This week I'm posting an article that is also included in our upcoming issue of SELLING Magazine. The January 2012 issue promises to be one of our best, with the thoughts, tips and techniques that will help you set your goals and plans for the New Year, the motivation to work towards the goals you've set, and the inspiration to achieve high levels of production.
All of us at the Mike Ferry Organization wish you Happy Holidays and our support on your journey towards success in the year ahead. Make this year the one where your dreams become a reality.
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Seven Common Mistakes and How You Can Avoid Them
by Mike Ferry
There is nothing more exciting than the beginning of a New Year. New goals, new dreams, new aspirations. The problem of course, is making sure that you have a plan to follow and that you follow that plan each day to make those dreams come true. We all know that the majority of people will never achieve the goals that they've set. The reason is simple: they never get started. In addition to not starting, too many people take far too long to begin the process of starting off the New Year on the right foot. What I have for you here is a list of the seven most common challenges people face when planning for the New Year. Let's make sure they don't apply to you.
The Seven Biggest Mistakes Agents Make at the Beginning of a New Year ...
1. "They start the New Year too late." Most do not start till after January 15 and many don't start till as late as January 30. This means the competition has a tremendous head start because the good agents start working on January 2. When do you plan on starting your year?
2. "They start without a good, solid, workable business plan." The business plan, as you know, includes a recap of the previous year, their goals for the year, the numbers required to attain these goals, a sample daily schedule, and a list of the challenges they face including the solutions. Do you have your business plan completed?
3. "They don't follow up quickly enough on all of their leads." In December, most agents generate a tremendous number of leads for the month of January. They will generally lose two to three contracts in January because of a lack of quick and efficient follow-up on all the leads they have. Are you prepared to follow up on your leads?
4. "They don't intensify the amount of prospecting they're going to do." If you are going to kick the year off properly and get your mindset in the right place, you have to start with a 100%committment to how you're going to build your business, and then continue this throughout the course of the year. Are you prepared to start an intense prospecting program on January 2?
5. "They don't commit to a strong daily schedule." At the first of the year you need to be very specific-starting today-as to how many days you are going to work during the first quarter and what you are going to do throughout the course of each day in January, February and March. Are you prepared to commit to a strong daily schedule?
6. "Big mistake ... they don't do a solid critique of the last 12 months." You need to look carefully at your areas of weakness and your areas of strength so you can eliminate the weaknesses and build on those strengths as the New Year begins. If you allow your weaknesses to continue in 2012, you're allowing yourself not to have the kind of success that you want. Are you prepared to address those weaknesses?
7. "They don't source their business from the previous year." By sourcing their business, they look for areas that they can duplicate based on what happened during the previous 12 months to get more business from those same areas in the future months. When you source your business and recognize where it comes from, you quickly realize what you have to do to maintain and build your business. Are you prepared to source your business?
As you can see, each of these challenges is very solvable and each of these problems has a solution: they all revolve around doing something NOW. Let's make sure we do not wait even a day longer to go after the goals and objectives we set. Let's get something accomplished today so this list does not become a problem for us in the long term.
Mike Ferry
CEO - The Mike Ferry Organization
800-448-0647
