Is the thought of an increase in your monthly targets daunting? If your leader told you that it's time for you to list 8 properties a month, would you resist?

Most salespeople would resist because they look at the entire figure. Eight listings a month sounds a lot.

Funny, but it's all relative. I remember times when salespeople listed between 10-15 properties a month without fail. As selling fees increased, listing numbers decreased. This tells me that most of the battle is in our heads. We imagine things to be tougher than they are.

I know one winner who said that right from the beginning of her career she expected to list 8 properties per month. She said, "It was daunting until I broke it down into bite-sized chunks. Eight listings a month is only 2 a week. I can do that!" And she did. For over twenty years this winner has listed eight properties or more per month.

Once she decided on 2 listings per week, she planned where to look for those listings.

Prospecting Sources

Some prospecting sources are warmer than others. Sure, a fair amount of talking to strangers is required, but strangers don't stay that way forever. Regular contact over time turns the original random call into a series of warm calls, and listings are often to be found by following up warm leads nurtured over time.

You could knock on doors, or you could knock on the door where property owners have advertised their property for sale privately. Look past the 'no agents' warning and speak with the property owner anyway. Ten FSBOs give a higher listing yield than 50 random door knocks.

This is just one example. My point is that you will increase your chances of achieving higher targets if you know where your business is likely to come from. A listing plan will keep you on track and keep you working on the warmer listing sources.

In the absence of a listing plan you can drift, making a few calls here, a few calls there, but with no real consistency or focus on the most likely places to find listings.

No plan = drift. Plan = focus. It's as simple as that.

If you want to increase your listing results, you must fill your prospect pipeline. You do that by talking to people - at least 200 potential sellers every working week.

Does this sound a lot? Break it down into bite-sized chunks - it's 40 a day. You can do that, can't you? Even at an average of 6 minutes per call, this is under 5 hours total prospecting time per day, allowing for time spent calling on premises where nobody is home.

Start at 9 AM, finish at 2 PM. Grab a bite to eat, then attend your afternoon appointments.

See what that does to your results, income and life!

Gary Pittard