We as a group are already feeling over burdened and stressed, and like our consumers we want the volumes of overwhelming information that bombards our brain boiled down to bit-sized chucks we can print-out and fill in that drawer we all have for the “really important stuff.”  So the whole concept of the bullet point list has come in vogue.  They are clear, concise and to the point.  All steak, sans sizzle.   

It is with this in mind that I offer you 25 of the best kept secrets of the industry’s elite.

1.  To win in real estate you must actively decide that you want to win – you must be able to see it, touch it and feel it.  You have to define what “success” is and most importantly – why you need to achieve it before you will ever turn it into reality.

2.  You must develop a strong personal foundation.  It’s all about your character – the person you are when no one is looking.  The simple truth is that you will have the business you deserve, no more, no less.  You deserve more by improving who you are and what you bring to the table.

3.  Cut out the tolerations. Tolerations are those things that you can change but are too lazy to.  Procrastination and laziness allow us to put up with the things that roadblock and get in the way of our realizing our potential. 

4. Stop making excuses.  Making up stories for the sole purpose of making us feel better about why we failed is a waste of time and energy.  Admitting there is a problem is the first step in recovery.  Start being honest with yourself and others and your life will dramatically improve.

5. Simplify your life dramatically.  I think it should be mandatory to take a trip with a missions or humanitarian aid organization to a 3rd world setting once a year.  It won’t take but a week with those who are less fortunate than you to re-contextualize your priorities and make you realize that 80% of the stress you live with is baggage you choose to carry. 

6.  Resolve unfinished business.  Life is too short to drag around things that are unresolved.  Get through the things that pain you by choosing to do what you don’t want to do, but need to do, and get do it before you do anything else.  

7. Identify and focus on your best 10 daily habits. We are run by our habits – both good and bad.  To find success, make a decision to pursue the 10 most important things you can do today.  Dump, outsource or re-prioritize the rest.

8. Restore your integrity wherever it’s broken. Your integrity starts with keeping promises to yourself and spills over to the promises you make to others.  Start with those resolutions you make every year around January 1st and start with a renewed energy today.  Tomorrow is the starting point for those who fail – today is the best day you have to work on saving money, getting out of debt and/or losing weight. 

9. Get your needs met. You are in a business that constantly drains you with clients and customers that are at the height of stress.  You can run on red-line for only so long before you burn-out.  Identify the needs you have, those things that bring you rejuvenation and make you feel complete and boldly ask those that love you to help satisfy them.

10. Handle the money. Period.

11. Treat your body like the temple it is. Do you realize how amazing your body is?  You were given one body to use for your time here on earth.  Live fully, live well and stop doing the things that will kill you.

12. Extend your boundaries until you are fully respected.  Your clients, co-workers, friends and family need to appreciate your limitations and earn the right to be in your life.  Healthy relationships work two ways.  You only have time to pursue so many relationships in a meaningful way.  Choose those where the value is reciprocal.    

13. Raise your standards.  Require much more of those that surround you.  Raise the bar to excellence.  Adopt as your business mission statement to be the very best, in every way and become obsessive about it.

14. Create reserves in all areas of your life. When you have 50% more than you need opportunities will come out of the woodwork to propel you into a whole new game.  It will become your game, a place where you make others play by the rules you write and is slanted toward competing against your strengths. 

15. Learn to be content but not complacent.  Every day you grow, achieve and get better.  Be happy with where you are compared to where you used to be.  Stretch and develop but don’t feel the need to beat yourself up for your lack of perfection.

16. Strengthen your family. Become known as a “Life Giver.”  If healing needs to take place, be the one to offer the olive branch.  For many who play the superman role in the marketplace, their family is their kryptonite.  Nothing will take your out faster than trouble at home. 

17.  Extend your community.  Your business is built off of those that know you, like you, and trust you.  You can prospect eternally to add people to your SOI or you can learn the art of attraction through marketing.  Success can be found in both camps, but the universal theme is always be growing your book of business.

18. Start attracting instead of chasing. Do you want to have people waiting in line to work with you?  It happens all the time for those at the top of the field.  They have learned the Art of Posturing.

19. Become purposed on how you choose to live.  The elite create destiny while the masses go down the path of least resistance.  Enough said.

20. Be well protected.  Always be prepared for the X factor.  Have adequate coverage as your business grows.  Insure everything both in a traditional sense as well as with staff, backups to technology and redundant business systems.

21. Choose to love what you do.  Those that excel into the top 1% of the industry find not only reward but passion in the value they provide to those touched by their business.  They delight in Mondays and wake with a sense of disappointment on their day off (and yes, they take days off).

22. Reorient your life and business around your values.  Until you make the switch you will consistently attract clients who drive you crazy.  When you build a principle driven business you will have clients who respect your interests outside of real estate and let you have a life.

23. Become a problem-free zone. The one consistent thing in the lives of all those who perpetually live in chaos is them.  It is a disease and you need to keep them away so you don’t catch it.

24. Improve your attitude.  A good attitude will cover a multitude of ills.  Work on living from a world view that is rooted in the positive.

25. Invest in your life.  There is no greater investment that you can make than the one in yourself.  Take a percentage of your income and dedicated it to getting around those that can help you make quantum leaps in a specific area of your life.

Do you struggle with generating enough leads?  How about key listing or showing appointments?  Conversion rates?  Closing on contracts?

As the public has accepted the reality that market has changed, the sales skills of the pros have become more and more in demand.  Strong negotiating and closing skills are ever important in today’s market climate.  No longer can we simply make our clients feel “warm and fuzzy” about the experience.  Character must be saddled with competence.  As the DNA agent dies (those who did deals solely with those related to them), the pros gain market share.  The foundations of fortunes are made in down markets. 

The single most important sales skill to get more business is to be fearless about asking for the order.  What would happen to your business if you got 10 new contacts a day by simply asking if they had an agent they currently are referring business to?  It doesn’t even have to be via door knocking, FSBO contact or working expireds (although all of those are good and viable) but it can be as simple as asking those in line at Starbucks.  How about with your current pipeline?  What would it look like to simply ask each one of them to just take the next logical step in the process?  Are you walking out of appointments without the signed contract?  Did you really ask for the order or did you let the prospect take the lead? 

Start with 10 new contacts a day for this week, then translate asking for the order at each of the next steps through the process and watch your business transform before your eyes. 

There are six types of questions that Real Estate Salespeople ask according to Tom Hopkins in his book How to Master the Art of Selling Real Estate.

1. Piggybacking – Piggybacking is asking your next question based on their last answer.
Salesperson – “Where do you live now?”
Prospect – “in San Clemente”
Salesperson – “What do you like most about San Clemente?”
Prospect – “I like being close to the ocean.”
Salesperson – “What do you like most about being close to the ocean?”

2. Alternate Choice – Alternate choice questions have two answers – both of which indicate they are moving ahead.
Salesperson – “We can meet today at 2pm or tomorrow at 4pm, which works better for you?”

3. Involvement Questions – Involvement questions are questions they must answer as if they already own the home.
Salesperson – “Where would you place your couch in this living room?”

4. Tie Downs – A tie down isolates an objection or gives an affirmative answer.
Salesperson- “Wouldn’t you agree that this yard would be perfect for your kids?”

5. Feedback – “Feedbacking” takes a minor objection and gently feeds it back to the prospect in the form of a question.
Salesperson – “You want a larger lot? Could you elaborate on that?”

6. Porcupine – Answer the question with a question, just like if someone threw a porcupine at you, you’d want to throw it right back.
Prospect – “Is the refrigerator included?”
Salesperson – “Would you like to have the refrigerator included?”

Personal Change

• Break Routines
• Best Behavior = Best Results = Biggest Traps
• Search out new ways of thinking
• Change or die

Quit Trying “Harder”

• More of the same is just more of the same
• When you are lost in old paths, you are blind to new ones

Use Unconventional Approaches

• We must overcome our addictions to old methodologies

Change Your Thinking

• Don’t limit yourself to what you think you “can have”
• Go for what you really want
• Give yourself to dream and to risk

Suspend Your Disbelief

• Doubters and skeptics never achieve
• Doubt your limits, doubt your doubts, never doubt yourself
• Act as if success was certain

Choose a Different Set of Risks

• You can’t escape risks
• Get uncomfortable
• Be willing to make mistakes

Be Passionate!

• Fall in love with what you do (or why you do what you do)
• Have a magnificent obsession

Open Up and Get Your Talents Out.

• The time is now
• Fulfillment is obtained when you are personally stretched
• The next 5 years are not determined by the last 5

Make Your Move “Ready or Not”

• There is no such thing as a perfect time
• Success is normally inconvenient