Ready? by Master Trainer and Author Mike Pallin

We finally have the Super Bowl behind us. Finally. Can we please get 2014 started now?

Did you wake up this week and realize it's already February? Then you probably won't like this article one bit. But I think you need to read it anyway.

Do I sound cranky? It's only because I want to help you avoid feeling disappointed and demoralized at the end of the year.

Look at January. How many listing appointments did you actually go on in January? No fudging, no excuses, no yeah-but's. How many?

Is it at least 1/12th of the total number of listing appointments you need to go on to hit your goal this year? Are you 8 1/3% of the way? Ahead? Behind? Right on?

In other words, are you already off track?

Yeah, but the weather . . .

Yeah, but that flu that was going around . . .

Yeah, but my spouse . . . my kids . . . my parents . . . my family . . .

Yeah, but the Central Bank of China . . .

If you're looking for an excuse, anything will do. Let's look instead at January. Really look at it.

There will be weather all year. There will be colds and flu all year. There will be family all year. But there will only be one January this year.

Maybe an example would be helpful, OK? (There's math involved, so take a deep breath first.)

In December I decided my income goal for 2014 has to be $120,000. I arrived at my income goal by adding up my expenses, cost of doing business, taxes, retirement, savings, profit and fun.

I divided my income goal by my average commission of $4000 to get 30 closings needed to hit my income goal.

Of the 30 closings, 60% (18) are sold listings and 40% (12) are buyer sales. (That's a typical ratio for a Wickmanized listing agent.)

To get 18 sold listings I need to get 24 listings. (3 out of 4 of my listings sell.)

To get 24 listings I need to go on 72 listing appointments. (I get one listing out of every three listing appointments.)

72 listing appointments divided by 12 months is 6. That's 6 listing appointments per month.

And in January I only managed to go on 2 listing appointments. Whoops!

That means in February I need to go on 10 to get back on track by the end of February.

Or I could get back on track by the end of March by going on 8 in February and 8 in March. That's only 2 per week. That's doable.

If you are only a little bit behind, it only takes a little bit of extra time and effort to catch up.

What happens to most people when they get WAY behind? They stop even trying to catch up, and just give up. It's hopeless.

So, before you get WAY behind, look at January. Where are you?

If you are on track, keep it up. If you are a little bit off track, step it up.

If you are WAY behind, it's time to change it up. Stop doing what you've been doing and recommit to doing what you need to do to go on listing appointments.

And finally, if you are not even keeping track, get off the track because there's a train coming.

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