IT’S NOT TOO LATE TO CREATE A BUSINESS PLAN FOR THE NEW YEAR!
Every day, you have two choices: you can stay in bed with your dreams, or you can get out and chase them. But just getting out bed won’t make them happen – you need to take action and put a business plan in place.
In a recent call with Keller Williams associates, the Puyallup market center’s assistant team leader, Rebecca Del Pozo, and productivity coach, Dan Haeg, offered several tips for successful business planning. They discussed how creating a business plan and systematically using the tools from the CGI suite to track and staying accountable to your written goals can double your production in just one year.
With just one month left in 2017, it is not, we repeat, not too late for you to get started.
Delve Into Your Numbers
For the first decade of her career, Del Pozo operated without a plan. Joining Keller Williams in 2003, she enjoyed a steady pace of closing 20 to 30 homes each year while also raising her family. But things changed in 2015.
That year, Del Pozo experienced life changes and an embarrassing moment at Mega Camp, which made her realize she needed to start treating her business like a business and rock herself out of her comfort zone.
She was having a conversation with another associate who, during the course of the conversation, asked Del Pozo what her total closings were – and she froze. “I couldn’t answer the question,” she admits. “I didn’t know my numbers.” This embarrassment caused Del Pozo to get a handle on her numbers and, in doing so, she realized she had a business worthy of so much more.
“I went home, looked them up, and even called that associate and said, ‘Hi, remember me, I know my numbers now.’”
Step One: Create Your Road Map
From that moment forward, Del Pozo immersed herself in all the training Keller Williams had to offer. From Quantum Leap to BOLD to Ignite, she was on a mission to reignite her business, and she did something she hadn’t done before – she made a written business plan.
When asked how Del Pozo helps people start their business plan, she asks a single question: “What’s the most you have ever made in a single year?” And then she tells people, “Double that! That’s your goal for next year.”
When writing a business plan, in addition to identifying your Big Goals, you will need to create a map of the activities you will tackle to help you reach those goals, she advises. This map is called a GPS, and it looks at where you will be in one, three, and five years, and what you need to do to get there.
Once you have your Big Goals and your GPS defined, the next step is creating a weekly 4-1-1 to check in on your progress. Here’s how Del Pozo grouped her areas of focus for her GPS and what sample activities on her 4-1-1 look like:
Group 1. These are her Mets, sphere and past clients. With this group, she communicates regularly and plans events to stay top of mind and connected.
Group 2. This group is her farm for just listed and just sold. For this group, she sends 200 surrounding homeowner-occupied residents a postcard when there is a just listed or just sold (by her) near them.
Group 3. Business-to-business relationships are also very important to Del Pozo. This group includes fellow real estate agents and contractors, which are great referral sources. One way Del Pozo keeps in touch with contractors is by using the HomeKeepr app.
Step Two: Implement a Tracking System
Once you have your business plan and GPS in place and are keeping up with your weekly 4-1-1, the next critical step is to have an activity tracking system and to make sure you stay accountable to reaching your goals.
Often discouraged by the time it takes sitting at a desk inputting information when they want to be out showing properties, many agents fail to see this part through. In response to this plight, the CGI tool suite was created to simplify goal tracking and make it easier and faster to manage your numbers.
“The CGI Calculator does the heavy lifting for you,” says Del Pozo. By using the calculator to break the activities into weekly goals that lead up to your Big Why, Del Pozo says the process becomes manageable and less overwhelming. Haeg adds that once people see what the Pipeline, another CGI tool, can do for organizing and moving leads to conversion, there is no more hesitation with getting started.
Step Three: Find Accountability Partners
Del Pozo believes the main reason people are hesitant to know their numbers is because they don’t have accountability. Understanding this prompted her to hire a part-time transaction coordinator to help her meet her weekly appointment goals. In addition, she got into KW MAPS Coaching for even more accountability. “Even if people aren’t ready for a MAPS Coach, they can go to their market center productivity coach,” Del Pozo encourages.
Working on goals as a team is another key factor for success, and Del Pozo and Haeg make sure it is on every weekly team meeting agenda. “Every week in our team meeting, we’re holding each other accountable to our appointments,” Del Pozo says. Following the Four Conversations model, each team member shares how many conversations they had with prospects, how many conversations converted to appointments and how many appointments resulted in new business. Then they share their success!
Using the professionally designed monthly LORE Report included in the CGI tool suite, Del Pozo, Haeg, and their fellow team members share and celebrate the team’s performance. “This tool is especially great for newer agents who don’t have a lot of production yet, because they can use office numbers to show the team is outpacing the competition,” Haeg says.
So what happens when someone doesn’t meet their goal? They disclose that at the meeting, readjust, amplify the level of accountability and keep at it. The focus is never on the missed – it is always on the possibility.
So, here you are in December with just a few weeks left in the year – wondering if it is too late to write your business plan for 2018. It’s not! You’ve got this, and you’re about to experience a level of success you never imagined possible.