BUILDING A STRONGER BUSINESS: 10 POINTS WITH MIKE FERRY – PART 2
Welcome to Mike Ferry TV. Welcome to the month of December. 11 months down, one to go.
It’s never too late to list and sell Real Estate. And you know, people say all the time. And I’ve heard this for 49 years, that November, December are terrible months in Real Estate. Nobody buys or sells. But if you really look at the numbers from your local area, there probably is a decline 12%, 15%, even 18%, maybe 20% in transactions. But that means that if there’s normally, for example, 500 transactions a year and there’s 20% less in the month of December, there’s still 400 transactions to be done by great agents like yourself. Also, remember, if you’re working each day diligently in Real Estate in the month of December, you may be the only one in your office that’s working diligently each day in the month of December.
We started last week by saying, I’m going to share some thoughts from the Superstar Retreat in this past July. I shared ten thoughts with you on how to build production, how to become more oriented towards listing and selling and earning more income. Perfect time for us to consider this as we head into 2024, but remembering we want to finish 2023 as strong as we possibly can. So here’s the next ten points that I want to share with you.
Question: How do I become better at listing and selling Real Estate?
Answer: Take good solid sales scripts, then role-play and practice them 30 to 45 minutes per day, 5 to 6 days a week. Take good, solid sales scripts. Scripts that bring people to a conclusion to use you versus somebody else. Sales scripts. Then role-play and practice them 30 to 45 minutes a day, 5 to 6 days a week.
Here in Las Vegas, we have a professional football team, the Las Vegas Raiders. They practice probably seven to eight hours a day, five days a week, preparing for a one-hour game. So most of their life is spent in practice. Professional golfers practice way more than they play because they play usually on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday if they’re lucky to play on Saturday and Sunday by being one of the top qualifiers after the 150 or so players that start. And then all their time is spent practicing before they play, after they play and the days off. Professionals practice, amateurs don’t. Think about taking the scripts we offer through Mike Ferry Organization, going to our website, downloading the scripts and start reading them out loud to get comfortable with them. Then find a role-play partner in your office and start role-playing back and forth and become good at scripts to give you the confidence to go out and make the presentation.
Point 2: Lose the Ego
And then I wrote the next point to accomplish the one I just gave you. Every morning, take your ego, place it in a drawer and lock the drawer so it doesn’t get in the way of your moving forward that day. “But Mike, I don’t like your scripts.” Now, you don’t actually think that you’re the first person that’s ever said that to me. “But Mike, I like some of the scripts that I have better.” Well, I have a simple question. Are you accomplishing all that you can accomplish with the scripts that you have? Are you becoming one of the best agents in the office? “Well, Mike, I’m doing two deals a month.”
Well, two deals a month isn’t exactly what you would call “Superstar Status” from any standpoint. Or let’s ask this question: How many people are downloading your scripts off the internet each day? I mean, we’ve had our scripts downloaded as many as 30,000 and 40,000 times in a month by professional agents like yourself. Find good scripts, practice and role-play. Keep your ego out of the conversation because the ego of a pro baseball player, basketball player, etc cannot be mixed into what they’re trying to accomplish because the coach is trying to give them a play to follow, which is the script to become more successful.
Point 3: Source every deal and ask yourself … is this repeatable NEXT year?
The third point I wrote down for today, here we are now, first week in December, ow many transactions have you closed year to date? What would be a good time to source every transaction you’ve had so far this year? Would this be the right time to make that happen? See if you take a look at your business year to date and you say, “I’ve done 13 transactions, 10 buyer-controlled sales, that I picked those up from open houses I held all year.” Good for you. “Three listings sold: One was the neighbor, one was a friend, one was a referral from my database.” Good for you. How many of the transactions that you have done so far this year can you duplicate that transaction again because of the source that you used to get the transaction It’s a tough one, but it’s one that you have to give some thought to. Great agents source their business as they prepare their plans for the next month and the next year. Perfect time to do your planning.
Point 4: Keep going. There’s a lot of business to be done
The fourth point I wrote down is this. And I started saying this 18 to 20 months ago to all of our coaching clients. Keep going. There’s a lot of business to be done, whether it be a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, there’s business being done and it doesn’t matter what month of the year. Business is being done. It doesn’t matter what the interest rates are, low or high. Business is being done. It doesn’t matter what’s taking place economically in your country and Canada or ours in the US, there’s business to be done. Are you participating?
Point 5: Discipline, Consistency and Commitment
The next point I wrote down is this: achieving strong productivity revolves around a lot of words. Three words that bring production to an individual are discipline, consistency and commitment. How disciplined are you in following your schedule? How consistent are you in doing that schedule two to three days in a row? And what is the level of commitment you have to yourself and your family to do the transactions that you say you want to do?
Point 6: We want to widen the gap between 2023 and 2024 production
The next point I wrote down is this: Yes, what you’ve done every year counts, but it doesn’t matter what you’ve done in the past. We just want to widen the gap between what you’ve done in 2023 and what you’re going to do in 2024. If you’ve done, for example, as I gave this example a minute ago, 13 transactions this year, can we figure out a way to get you from 13 to 20? If you did 22, can we get you from 22 to 35 to 40? If we widened the gap in terms of the attitudes we have, the mindset we have, the skills we have, the work ethic we have and then we apply discipline, consistency and commitment to this thing. We’re going to make this thing work better than we have in the past. Here’s to a quick drink of water.
Point 7: Combat the inventory shortage by becoming a listing agent!
The next point I wrote down. Yes, we all understand the inventory shortage we’ve had for close to two, two and a half years now. The solution to that shortage is sitting right at your desk today. If you’re sitting at your desk, and if each of us would spend a little more time talking to people about getting their home sold, we could reduce the shortage in our own community. There’s this many listing agents in your town. There’s this many that work with buyers 90% of the time. So therefore, we have this pent up desire of people that want to buy and not enough homes that are realistically priced for them to purchase. Commit to the year 2024 that you’re going to transfer your energy, your effort, your thoughts, your mindset, all of your time to becoming a listing agent. Because as that expression goes, listings are the name of the game. I changed it two years ago to listings are how we stay in the game.
Point 8: Long Term success comes from being a listing agent
The next point I wrote down is since the majority of agents do work with buyers and great agents understand the long-term business comes from being a strong listing agent. Are you committed to becoming the number one listing agent in your office in 2024? Is there really a valid reason why you cannot become a strong listing agent?
Point 9: If you know what to say, you know what to do
But then the ninth point for today, when I know what to say to prospects, I can do what I’m supposed to do. However, when I’m unsure of what to say, I’ll look for every reason, every excuse not to do what I’m supposed to do. So let me repeat: when I know what to say to prospects, to people that I meet each day, I can do what I’m supposed to do. However, when I’m unsure of what to say, I’ll look for every reason and or excuse not to do what I’m supposed to do.
Point 10: Prospecting, lead generation and talking to people will fix any production issue you ever have
So the last point of the day is something that I have built my career on because I’ve been doing this now for 49 years. I’ve helped a lot of agents build incredibly successful careers when they understand this particular point. And somebody put a very nice compliment on the internet a couple of weeks ago and said that “Mike Ferry has created more people that earn $1 million per year than anybody else in the history of our business.” I have no way to know if that’s true. It’s a wonderful compliment. It’s like when I was introduced to a couple of weeks ago, the guy said, “and let’s welcome Mike Ferry, the GOAT of Real Estate.” The GOAT? Well, then I found out afterwards that stands for greatest of all time. Well, I don’t know if I’m the greatest, but this point will make you better than you’ve been in the past. Remember that prospecting and lead generation comma talking to people will solve every production problem you could ever have. Prospecting, lead generation, talking to people. It will solve every problem you could ever have. Thanks for watching Mike Terry, Mike Ferry or Mike Terry TV. We’ll talk to you again next week. Have a good one.
