To create more business, it is not as important that you take lots of actions but that you have identified the right actions to take. To position yourself to thrive in 2005, here are three powerful distinctions. Make some shifts in these areas and see results!

Connect VS. Impress

If your marketing materials and your approach in meeting new clients are to impress them with your knowledge and experience, you may be seen as one of those scary, pushy salespersons. If you show a true interest in the other person’s needs and problems, you will begin to connect and build a trust. The old style of marketing and promotion focused on the agent rather than the client. The new style is relationship-based. The consumer is looking for someone to trust, for someone who will listen to them.

I have conversations often with coaching clients who believe they need to get better at closing skills to increase their effectiveness. Most of the time, I find they are trying too hard and turning off clients because they are failing to connect. Stop trying so hard and relax and just listen and connect with the potential client. It will become easier and more effective.

Abundance VS. Scarcity

The mindset that business is limited and there is not enough can lead an agent to try to work with every potential client or prospect that comes their way. Some of this business may not be the highest and best use of that agent’s time. Stop working with the jerks. Life is too short. Stop working with people who have needs you are not qualified to help them with. Those who want a commercial property or land or a neighborhood outside your normal service area. Let go of these and refer…it will be the highest dollar per hour you make in 2005 and the client will be better served. Stop working with buyers that are not going to buy and sellers that are going to waste your marketing dollars and cause you grief.

The scarcity mindset will cause you to make decisions that will waste your precious time. Believe that there is plenty of business for you and get choosy about working with those who fit your skills and way of doing business. The universe reflects back to you the most dominant thoughts you have. Are your daily thoughts supporting the vision you have for 2005? If not, the consciousness of what thoughts you are putting out there is the first step to changing those negative thought patterns.

Fun VS. Hard Work

Don’t you find it more enjoyable to do business with a relaxed, fun, loving person instead of a harried over-worked person? Taking care of yourself is a basic need if you are going to serve your clients impeccably in 2005. Take at least one day off (that means like on vacation-you don’t take calls on your cell phone; someone else is covering things) every week. Schedule your 2005 vacations now. Take three-day weekends over the course of the year. If you work yourself to exhaustion regularly, you will burn out. What’s more, your focus is impacted and you just don’t get things done as effectively.

This distinction is also about your mindset. Do you love your job? Is it a reflection of your values and what is really important to you? Those people you have an integrity and alignment with their core values, love what they do and have fun with it. It is not about survival and selling every day, it is about service and offering themselves to make a difference with someone else. If you aren’t in that place, do some thinking about what needs to shift in 2005. You’ll get into the flow and find it all gets much easier.

These shifts can be scary too, because they are based on faith. Look around, though, and you’ll see there are people who are connecting, having fun and have abundantly prosperous businesses. If they can do it, you can do it too! You too can thrive in 2005!