Agents have left AREC with a clear message: big incomes come from hitting the phones and dropping the excuses.
The Gold Coast conference spelled out how agents can record big growth in their sales volumes – provided they have the discipline to do the things they know deep down they ought to do.
Marshall White director James Tostevin, who has placed first in the last three Top 100 Agents rankings, said it is imperative agents make prospecting calls every day.
McGrath Estate Agents chief executive John McGrath agreed, adding that success in real estate is 90 per cent based on attitude and only 10 per cent based on skill.
“The skills are not that hard. You’ve only got three jobs: prospect, list, sell. Prospecting is a matter of just doing it – there’s not a lot of finesse in picking up a phone and ringing,” he said.
“You don’t need a lot of skill to do it, but you do need to do it. Why don’t a lot of people do it? Complacency, laziness, disorganisation, and they don’t believe it’s going to make a difference. I guarantee it will make a huge difference. It’s all about your mindset.”
Mr McGrath said all agents are capable of becoming high achievers if they are prepared to “ruthlessly eliminate” excuses.
One example he raised was the claim some agents make that they lose business because they get undercut by rivals.
“It’s not real 95 per cent of the time. I’m going to go with, ‘The reason you missed it is because they didn’t see the point of difference’,” he said.
“If you don’t have a point of difference, you need to build one, because you’ve got to be the standout option.”
Michael Coombs, who placed 46th on this year’s Top 100 Agents list, said his results dramatically improved when he stopped making excuses.
Mr Coombs said agents become much more productive when they adopt a positive mindset and accept full responsibility for their actions.
Agents who want to be successful need to make at least 200 prospecting calls per week, he said.
Another piece of advice Mr Coombs gave attendees was to do at least one self-improvement session per week, such as listening to a training podcast.
“Set daily goals and targets. If you achieve them every day, you’ll get to your outcomes – it’s very simple,” he said.
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