Consistent, active prospecting is essential to your success in real estate. In coaching Realtors, I find that many of them will do anything and everything to avoid prospecting.

Most people avoid prospecting for emotional reasons and the essential factor in sales success is mastering your own psychology.

Some of the common reasons people avoid prospecting are fear of not knowing what to say, fear of being seen as intrusive or pushy, lack of time, and a fundamental disrespect for the sales profession. The number one reason most realtors don't prospect as much as they should is fear of rejection.

I'm afraid of rejection.

Fear of rejection is by far the most common stumbling block to effective prospecting. People who are afraid of rejection avoid prospecting like the plague. They may know they need to do it, but they manage to put everything else first. If there's any time leftover at the end of the day, they may do some token prospecting just to feel like they accomplished something.

Here's a typical scenario:

Joe vows to himself that today is the day he'll get serious about contacting leads. He arrives at the office at 9, gets a cup of coffee and warms himself up by chit chatting with a few of his colleagues. At 9:30 he gets back to his desk, checks his e-mail and takes care of a few administrative details. By the time he's done, it's 10:15 and he goes for another cup of coffee. At 10:30, he checks his voice-mail. One of the messages is from his printer who says his new business cards are ready. Rationalizing that having his new cards is essential to developing new business, Joe drives across town and pick them up.

By the time he gets back to the office, it's almost 12. He assumes everyone will be at lunch, so he puts off prospecting till the afternoon. He starts making calls at 2. He gets two busy signals, two "unavailables," three "untinteresteds," and one "call me in six months." Stressed out from his six contacts, Joe goes out for a cup of coffee with a fellow salesperson and they commiserate about how tough the market is. At 4, Joe is back at his desk checking his e- and voice-mail. He does some administration, sends some e-mail, and at 5:30 heads home, promising himself, as usual, to prospect like crazy tomorrow.

Do you relate? Joe's problem may appear to be laziness or poor time management, but those are just symptoms. The real issue is how he reacts emotionally to the very idea that someone might say "No."

A major part of sales game is weeding through the "No's" to get to the "Yes's". You may have to talk to as many as 100 prospects before you get to someone who's interested. Knowing this, why do so many salespeople interpret "No" as personal rejection? Because they're reacting emotionally; they haven't trained themselves to think of it any other way.

In attempting to invent a light bulb that would burn for more than a few minutes, Thomas Edison tried over 1500 different filament materials. Midway through the process, someone asked him if he was discouraged about his "failures." Edison responded, "Results? Why, man, I have gotten lots of results! If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is often a step forward." To Edison, each unsuccessful attempt meant he was one step closer to success.

The same could be said about prospecting - like Edison, you can choose to see each no, not as failure or rejection, but as getting a step closer to someone who is interested.

Published: December 29, 2004

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