Getting good....

Here's the next part of my newsletter, I hope you find it useful and get some things you can perhaps use from it!!

I had been working as an estate agent for six months and things were going really well.

I was well and truly into the swing of what I needed to do in order to be successful.

I had worked out that if I wanted to be successful at my job, earn good commission levels and reach targets for promotions, then I had just to do the following:?

I needed to be disciplined and consistent in my activity and what I needed to do every single day.

I had seen over the last six months, more experienced estate agents than me,?not reach their targets or be complaining about what they were earning.?

I had worked out that they spent lots of time during their day not being productive or effective and that was probably why.

I made sure that my day was spent being the opposite.

Very quickly I was achieving better results than them and they were starting to resent my success. I got my first promotion after 8 months when it usually took at least 12 months so I was really happy with my career progress.

This was great for me as I now had a company car and a better basic salary.

This all confirmed my thoughts that if I’d stay focused on my goals and targets, remained consistent with my activity and spent my time being effective, well the sky really was the limit in terms of what I felt I could achieve.

So there was a very clear lesson and it’s true in any kind of business and for any business owner as well.

Consistency, discipline and doing enough activity.

So what does this actually mean?

Well, here’s what I did in my estate agency job to make sure I achieved what I wanted.

1. I had a system - at the time, nothing was computerised, so I worked out I needed a system to follow. I devised a system that enabled me to do everything I needed to do.?

You see I had worked out that if I did enough activity every day, it would give me the results I needed.

What do you mean I hear you ask?

Well, I had worked out some key numbers based on my results and I had kept this going in the back of my diary. I tracked how many phone calls I needed to make to book a viewing on a property, how many viewings I needed to book each day to get an offer on a property and how many offers I needed to get a sale and so on. I used this formula across all my activities and targets and it worked perfectly. As time went on, as I got better at tasks, my ratios would get better and better and I wouldn’t need to do as much activity as I was becoming more skilled.

But keeping a track of it all and knowing my numbers was the key thing.

2. I was disciplined - I religiously made the calls I needed to make, arranged the viewings I needed and even worked out the amount of viewings I needed to accompany to get the results I wanted.

3. I never gave up - I remained totally focussed on what I needed to do. Of course, I had a laugh and a joke at work as well but overall I would spend my time productively.

And these principles are so relevant today and work now. Business owners that I work with today, may not be doing the right activities in their business, they may not know what to do, they might not be doing enough selling or enough marketing to the right customers to get the results they want and so on. So I help them focus on the things that will bring them success, and guess what?

It works for them.

And it works across any industry or business as well.

So I would certainly recommend if this applies to you, to have a look at your numbers in relation to your activity, focus on them and I promise if you are committed to this you will see better results as well.

The time rolled by, and after 18 months and a few more promotions, my area manager came to see me.

“Richard he said, we have an exciting opportunity and I think you would be a good candidate for it, are you interested?”

That’s when thinks started to get even more interesting for me….

“There’s a managers job that’s about to become available and I’d like you to apply.”

I was pretty stunned. I’d been good at selling, had consistent results and was probably the most successful sales person in the area but was I ready to be a manager? Could I even do the job I thought.

I had a few days to think about it then decided to call Keith, my area manager and accept his offer of a chat about the position.

I decided before I spoke to him, I would find out some details about the office he wanted me to take over, the area, the team and work out a plan to take it forward.

I spent some time finding out what I could, and wrote all my thoughts down ready to take to Keith when I saw him.

The day arrived and I met Keith at our head office. He told me that he had a few people in mind for the managers job and was talking to them today.

I said, fair enough, “can I take you through my plan and tell you what I think?”

He looked a little confused, plan he said?

Yes, I’ve worked out what I would do.

I took him through my ideas and he seemed impressed. I think he liked the fact that I had thought about the job and done a plan.

A few days later Keith came to see me.

He offered me the job!!

I was now officially the new branch manager of our Kings Norton office!!

And I was officially shitting myself!!?

Richard