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Planning Your Commercial Real Estate Excellence in 2010

By Jim Gillespie | December 29, 2009

Once again it’s the beginning of a new year, which means for a lot of us it’s time to set new goals. This can be a time to put this last year behind us and create a brand new slate of opportunities to pursue for ourselves in 2010.

But what are you really going to do differently this year? I’m asking this because so many agents often begin the new year feeling excited about all the possibilities that they can create for themselves with a fresh, full calendar year ahead of them. But in the end, how many agents will really accomplish throughout the year what they originally setout to do in January? Oftentimes agents can have the best of intentions every new year of accomplishing some exciting new goals, but by the time the end of the year rolls around they then feel disappointed with their results.

If you’d like to know the reason for this, it sometimes lies in the unrealistic goals that agents can set for themselves at the beginning of the year, and at other times it can lie in the flawed game plans that they utilize throughout the year when working towards accomplishing these goals. For example, an agent who made $100,000.00 this past year might set an income goal of $250,000.00 for 2010. But keep in mind that the sum total of all the best the agent could bring to the table throughout 2009 had them earn and get paid a total of $100,000.00 in commissions. So do they really now know what they have to do differently in 2010 to make the jump from $100,000.00 to $250,000.00 in commission income? And if they do know, why didn’t they just apply this information to their real estate business during 2009?

Setting goals at the beginning of the year can be a great experience for all of us, but it’s how we’re going to get those goals accomplished that represents the real meat and potatoes that will either lead us towards accomplishing those goals, or feeling disappointed.

So with this in mind I’m asking you:

1) What are your goals in your real estate business in 2010?

2) What specifically is your game plan of activities that you’re going to do to make these goals a reality by December 31, 2010?

And…

3) What do you have to do differently than what you did in 2009 in order to achieve your new goals in 2010?

And finally, one activity that’s extremely important to incorporate into your game plan for 2010 is feedback. You need to check in with how you’re doing throughout the year to determine if you’re on track or off track in accomplishing your goals. And if you’re off track, you need to make modifications to your game plan to still ensure that you’ll successfully achieve your goals by December 31st.

As an example of this, experts say that a jet flying from New York to Los Angeles is off track from reaching it’s final destination approximately 98% of the time. But the continued monitoring of the flight path and correction through both the jet’s inertial guidance system and the pilot himself still ensures the jet’s timely arrival in Los Angeles.

With real estate agents, however, this is often not the case. One’s ideal goals for the year can be created in January, but the "flight path" of the agent throughout the year can oftentimes be completely off track from accomplishing these goals. The agent can be thinking something like, "As long as I’m feeling really busy, I must be on track towards accomplishing my goals for the year." This is similar to the pilot of the commercial airliner saying, "As long as I’m up here right now flying this aircraft, I must be on track towards arriving at my desired destination on time."

But alas, in both situations, achieving the desired goal in a timely manner does not result from just being busy doing activities, it comes from doing the right activities at the right time, and in the right sequence.

With this in mind, see if the following has ever applied to you:

You set your goals for your real estate business in January and feel enthusiastic about accomplishing them. You feel extremely busy throughout the year, but you recognize you’re falling behind in achieving your income goal for the year along the way. Then around September or so, you start thinking a thought similar to "If I can just find, negotiate, and close both sides of a $30,000,000.00 transaction by the end of the year, I’ll meet my income goal."

Like the airline pilot and the inertial guidance system within the plane itself, you need to monitor your success throughout the year to make sure you’re on track. Set a reminder at the end of every month in your contact management program to check in and see how you’re doing. Are you on track towards achieving your income goals for the year, or are you falling behind? And if you’re falling behind, go immediately and get some help from someone. Sit down and talk with a top producing agent, your manager, or hire a real estate coach. Because right now you’re risking throwing your income goals completely out the window if you don’t.

You may have noticed something in our industry over the years. Our industry has its fair share of people who have big egos. I deal with this constantly with coaching clients who produce great results in their business through working with me, but more than anything they really want to return to having no one whatsoever advising them on running their real estate business. But trying to do it all alone in this business on an ongoing basis can be a very costly decision. As Albert Einstein once said, "We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." And if you’re constantly trying to solve your business development problems with the same mind that created them…your own mind…you could be in for a very long and frustrating year.

So check in with yourself once a month to see how you’re doing in accomplishing the goals you’ve created for yourself in 2010. And if you find yourself falling behind in accomplishing these goals, stop everything you’re doing and find someone who can give you the help and direction you need to get back on track and make these goals happen for you.

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If you’re interested in one-on-one coaching to take your commercial real estate brokerage business to the next level, click here to send me an E-mail.

"My work with Jim has helped my team, my company, and my development business to perform at substantially higher levels."

D. Alex Rhoten
Coldwell Banker Commercial

Click here to see more testimonials from my coaching clients.


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