Happy new year!
Yes, I know it’s October. No, I’m not losing my mind. But I am going to keep you from losing your mind come January 1, 2021.
The holidays are a truly wonderful time. It’s the best time to celebrate with friends and family, to spend quality time with clients and prospects—in ways that keep you all safe.
It’s all about caring and connection. In the new world, the “now normal” — how can a broker better care for and connect with their agents? Maybe it’s a Zoom cocktail hour or a virtual sip and paint. How can you, the broker, care, and connect with your people? Agents want and need you now more than ever before. Double down! It’s all about your people! And the holidays are great for that.
But the holidays are the wrong time to work on your business planning for the next year.
That time is right now. Early Q4 is your opportunity to do the prep work, the groundwork, the homework you need so you wake up after an amazing New Year’s Eve, and start crushing it on the actual day one of the year!
Start with your goals
Now is the time to set your 2021 goals. A really great way to set measurable goals is to sit down and take a hard look at last year’s data. The last year might have felt crazy, but your data is the ultimate reality check. Real estate is unpredictable and you never know what will happen — unless you have reliable data. Then you can map out how you’re going to go further, faster. Set measurable stretch goals based on the data you have, and you’re going to see your business grow.
As a CEO, not only do I look at my business data when goal setting for the new year, I ask my leaders to provide me with department insights each month. We use data to track whether we are trending up or down so we can address issues quickly or know that the strategies we implemented were effective.
Your action items:
- Collect the data for 2019 and 2020: total gross commission, total sales volume, total new transactions, total closed transactions.
- Set some stretch goals for you and your team to try to reach based on your previous year’s data.
Steal these words: speed, transparency, trust
These are words that have helped shape our company for the past several years. And they were never more relevant than when the pandemic hit. We used them as guideposts to help us deliver products and services to our users, our constituents. But they apply to your business, too.
As you develop your plan for 2021, put every action you take into one of these buckets:
Speed: How do you respond and deliver results faster? Your client expects it. No, they DEMAND it.
Transparency: Layout what you offer and explain what is happening at every stage. How do you do what you say you will do?
Trust: When you implement speed and transparency, you automatically begin to build trust. How do you become absolutely indispensable after the sale? Where else can you prove your value?
Your action items:
- Identify which processes can you automate to help you and your team move faster.
- Make it clear what data you can provide to both your team and their clients.
Evaluate your tech stack
There are so many tools available to help you run every single aspect of your business. And you won’t believe how many brokers tell me they forget why they even signed up for some of them.
So now is your opportunity to go line by line, tech by tech, and hold each solution or tool you invest in up to the light and take a good hard look.
Your action items:
- Decide if each tool, platform, or solution provides true value to your business in a quantifiable way.
- Determine if each tool, platform, or solution helps you deliver the three words you’re going to adopt for yourself: speed, transparency, trust.
- Ensure each tool, platform, or solution supports the goals you’ve mapped out for 2021.
So there it is, folks. Celebrate your new year right now because October means Opportunity, but only if you have the drive and focus to make it happen.
(Are you still here? Go!)
SkySlope’s transaction management platform helps brokers leverage and track brokerage data. Learn more here.