Think of the most accomplished athletes.
LeBron James might come to mind for basketball. Serena Williams for tennis. David Beckham for soccer.
These are the players who always seem to get the ball. Why is it they’re able to score so much more frequently?
These players have mastered the art of knowing when to sprint. They see things happening before others do, and they react.
They don’t rest when others rest. They see when it’s time to burst into action, and that’s how they end up in the right place at the right time — seemingly at will.
Sprinting is a skill that can be adapted to real estate as well. Being a real estate agent is a marathon. Honing that instinct for knowing when to sprint can propel your business and help you earn substantially more.
When agents fail to sprint
Many agents don’t recognize opportunity when it’s dangling like a carrot in front of them. For example:
- A long-term lead who has been in an agent’s database for a year suddenly shows massive interest and action on the agent’s website. The agent doesn’t react with urgency because she’s busy chasing new leads. She should sprint and make time to contact that lead and offer assistance.
- A client wants to make an immediate offer. The agent is meeting friends for drinks later and doesn’t want to miss the fun. Decides to push off writing up the offer until the morning. Overnight, another offer comes in and beats them to it. If the agent had sprinted and submitted that offer without hesitation, he would have saved himself weeks or months of additional work — and not let down that client.
- A client pushes an agent out of his knowledge zone. Maybe the client is looking at a farm or ranch, and the agent is unfamiliar with wells, septic tanks, water rights and so on. The clients are waiting for the agent to find that information so they can decide whether to make an offer. That’s when an agent needs to sprint to research those details or get the help he needs.
- It’s critical that when an agent lists a property, the house is ready to show. The pictures and listing should look good before it goes live. First impressions are everything. Sprinting to make everything look perfect could mean the difference between the home being on the market one week versus many months.
Caution: Don’t ‘over sprint’
What’s this mean? “Over sprinting” happens when agents try to sprint all the time, and ultimately, burn out, drop the ball or damage important relationships in their life.
Knowing when to sprint in your personal life is equally important.
Develop your timing
How do you get better about knowing when to sprint?
You have to learn to pay attention. Watch for it. Know that it’s an important aspect of your business.
When you’re about to clock out for the day and you see that there are two small items you thought you were going to find time to do, it’s easy to put those off until the next day.
Depending on how critical those items are, it might be best to sprint for 15 minutes and get them done — or to take five minutes to plan how you can resolve the items later that night or early the next morning.
Study other people who are good at sprinting. Watch athletes and figure out how they know where to be at the right time.
It took them practice, but they also have that “eye of the tiger” mentality where they go for the win. They burst into action; they go all in.
They can’t go all in, all the time. But when they do, they’re not saving themselves for later.
Pay attention to that, because that is the secret. Figure out how to apply that to your real estate business.
Mike Turner is the author of “Agent Entrepreneurs” and the owner of Front Street Brokers in Boise, Idaho. Follow Mike on Facebook or Instagram and Snapchat @MikeTurnerLive.