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Want To Be In Business Next Year? Start Prospecting

by Joeann Fossland

You wake up with intentions to spend the morning calling past customers and clients. Today you are going to make 25 calls! Then when you get into the office, you have a message about a problem with the inspection of the First Street property you just put into escrow. You begin to make the calls to speak with all the parties involved and a call comes in on one of your listings from a buyer who is only in town today and wants to see it know. The prospecting can wait for another day, you think, as you handle what’s popped up. Does your day ever look like this?

The urgencies of life can easily sidetrack what is most important to building our businesses. I asked in a class one day, “What gets in the way of prospecting?” and one of the agents answered, “Almost anything!” How true that rang...

It’s been said, where you are today is a reflection of all the choices and actions you have taken in the past. Where you are in the future will be the result of what you do in the present. Superstar Michael Jordon said, "Success is... something you have to put forth the effort for constantly. Then maybe it'll come when you least expect it. Most people don't understand that." And William Feather had it right when he noticed, “Conditions are never just right. People who delay action until all factors are favorable do nothing.”

Every day is an opportunity to take actions that will give you the future you envision or to avoid action by doing all the urgent things that show up to distract or the convenient little things that will make you feel comfortable. Most people think if they were just more self-disciplined, they would prospect more. If there just wasn’t that awful fear of rejection that they don’t feel up to facing……

There are two areas to consider if you are serious about wanting to be more successful with consistent prospecting. First developing a mindset of action and second removing the distractions.

What Can You Do?

If you were just more self-disciplined... This is the prevailing thought and what most trainers and managers will focus on when you aren’t doing enough prospecting. You must develop the mindset of action. The adage “just do it”. Here are a few ways to focus on this:

Set a daily action plan and goal for the number of calls.

Stick with it until it is done. Create a consequence so awful that you WILL do it (like writing a $100 check to your biggest competitor).

Do it before you do anything else and get drawn away.

Make warm calls; not cold calls. You know enough people to call where you are already known.

Focus on connecting instead of impressing and discover if the contact has some needs you can help with.

Be public about your intentions. Get a buddy or a partner who also wants to focus on making calls.

Just Do It like your life depended on it (it does!)

Lighten up and have it be a game about just taking the actions. Have fun and give yourself a reward when done.

An overlooked and ultimately more powerful way of being more successful is to focus on eliminating what is distracting you. Pay attention to the hidden, indirect interference. I don’t mean the actual day to day distractions like those shaky escrows and lookey loo buyers. Where a dramatic shift can occur is taking care of what is really important.

Tennis Coach Tim Gallwey who revolutionized learning to play tennis with his book and coaching around “The Inner Game of Tennis” has just released a new book called The Inner Game of Work

He brilliantly describes how ineffective it is to just try harder when there are inner obstacles that are ready to sabotage you. Gallwey has a twofold approach:

“The quintessential component of superior performance in every activity is the focus of attention.”

The second and as important element is the “clarity of desire.”

If the self-distracting chatter in your head is undermining your confidence, no amount of taking action will be easy. To truly operate in the zone, you must address first your underlying belief and values systems. When there is congruency, action is easy and natural.

Eliminate the interference and your performance can grow by quantum leaps.

Tackling the Interference

To see lasting and convincing shifts in your attitude takes a shift in your reality. All of your actions are perfectly correlated with your perception of what is so; with what you see. How do you shift your reality?

Some Ways To Eliminate the Interference:

Take care of yourself so you have a reserve of energy to take care of others. Overworking leaves you unable to give 100%. What you invest in getting enough rest and time to spend with people you love energizes you to be more effective when you are working.

Know your values and make sure your work is reflective of what is really important to you. Your job should fund your life... not BE your life. Making those prospecting calls can put your child through college or enable you to have a spectacular vacation with your spouse.

Always focus on what you CAN do, not what you can’t. Build your self confidence by picking the low hanging fruit first... talking with the easy ones!

Get a support structure to help you stay clear about your vision and focused on your goals. The bigger this is, the easier it will be. Is it time to hire a coach?

Spend time everyday reviewing what you DID do (not what you didn’t) and what you ARE grateful for (not giving energy to what shouldn’t be)

Start riding the horse in the direction it is going and give up having to be a control freak. Unexpected opportunities are all around you and you are missing them because they don’t look like what you expect and want. Take what is there and go with the flow.

Have more fun. People are attracted to do business with the lighthearted ones!

Prospecting... .you CAN do it! Today is a perfect day to make those calls.

Also See:

Seven Secrets of Prospecting

Magic Success Formulas Are No Substitute for Prospecting

What Does It Take To Get A Prospect To Call You Back?

Avoid Roller Coaster Income with Scheduled Prospecting

Published: February 17, 2000

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

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Joeann Fossland ePRO, GRI, MCC, PMN, SRS is a dynamic speaker and business coach. Co-creator of THE REAL ESTATE GAME® and NoBloggerLeftBehind.com, she provides coaching solutions to enhance your effectiveness and life balance. You can subscribe to her free weekly tips, attend free monthly tele-seminars, and find out about classes delivered by email and personal coaching by visiting Joeann.com or email her at .

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