I remember when I was still a commercial real estate broker. Every Monday started with high hopes. I was going to find new leads, full of my ideal prospects. My prospecting system was going to work this time. In fact, this was going to be the week that I executed my plan flawlessly.
Have you been there? How’d it work out for you?
It rarely worked for me.
Regardless of my intentions, my plan would get blown up by Monday afternoon, and I rarely recovered.
Distractions happen. Opportunities arise. Problems flare up like a brush fire on a windy day. All of a sudden, we are reacting our way through the rest of the week.
On Friday afternoon, you look back and see that you’ve been super busy, but it hasn’t translated to your bank account. You’ve spent little to no time prospecting, and your pipeline has no new opportunities.
I’ve been there. I know how it feels.
Top Producers rarely have weeks like this. Somehow, they are more disciplined. They are more proactive. They consistently execute their prospecting systems.
I recently interviewed three of these Top Producers to find out exactly how they handle their time. How is it that they can consistently find and win the business they want, while the rest of the industry is fighting their whirlwind of a business?
Here are the 4 things I learned from them.
I’m going to warn you that this isn’t rocket science. You might think, “I’ve heard that before. This is nothing new.” But, knowing something doesn’t mean that you are doing it. If you’ve heard this before, I challenge you to do it!
4 Tactics Top Producers Use to Find and Win More Business:
1. 10+ hours — All three of these Top Producers prospect at least 10 hours a week. Some brokers think that there’s no way. They have too much to do. But there is nothing you do more valuable to your business than prospecting. Build a team. Get ruthless with delegating low value tasks. Figure it out.
2. Every day — All of them prospect every day. Some do it in the morning every day. Some prospect in the afternoon every day. Some brokers, like me, mix it up. But, they all prospect every day. And they don’t let opportunities, interruptions, and distractions derail them.
3. Time-block — Each of these Top Producers block out time on their calendars to prospect. I’ve heard it said that if it gets on your calendar then it will get done. I believe that. So do these Top Producers. Before the week starts, they create appointments with themselves to prospect. These appointments give them a real reason to defeat the attack of distractions.
4. Team Accountability — All three of these Top Producers have given permission to their teams to hold them accountable. Their teams know when they should be prospecting and that the more they prospect, the more success they will all have. These are high-powered brokers who humble themselves enough to allow anyone on their teams to remind them that they should be on the phone. Too much ego will kill you here.
So you don’t need a PhD. You don’t need to be the person with the silver tongue. What you need is the discipline to execute.
