It’s been long acknowledged that short and long-term goals are absolutely necessary in business; without knowing what you’re striving towards, your plans and actions become scattered. The absolute necessity of goals has long been apparent, and most real estate agents are responding by setting goals.
I’ve sat in on many of these goal-setting meetings with various real estate agents, and I’m absolutely thrilled that agents are getting wise and improving their approach to selling. I’ve seen a bunch of different types of goals: number of houses to be sold, number of showings to be made, number of interested couples to make connections with, etc.
However, creating meaningful goals and actually achieving said goals are two different things. Here are five well-worn strategies that help you stay on task and focus on the goals until completion.
Mention Your Goals Often
A goal isn’t actually achievable if you don’t refer to it. Unfortunately, too many goals are set in one meeting, referred to in the next week’s meeting, and forgotten promptly afterwards. Such easily-forgotten goals exist only to pay lip service to the idea of setting goals, and don’t actually contribute anything to your quest to sell houses.
Take steps to emphasize these goals often: take appropriate amounts of time to set goals that everyone agrees with and can get behind, and then take measures to assure that the goals will be well-distributed throughout your life. Have an office and desk? Sticky note the goal to your computer, your desk, your chair, your door, etc. Sticky note it to the rear-view mirror of your car. Do everything in your power to make sure that your goals get remembered!
Break the Goal Down Into Achievable Pieces
Setting and meeting goals is often a psychological thing: your capability of meeting one goal directly impacts your ability to meet the next goal, and the next goal, and so on. However, too many goals require biting off a lot, sometimes more than you can chew; if you’ve set a goal to sell five houses in the course of a few months, it’s possible that you’ll meet so much adversity that you’ll stop before you even begin.
The key is to cultivate confidence: rather than setting a goal of just selling five houses, you can set smaller, more easily actionable goals in between. One may be to contact 100 different prospective buyers, another would be to do 10 open houses and 10 showings. I’ve seen the effects that these small victories can have on a real estate agent’s confidence, it’s powerful!
Track Your Progress
The best way to keep your confidence up is to keep visual track of close you’re coming to achieving the goals. Many times, you get lost; it’s hard to see the forest (achievement of a goal) when you’re amidst the trees (in the arduous process of actually achieving said goals). As we move into the 21st Century, many digital tools exist to help you measure your success in real-time; workflow management software, business intelligence tools, digital assistants, and other types of software can help you stay on top of your progress.
Conclusion
Setting goals is only half the battle: having a robust plan of attack, with ideas of how to actually reach the goals, is absolutely necessary. If you follow the tips above, I promise that you’ll see success!
