One of the biggest challenges we see with agents is that there is only one thing they do consistently: They are consistently inconsistent.
When something works, they’ll do it until it doesn’t work quite as well, or they get busy, and then they stop. When we go back and remind them what they did to get to that level, they always say the same thing; “Oh, yeah. I used to do that, but then I got too busy.” It’s amazing how often the light bulb doesn’t go on right away…”I used to do that… I got busy… I stopped doing that… I stopped being busy… I should do that again!” There’s some sort of disconnect between “I stopped doing that’ and ‘I stopped being busy”.
Now let’s be honest. It isn’t always that simple. Tracing the cause of being busy and the cause of not being busy doesn’t always equate so easily. Oh, wait a second…hold on…YES IT DOES!!!. There’s an old expression, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” for a reason. Consistently doing something that works until you can show that it no longer works is a great path to success (notice I didn’t say an easy path to success…if it were easy, everybody would be doing it).
On the other hand, you don’t want to consistently do something that doesn’t work. If you run the same ad for the same property for 3 months and you aren’t getting any showings…stop running the ad! Stop throwing good money after bad!
So how do you know when to keep doing something and when to stop? I’m so glad you asked! Track your results. Share those results with somebody and review the numbers. Tracking and accountability go hand in hand. If you track your results, you’ll see when the effect of what you do is declining and you can change. Or you can see if it’s improving and you can redouble your efforts. And when you share those results with someone, there’s a much stronger likelihood that they’ll call you out on your lack of consistency or your stubborn refusal to change in light of evidence that you should.
Either way, tracking your results allows you to determine what to do consistently and what to avoid consistently. And how do you hold yourself accountable to doing those things that make you successful when you start getting busy again? Create a schedule and follow it. Track what you do with your time. Prioritize those things that produce income and make them immovable rocks in your schedule. Share your tracking with someone to help hold you accountable.
It’s amazing how much easier some of the tasks we have to do become when we do them consistently.
Phillip Greenberg, MBA
Coach and Consultant