Welcome back to the show, i was thinking about what sucks about sales. What sucks about sales is we all love immediacy, we all love, quick cause and effect, and yet the most natural thing in the universe is plant to see the day and months later you have a vegetable garden and what we know about sales is generating a new Prospect a new client building a new relationship today, but it could be three months from now six months from now nine months from now 18 months now, seven years from now before, you actually generate the income from that new relationship, and that sounds horrible. But you know what i'm saying like it's cause and effect it's generate. Convert generate, convert generate, convert.

The challenge is the timing right we generate today, and i i forever talked about 90 day cycles that i would meet some of you today and the question was: is this person a 190 day cycle away from transacting a 290 day cycle away from transacting? Three? Four? Five: six like how far out was this prospect? How far out was this person from being prepared to make a decision? Now you might be asking like all right tom, like i've, been in sales for a long time like what are you thinking about? Well, what's going through my mind, is kind of twofold: first, it's been a frothy last 21 months in the real estate business, more income earned than than certainly i've. Seen in my 31 years of doing this, like more people making a million dollars a year. 100 000. A year hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, i'm looking for my phone here, one of my clients, who's that, like he and his team, small team, 22 million dollars in gross commission income like in absolutely bananas time to be in this business, and i know as I've said it to you before tragedy and triumph over the last 20 months right 21 months.

It's been it's been hard and in the real estate business it's been bonkers right, but here's the question. So so, if it is this simple cause and effect world right plant, a seed today get a veggie garden in 90 days right 120 days. It's you know, making a phone call today and meeting somebody new at an open house or a digital lead or getting a referral whatever. It may be, like be honest with yourself.

How far out is it on average? Is it 190 day cycle? Is it 290 day cycles? Is it three 90 day cycles? I was talking to one of my personal clients, uh big, shout out to dj and lindsay uh down in jacksonville florida. So we know, for example, like with their zillow, leads it's 72 days from the time we meet a client to the time we put them under contract, like that's the average, so that would be a little less than one 90-day cycle as an example. Now the real reason i'm bringing all this up is not to just talk about, like you know, cause and effect and planting seeds and all that stuff. What i really want to ask you is this like if i was sitting down with you one on one right now, i want to know this from you.

Can you tell me who your first 10 sales are in 2022? Did you like that long strategic pause? Can you actually answer the question for me? Can you tell me right now? Can you open up your crm open up your google docs? Look at your leads and say: oh yeah, okay, so i got this couple that said they want to do something early in january. I got this person that wants to buy an investment property in january. I got this person. Can you actually tell me who your first 10 sales are in 2022 and if the answer is no boy, am i glad you're listening and if the answer is yes and you're running a team and you're like i don't know if all my own people know or If you're, just like yeah tom, like just tell me, what do i have to do, the note i wrote down for you is: if i can't open up my crm or open up my google docs and actually know what my future success is like, it should be.

It should be a major warning for you. It should be a major wake-up call because you know, like the end of the year, really means nothing in sales. It's really the end of a tax cycle. If you really think about it like who cares, if it's december, 31st or january 1st or february 1st or april 19th, it doesn't really make a difference.

So, if you're, if you're so busy, trying to close out the year to win an award or close out the year to feel complete about your goal, i get all that but understand this. We live in a game of top of funnel middle. The funnel bottom of the funnel, and if you're not constantly adding more top of the funnel opportunities, nurturing the middle of the funnel opportunities you're not going to have those most immediate opportunities to actually help somebody buy and sell real estate help. Somebody do a loan help.

Somebody do a transaction, so you can get paid. So here's the note. I wrote down again. I really hope you're getting this.

Do you actually know who your first 10 sales are in 2022, so i wrote down for you four things. I'd asked you to consider four things like: if you said i don't really know, or i've got some level of certainty. I don't know about 10 tom, but i know two or three there's four things. I'd ask you to do.

If you were my client, the number one thing i'd say to you is: can you go back through as long as the last two two months or two months, two years, maybe even all the way to the beginning of 2019? Can you pull up for me? How many appointments you went on in the last 10 months, 11 months in the last you know, 20 plus months in the last you know 34 months. Can you pull up and say here's all the appointments. I went on. Here's all the buyer consultations.

I went on. Here's all the showing appointments. I went on right with a client right. Maybe you didn't do a buyer consultation? Here's the listing appointments, i ran, but these are all the appointments that i didn't convert.

These are all the people that either chose somebody else, or they chose not to take action. They're that buyer that's sitting on the fence. It's those people and what i wrote down is: what are you going to do to activate them? See the the first first most important thing is: take the people you've already connected with that already have a level of no like and trust with you and ask yourself what could i do to reactivate these people? And maybe it's because i'm prepping for my chris vos interview coming up next week on my podcast or the following week: um, you know, if you don't know who chris voss is you should absolutely google him today or pick up his book, never split the difference. This would be the second time i've had him on my podcast, and i was i was just reflecting on some of the the work we did in our first podcast and his book and one of the things i love is, he says you know so many salespeople Are always trying to get the? Yes? Yes, yes, the yes, that closed the 21 yeses.

You know blah blah blah and he says i like the opposite approach. I actually want the definitive. No, i want the hard no and he said people don't expect the no. They expect the yes, they know they're being sold in that moment.

So in honor of chris voss i wrote down if i was going to re-activate a bunch of people that i had booked appointments with met with, they decided not to do anything. Lease buy, invest whatever it may be. What's a good no question, i could ask them to reactivate them, so the the no question i wrote down you may want to jot it down is hey. Are you guys out of the real estate market for 2022? Are you guys out of the real estate market for 2022? No! No! Yes! We, yes, we're out, like we've decided to definitively we're passing.

No we're not right! You could just literally put that in an email subject line you could literally send that person in a video text, ian tom ferry following up haven't, talked to you in several months. Just wanted to ask you as i'm preparing for you know. 2022. Are you guys out of the real estate market for 2022? Just do me a favor.

We just text me yes or no, yes, or no, and you know what i love it. No we're definitely like we're still looking we're frustrated. We feel like we've missed and just like that you've reactivated some opportunities that just might be one of your sales right, your first 10 transactions in 2022.. Does that make sense? So that's the first thing.

The second thing i wrote down is you should go back and review all of your lead sources right all the different like. So when i say lead sources you you immediately say my database remember your database is really it's like six different cohorts right. It's your sphere who hasn't transacted with you that could refer you or do a deal. It's your past clients who have transacted with you, but maybe haven't referred you in a while or maybe they could do a deal.

That's like four right there. It's your age and agent relationships, and it's just those people you have in your database. You have no idea who larry is three one. Oh five, five, five, one, two one, two right: it's all those people your database, another one, could be open houses which yes, open houses, are back and more and more people are doing it, but it feels almost normal and i love it.

It could be hey. I've been running these digital ads. I could obviously doing facebook ads. I was doing google, my you know: google local services ads all these different sources.

These ways that you were putting yourself out there to say hey, i'm here, to serve i'm here to make a difference. I'm here to help solve your problems, all those different sources. The note i have is review your sources and get honest about. Where did the vast majority of transactions come from over the last you know 20-21 months and then stop and ask yourself: if that's the low-hanging fruit, what can i do to engage with them again? What can i do to to tap them on the shoulder to remind them that i'm here and to remind them that, if they are someone they know, is interested in doing something like i'm your gal, i'm your guy, you know it reminds me of.

We were talking about sort of off camera before we shot. This podcast was uh the great chuck daley. So so a lot of people remember chuck daley from the dream team. He was the coach with like michael jordan, larry bird and magic johnson and, like that extraordinary cast of characters, but prior to that he was the coach of the detroit pistons.

The bad boys right specifically like joe dumars and like that, like dennis rodman, like that crew and i was super lucky to uh - to have lunch with him one day. He spoke at one of our conferences, and i remember like turning to him and just kind of saying, like you know like when you were coaching the bad boys, it was pretty obvious, like defensively, you guys were gon na, be the toughest crew in town like and Back then, any old nba fans - you know what i'm talking about like you know, punching people was normal scratching people was normal, like fights and all that kind of stuff, certainly not the modern day mba with these players that are making 50 million bucks, like don't even Touch me right, but back then it was pretty obvious, but what i didn't understand and i've always loved the game was: how did you get this crew to be so effective offensively and he was like tom was real simple. He said when i, when i took over the team they already had the defensive prowess like that, was obvious right. They had the that just internal drive to be dominant on that end, um.

What i did - and this was documented later in a book you put out - which was basically i walked up to every one of the guys and said: what's your automatic shot now, that's a question. You should write down. What's my automatic shot like if i had to get a piece of business, what do you do? What's the play you run that would generate an appointment, a hotter lead, an opportunity for you. What's the thing that you do that you know works right, so he said i just asked all the guys like all right.

Here's what i want you to do. Here's some blue tape - and i want you to put it on the location where you are most comfortable. Think about this hand like, where are you most comfortable to make the shot so, like john sally had to be just like under the basket right, like you know, joe dumars could be like you know, hit it from the three or from the elbow right, like everybody. Had like their shot - and he said my job as a coach - is to try and facilitate getting you the ball in your shot and if you get it and you're in your spot, make the damn shot.

So what am i saying do here? I started by asking you: do you understand the cause and effect of our business? The plant seeds a day get paid in the future and i know you do and you're like. But why are you reminding me now because it's almost the end of the year and a whole lot of people are going to be stopping doing what we know works and if you can't answer the question: where are my first 10 transactions coming from in 2022, like The grim reaper is already standing above you with that scythe. What have we said? What's called brian scythe? Am i saying that right and i could just picture like you know the bleak black you know cave ho. Well, that sounds like job of the hut, but you know what i'm saying like like literally standing over you like you're, going to die salesperson because you're, not filling your pipeline, you don't know who your first 10 transactions are, and just like that, like rest in peace, You're dead, that's why i'm bringing this up so the first one who did i go on an appointment with that didn't convert? How do i reactivate them? Get them to say? No, i'm still in the market.

Great, let's meet number two. What lead sources worked. Is it open houses? Was it referrals? Was it you know agent to agent referrals was it, you know you going out in your community? Was it doing drop bys to friends and family? Was it calling past clients and sphere? Was it circle dialing? I don't care what it was you better know. What plays you run that work, because you need to start doing them again right now, right now, as we said here in november december, whenever you're listening to this, that's number, two, it's finding your automatic shot and then running that play over and over again the number Three is obvious, like what marketing generated the most results for you like what was the video that you shot that really like caught people's attention.

Like think about that, what was the the the letter that you sent? I was talking to my client, maxine gallons the other day and on a coaching session. Maxine is 83.6 years old. That's what she told me: i'm 83.6 she's at 6.4 million dollars in gross commission income - 290 million dollars. I don't want to misquote that closed and pending having just a banner, unbelievable unbelievable year, her and her daughter and the whole team.

Everybody listening that, if you're on the team, you know kate mark like all of them, just killing it amy everybody and yet what's interesting, is we're talking about what was the sort of what was the tipping point moment of this transaction that got you a listing that You double ended, but the person that bought it needed to sell their house and you double ended and the person that bought that you double in it again. It was like six in a row and they were all north of 10 million dollars like this is a lot of volume and she's like well. I sent that letter right to the street with this offer and i think to myself, even as her coach, i wanted to punch myself in the face i'm like well. When was the last time we sent that letter.

Oh, we haven't sent that letter in a while. I'm like firing myself as the coach all right. We need to send that letter again right maxine if you're listening, i'm just reminding you. We need to send that letter again.

My point to you is this: if you don't know who your first 10 sales are and you're, not reactivating people you've already met with that said, maybe not at this time, if you're not looking at the lead sources that have worked for you right, i don't care What it is i i light and do smoke signals right, like whatever it is. Whatever worked, you better be doing a lot of it right now. The third part is what marketing worked. What was the video that really caught fire? What was the letter that you sent? What was the phone call that you make? What was the one-on-one individual scaled text messages? The videos that you sent that activated people to say yes to you, we got to get back to that and then the third thing i wrote down or the four things excuse me is: if right now, you're well, i don't care when you're listening, if you're in The u.s, maybe it's like the week of thanksgiving or it's the week after thanksgiving, if you're, my friends in canada, it's just the last week in november, it's the first week of december, whatever, whenever you're listening to this understand this, if you don't have time in your Schedule that says appointment setting time that says, lead nurturing time that says, follow up that says, prospecting that says something that you're now doing the activity.

You're now doing the work, shooting the videos making the phone call sending the emails doing the text message doing all that stuff everything you you know if it's not in your schedule again, it is like the grim reaper is just standing above. You saying come to me because you're dead, like the business, is over i've already shared with you. The numbers nationally 40 of all agents in the us have not closed the transaction in the last 12 months and the top 25 percent are doing 73.5 percent of all the volume and therefore all the commission. I wonder if those men and women in those teams have a pretty good idea of who their next 10 sales are.

The answer is, of course, they do. Of course they do. I think about so many of my personal clients and so many of our coaching clients around the world that you're listening this you're, like yes, my coach and i we we talk about this every week. It's something that we, if we discuss it once a month, we we go to the white board and we're like okay, i got ta fall upon ian.

I got ta fall upon brian. I got ta follow up with tom and kathy like it's, it's so normal for them, and then you wonder why they succeed at the level they do see. They understand, keep planting, keep planting, keep planting seeds, seed, seed seed seed and then three months later, six months later, nine months later, one 90-day cycle, two 90-day cycles. Three 90-day cycles: flowers, buds vegetables.

You know transactions, money results like that's the way it works. So i want to just send you this message as a friendly reminder that if you don't know who your first 10 sales are in 2022 there's four actions you can take and or you can just take no action and just know the grim reaper is smiling because The real estate business or the sales business that you're in you're already dead, my friend and i don't say that in with any other intention than to wake your ass up and say get to work, have an awesome day. Thanks for listening to the show you.