A funny thing happens to the entire mortgage and real estate industry this time of year, people are either counting the days to the end of the year or they are beginning to ramp up their systems and activities to hit the new year running. Unfortunately, most are counting it down.
The “herd” mentality quickly becomes one that looks at the calendar and figures that it is now “too late” to get anything going that will close in 2012, and have resigned themselves to whatever numbers they have and are willing to wind down the year attending parties and thinking about how 2013 will be better for them.
Loan originators and Realtors® can really become supportive of each other in this “Counting Down” mentality and collectively help each other make excuses as to why making any type of strong effort is not worth the energy. One supports the other in working through the pipeline of current transactions and slowly depleting their inventories of opportunities fixed on the arbitrary deadline of December 31st and the end of 2012. How sad is that? An entire year of effort and momentum just allowed to, run itself out because of a completely arbitrary deadline?
This is only October and we already see holiday items in the stores and the notion that this year has just about ended. How can you say that with thirty to forty five days left in this year to still find new people and put together transactions that can still close in 2012. Why would so much of the industry just relax? I am not sure, but it does happen each year!
So let’s look at the other side of the coin, ramping things up now for a strong 2013 opening. In all my years in the business, I have never seen anyone start the year really strong and have a “bad year”. And while I have had people begin a year slowly and have good or even great years, many who start slow never recover. That said, what do we have to lose by charging into November and December as if the last two months were paying double or even triple commission? How would you approach your job the next ten weeks if you were going to get paid two or three times the commission on every new generated transaction? I bet many of you would easily maintain your current efforts, and maybe even push a little harder than you would normally?
Now I know you aren’t going to get double or triple commissions on these new transactions, but just look at what I have to say and see if it makes any sense to you to just look hard at this logic.
1) Pushing hard when others are slowing down multiplies your efforts and magnifies your opportunities.
2) As the year winds down, there is a great urgency by those needing to put together a deal to build a team of those still actively engaged and therefore you have less competition for more serious opportunities.
3) As the clock winds down, those deals that close amplify the value and professionalism of those who get things done. Just like everyone remembers who takes the last shot at the buzzer to win the game, but nobody remembers who sank the first basket of the game! While the point value is the same, the last shot defines the hero!
4) In most things in life, it isn’t how you start, but how you finish that counts.
5) Even if all your efforts don’t produce transactions that close before the end of the year, you have a wealth of momentum headed into 2013. Are you not going to need money next year?
6) Setting a big goal for the last ten weeks of the year gives you a chance to “stress” your opportunity generation and follow-up systems so you can see what needs improvement or replacement. All of which is a good thing heading into the next year.
So what if my Realtor® friends set a goal to get ten new listings before the end of 2012 and ten new buyer opportunities before the year ended? And so what if they didn’t all close or you fell a little short of the goal, would getting five new listings and five new buyers be all that bad over the next ten weeks?
To my originator followers, could you find ten new referral relationships before the end of the year? Would talking to, and pulling credit on five new opportunities a week over the last ten weeks be all that bad or even all that difficult? I don’t think so. How would 2013 look to you with the addition of only five new referral partners? Could you live with only twenty-five new loan applications before this year was out?
It’s up to you. Are you ramping up for 2013, or are you just going to let the clock run out with nothing to show for it but the same old excuses that “nobody does any business at the end of the year?” Sixty-seven days left to “Do something today that improves your tomorrow!” It’s not how you start, but how you finish!
For More information and insight please visit http://improvemytomorrowcoaching.com
Improve My Tomorrow Coaching 