Real Estate Slump? Do THIS to Bounce Back Fast

Welcome back to Mike Ferry TV. My name is Tony Smith, coach and speaker for the Mike Ferry organization. Covering a really important topic for some of you today here on Mike Ferry TV is how to get out of a slump. Okay. Real Estate works in cycles. Most things on Earth work in cycles. We as people work in cycles. And if you’ve been in business for any length of time, if you’ve ever played any type of sport, you understand what can happen in terms of getting into a slump. You’ll watch golfers in a slump. You’ll see baseball players in a batting slump, you’ll see business owners in a slump. And of course, you’ll see real estate agents that get into a slump.

1) Recognize the slump

The first thing you have to ask yourself is, are you in a slump right now when it comes to your real estate sales production? Okay, So if we can understand some techniques of how to get out of a slump, then whenever it happens, which it’s going to happen to us all, whenever it happens, we can shrink the amount of time that we are involved in that, and we can move forward quicker.

2) Commit to ending the slump

All right. So, um. Mike Ferry. Okay. If you were to work with Mike Ferry directly and you came to him and said, uh, gosh, Mike, I’m in a slump. He would go to this very specific process right up front. Okay. He would ask you, when did this slump start? Okay. And he would bug you until you figured out. How long have you been in this slump? When did it start? He would ask you, what specifically caused this slump? What caused it? You know, I went away on vacation, came back, two deals fell apart, and I’ve been off ever since. Or I had a down month of prospecting and, uh, things spiraled out of control or. I don’t know, I think I’m doing everything the way it was, and it just happened. Right. He would then ask you, when will this slump end? Okay. And he’s going to bug you for an answer. He’s not going to let you say, I don’t know. He will let you. He needs an answer from you. When will this slump end? It’s going to end today, right? It’s going to end at right now, today. And he’s going to make you commit to the slump being over. And then the last question you would ask, okay, what specifically will you do tomorrow to take steps to get out of this slump. What specifically will you do? Okay. We have this belief at MFO. You have two choices. I can either try to think my way into acting right, or should I work to act my way into thinking right? And the Mike Ferry organization is all about taking action, right? We don’t sit around and say, let’s try to think our way out of it. Let’s take action and get our action our way out of it. So, what specifically will you do tomorrow to take steps to get out of the slump? Right. So maybe you need to ask yourself those four very specific questions and put your answers in writing right now.

3) Take Massive Action

All right. The second thing I would have you look about is massive action, right. We know in the real estate business, taking massive action is often the solution to many things. So massive action. Could you clear your calendar and all day tomorrow go through every single lead you have and work to convert those to appointments. Could you set aside 4 or 5 hours for some really strong, aggressive prospecting and call a big bunch of your best past clients and call around that latest listing and call the Expireds and Fsbos that have stacked up. Could you dedicate a whole day of just generation Activities many times that will stir up the leads and you’ll be working your way out of a slump. Okay, how about this point? Um, do you need to recommit to a really strong set of mindset activities as part of your daily actions? Right. Here’s something we noticed. We noticed that people are really excited about talking about a strong mindset routine when everything’s going well. And then we also noticed that people will get into a slump and will say, have you been reading from a great book? Well, no, I haven’t done that in a while. Have you been doing your affirmations every day? Now, I stopped that a few days ago. Have you been reviewing your business plan? Well, I haven’t been looking at that either. Isn’t it ironic that when I’m in a slump and I need mindset the most, I don’t do the things that I know strengthen my mindset. So along with massive action, I would have you recommit to a strong daily mindset. Routine for yourself. It’ll help you move along.

4) Meet with everyone that supports you and come up with a strong list of short-term goals and see if you can get their help

Look at this one. Um. Meet with everyone that supports you and come up with a strong list of short-term goals and see if you can get their help. All right. Um, there are people that want to help you. You’ve got broker and manager. You’ve got a spouse or significant other, maybe your kids, maybe another great agent in the office, maybe some friends of yours. Asking for help is not a bad thing. So, can you sit down or recommit? Get around some people that support you the most and announce your short-term goals and ask them to support you in that. They will support you.

5) Check in with someone

How about this point? Uh, maybe you should for a while check in with somebody. Hopefully it’s a Mike Ferry coach. Okay. But what if you were to check in every day? Here’s what I plan on accomplishing today. And then if what? If you were to check out every afternoon or evening. Here’s what I actually got done today. One way to get out of a slump is to start your day with really strong intentions, clear and finish your day with a real strong understanding of what you did accomplish. Send somebody those bookend notices. All right. It’ll help you out.

6) Work to contact your best of your best past customers and ask them for referrals

Okay. Obviously, number six on my list. You could really work to contact your best of your best past customers and ask them for referrals. Take the top ten, 15, 20 of your best clients of all time. Give them a call and ask for their help. Ask for referrals. Who do they know? Okay.

7) Create weekly mini plans

To get out of a slump, we recommend weekly w e e k ly mini plans. If you’re in a bit of a slump, why not? For the next 2 or 3 straight weeks, sit down and pencil out a strong weekly mini plan. Here’s the prospecting I’m going to do. Here’s the skills improvement that I’m going to focus on. Here’s the leads I’m going to follow up on. Right. And if you make a really strong little short term weekly mini plan, it’ll help guide you on the way back to productivity.

8) Take a break

How about this sometimes. If you’ve been grinding and pushing and pushing and squeezing and squeezing and squeezing and you’re in a slump, sometimes a bad thing to do is just keep squeezing harder. Maybe take the afternoon off. Maybe take a day off, maybe clear your head and remove yourself from it just for a little bit. You know, I can push, push, push, push until I can’t see. Sometimes just a couple hours. Remove myself from it. I can see clearly again. All right. Here’s a good example. Have you? When’s the last time you took inventory of all the incredible things going on in your life? You know, take inventory, the incredible relationship you have, the incredible opportunities you have as an independent contractor. Maybe inventory of the great house you live in and the furniture you own. Sometimes taking solid inventory of the good stuff will free up the machine and get you back producing.

9) Identify some of the best production times in your career

How about this one? Can you identify some of the best production times in your career? Now, we don’t recommend looking in the rear view mirror much at all. But there’s times where you just need to remind yourself of some of the incredible accomplishments you’ve made in your business. Do you remember your best listings taken month? Do you remember your best sales month? How about your best income month? You know, reminding yourself of the the the phenomenal things you’ve done. You’ve come a long way. Okay. Helps get out of a slump. All right. Uh, at times, we need to take a glimpse into the future a little further if you want to get out of a slump. So my production is was off this month. I didn’t do the deals I wanted. I’ve been off for the last six weeks, honestly. Does that really have any profound effect on your goals? Three and five years from now, you and I both know you can still accomplish pure magic over the next three or 4 or 5 years. Maybe take a look at some of those longer term goals and remind yourself of the big picture, not just of this little temporary situation. It helps.

10) Prospecting days

Okay, uh, prospecting days. I mentioned it earlier. If you clear your calendar, you can many times prospect your way out of a slump. Think of it this way. How many listings or sales are you away from being back on track? Sometimes putting one deal together. Taking 1 or 2 great listings. Making one sale is all you need to get back on track. Focus on the minimum amount required to get back on track and lock it down.

11) Clean your space, car, mind

All right, here’s a page out of Mike’s book all the time. If you’re in a slump, um, clean up your office, clean out the car, clean up your closet. Clean out your leads, clean out your prospecting station, do a house cleaning session. And many times in the act of cleaning things up, it clears you up, releases your mind, gets you back in a space to do the job.

12) Get inspired, motivated and charged up again

Okay. And then sometimes we look at this in everywhere. We all live in spaces that have interesting and exciting things around us that we can do and see. So it’s like this. What if you were to make a list of, say, 4 or 5 things in your own backyard that don’t cost a lot of money that you would really be excited to do? You know, is there an art museum in town that you haven’t seen yet. Is there a new restaurant that opened that you want to go and have dinner at? Um. Is there a special hiking trail that you always enjoy taking a hike on? What are some things in your own backyard that are inspiring? Maybe you should plan on doing a couple of those little activities every week. Some real inspirational things right in your own neighborhood. Do some of those things and you’re going to find yourself inspired, motivated, charged up again. Okay, uh, every person I’ve ever met in business has gone into slumps from time to time. Okay? It’s it’s part of doing business. Let’s make sure that if you happen to find yourself in a slump, you find your way out of it very quickly and you get back on the road to strong, high productivity. Thanks for your time.