You know what to do

...yet doing it remains illusive.

I ask people all the time, “What is the one thing you need to do to ensure you are successful over the next 12 months?”

I get a lot of answers! Most of them will make no difference.

However, I do get some really good ones. Here are a few I received recently (these are not edited - this is what people actually wrote).

• Follow my plan and work my plan
• Build my database and continually build my sales pipeline
• Have faith and discipline in reaching out to people
• Door knock at least a couple of days a week
• Create a schedule w/dedicated communication times
• Time blocking
• Creating new clients
• Motivation and accountability
• Clean up database
• Build a weekly schedule
• Time block opportunities to talk to people
• Being more specific about my database and leads
• Block aside time for social media production every week
• 50 conversations a week
• Consistent schedule and commitment to follow through
   

What do you notice?

Here’s what I see: most of these are not good. I mean, they’re well-meaning. But they’re not likely to make any difference. In total fairness, many of these answers do answer the question “What should I focus on that is most likely to guarantee my success?”

However, most are not specific or measurable, nor are they repeatable. There is one great answer. Do you know which one it is?

“50 conversations a week”

For every 100 people I ask this question to, only 1 or 2 reply with that answer.

Most importantly, this is the only answer that will likely make any difference. If you talk to 50 people per week for 44 weeks per year, that is 2,200 conversations. Over 10 years that is 22,000 conversations. If you have 22,000 conversations over the next 10 years, what do you think your real estate business will be like?

Is there anything you can do that will have a bigger impact?

Yet, you will try and come up with something. You will think of anything other than talking to 50 people per week. You will tell me about your marketing, your website, your database, office setup or maybe your schedule. You know - like you really know that it won’t make any difference. That’s why you have this unease about you. An empty pit in your stomach, or a malaise and worry about how things will go. Maybe not you, but the people who come up with lists of things to do but avoid the things that actually matter.

In case you’re wondering, there is one other thing that will make a difference: get better at talking to people. However, if you aren’t already talking to people, how will you get better? Said another way, you only get better at talking to people by talking to people. 

How do you train for a marathon? You run. No one who is serious about running a marathon talks about running. They don’t talk about their gear, running routes, their schedule, or their watch. They simply get their butt out and run. Then you can adjust as necessary.

Last week I talked about knowing what to do and when you will do it.  As we just covered, the only thing you need to do is talk to people.  So, what will your schedule look like this next week?