How to Keep Your Business Going, While the Business is Growing

You’re doing your Hour of Power, right? Every day, I’m guessing (hoping!), you’re dedicated to pumping life into your business with those five calls, five texts, and five emails, that time in the day, hopefully everyday, where you devote yourself to your future clients. Sometimes it’s cold calling to generate new leads. Other times, it’s reaching out to past clients or reconnecting with your sphere of influence. For me, it’s the time where I step out of doing present business to make sure that I am creating business down the road for me and my team. 

And guess what – it’s the hardest thing for me to make myself do. 

As important as lead generation is, I’d rather call my client to let them know someone overbid them by a penny and they lost a property than sit there while that phone rings, waiting for someone I’m afraid I’m annoying to pick up. Plus, there’s so many hot items I want to grab other than these icy leads. When I’m busy negotiating a deal and taking clients out on property tours, taking time out to make these kinds of phone calls feels like a distraction from my current business that is staring me in the face right now. 

But I’m not going to excuse myself from doing it. And neither should you. It’s just as important to work on your business as it is to work in your business. It’s an Eat the Frog kind of activity. It’s making sure that there will be business tomorrow, the day after, weeks from now, and months ahead. 

I’m committed to putting systems in place so that dedicated “profit seeking” time like (or whatever you like to call it) becomes part of my daily routine. Just like my exercise. Just like my quality family time. 

Here is my three-part plan.

1. K.I.S.S. 

The trick is to make this as easy as possible. Automate as much as you can do that no deep thinking is required, only taking action. Sometimes the obstacle standing in my way is the fact that I don’t know where to start. Who do I call today? What do I say? Do I have any news for them? 

Make a plan

If I can sit down with a plan so I don’t have to think about it, I’m more inclined to do the thing. Write out a list of action items. Type it up. Laminate it if you need to. Stick it to your phone or your desk so you don’t have to look for it when the time comes. Take out all the guesswork.

Who to call

This doesn’t have to be complex. It’s easier for me to reach out to people I know already and who know me. So I start with them. After you’ve hit up all your contacts for the day, part of your plan can be making a short list of the people you want to contact tomorrow. 

What to say

In this era of social media and social distancing, we can underestimate the power of making simple human connections. People appreciate you reaching out and checking in on them. I try to start these conversations with a genuine question like: How’s it going? How is work? And because we’re living through a pandemic, I might add: How has Covid changed your home? Are you back in the office? What ever happened to all of that banana bread and sourdough you made during quarantine? 

Sometimes I don’t bring up real estate business at all. I just listen. And if an opportunity presents itself, I voice my interest. And then make a note to follow up the next week. 

2. Adopt a No-Excuses Policy

Ok, you don’t literally have to draft a policy. But setting up some type of system for accountability will make it harder for you to excuse yourself. 

My accountability system?

1. I have a coach who intimidates the crap out of me.
2. We log the number of calls, showings, offers, signed contracts we’re doing in a day. We’re measuring each other, and we’re measuring against each other. And everyone sees.

If you are like me, and struggle with getting up the desire to do it, I highly recommend doing it as early in the day as possible. I like to do it either before or after breakfast. But definitely before lunch. And give yourself something that makes the moment feel more special for you. Like a treat. I have these Spindrift Arnold Palmer’s I like to sip while I sit at my desk and make phone calls. And if I’m making a call I’m excited about, I take it out of my office and walk around to keep my creative juices flowing, but also to underscore the importance of the task. 

3. Remember Ebenezer Scrooge

The other trick that I use to move through my resistance is a simplified version of the Dickens Process. Visualize your life three months from now if you did not generate any leads. What would that look like? The details of your ending might be different from mine, but I can tell you we’d both end up with no business. And really that is what this whole post is about. Sure, you could skip the calls today and it will make no difference tomorrow. It won’t make much difference the day after that either, and maybe not for the rest of the week. But in a couple weeks, after you’ve celebrated the deals you just made, it will suddenly hit you that you have nothing in the pipeline, and it’s because you did not set yourself up well. 

Lastly, stay open

In addition to generating leads and cold-calling, keep your narrative of positivity. Sometimes the best opportunities come from the most unlikely places. The other day I was having what I thought was a rather indulgent breakfast with a friend, feeling like I needed to wrap it up so I could get down to business. Much to my surprise, that breakfast ended with a business deal. A sale and a purchase. 

Now, who needs an Arnold Palmer Spindrift?

In the meantime, want to learn more about my lead generation tips? Enter your email below and you’ll get access to my lead generation quick start guide.

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