Hello and welcome to Debbie’s daily tips. Our tip for today is identifying your key sources of business. So as you set your goals, it’s important to look at to where your business comes from and then look at what you did to get it.

Are you maximizing as much as you can the business opportunities coming from that source. So for example, let’s say you have a thousand people in your database and a quarter of your business comes from repeat and referral, how can you dig even deeper to extract even more? For example, are you contacting them by mail at least quarterly?

Are you personally calling them at least quarterly? Are you asking them directly for referrals? Do you have a AAA list that you contact more frequently than the rest of the people on your list? You know, there almost always is more you can do to get business from your current sources, so take a look at where your business is coming from, identify a very clear action plan, and then stick with that action plan. Have a great day and I look forward to talking to you on the next Debbie’s daily tips. 

If you are a real estate agent or broker that is looking to for more insight and direction on how to get more listings, sell more homes to your investors, and work with more buyers, then this podcast is just for you!

Your Physical Environment Affects You!

It is true that square feet can be hard to come by in a real estate office, and that many people do not have the luxury of a private office. Still, do your best to make whatever space you are in as uplifting as possible.

First step: clean it up!

Second step: get organized! Get rid of things that you don’t need and things that distract you. Post your goals, your scripts, and your dream board where you can see them, as well as other things that keep you inspired.

Try a three-tier stacking tray—the top tray is urgent projects, the second tray is projects that need to be finished by the end of the week, and the third tray is projects that can be placed on the backburner.

Good lighting is important: buy a new lamp. Good sound quality is important: consider investing in a noise-canceling headset.

Make it easy to work there!

If you are a real estate agent or broker that is looking to for more insight and direction on how to get more listings, sell more homes to your investors, and work with more buyers, then this podcast is just for you!

Habits of Successful Agents

People often ask, “why do some people make it in this business while others fail?” While some people are exceptionally intelligent and have natural talent in sales, that rarely determines success—people with no inherent sales talent often succeed, while many who are “born salespeople” fail and give up. Here are some of the things that make great salespeople:

1. They maintain a positive mindset.

2. They have clearly defined goals and an action plan to achieve them.

3. They have bulletproof focus.

4. They feel good about what they do, and they don’t mind helping others move forward to make a decision.

5. They work purposefully to develop their skills and their product knowledge.

6. They have a clear plan to prospect and they do it every day.

7. They build and maintain an environment that supports growth.

8. They spend time with inspiring, motivated people.

9. They have big motivations that drive them.

10. They keep their ego out of their business.

11. They handle rejection well.

12. They have mastered the art of handling repetitious boredom.

13. They are powerful persuaders.

14. They are open to helping others grow and sharing what they know.

15. They run their business like a business—they track their numbers and measure their profits.

As you look over this list, write down some of the areas that you need to work on. It is natural for you to be stronger in some areas than others, and this course is here to help you work on your weaker areas.

If you are a real estate agent or broker that is looking to for more insight and direction on how to get more listings, sell more homes to your investors, and work with more buyers, then this podcast is just for you!

Building a Salesperson’s Mindset

Success in sales is 90% mental. When you woke up today and thought about the day ahead, what were you thinking about? What is your mindset about being a salesperson? On a scale of 1-10, where would you score your energy and enthusiasm for the business?

Everyone has their tough days, and sometimes the market wears us down and we wake up each day thinking, “I’m not sure that I can do this anymore.”

Let’s look at a few methods for you to adjust your attitude when you’re having one of those tough days:

1. Make a list of all the ways in which you have positively impacted your clients. Keep your client testimonials handy for this!

2. Read a great book or listen to an audio program. New ideas are invigorating and will give you hope.

3. Turn off the news and avoid negative people! Negativity in other parts of your life will spill into your job.

4. Get some exercise. This is often prescribed as a cure for depression, and that little boost is often all we need to get back on our feet.

5. Study the art of selling... which is exactly what you are doing in this course! When you increase your skills, you increase your confidence.

6. Prospect. Generate more leads so that you can keep yourself busy.

7. Record your wins at the end of each day in a journal, just before you turn out the light. This can help you wake up with a positive mindset.

8. Have a mastermind group or an accountability partner. This can be a lonely business at times, so build your support network.

9. Spend more time working your database and building on your relationships. These people like you, and they will help you if you ask for it.

10. Have very clear long- and short-term goals. The vision of the future is what will pull you through challenging days in the short term. Keep your eyes on the prize!

If you are a real estate agent or broker that is looking to for more insight and direction on how to get more listings, sell more homes to your investors, and work with more buyers, then this podcast is just for you!

Breaking It Down Once you’ve set your goals, you will need to come up with a plan to reach them. The easiest way to do this is to break things down:

1. How much monthly income will I need in order to achieve my goals?

2. How many deals will I need to close in order to reach that monthly income? ➡ How many deals will be listings sold and how many deals will be buyer sales?

3. How many listings will I need in order to make that many closings?

4. How many listing appointments will I need in order to take that amount of listings?

5. How many prospecting calls will I need to make in order to get that many appointments? If you have never tracked your numbers before, you may not be sure how many contacts you will need to make in order to achieve your goal. Start tracking now, and within 60-90 days you will know.

➡ Here is a formula that might help: write down your deal goal for this year, then subtract the number of deals that will just fall in your lap. The leftover number is the amount of deals that you have to create from prospecting.

➡ Another approach is to commit to making a set number of contacts per day. Track your progress at the end of the month—was it enough to achieve your goal? Most of my clients strive to make between 20-30 contacts per day during their prospecting calls. Some do even more.

If you are a real estate agent or broker that is looking to for more insight and direction on how to get more listings, sell more homes to your investors, and work with more buyers, then this podcast is just for you!

Hello it’s Debbie De Grote and welcome to Debbie’s Daily Tips. So I had a question…

Q: How can we attract more buyers to stop by our open house?

A:         Well, I would say one thought would be pick a good one. Right? Not all open houses are going to be alike. Make sure that it’s attractive, that you’re going to be able to draw good traffic. Next, put up as many signs as you can. If you have to borrow some, borrow some. Knock the neighborhood and invite the neighbors in. Put it on Facebook, and let your friends know that you are having an open house, let them come and see you. You could do things like putting it on craigslist or running Facebook ads. You know, you really want to make an effort to drive as much traffic there as you possibly can. What I find though is often agent don’t give it a lot of thought, they put up a few signs at the last minute, and there’s no real plan in order to really make that an event. And that’s what we really want to do, we really want to make it a really strong, powerful open house event.

Alright guys, so put up more signs, invite some people in, and let’s make it worth your time. Alright, have a great day and I’ll talk to you on the next Debbie’s Daily Tips.

Hello everyone welcome to Debbie’s Daily Tips and I’m answering a question that came in to our website…

Q: Can I count going to parties, like baby showers or birthday parties, as part of my prospecting activities?

A: You know, this is a really good question and people are people so this is what I would like to have you do, have a strategy. It’s great for you to get in front of as many people as you can. My strategy for social events though is I know the best time to go, when will the most people be there that would talk to me. So if it is a baby shower I’m probably going to go in the beginning, I would start off by saying, “I’m working today but I wanted to drop off the gift and say hello.” Work the room, get a few contacts, and then you may have to leave.

Also, it’s just really looking at this and saying, “If I’m going to attend this activity and I’m looking to extract some business from it how can I be purposeful?” Now, it’s for family and people you love that’s a different thing. You aren’t scheduling that in you’re going because you want to go.

But, I’m talking about things that really are not your favorite. Book them, be strategic, and if you think it’s a good opportunity to meet people then maybe you go, you meet, you mix and mingle, and you don’t stay too long.

So again, I know you’re all busy so you’re really going to want to vet the opportunity. And then just remember whoever you speak to can become your sphere of influence so let’s make sure that you add them into your database and include them in your information loop. Maybe set a goal to meet 5 strangers and make them friends or make them contacts in your information loop.

Have a great day I will talk to you soon.

Hello everyone it’s Debbie De Grote. Welcome to Debbie’s Daily Tips. Someone sent in a question. They said, “You mentioned on a webinar if you don’t have an appointment during the day you need to find somebody to get in front of.”

Okay, so my rule of thumb always was that at the end of the day, let’s say it’s 5 o’clock, and I don’t have a listing or a buyer appointment I would try to figure out are there 2 people that I can get in front of, a FSBO, knock the door of an expired, pop by a past client who could give me a referral, go to some type of networking meeting or event.

Because, you see, I felt I always needed to get in front of somebody every single day. That was my goal. Just take a look at the end of your day and see who it would make sense for you to arrange a pop-by, a phone call, arrange a coffee, a lunch, and you never know what kind of opportunity you’re going to find.

You know, we’re in the people business. As Zig Ziglar used to say, “You have to see the people.” And it’s amazing, the more people you get in front of the luckier you get.

Alright, have a great day and I look forward to talking with you soon.

Hello everyone it is Debbie De Grote and welcome to Debbie’s Daily Tips. So, the question today is…

Q: What is the best way to get out of a slump?

A:         Okay, so here’s the best way. Just really immerse yourself in work. Have a schedule. Because action breeds activity. So, if I know I have this at 11, this at 12, and this at 1, and I’ve got to go out and get in front of prospects and I’ve got to get to the office and I’ve got to practice and I’ve got to preview.

If I’m very regimented, whenever I encountered in my career, which we all do, a slump I knew that if I could get in action things would start to pop and I also knew that I would get my mojo back, I’d get my groove back.

Also, I would say that this is a very very important point: I would avoid these conversations in your head or with others around you that you are in a slump. In other words, don’t say it. Stop talking about it because talking about it makes it real. So, stop talking about it because it really does become a self-fulfilling prophecy. And here’s the interesting thing about your mind, you know if if I said to you, “You’re in a slump,” your mind automatically wants to fight back and defend itself and say, “Who is she?”

It just doesn’t impact us as badly as if you say it to yourself. Because, see, then it goes right in. So, guys all throughout the day you are going to have negative thoughts, you can’t help it. You’re going to think, “Oh this is hard. How do I know if this massive prospecting is going to work? You are going to have all these things, all these thoughts, it’s normal. And, you can’t stop that first thought but what you can do is stop the second.

So what do I mean by that? I might say, “Oh wow I’m tired today, I don’t feel like doing this.” Stop it! I mean really literally say, “Stop it,” out loud. You know, “I’ve got a couple days I’m going to be able to take off soon and I really want to feel good about that. So I just need to get into action.” Right? So, control your mindset, control your activity, because it’s amazing what you can accomplish when you focus. Alright guys, have a great day and I look forward to talking to you soon.

Hello and welcome to Debbie’s daily tips. The question I’m answering today is…

Q: What is a quiet sale?

A:         A quiet sale really is just a sexy way of saying a pocket listing. See, my luxury people decided that they needed a better term, so we came up with quiet sale. You see, under this quiet sale program you could make a little list of benefits, things you’ll do for them like I’ll contact my data base, we’ll prospect without giving out the address, we’ll go through our leads and screen them carefully, and only bring them to your home if we are 100% certain that they’re qualified. In the mean time we’ll be accessible to you, we’ll be like your realtor on retainer.

If you need some help, some vendors, updates on the market, and then while you are enjoying your holiday we can begin to prepare the pre-marketing strategies. This is especially good at the end of the year where you can talk to them about the fact that this will allow you to hit the ground running.

So this is good for people who are very private or who are not quite ready to get the home on the market but it gives you control of the process and you already have their commitment on the listing contract. Alright, have a great day and I look forward to talking with you all very soon.