The Top 5 Steps in Setting Goals as a Real Estate Agent
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Hello, people. Welcome to the CORE College of Real Estate blog. Do you know what it takes to be a successful real estate agent?
First and foremost, CORE Member, the key is goal-setting. Let’s delve into the steps in setting goals as a real estate agent. If you want more of this content, subscribe to the CORE College of Real Estate YouTube channel and hit the notification bell.
As a former wide receiver and defensive back for Ole Miss, RE/MAX Experts agent Quintavius Burdette knows that, in both football and real estate, the touchdown scored last week doesn’t count toward next week’s score.
Q, with his friends and colleagues calling him “Burd” or “Q,” says you can’t beat a team from last week’s results.
The previous athlete walked away from a successful accounting career to pursue real estate in two years. Six months later, his self-created Four Point system had him on track to generate $20 million in revenue and 106 properties in first year.
He uses a quota system to set goals for himself where he’s rewarded for completing listings, buyers and meeting up with those prospects in the next 90 days.
Q’s day is never done until he has 4 points on the board. He says that even when a large contract doesn’t close, or a buyer backs out of a showing, it becomes a positive because he has taken one more step to reaching his goals.
It totally changes the mindset of selling real estate, according to him. “It also keeps me from burning out. Every day is different; some days, I am working until 7 p.m., and others, I’m out of the office by 10 a.m., once I’ve scored four points.” There is nothing like that feeling when you’ve hit your goal.
Indeed, Q has reached his daily goal every day for the past two years, even during the height of the pandemic’s shutdowns. In fact, more than 90 days after implementing the new method, Q has eight customers looking to do business with him.
‘Top agents’ who triple or quadruple their income say that it takes a plan, monthly and weekly goals.
There are many hypothetical goals and systems for real estate agents, teams and brokers, with different factors such as audience type and local market conditions. Most of these involve intentionality.
Because of uncertainty in the markets, will agents be able to set their goals high enough? How other can agents effectively communicate with clients? One common element that has kept many agents motivated is knowing how they can achieve their goals throughout the year.
The most successful real estate coaches share their theories on how to achieve success so that you can make your own success a given.
Ask ‘What is Your Why?’
Real estate pros who inquire about why before they start a project and what the end goal are will return with both a plan and success. The first thought that should emerge is asking, “Why” and “What.”
The ultimate goal is to find your ‘big why,’ says Jan O’Brien, Trainer, Speaker and Podcast co-founder of WBNB Coaching and Business. “Picture yourself when you’re dying and imagine what it will be.”
Agents often fail to write out a comprehensive plan, with only about 10-15% setting goals for the upcoming year and achieving those goals. O’Brien suggests that agents need to understand and focus on what their business can do for them rather than adding additional tasks onto their plate.
Justin Letheby, a broker and founder of a real estate training company, John Maxwell Team, agrees that lack of goals is the major reason why real estate businesses fail.
“Top agents who double or triple their business year over year put together a plan and break it down by monthly and weekly goals” adds coach Sherri Johnson, “of Sherri Johnson Coaching.”
Jeff Cohn, host of the Team Building Podcast and owner of kwELITE Keller Williams, shares that for goal-setting to work, everyone must be willing to ask themselves “Why am I doing this?” and make sure they know when to commit their time. If you want to live a specific lifestyle that requires a certain level of commitment from your time, you’ll want to commit 10 hours or 40 hours every week.
Set a Target
Johnson recommends breaking down your goal into a three year, five year and ten year time frame. Then list the monthly actionable goals that you need to complete each day in order to move towards those objectives.
“What action steps and commitments are you going to make on a daily, monthly and quarterly basis?” her boss said.
Johnson suggests setting three annual goals: the bare minimum goal, the great goal, and the stretch goal.
Agent Cohn is using data to identify the best practices that will allow agents to seek out more clients and receive more income, including cold-calling, getting social media followers, or nurturing new leads.
According to Cohn, “It’s a constant game of trading time for money. You need to figure out the best way to make the maximum amount for the least amount of time and energy.”
As an experienced agency in the industry, Cohn advises that agents be able to constantly evaluate the revenue from their activity. She says that 70% of their revenue comes from 20% of their total client base.
Cohn, a first-time real estate broker, sold 50 doors and made $96,000 in the first year while spending $30,000 to hire a Transaction Coordinator. He saved some of his time by hiring another person who would do the admin work at $20 hourly. By doing away with offices and focusing on building closer customer relationships with the agent he hires Cohn was able to free up more time for higher-producing deals.
Reach “Weekly Goals”
Agents often lack a clear understanding of how to set achievable goals for their career; this makes it harder for them to reach in their desired amount of time.
While agents from experienced sales backgrounds might be able to immediately set a price for their services, newer agents may struggle with determining amounts. Letheby often recommends that new agents set goals for the number of units they’ll sell rather than focus on an exact dollar amount.
Tell your brokerage broker about the achievements of new real estate agents, asking them what prices and commissions the new agents made. Then use those averages to determine how much each agent would make and remember that offices are split by total commission.
For instance, Letheby says, agents can adjust for the side(s) they represent and the number of units they need to earn in order to reach their goal.
Most property agents can determine how many conversations equal to the year. This means that they need a formula in order to pinpoint the close goal.
If they work at a slower rate, they waste potential opportunities that could lead to more commissions. Working with less than five customers takes away from the agent’s work load and limits the amount of time available for leads.
When they design a Goldmine Pipeline, companies can have a continuous flow of free content for long periods of time – weeks and months or even years.
A new approach to listing real estate can provide agents and their managers with predictable, consistent monthly income. Although this system will likely use time inefficient traditional strategies, agents who can fill the pipeline rapidly can create business for as long as two years in order to generate profit.
O’Brien agrees that it makes sense to narrow your market focus when you try to sell and work a niche. Do just three markets, and you should be able to generate the effort necessary to make some sales.
Find a specialty such as serving veterans, millennials, the 55 and over set or those looking to buy and sell horse properties. Salena likes these types of niche ways to make money online.
With an understanding of the business, Tom O’Brien says “don’t try to be all things to all people” and find what you like.
Keep Yourself Accountable
Accountability is an important factor with those exercising the SMART Goal approach; it depends on whether you are setting goals, meeting them or exceeding them. All real estate professionals, whether they’re individual investors, team members or brokerages, must be held accountable to reach their goals.
Cohn advises managers to establish weekly meetings, in which agents sit down with a success manager to log key metrics, as well as strategic goals to achieve their potential.
“It may be, ‘I want to spend 20 hours a week making prospective calls to neighborhoods’ or ‘I want to post five times a day on my social media pages.’ It’s about finding where you maximalize your opportunity,” says he says.
Johnson believes agents should be told the truth when it comes to their start-off rate in their promises of making $1 million in the first year. Johnson wants to create a success scenario and invest in other agents who can do 10 times the work. The managers should actively help new agents reach their goals and get momentum in the business.
With the technology in place to track and improve performance, it is expected that the success rate of the program will dramatically grow.
For an agent to be accountable to their goals, they must keep track of the year’s leads and transaction data. This provides valuable insight into what is working and what needs to change. Know exactly where your business is going and adjust when necessary by seeing the gains or losses with each decision.
Often, agents lose focus on getting results and make their goals too small without proper tracking.
KvCORE and BoomTown, two market leading CRM’s, allow lead tracking integrated with dotloop which helps you close your leads more efficiently. Follow up with tagged email content based on your lead source so you can save tons of time while also tracking ROI to make sure your decision was beneficial over all.
The Cohn Research team tracks new opportunities that have been referred to them, letting them know if they are “hot”, as a lead with potential for a sale. They follow up with relevant marketing strategies to encourage consumers to take action on their leads.
O’Brien manages all of her reps through the KV platform to target leads that interest and engage them on Instagram. She also appreciates dotloop’s self-service transaction platform that allows admins to manage their agents’ workflows.
“Admins can see everything that happens within the system and the team leads be able to access reports to measure results and develop a successful plan,” she says. “This makes it easy for admins and team leaders to track their success.”
Visualize a Long-Term Goal
To set career goals, think about where you want to be in the next five years with your career. You can visualize a long-term goal that can help you come up with tasks and milestones. To choose an insightful career goal, consider what excites you and what doesn’t appeal to you.
Distinguish Your Short-Term Goals
After determining on a long-term goal, break it down into smaller, more achievable tasks. Consider what steps you’ll need to take during that timeframe and then work backward appropriately. For example, if you want to own your own real estate business, you can find ways to fund your business, improve your sales practices and grow the value of your inventory. During this time, attend marketing courses so that you know how to advertise your company successfully when the opportunity becomes available.
Research and Record Your Goals
To come up with relevant ideas for your blog post, start by researching your goals. For example, you might research how to start a business in your area. Knowing this information can help determine what key details are needed to reach your goals, and how they could be achieved.
When you are preparing, it is helpful to keep track of your research. You can use a variety of visualization tools to help with this, but consider using one that motivates you. Consider making a vision board or creating a timeline to show yourself when you will achieve your goals. Recording your research in this way can help motivate and encourage you as well as remind you of what you’ve already accomplished.
As long as you make reasonable accommodations in the first step, and commit to taking actionable career actions, you can gradually advance your career through realistic short-term goals. You might consider what will happen if your circumstances or ambitions change. If your goal changes, update it so that you have a long-term and short-term goal.
Celebrate Your Achievements
When you achieve short-term goals, you can celebrate your successes, as it helps to remind yourself of all the progress made so far. It can also help to motivate you and serve as a powerful secret weapon in your arsenal. When you recognize your own achievements and become comfortable with them, this may also help boost your confidence to prepare for future accomplishments.
Implement a Full Real Estate Marketing System
The top performers of the real estate industry consistently send information to the people who are most likely interested in purchasing or renting their properties. Lead generation, conversions, and referrals will drastically increase when you use a marketing system that is consistent with your target audience’s data.
Grow and Take Care of Your Database
It’s important to make sure your CRM is built specifically for the real estate industry. Once you do this, you want to separate your “hot prospects” from your “warm leads.” If you don’t already, consistently add new people to your database and properly categorize them.
Double Your Referral Business
A thriving referral business is essential for top agents. Agents should consistently receive discounts and quality deals from their past clients so that they can continue to bring in business. This can be accomplished through promotions and incentives such as bonuses and prizes. Agents who have a dedicated referral marketing success system are rewarded for developing lasting relationships with their clients.
Ensure that your website is targeted on lead generation.
If you are getting a low number of leads, there are plenty ways to create more. For example, you could implement lead capture forms.
These goals may seem ambitious but they are measurable, achievable and will help you achieve success. This is the perfect example of goals that break down into manageable pieces that can be reached with a timetable. The Divide & Conquer strategy will be useful for dividing your goal into manageable parts then making a plan to reach them. When you do this, you’ll have more room to make mistakes and achieve success on your own terms.
To double your referral real estate transactions by the end of the year, you will need to create a winning email marketing campaign, optimize your content, and build a network of interested buyers. For example:
Establishing contact with professionals that are part of a group of people in power such as lawyers, interior designers, builders, etc.
Find a powerful CRM and use it consistently.
Reach out to many of your past customers, who live in the area twice weekly, by sending a handwritten note.
Establish yourself as an informative and loyal real estate agent through monthly newsletters.
In order to practice or create your real estate scripts to request referrals, find and then practice them.
By following these steps, you’ll have a clearer picture of where you want to start, and how to get there. For example, imagine that your first task might be dividing into specific parts, and putting them on a calendar.
Use the Calendar and Tasks features to manage goals in your CRM and create reminders so that you don’t forget.
Real estate agents should set goals, and create a plan to achieve it by dividing the tasks into smaller ones and conquering them from day to day. Reaching your goals is possible when you create a plan and work towards achieving it in manageable pieces.
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