worthy, people will find a way to get it. Sometimes all it needs is out-of-the-box thinking and innovation.
7. Relevant
To make an actionable goal into a habit, it needs time, attention, and focus from you. Most of all, it has to be relevant to what is happening to you and your other objectives, whether in business or otherwise.
Make sure your goals are appropriate to the season of your life. Refer to this example to give you some idea:
Bad: “I will spend an hour every morning on personal development.” (I also have to drive my kids to school every day.)
Good: “I will read every night for 30 minutes after my kids and wife go to sleep.”
The bottom line is this: don’t give yourself an excuse not to do something about your goal.
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With all the hard work you and your CRE team did for the last year, you deserve the best CRE year yet. To get there, though, you need to learn to be and do SMART goals.
This way, they stop being a checkmark on your to-do list. Instead, they become habits, and you can replicate your success in the future years.
Get known, connect instantly, and win more business! In this webinar session, Bo Barron will show you how presence, a great value proposition, and a targeted prospecting campaign can grow your business without chaos! You can watch the webinar here.
Up Next: A Step By Step Guide For Setting Team Goals Effectively
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on December 14, 2015, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.
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