Honesty is often interesting.  One of my coaching clients, an agent, Herb (name changed to protect the guilty) is having a mediocre year.  I thought I knew the problem so I asked him this, “Herb, what percentage of your leads do you simply not follow up on, or call once and not follow through on?”

He was honest, he said, “Sixty.”

“Sixty percent that you do follow through on or sixty percent that you don’t?” I asked.

“Sixty percent that I don’t,” he said.

Herb would double his production simply by following through on the leads that are already coming to him.  Honesty is interesting.

Another client, agent, Laurie (name changed), who hit a very slow period in the middle of the year answered the question this way.  “Well, I started out strong and then I got pretty sloppy, but now I am following up on nearly everything again.”

Considering that the period in which she “got pretty sloppy” following through on her leads was the spring and summer, she would have doubled her production as well, simply by following through on the leads already coming to her.

There are a many agents like Herb and Laurie, who have the skills and the knowledge, but they lack the motivation, focus, and commitment to follow up and follow through.

To what extent does this describe you?  What percentage of the leads that came to you this year didn’t get followed up on or followed through?

It is the perfect time of year to recognize this, and correct it with a four step process that I call “Breakdown Leads to Breakthrough.”

Breakdown Leads to Breakthrough
Step One: Acknowledge the error.  Simply admit it honestly to yourself.
Step Two: Forgive yourself.  This can be quite easy, just say to yourself, “I forgive myself.”  Can it be that easy?  Absolutely, as long as you do Step One honestly.
Step Three: Recommit.  Decide if you want to recommit to follow through on your leads more conscientiously for the rest of the year and through next year.
Step Four: Get into action immediately on your renewed commitment.  This is the critical step.

Honesty is interesting.  Self-honesty is even more interesting, because  it is the key to your personal and professional breakthrough.

Today, everyone seems to beam about their ability to multi-task.  With the revolution of technology and communication going from simultaneous exchange (phones) to non-simultaneous exchange (texting) we continue to handle multiple activities in what appears to be one increment of time.

But is this a good thing or a bad thing?   A recent study from the American Psychological Association released in August suggests that not only do we get less done by multi-tasking, but it can be hazardous to our productivity!

Even though we think we are multi-tasking, according to reports by Vanderbilt University, we are still only able to process one activity at a time, but since we can do it fairly quickly, we have the illusion that we are in fact doing it concurrently.

Our “executive control center” is our decision making center, which takes significant amounts of time and, according to the report, several tenths of a second, which adds up when people switch back and forth repeatedly between tasks.  Where multi-tasking may seem more efficient, it may actually take more time at the end.  In this report, Dr. David Meyer pointed out that a mere half second of time lost to task switching can result in life or death of a driver operating a car using a cell phone.

Another survey done for small businesses revealed that 56% of the responders indicated that they often handle three or more tasks at a time, and reported that one in four business owners stated that multi-tasking does, in some ways, hinder their working ability.  The results from obsessive multi-tasking shows decreased quality of work, actually taking longer to complete a simple task, and eventual burn out.

So, what can we do?  Many of us will continue to perform master multi-tasking activities, and sometimes that can be done appropriately.

But here’s an interesting fact, did you know that by cutting back on multi-tasking for only 20% of your day, you have the potential to free up about 237 hours, or almost six weeks each year?

Chris Crouch, President of DME Training & Consulting and developer of the GO System Training course is a productivity expert and coach.  In his program, he asks his students to perform a simple exercise that takes less than 30 seconds for most people to complete, but found that on the first exercise, the multi-taskers took 61 seconds!

The bottom line is that multi-tasking is really an illusion.  Science Daily claims we can improve our multi-tasking timing, but in reality, we still can only process one rule or command at a time, maybe faster or slower, but our brains still process one at a time.

The bottom line is this, be aware that multi-tasking is okay in moderation, but know that you might not be getting as much done in less time as you thought.  But, by making a few small changes you can get more done and free up real time.  Crouch suggests that we perform “deliberate” practice of focus and block out 96 minutes per day.  To achieve and maintain this focused state of mind he suggests we use a behavioral ritual, or an anchor to help us stay focused on completing a task.  He tells us to practice blocking out 96 minutes every day for deliberate practice (20% of your workday) to stay totally focused on a high-priority, high-impact task and watch your productivity increase.

It’s all about mindful productive tasking versus unproductive multi-tasking driven by habitual behavior.  You don’t have to give up multi-tasking, just give it up for 20% of the day, and be aware of the fact that when you do multi-task, it may be costing you!

Practice your “right now” technique and become a master at mindful multi-tasking, and then figure out what you want to do with all that extra time!

According to NAR and other research we have done independently, 80% of leads generated by you or your company over the Internet are lost, marked as dead, or simply thrown out. But, why is this happening?

An online consumer contacts you by e-mail. They want an immediate response to their question. And, as we all know, the first one to contact the consumer has the better chance of engaging the consumer.  Speed matters, and the speed of the Internet has created this consumer need.

The reality is that the online lead many times is not ready to commit right way.
So, we give up, lose interest, or don’t have systems in place to keep track of them to convert them at a later date.

Today’s online consumer does not want to be captured by the real estate professional. They want to stay in control of the process. They feel that if they share their information, the agent will bug them until they buy or die.

The technology needs of a buyer-based marketplace are so different than those of the past five years that many real estate professionals find themselves back at square one.

Here are some of the challenges:

• Knowing who today’s consumer is and how they consume information on the Internet
• Having all of the tools to respond properly

In other words, the challenge today is to understand which values are desired, and retool our business around them.

What about the leads that you send information to and then they won’t give you enough information for you to qualify them as a lead?

One import fact to remember is that buyers are online long before they are ready to purchase. Try to eliminate the 45-day mentality we attach to leads. Remember? A buyer walks into your office, you speak to them, read their tells, and within half an hour you know if you’ll have a commission check in your inbox in 45 days. Ah, memories. Those days are gone forever.

Many buyers enter the real estate search arena up to four years before they sit at a closing table. This is the subconscious stage. When something triggers to them to the next phase they actively engage in pre-research. This is the thinking-about-it stage.

Another trigger sends them into active research. They are finally pre-qualified and they actively begin searching online for homes and neighborhoods.

The actual buying stage is when they need help writing an offer, negotiating, and closing. Keep in mind, the actual buying phase can last as long as four months, or more.

What are these triggers — job change, income change, family change? You name it.
Managing all these leads can be overwhelming; so, look through all the software programs you own, especially products attached to your website and see if there are any automated e-mail campaigns available to you.

Please note: I am not an advocate of pushing unwanted data to people. And, I NEVER recommend this type of product to your sphere and past customers.

It was session three of seven of our S.P.A.R.K. Course, and one agent after another approached me at each break. Each comment or question had the same theme. It was weird.

Each agent said something along the lines of, “I can see how this is really going to work for me, but here is the problem.” Or, “This is great stuff and it would really work for me, except, here is what I face.”

There are over a hundred people in the class and over a dozen of them expressed this type of sentiment. The problems included other jobs that took their time, taking care of children, not enough experience, and more. It was clear that the problem had nothing to do with the issues that they were bringing up. Something else was going on.

While driving away from the conference center, I realized what it was. As these agents began seeing and feeling that they were capable of achieving and exceeding their business goals, when they were sincerely confronted by the prospect of their own success, then the psychological barriers that have prevented their success began to come to their consciousness. Their mind perceived their most desired future for their business and their psyche was finding the reasons that it was not likely or possible to achieve it.

This is the definition of a limiting belief: a thought that is perceived as the absolute truth by the person having it, when in reality it is a false barrier. So, at the next session I led them through an exercise to identify and eliminate limiting beliefs. The response was overwhelming. One person after another was experiencing a breakthrough they knew was possible, but couldn’t previously quite reach. Now it was happening. The skills were there and the barriers were not.

One of the things about being with the BASB is that the Bureau has carefully screened all of their speakers. The quality is definitely there, but what about the bloggers, the panel members who sound great, or the IT folks who have in-depth knowledge? Having mastery in a content area is great – it has no relationship, however, to how well the person can convey that knowledge in front of a group.

Today, anyone can proclaim that they are an expert. This seems to be particularly true in the areas of social media and distressed properties. Just because someone has a certification or is blogging or writing about a topic, doesn’t mean that they can deliver that material in front of the room. The question is how to distinguish those who have both the content AND the platform skills that will provide the best value to your audience.

With money being tight right now, it’s tempting to go for the low cost alternatives. The question is, what is the value to your audience? If you cut corners and go for a second tier speaker who has the knowledge but can’t hold the room, everyone loses. The audience is deprived of the skills that could have helped to build their businesses. REALTORS® vote with their feet and when they don’t like something, they leave (and often don’t come back next year!). Furthermore, with the advent of social media, feedback about the quality of the session is instantaneous. There’s nothing that can kill your future attendance more quickly than having negative posts all over the social media about how lousy a session was.

To keep this from happening to you, ask for references. If the speaker or trainer doesn’t have a video tape, request that they make one. Search the speaker’s name on Google as well as on the major social networking sites such as Twitter. See what the speaker’s reputation is online.

Even more importantly, ask their references about how easy the speaker was to work with – the big ego off stage translates into big ego onstage. The bottom line is that if someone doesn’t express gratitude for the opportunity to speak before your audience, then they’re missing the most important point of all – speakers and trainers are there to be of service, not the other way around.

Do you lead meetings? Do you want to do buyer or seller seminars? Do you present to two or two hundred? Managers, trainers, and even agents sometimes have to present in front of three, to hundreds, of people. Unfortunately, many who have to get in front of others lack training and dread the thought of it! It doesn’t have to be frightening, though. Take a look at the three ‘pro’ speaker tips below to make your next time in front of a few, or many, enjoyable, memorable, and equally enjoyable for your audience.

Grasping Skills Makes us Competent—and Confident

The very best part about performance is that anyone can get better at anything through learning skills and practicing them. I learned that as a pianist/flutist, and I’ve seen it over and over again, no matter what adults think! (I taught adults piano lessons, so I know all the barriers that get in our way!) Just keep in mind the quote I read from the great UCLA basketball coach, John Wooden:

It’s what we learn after we know it all that counts.

Three Powerful Speaker’s Tips

1. Vary your delivery. Don’t lecture for more than 10 minutes. Adults just don’t have that long an attention span (too much on our minds!). Change it up. Use various “alternative delivery methods”–methods to teach rather than lecture. In my Instructor Development course, I help students learn these teaching methods by modeling them so they can observe me teaching. Then, we de-brief on what we did. Finally, each student teaches a short module using creative methods, and the rest of the students provide feedback. (We really only learn when we do something.) Doing greatly increases confidence–and competence.
2. Anticipate adults’ fear barriers to change. When you want to change adults’ perceptions, beliefs, or knowledge, don’t just start talking to them. You may just cause them to shrink more into their beliefs, and to defend it (have you observed students who live to argue with the instructor?)

How to tackle the ‘old belief’ challenge:

Prepare students to learn something new. For example: Use a ‘true-false’ or ‘multiple choice’ to start the presentation, or to check learning. I do this in my IDW course in the middle, and ask students how they would have answered at the beginning of the course–and then contrast that with their new perceptions and learning. It creates lots of ‘ah as’ with them, and further cements their learning experience.

3. YOU are the medium, not the visuals. Don’t just read from the PowerPoint on the screen (and, just as onerous, provide the student with the PowerPoint as the “outline”.) If an instructor does that, I feel I want to just take that outline and leave. I can read, thank you! Too many real estate instructors rely on PowerPoint to do the teaching.

Your Right Brain Can Save the Day

Effective teaching is much more than just talking. It should be creative. Use all the “attention strategies” at your disposal (that means to get them into your repertoire).

Suggestions:

Use props, stories, various audio-visual aids, handouts to control the audience “contour”. I learned this as a musician playing for dancing. You direct how you want the audience to dance, and you ‘contour’ the whole experience (slower to faster, then back to slow). As a great instructor/ facilitator, you can direct your audience in an awesome learning experience. It just depends on the skills you bring to the table.

Check Out These Resources To Help You Gain Skill and Confidence

Very few people seem to be born with innate talent for getting front of people. However, for most of us, it’s a matter of gaining and practicing the necessary skills. Here are some methods to get skilled, and raise your confidence level dramatically:

Join Toastmasters. It’s inexpensive, and will provide you skills and practice.

If you get serious about speaking, look into joining your local chapter and national organization for speaking professionals, National Speakers’ Association. As a long-time member of both my chapter and the national organization, I highly recommend it for both skill and marketing development.

It’s Worth the Effort

Most presenters/trainers aren’t in it for the big bucks (where are those big bucks, again?). They’re in it to assist others. Gaining and practicing presentation skills helps us give back better. The bonus: deep appreciation from our audience. We’ve even been known to change lives for the better! No amount of money can provide that sense of accomplishment.

It’s 2010. Chances are you made some New Year’s Resolutions [last January]. A good question to ask is, “Are you paying attention to what really matters?” To determine what matters most in your life, answer the three following questions:

1. Name the three most memorable events in your life.
2. Name the five most important people in your life.
3. Name three things you wish you had more time to do.
4. Name three people you would like to spend more time with (and include the activity where you would be together.)

Did any of these include work? If you’re like most people, probably not. Unfortunately, our society often portrays being a “workaholic” as something noble—”The market is really tough. I have to 16 hours a day if we’re going to succeed!” “We both have to work—the kids would be stuck in a lousy apartment and a lousy school if we don’t!” “My clients need me—I have to be available when they call.”

If you look back on your past, chances are pretty good that your most precious memories are not of work—they’re of times spent doing special things with those you love or times you’ve taken time for you. So the next time you’re considering missing time with loved ones to stay at work or putting off caring for yourself because work is more important, remember what matters.