(energetic electronic music)
- Hey, welcome to the Tom Ferry Show.
We're closing in on the end of the first quarter,
and I'd like to do a quarterly review with you.
Before I jump into it, though,
I wanna remind you.
Back in 1953, Yale University,
they interviewed the graduating class of seniors.
And they asked them a whole bunch of questions,
but the one that really stood out for me was this.
"Do you have clear goals and a plan to accomplish them?"
Well, no shock that these kids coming out of college,
97%, no goals, no plan,
3% knew exactly what they wanted
and had a rudimentary plan to go after it.
Fast forward 20 years later.
In 1973, they re-interviewed the class
to find out where did they stand, how are they doing?
Now, you may have heard this before, but I love to study.
The 3% that had a goal and a plan,
a way to go out and achieve their results,
had of course experienced more joy, more happiness,
and of course, greater levels of success.
The thing, though, that stood out for me was
that 3%, the 3%, that have a plan,
that knew what they wanted,
and they were goin' after it every day,
that group had a combined net worth three times greater
than all of the 97% combined.
Now, you and I both know I'm a big fan of goal setting.
But when I read those kinds of stats
and those kinds of stories,
it really makes me think,
was it just setting the goal, right?
Did they just say, I wanna make $100,000,
I wanna make a million,
I wanna grow my business to X.
Did they just do that and write out a plan?
I've seen plenty of people grab a yellow notepad,
have a glass of wine, and start writing out goals,
and this is what I gotta do,
and you know what, they fail most of the time.
In my experience, in 30 years of business,
the real hook is to write the plan, to have the strategy,
and then to look at three areas of your business
every week, every month,
and at the minimum, once a quarter.
And that is what I wanna do with you today.
I wanna walk you through as if I was your coach
and I was sitting next to you, I'd say,
"Hey, let's talk about what your goal was,
"let's look at how we broke down
"the eight different number elements
"that are required for you to get there,
"and then how are we doing in relationship
"to each one of those,
"and then two other areas?"
So, if you would, would you allow me to be your coach?
So, let's start with the first thing.
Number one, what were your most important goals
for this year?
How many transactions did you wanna do,
how much volume, and how much gross commission income?
And assuming, like most people,
you divided it over four months
unless you're in a very seasonal market
where maybe you said I gotta make all my money
between January and July,
and then it's a little too hot in Phoenix
or in Palm Springs, California,
and things slow down and you get out,
and then you come back at it
in October, November, December, right?
You know the seasonalities.
But for most of us, it's quarter by quarter,
it's month by month.
We know exactly what we want.
So the first thing is, what's your goal?
The second thing I wrote down is,
you also had a number of conversations
that you needed to have on a daily,
weekly, and quarterly basis
that would be the leading indicator
to the lagging indicator
the results you wanna produce.
So what was that number?
Was it five conversations, you know,
to existing customers?
Was it five conversations to new customers,
10 conversations a day?
Two, 20, 500, I don't know, the question is, do you?
And then, I wrote down behind it,
what was your actual result?
I was thinking about one of my clients, many moons ago,
Sandy Andrew, really dating myself here.
Extraordinary individual from Atlanta, Georgia.
Sandy and I were talking one day about her business.
And here's what we discovered.
Her plan was basically simple.
Four, three, two, one.
Four hours combined between her and her team of prospecting,
schedule three appointments every day,
one with the seller, two with buyers, every day,
go on two, and get one signed contract.
Like, that was the plan.
And inside of the four,
we knew we wanted to basically have
about 60 conversations, right?
And those 60 conversations would lead us to everything else.
Well, funny
that at the end of the first quarter one year,
all of a sudden, we're sitting at, you know,
78% of the number of people they were supposed to talk to
and guess what?
She was surprised
that she wasn't on track for her goal.
She was surprised like, "I can't believe it,
"we've been working so hard."
See, you and I both know that business is math.
People are not math.
When you're making a phone call and you're reaching out,
you're knocking on that door,
you're meeting that person, socially,
that's not math, that is empathy,
that is asking the right questions, that's connecting,
that's likely to solve problems for a profit, right?
That's what we do in business, right?
THat's what we do.
The math side is if the formula says,
"Every 50 people I talk to, I make a sale,"
and you only talk to 29,
you should only be mad at one person, you, right?
You failed to execute on the formula.
So, the first thing you gotta look at is
how many conversations was I supposed to have?
How many did I really have?
And if you're not tracking that yet, my goodness.
Race to tomferry.com, look at the hub,
start tracking your numbers,
it's your business intelligence,
it's your business inelegance.
Number two, ready?
You had an appointment goal for the first quarter,
sellers, buyers, right?
Appointments, et cetera?
How many did you say you were gonna do?
How many did you actually do?
I have a feeling,
if you're way ahead on your conversations,
you're probably equal to our way ahead on your appointments
'cause one begets the next, right?
So, what was your goal
and what was your actual?
And then units goals.
How many did you wanna, be at, closed and pending,
and where do you stand, right?
The numbers are the numbers are the numbers.
It doesn't matter that one fell out,
it doesn't matter that one had a huge sales price.
We try and rationalize all this stuff.
You said you were gonna be at eight deals.
Are you at eight deals, yes or no?
You with me on this?
Keep it simple, no stories, no drama.
Now, the next one is, of course, with unit goals,
you said you were gonna be at X, where you at?
Number...
Excuse me, four is what's your GCI goal?
WHat's your revenue goal, right?
You said from that eight,
you wanted to produce $80,000 in commissions,
$40,000 in commissions, whatever the number is,
$800,000 in commissions?
Great, where are you at, closed and pending?
Deals already closed and pending.
The next one, of course, is your volume.
What was your sales volume goal?
Where are you at?
I think you're getting the basics, here.
How many conversations,
how many appointments,
how many transactions,
how was the volume, how was your GCI,
your commissions,
and then the last two,
what were your expenses, right?
How were you in relationship to your expenses?
Now, this is an interesting conversation,
especially coming off a couple weeks ago,
when I was like, "Stockpile cash," right?
And I was really going at you.
One of the things that I see,
a mistake that a lot of people make is
they know that when they spend a dollar on marketing,
that produces five,
and they stop spending it,
then they get mad that their sales aren't there.
One...
You know, one creates the next.
It's cause and effect.
When I don't make my phone calls, right?
I don't have the sales.
One creates the next.
Marketing is critical.
So, make sure that you're paying attention
to your marketing budget
and following through accordingly
and being ROI focused, like we discussed a couple weeks ago.
That every dollar you're spending,
you're being meticulous about how do I make sure that
I squeeze from that dollar investment
two, three, four, five, six, as an example.
But the other thing is, remember we said,
"Stop spending money on stupid stuff."
Right?
I talked to agents that have three different CRMs
and they don't use any of them
but they pay for all three, right?
Look for the areas in your business
where you can cut the waste.
THat's always a good idea
and be honest with yourself.
Did you make some capital investments into your business
in the first quarter?
Was it on budget or outside of your budget?
Important distinctions.
All right, the last one, of course,
was your net income.
So, your gross, right?
Minus all your expenses.
What was your net?
What did you say you wanted it to be
and where are you at?
Now, let's be honest.
Awareness is the first step of change.
The moment you say, "These are my numbers."
Guess what happens?
You're like, "Okay, it is what it is."
The story, the drama, the big deal, the one that got away,
you know,
the thing that happened in your life,
the market doesn't care.
You with me on this?
I care,
you care,
I'm sure your family cares,
but the business doesn't care.
Buyers and sellers and people and prospects
will go find somebody else.
So you just gotta be honest.
Did you kill it,
were you right here,
or were you short and behind?
Were you short on your numbers?
And then, of course, when you hit the last one,
what are you gonna do about it?
What do you do about the second quarter?
But I got some more questions, you ready?
The second area, when you're reviewing
after you do the numbers,
is accessing your results from your marketing, right?
So, I actually wrote down for you.
There's really, basically, three questions.
You wanna look at, in my marketing...
And I'm going through the list, you ready?
Online leads, open houses,
direct mail, FISBOS expires, geographic farming,
la-la-la-la-la.
You know the list, it's all inside the hub.
The key
is to do a very honest, quantitative evaluation
of what worked...
Gosh, my geographic farming is killing it, right?
Maybe I should do more of that, right?
Or what did I do differently this quarter,
compared to last quarter?
Analyze it,
make sure I do it again in the second quarter,
make sure I do it again in the third quarter, right?
Remember, run plays that worked?
Same concept.
Then, I always wanna ask, where am I, for example,
with one of these where I'm in process?
Maybe it's a new campaign,
something that I decided, in my business plan,
that I would take on in the first quarter,
recognizing that I might be doing it for two full quarters
before I get a closing or, you know,
two new listings or whatever it is from this,
so where am I at?
Have I been consistent?
Am I following the plan?
Am I taking all the right steps
or am I kinda doing the, "Come on, seven,"
and hoping and praying, right?
So it's just an honest...
What's working,
where am I in process,
and then the last one is what needs to improve?
Right?
So I was, you know,
I talk a lot about your database
and
one of the biggest untapped resources from most people is
their database has become their dead-a-base, right?
You're sending them texts, they're not responding,
you're sending direct mail, they're not responding,
you never make enough phone calls,
you're not digging deep, and when you do,
you're like, "Hey,
"Do you know anybody
"who wants to buy themselves real estate?"
You're just selling all the time.
You with me?
It's not authentic, it's not real,
it's not what the customer wants.
So, I ask myself,
"Where can you improve?"
For example, with your database or with expireds
or with your farm or with your online leads,
whatever it is you do, always, "Where do I need to improve?"
So, that's the second part of a quarterly assessment.
Look at my business intelligence,
look at all my numbers,
then look at all my marketing.
What worked, what am I in process on,
what needs to improve?
Then, I look at the third part,
is I wrote down, you know,
where was I
interested versus committed?
Interested versus committed and I've got...
There's 13 things on the actual assessment.
I wanna talk to you about just four, right?
13 things that you could be look at like
where was I interested,
as in I did it when it was convenient,
and where was I committed
like I got up and I did it no matter what
'cause it's in the plan, it's in the schedule,
I am Forrest Gump, run, run, run.
You with me on this?
I was smart enough to write the plan,
I'm gonna be dumb enough to follow the plan.
You with me?
Four areas I want you to consider, you ready?
Number one,
was I tracking and measuring all of my numbers?
Was I tracking and measuring all my numbers?
I don't care if it's chicken scratch on a yellow note pad,
on a dry erase board, on an app, inside the hub,
but was I tracking and measuring
so I know the analytics of my business
or am I still playing the hope and pray game?
Am I still playing the guessing game?
So, that's number one, right?
So, was I interested in my business
or am I committed to it?
If I'm interested,
I tracked when it was convenient.
But if I'm committed,
I want, so badly, to know
that I'm now at 37 conversations to a sale
and I'd love to see myself
get to 25 conversations for a sale
and the only way I would be able to do that
is to track and measure to know,
to remove the guessing game.
Number two,
was I reviewing and acting on my business plan
on a weekly basis?
So, think about this, right?
You created your business plan inside the hub,
you're looking at it all the time, I hope, right?
Are you digging in to sections of your plan
on a weekly basis?
Not where you're just working in your business
but you're working on your business.
So, this is where I stop and say,
I'm gonna carve out a little time on Friday.
And I'm gonna look at the systems, the marketing,
the processes, the areas of improvement that I said,
"When I put these bricks in place, in my business,
"I'm gonna be more stable, more repeatable, more scalable."
As an example, are you carving out time to do that?
Or are you just running as fast as you can
until you're exhausted and get a day off?
If it's not in your schedule, my friend, it doesn't exist.
It's a big part of your quarterly review,
did I work on my business?
The third area, obviously, is driving results
in my marketing, my lead generation and my conversion.
So, at the end of the quarter, I wanna make sure
was I committed to that?
Like did you work on your presentation,
did you work on your objection handling,
did you work on your ability to get to the yes?
You know, have you read all the great books
on negotiation so you're really able to help
your client and the other person on the other side
of the table that you might be negotiating with
and for or against, right?
Am I really getting better at that area?
Did I outsource by marketing, right?
Did I in-source and hire someone new to take this on?
These are the core fundamentals of a great business.
My business intelligence,
my actual working on the business,
the stuff I plan for,
and then how am I bringing more clients in, right?
Top of the funnel,
middle of the funnel, bottom of the funnel,
gettin' 'em in, gettin' 'em interested and converting them,
does that make sense?
How much time did you spend working on that?
And were you honestly
interested when you wrote it
or were you committed?
Are you following through?
And then, the last one I wrote down is obviously,
and I've talked about it just briefly, here,
is how much time did you spend
upgrading, improving, or maybe adding for the first time,
the systems, is what everybody refers to them,
I'd rather call them the business processes,
how we do it around here, right?
Your business processes in place.
Whether that is a, you know,
a marketing checklist
or a pre-transaction checklist,
a listing launch checklist, as an example.
All the things that you do in your business
time and time again,
when was the last time you upgraded,
looked at, tweaked, adjusted to improve upon them
so your business becomes more repeatable or scalable
and ultimately, you have more control.
So, again, a lot for you to digest.
All this is at tomferry.com, inside the hub.
GO download it, go look at it,
do an honest assessment.
If you're one of my coaching clients,
one of our members,
you and your coach are gonna have these dialogues.
The key thing, my friend,
is that you're taking the time to pause
and to look at your business, analytically.
To look at it quantitatively
versus, you know, qualitatively, right?
More how you feel?
Look at the numbers
and then we do the last one.
Number four
and that is you decide what it is you're committed to
in the second quarter.
Now, again, same rule.
Where do I wanna be, transaction-wise?
Where do I wanna be, volume-wise?
Right?
Talking 'bout, you know, July first,
end of June, where do I wanna be, right?
And then what do I have to do to get there, right?
How many appointments do I need,
how many conversations do I need?
It's just math, my friend.
Take the guessing game out
and decide exactly how you want it to be
and the look st what worked in the first quarter,
build on it,
look at what was in process in the first quarter,
the things that you're working on,
and continue them
and then look for the areas of improvement
and put your petal to the metal.
Go for it 'cause you know what?
Right now, what I'm seeing,
across the world, is in real estate,
it's the rich and the rest.
It's the rich and the rest, my friends.
Just like
that beautiful Yale University study,
100 kids graduate, 97 got no plan, got no clue,
3% know what they want, right?
Got a plan, and I bet, inside that survey,
I'm sure someone asked
and did you follow up on those goals?
Did you look at 'em all the time?
Were you tinkering, tweaking and adjusting?
You and I both know the answer is yes.
And that's exactly what I expect from you.
Thank you so much for watching and more importantly,
thank you
for taking the time to truly think about your business
and make it better.
The people that love you will appreciate this
an all of your future clients will, as well.
Thank you so much for watching.
Remember, always, your strategy matters.
And now, more than ever,
looking at your business analytically is what rules the day.
Hey, I'm Tom Ferry and I wanna say
welcome to real estate.
There's a pretty good chance no one's told you
there's an 87% failure rate
every five years in this business
and there's only two factors,
agents don't have the tools
and they don't take the right action.
I'm gonna invite you to click the link below
and get access to the tools
so you can win in this business.