Are you following me on Instagram @TomFerry?

Because I really love answering people’s questions on my IG Stories.

For today’s #TomFerryShow, I grabbed a bunch of really great, important questions… and am sharing my answers with you!

Watch the full episode for all my advice on juicy topics like:

  • How to get “un-stuck” from a professional plateau
  • What advice I’d give myself if I could do it all over again
  • Determining the right approach to goal setting
  • Re-starting your career in a new location
  • What to do when you know you’re not fulfilling your true potential
  • How to avoid burnout

I’ll highlight three of the questions and answers below in the blog.

Question 1: How to “Un-stick” a Successful Business that’s Stuck on a Plateau?

The first question was from a single agent operating only with an Executive Assistant and a Transaction Coordinator, who is stuck at 40-50 deals a year and wants to ramp things up.

My advice?

It’s time to hire your first sales associate.

When you’re the only one handling the interaction with clients, things get tough quickly. Bringing on another person will help you handle all those leads and opportunities coming in and get more deals done.

With a “junior” agent in place, you can delegate time-consuming tasks that aren’t part of your HBUT (highest and best use of your time), and focus your personal efforts on tasks such as booking appointments, going on appointments and negotiating contracts.

Or… If you don’t want to bring on an additional team member, then it’s time to maximize efficiency in your business and streamline the process in an effort to maximize profits. Then you can use those profits to put an emphasis on growing your own investment portfolio. Your business can remain lean and mean while your bank account keeps getting fatter.

Question 2: Struggling to Get Traction in Real Estate

This next question came from someone who was great in their last career but wasn’t making any money, so they transitioned to real estate and just can’t gain any confidence or momentum. What to do?

This has to sound very familiar to lots of new real estate agents.

Before I get to the tactical answers, let me remind you: They say it takes 10,000 hours to mastery… of any skill! So realize this… You’re new. This is expected. It’s a process. Cut yourself some slack, and then get into massive action with these five tips:

  1. Know Your Market – Nothing is more important for a new real estate professional than truly knowing and understanding the market that you serve. Dig in, study the hot sheets daily, identify trends, talk to veteran agents, talk to fellow newbies, talk to everyone to develop a deep knowledge base from which you can inform and educate your clientele.
  2. Learn the Contracts – There’s nothing exciting about studying contracts to ensure you know them like the back of your hand. But the more you do it, the more confidence you’ll build and the better you can serve your customers. Capitalize on the “down time” you have here in your early days in the industry to learn the contracts and become an expert resource.
  3. Embrace the Difficult Lead Sources – If you let them, veteran agents will dissuade you from pursuing For Sale By Owners and Expireds. DON’T listen to them. These notoriously “difficult” clients can provide a great training ground for you. The more you can talk to them, understand their perspective, embrace their emotions and figure out their motivations, the better you’ll be able to serve people moving forward. And if you ask these questions with empathy, care and compassion, you might just find you’ll convert some of them into clients. (Even if you don’t, do it anyway simply for the learning experience!)
  4. Do 20 Open Houses a Month –Put out tons of signs, drive traffic and you’ll create lots of interaction with real-world buyers. This is your chance to connect with people and ask them “What brings you out looking at houses today?” You’ll learn so much just from listening to what people have to say. Holding Open Houses also gives you an opportunity to knock on doors in the community and building connections with homeowners. If you don’t have any listings to hold Open, ask someone in your office if you can hold an Open House with their listing.
  5. Buy Online Leads – Build digital rapport and solve people’s problems. Employ speed to lead, impress people and get out there and meet them face to face.