Yesterday, we started a two-day series on time-blocking. If you didn’t catch part one, be sure to check it out!
Let’s get right into the content for today so you can get one with your productive day!
Broker-required activities are another time-blocked section. Whether it’s a profitable office meeting or an office tour, just remember, the broker is paying the overhead so support the systems.
Another important time-block is calling your sellers. In tough markets, there is one truism – if they do not like you, they are less likely to drop the price for you. The easiest way to babysit upset sellers is to take your listings and divide by ten. Call that many people each day. This gives you the energy to bring about a price reduction or obtain a value enhancement.
Many real estate agents wait until their clients become discouraged then go through their entire listing inventory trying to obtain price reductions or value enhancements. That process is not only an energy-zapper but it is also ineffective. Regular contacts from you will allow your sellers to feel at ease that the job is being done. You will soon find that they will not be available for appointments, because they trust your efforts so much. Efforts like this allow the inevitable price reductions in tough markets to be easier. Please time-block your listed seller communications.
Add in contact to your pendings for another time-block activity. Each week, you need to contact all parties involved in a pending – sellers, buyers, cooperative agent, affiliates, and anyone else involved. I spent Thursdays making sure that all contingencies were being met, and there were no smoldering embers that needed to be put out.
Staying on top of pendings will allow you to flush out the bad transactions sooner and possibly reduce problems that might affect your closing. You will grow to dislike the pending process so much that you will try to increase the velocity of your business by shortening your pending periods. As long as they are pending, you need to call all parties involved at least once a week.
Another important time-block is making time for your LIFE! Some of these items are “floating” (not something you can set in stone for each week) like you’re a child’s dance recital or game, but some of these items can actually be anticipated like “date night.”
I chose a weeknight as date night, because babysitters are more plentiful during the week and the lines at our favorite restaurants were not so long! It was also a nice break during the week, and everyone always looks forward to date night.
The same process applies for working out, lunch, breakfast, church, and other mandatory parts of your life that allow your life to function smoothly. Having these things time-blocked will reduce any disappointment in your family and allow you the opportunity to re-make appointments with clients.
This is the perfect time to bring up an important distinction between time-blocked and non-time-blocked agent schedules. When I knew that I only had a few different hours in which to book a listing presentation, a showing appointment, or a negotiation appointment, it allowed me to funnel the cooperative agent or client into those available slots. I was able to always give them three or four hours a day from which to choose.
Without a time-block, you are always moving your most important activities around urgent activities, when it is much easier to book urgent activities in the time allotted. I promise that the cooperative agents and clients you are working with will have less disciplined schedules, and you will be able to conform to your available times.
Occasionally, there will be an infrequent time-block for activities that only happen once a month or once a year. These activities would be time-blocking the first and last day of the month and the first part of the New Year for excessive expired activity. These are times when the expired activity is so heavy that you will have to free up time to take advantage of it. These items need to be time-blocked at your goal setting session early in the year. Don’t forget to time-block your goal planning session, too!
The process of time-blocking is fairly simple. Time-block the activities that are important to your life. Time-block your lead generation activities. Time-block your listing leads “A,” buyer leads “A,” pendings, and listed client activities. You will soon find that you have significantly fewer hours available during the week than you realized. Of course, these time-blocks will be devoted to listing appointments, showing appointments, contract negotiations, and all of the other “emergency” activities that we are all involved in.
You will find that when your time becomes scarce that putting a “do not disturb” sign on your office door will become a much better idea! You will also find that hob-nobbing with other real estate agents or affiliates will become activities of a lesser importance. Soon you will be prioritizing your free-time among activities including family, fun, faith, friends, fitness, and personal finances. You will find that urgent items will be either eliminated or reduced.
Time-blocking is the first step to true time management and forces you to engage in the items that are the most profitable for your business. Soon there will be no more excuses that you are too busy to make money in this business. Congratulations!
Lead generation is what builds your business and keeps your pipeline full, no matter what the market says! Grow Your Leads: Just Add Wa(l)ter is a hefty book full of detailed and complete prospecting systems, and it includes the data CD (digital copy). This is also a great manual for an assistant.
Call 800.792.5837 and ask for the $50 blog special on Grow Your Leads: Just Add Wa(l)ter. Check out the content details here: http://www.waltersanford.com/shop/grow-your-leads-just-ask-walter/.
