8 Reasons You’re Failing In Real Estate
Welcome back to Mike Ferry TV. My name is Tony Smith, coach and speaker for the Mike Ferry organization. Happy to fill in for Mike Ferry this week. Okay, it’s the week of August 25th. Have you come to appreciate and realize some of the incredible advantages and opportunities that exist in the real estate cycle that we’re experiencing today? Okay, this is a normal real estate cycle, a normal economic cycle, if you will. And at the Mike Ferry organization, we have come to learn and teach all of the incredible advantages you have in these times. I hope you’re starting to appreciate it. We’ve still got four months left in 2025, four long months to achieve all the incredible things that you want to set out to achieve this year. It’s a lot of time. I hope you’re taking advantage of it. All right. I want to take a different twist today. I want to look at a little portion of what Mike Ferry used to present in his workshops and little action workshops, productivity schools and retreats for many years. And the topic was the eight Reasons Why an Agent Doesn’t Succeed. I thought if we would look today for a minute at some major points of why an agent doesn’t succeed, if we can take that personally, look at it for ourselves, and see how we relate to these points. If we’re going to do the things that an agent that doesn’t succeed does, then we’re also chancing not succeeding. But if we can flip them over, maybe we can use these thoughts to our advantage and succeed at an even higher level. So during our time today, please take a look at these closely. See if they pertain to you. See if you have to make any adjustments, or see if you need to pay attention in any of these places.
1) You spend way too much time waiting for repeat and referral business
All right. The first thing Mike used to present and reasons an agent doesn’t succeed. They spend way too much time waiting for repeat and referral business. Waiting for business. All right. So 15, 20 years ago, an average seller would only live in their house for like 3 to 7 years before they would decide to sell it and buy another one. Okay. Well, in today’s times, a seller will live in a house 12 to 15 years before they decide it’s time to sell and buy another one. So if I spend a lot of time waiting for my past clients, waiting for my center of influence to finally get in that spot where it’s time to sell and buy. In essence, aren’t I slowing down my business in a big way? A question. How much of your time are you spending waiting for incoming business? It’s a big killer of business today if you wait.
2) You are very inconsistent with your prospecting habits
All right, look at number two. Agents don’t succeed if they’re very inconsistent with their prospecting habits. All right. Generating leads consistently. You know, if you’re if you find yourself prospecting aggressively for a few days, and then you fall off and you stop for a few days, and then you get back at it for 2 or 3 weeks, and then you stop again. Were you aware that each of the times that you’re actually doing it are diminished because you’re a little bit rusty? Right. Consistency equals commitment to skill. And if you’re inconsistent, even when you do it, you’re getting a little less results than if you did it every single day. So, so far this year. Take a close look at your consistency. How consistently have you been in an average five day work week? How many of those days are you generating business? How many days are you hitting your contact goal? How many of those days are you hitting your hourly prospecting goal? Okay, consistency is the key.
3) You do not qualify your leads
Look at point three on this list. Agents don’t succeed if they do not qualify their leads, right. I think you’ve heard Mike say this, what, a thousand times this year that qualifying everyone is more important than ever today. So qualifying leads, if you have a pile of leads and you’re not willing to qualify them in any way, you keep calling. They keep putting you off. They put you off for another week, another month, another six months. And then they finally say, okay, I’ll meet you. And they’re not qualified, they’re not motivated, they’re not prepared to do what it takes to sell their home. It’s a colossal waste of time, isn’t it? So are you spending the right amount of time and energy actually qualifying the leads you have? Are you asking them all the questions? Right. Are you willing to do whatever it takes to get your home sold today? It’s a fair question, right? Um, how long have you been interested in selling your home? Fair question. Um, what’s more important that you get a certain number for the sale of your home, or that you actually sell it and move? Fair question. And then all of the other qualification questions that we have in our script qualify your leads.
4) You spend too much time going on unqualified appointments
Look at this number. Point number four agents that don’t succeed spend too much time going on unqualified appointments. Right. It’s it’s 7:00 at night. Uh, a seller has said, come on over, we’ll talk about selling my home. You drive to the home, you get there, you start presenting and you find out that they don’t have the commitment or motivation to move. They’re not willing to do what it takes, or the House doesn’t meet the standards of what’s actually selling today. They’re not willing to price it correctly. Okay. Um, you have to go through the whole song and dance anyway, don’t you? And then it’s 730, 8:00 at night. You’re driving home without a listing taken, and you got the wind knocked out of your sails. Doesn’t sound like a lot of fun to me. How much time are you spending going on unqualified appointments?
5) You spend way too much time on marketing
Look at point number five. Agents that don’t succeed spend way too much time on marketing. Okay, this is more true than ever today because of social media and all. You know, I now and all of the things that are out there, there is great technology and there are great things that you should consider doing. But at the same time, you know a good, strong campaign if you have one. A good marketing approach doesn’t take that much time. You know, if you’re taking a job and extending it out where it’s take virtually consuming your entire workweek. You know, I would never replace marketing with prospecting. I never recommend replacing marketing with practicing and working on your sales skills. I would never replace marketing with really strong, aggressive lead follow-up. and I certainly, of course would never replace great presentations with with marketing. Are you spending too much time on marketing? It’s a killer.
6) You do not take time to understand the market conditions, the market stats, and how to deliver them
How about this one? Number six. They do not take time to understand the market conditions, the market stats, and how to deliver them. Okay. Um, in today’s world, with little changes in the market, we have to present to clients, sellers a lot of things that they don’t want to hear. Okay. It’s pretty easy to present to a seller a bunch of things that they do want to hear. The market’s red hot prices are going up. You’re going to sell in a few days multiple offers. Those are all really easy to present, aren’t they? Okay. But now today we have to present some things that they don’t really want to hear. If we don’t know the market conditions, if we don’t have a good understanding of the market stats, and if we don’t know how to deliver those stats to a client that doesn’t want to hear what we have to say, our results are not going to be that good, are they? How much time are you spending coming to really understand the condition of the market? Do you spend time practicing and rehearsing your delivery of the market stats?
7) You do not pay close enough attention to tracking your numbers
Need to today look at this point number seven. They do not pay close enough attention to tracking their numbers. Okay. I think we would all agree. I hope you do that. This is a numbers game. If this is truly a numbers game and I’m not willing to understand and track my numbers, aren’t I playing in a game without doing what’s required in the game? How much time are you spending tracking everything you do? Do you know how many contacts you make per day? Do you know how many contacts it takes to get an appointment? Do you know how many appointments you need to go on to get paid? What are the ratios that you’re trying to fix in your business? Right? A surefire way to slow down your growth is to not understand the numbers. Now, I didn’t say like the numbers. Okay. You know, Mike Ferry said the other day. He said the reason some people don’t track their numbers is because they don’t like to put a zero down. Okay? Writing zero is a hard thing to do. But if you’ll if you’ll accept the fact that tracking numbers will move you forward faster, I think you’d be interested in doing it more. Track your numbers.
8) You are not willing to be held accountable
Look at number eight on this list. Why agents are not successful. They are not willing to be held accountable. Okay. Um. Accountable. There’s things that we know we’re supposed to do that we’re simply not doing. And we need accountability. If we’re not being held accountable to the things we know we’re supposed to do and we don’t do them, does that slow us down? Of course, the answer is yes. You know, the number one thing that an agent will put when they sign up for our coaching programs and they fill out the little placement interview, the number one thing that is requested is to be held accountable. Bowl. I think we all know that we need to. But I also know that many of us don’t like it. Right? Um, the reality is, if you want to grow faster and if you want to succeed, being held accountable is a requirement. What specifically do you need to be held accountable to doing today? Are you willing to apply that accountability? Are you willing to put your feet in the fire so you’ll actually do something that you need to do? Major factor. So once again, please take a look at these eight things that cause an agent not to succeed and see if they apply to you. If you need to make some changes or adjustments in how you behave, and if you can flip these over, then I think you’ll succeed at a higher level, especially now. Thanks for your time.
