Have you ever been in the military?
If you have, there is a good chance you’ll get the drift of this article instantly and immediately get to work.
If not, then you’re going to learn a super useful life hack that literally saves people’s lives in combat:
“Keep your head on swivel.”
The idea is to constantly look for something, anything you can improve and then improve it. Right here. Right now.
Have “nothing” to do? Keep your head on swivel. Waiting for a client? Keep your head on swivel.
Here are 15 things you can do right to close more deals in 2022:
1. Invite Your Best Referral Sources for Coffee or Lunch
Sure, you probably have a different name for your best former clients and sphere contacts that have given you business in the past.
Whatever you call them, they are worth their weight in gold if you want to grow your career exponentially.
That means a personal touch every now and then is not only suggested, but should be required for every agent.
What better way to reach out than to send them a text and invite them to try a great new coffee shop or cafe you found?
If you’re new in the industry you’ll be amazed at what kind of ROI you can get from a latte and a danish!
Even if they’re busy, this is still a win for you. After all, this is yet another indicator that you see them as a valuable client and friend and not just a dollar sign.
You really can’t go wrong with this one, so what are you waiting for? Pull up A list clients on your CRM and start dialing.
2. Come Up With 10 Blog Post Ideas for Local Buyers
There’s nothing worse for a writer than staring at a blank page. Unfortunately, many Realtors do just that when they finally “have the time” to sit down and work on their blog.
Take it from a professional writer/editor, the secret to being “creative” is to plan ahead.
Yup. It really is that easy. Come up with a game plan for your blog with content you plan on writing in the next few months.
You can start by checking out competitors’ blogs to get inspired.
Next, write down ten ideas for blog posts you think every buyer will like and rank them in order of best to worst.
Next time you sit down to write, come up with a snappy title and start writing. You’ll be amazed at what giving yourself an “assignment” can do for your article production!
3. Come Up With 10 Blog Post Ideas for Local Sellers
Ditto for local sellers. If you’re serious about building your blog, you can use apps like Buzzsumo to find not only real estate influencers to reach out to and emulate, but their article ranked by social media shares, as well.
4. Fire up REDX and VORTEX Dialer and Work Some FSBO or Expireds
Okay, most Realtors want to spend a larger block of time cold calling, but what do you have to lose?
Who knows? You might even find that only committing to a few minutes to cold calling might make you less anxious and more capable of keeping that FSBO on the phone!
Of course, if you do manage to get a live one on the phone, by all means, dig in and commit!
5. Check in With Your Zillow/BoldLeads/Realtor Sales Rep
Here’s the thing about buying leads. You’re BUYING them. More to the point, you’re also buying the customer service and advice from whatever company you get leads from.
Zillow, BoldLeads, Realtor.com, et al are all there to do one thing; help you sell more homes. In fact, the better you do, the better THEY do.
If you close more, you buy more leads. Wash, rinse, and repeat.
So why not give your sales rep a call? You can see what new zip codes are opening up and when, how much they’re going for, and maybe even get a sense of where the smart money is going in your area.
6. Send Your Cold Leads to a Junior Agent
You know that new guy in your office? The one who comes in at 8:30 and leaves at 7:00 every day? He really, really wants leads to work.
Chance are you’ve got enough dead wood in your CRM that you might as well send off to that junior agent. They’ll not only be thankful for the leads to work, but will remember your kindness months down the road when you need someone to work an open house on a rainy Sunday that your homeowner insists is a great day for an open house…
7. Kill Your Darlings (AKA Throw Your Best Writing in the Trash)
Okay, this one is going to sound weird for non-writers. Heck, it will probably even sound weird to some writers.
In fact, this one strategy that successful writers use is so counter-intuitive that you’re probably going to think I’m pulling your leg.
I’m not, promise, but I’ll let you judge for yourself;
“Kill Your Darlings”.
I told you it was weird, right?
Once you see how (and why) it works and try it for yourself you’re going to have a writing tool you can use for the rest of your life.
You know that sentence or paragraph in your listing description (or blog post, or ad copy, etc) that you’re super proud of?
Throw it in the trash and start over like it never happened.
Yup. Super scary the first time you do it, but you’ll be amazed at how much BETTER what you replace it with will be sometimes.
Don’t believe me? Give it a try!
8. Learn Mindfulness Meditation
How many more deals do you think you’d close in 2022 if you were happier, less stressed out, more empathetic, and more confident?
More to the point, how many more referrals do you think you could generate?
The answer, of course, is quite a few. Maybe enough to put you into a new tax bracket.
We know what you’re thinking. Meditation is kind of a hippy cliche that doesn’t really do anything.
Well, how many life changing affirmations or words of wisdom aren’t cliches these days? Is focusing on your one thing a cliche? How about growth mindset?
The truth is if you want to take your real estate career to the next level you’re going to have to get over yourself.
“You know what top producers call a cliche that gets results? A powerful tool they can use over and over again to get ahead.”
So yeah, mindfulness meditation is a cliche. But it’s also one that has been proven scientifically to do all the things we mentioned above. Studies show that it can literally rewire your brain.
Here are a couple resources to learning meditation. While you can learn these techniques in a few minutes, they can take a lifetime to master.
9. Read Our Article on The Science-Backed Mindset That Can Help You Close More Deals
After hard work, strategy, and skill, your mindset is the most important key to your success as a Realtor. It’s also the one that Realtors work on the least.
We know. It sounds wishy-washy and hippy-dippy, but at the end of the day, every single successful Realtor or entrepreneur we’ve ever talked to (hundreds at this point) credits mindset right after or even above hard work and skills.
After all, all the hard work in the world isn’t going to help you if you focus on the wrong things, and you’re never going to get inspired to work hard if you don’t have the right mindset.
Is your curiosity piqued? Okay then, check out our article on mindset here.
Just make sure to come back and finish this article when you’re done!
10. Brush up on Foreign Language Skills
Here’s one that can help you no matter what industry you work in.
Let’s leave the cultural (and potential money-making) benefits of learning a new language aside for a moment and focus on how it helps your brain.
Studies have shown that learning a new language (any language) helps people focus on tasks and avoid distractions better than people who only spoke one language.
While they’re not entirely sure why this works, some scientists claim that it helps develop more precise listening skills.
Guess what your clients (and your friends for that matter) want you to do more than anything else?
Yup, you guessed it, they want you to actually listen to them.
That means ten minutes a day bludgeoning your way through parle français can have benefits that go beyond snagging a buyer from Quebec.
11. Work on Your Improv Skills
While reciting scripts is always a great way to stay sharp, improv can help you with something even more important to sales. How to think on your feet! It’s also an amazing way to blow off steam and make your coworkers laugh until they can’t stand it anymore.
Here’s a great improv technique from Second City Alumni, Will Brackenbury, you can try for 10 or 15 minutes with a coworker:
“Start a timer that beeps every 30 seconds and then, for that 30 seconds, begin a character monologue. There is no prompt. In fact, as much as you can, avoid preplanning any of the characters, or even thinking about the exercise. Jump right into the improvisation, and say whatever is on your mind. This is the point of the exercise.
After those 30 seconds have elapsed, instantly jump to a new character. Ideally, make it as different as possible from your previous character. Do the monologue for 30 seconds, repeat.”
12. Read a Software Buyer’s Guide to Educate Yourself on the Latest Tech Tools
If there’s one thing that you can rely on in this industry, it’s that real estate software is going to keep changing. Then it’s going to change some more. When you look away for a second? Yup. More changes.
Keeping up with all this change can be a chore, but it’s also super important if you want to take advantage of the latest and greatest tech, or just want some conversation fodder for your coworkers.
Luckily, seeing what’s what with the latest real estate software is easy if you bookmark this site right now. We have in-depth reviews on Chime, Real Geeks, Easy Agent Pro, Boomtown, Liondesk, Ylopo, Firepoint and more.
Want the freshest updates about the coolest new software in your inbox? Sign up for our email list below:
Tell us about you so we know what to send.
13. Find Ten Interesting Articles & Add Them to Buffer or Hootsuite
Want to know a secret about social media superstars who seem to post at all hours of the day and night?
They use software to schedule their posts.
Free or cheap apps like Buffer allow them to have the appearance of being online 24/7.
If you want to gain more followers, more likes, and ideally a lead or two from your social media accounts, then you should too.
Here’s how.
Find and bookmark 10 articles you think your audience will respond to.
Then, create a free account on Buffer and schedule those articles to post to your social media accounts when you’re out doing more important work.
Voila. You now have ten articles ready to auto post on your social media accounts for the next few days.
Want to schedule more than ten articles at a time? A ‘Pro” plan on Buffer is only $15 per month.
That’s money well spent if you want to get leads from social media.
14. Waiting for Buyers at Your Listing? Grab a Broom & Get Busy
Here’s the thing about cleaning.
It may not be “fun” in the traditional sense, but studies show the mere act of organizing, cleaning, or straightening up can actually help you focus and calm down.
As an added bonus, if your homeowner happens to call or stop by they’ll see you putting in that little bit of extra effort that everyone wants from their Realtor.
So the next time you have “free time” at a listing, break out that broom or duster and get busy!
15. Declutter Your Email Inbox, Yes, Even the Promotional Folder!
Let’s face it. Humans are weird.
We crave solitude but can’t stand to be alone. We crave new stuff but treasure old stuff too.
We’re a mess!
Of course, just because humans want a million things at once, that doesn’t mean distractions help us work better. Study after study shows this isn’t even close to being true.
That means your hopelessly cluttered email inbox is slowing you down. Sure, it’s a only a few seconds every time you open Gmail or Outlook, but that adds up. It also makes us more stressed and less happy.
Now that you have ten minutes “free” and your head on swivel, why not spend some time cleaning out your inbox?
That daily email list you subscribed to on a whim and never read? Time to unsubscribe and delete the rest of them. Emails from your spouse, friends, or coworkers joking around? Right in the trash.
Now the next time you open your inbox you’ll be ready to get down to business.
Over to You
Have a great ten minute or less task that helps keep you thrive? Let us know in the comments!https://theclose.com/best-real-estate-crm/
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