“If you fail to plan, you in fact plan to fail.”

I believe that simple sentence is one of the most profound sentences ever written. When we find ourselves at a critical point in our lives and our business, we need to look to our plan and see if we are on the right track.  Right now, more than ever before, it is critical that we decide our own future.  We have all of the skills, tools, technology, coaching, and support to be successful, but many agents and brokers will struggle again in 2010.  Will that be you, or will you choose success?

 I hope you decide to choose success!

Once you have chosen where you want to go next year, it is now up to you to build a plan to get there.  Think about this: “For a ship bound for no harbor, no wind is favorable” — this quote simply states that if you don’t have a clear focus on your destination, then all of the prodding, wishing & hoping won’t get you there.  Steven Covey in his book “7 Habits For Highly Effective People” states that most business fail for 2 reasons:  1) undercapitalization and 2) the lack of a plan.

If we want to be successful in a tough market, then we need eliminate all of our excuses for failure.  That means we need to build our plan.  I am blown away by the response I get when I ask audiences if they have a written strategic plan for their business. Most say no.  The reason this is so surprising to me is that the follow up question is that most agents are also the primary income earner in their families.  That means that our families are depending on us to provide an income that allows us to pay for our homes, put food on the table, pay for colleges and give to others in need.  Real estate offers us great opportunities and with those opportunities, I believe that we also have great responsibilities.   It is time for all of us who have so many depending on us for their basic needs to stop wandering around without a clear vision and execute on our plan.

So where do we start?  Building a business plan can be simple, but the more detail and specific you are, the more likely you are to achieve the goals you set in your plan.   I always like to start my plan off with doing a SWOT analysis. 

·         S = Strengths (i.e. good negotiator, great communicator, problem-solver, people-person)

·         W = Weaknesses (i.e. phone-phobia, procrastinator, not good with details, insecure)

·         O = Opportunities (i.e. first time homebuyers, expired listings, lower mortgage rates)

·         T = Threats (i.e. economy, tighter lending practices, unemployment levels)

One of the most effective things you can do in your business is identify your opportunities and then build a plan to take advantage of the opportunities you have discovered.  As an agent today here are some of the opportunities I see:

·         Short Sales

·         REO listings

·         First time home buyers

·         Expired listings

·         Opportunity seekers such as investors

·         Relocation

·         And of course, my database of friends also known as SOI.

Now, once you identify the opportunities in your market, you should select the 3 or 4 that you want to focus on and build a plan around each.  I have found that having more than one way to accomplish a goal insures success.  It is critical that you break down each opportunity into first your annual goal (for example 24 closed transactions from expired listings) then make it monthly (2 per month) then identify the daily steps you would have to do to achieve that goal.  You plan might look something like this:

1.       Sign up for REDX expired listing software

2.       Find or build 3 different scripts to use when calling and test each script to see which one gives the best result

3.       Create & mail post cards to send to people on the DNC list

4.       Post sign on my door “Prospecting - please do not disturb”

5.       Call all Expireds in X area and X price range every morning from 9-11 or until I generate 3 listing appointments

6.       Drop door hangers on 10 expired listings every day

7.       List 3 expired listings per week

I’m sure you get the picture; you build your plan around the opportunities you see, and then execute on your plan.  If you do this simple exercise right now and start doing the tasks you outline for each of your goals, you not only will feel like you are making progress, you will make more sales and find yourself in a much better financial situation next year. 

There are a lot of great books and articles on how to build a business plan; you can find them simply by doing a www.Google.com search.  As a coach, I have always felt that the basis for a great result with my coaching students is that we build a real business plan, complete with a SWOT analysis, specific goals, a budget and the action items to achieve all of this.  At the end it is much easier to measure that success because we have a plan. If you’re interested in learning how we can help you, go to www.coachverl.com

So what do you think?  Are you ready to become as the great Zig Zigler says “A meaningful specific”?

There is always opportunity, it’s now up to you to go get it. 

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Verl Workman is a leading national speaker, coach and consultant. Despite his busy speaking schedule and role as co-founder of Pinnacle Quest Consulting Group, he still sells real estate so that he can test and stay abreast of the latest tools and techniques that maximize results. He uses that knowledge to assist individuals and companies in building effective business strategies, implementing powerful technology solutions and establishing strategic competitive advantages through coaching, seminars and private consultations. To contact Verl, visit www.VerlWorkman.com or www.PQPipeline.com, or by email at verl@verlworkman.com

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