Overcoming Past Failures

Realtors can carry a lot of guilt. How do I know? Just ask one how she or he did on their prospecting goal during this past week. Most of us begin to groan as soon as that topic comes up. We all struggle with making enough contacts, getting out our mailers, and investing consistent time on Facebook. Oh yeah, “Why did I wait until May to take the Update Course – Again!!!?

How can we transform these persistent frustrations into productive activities?

Written goals, visual images of rewards, advanced training, and careful calendar work can all contribute to improvement. But let’s take a look at a different activity that the great sales people employ and the under-achievers fear. A missing commitment for many of us is ACCOUNTABILITY.

Accountability probably creates an image of a management stereotype berating you for not making quota this week. Questions that make one sweat and reminders of our inadequacies and shortcomings are not motivational. Who wants to go to that meeting? “Beatings will continue until moral improves.”

There is an alternative. Consider the power of encouragement through an accountability partner. What is healthy accountability?

1. Healthy accountability is chosen: Accountability rarely works when it is compelled. Required accountability often creates creative avoidance. Avoiding my manager, postponing that meeting, and failing to respond to e-mails are common avoidance responses in the real estate office. Elective accountability occurs when we see the value in sharing our goals with another person and giving them permission to question us. Accountability is best initiated by the person who wants to grow and improve. It means acknowledging one’s weak spots and taking the initiative to solve those problems, in part, by working with a partner or coach.

2. It is an exploration: accountability is not granting your business partner permission to ruthlessly criticize you. Accountability often inspires us to complete tasks and meet stretch goals, but inevitably there will be failures. An effective partner will not focus on the failure, but work with you to explore why you chose not to make a goal, hit a deadline, or complete a task. The answers to those “why” questions are often the starting point for a new line of growth in one’s skill set. We don’t need someone to tell us that we failed (that’s pretty easy to identify on our own), but consider the value of someone who helps you analyze your failures so that next week’s performance can be better.

3. It is motivational: good accountability practices will inspire rather than inhibit. Knowing that your boss, mentor, or partner is working with you can be a source of energy to complete the challenging goal of talking with five FSBO’s this week or completing the tenth call this afternoon. Sometimes we need a source outside ourselves in order to experience a breakthrough within ourselves.

4. It is transformational: Many real estate sales people look back over the past six months and realize that they are performing at the same or even lower level of performance as they were six months ago. We can blame the market or proclaim the limitations on our personal circumstances as the reasons why we did not improve. Or we can take responsibility for the results. Why do we tolerate the absence of improvement? With an accountability partner we can experience significant breakthroughs in our sales dialogues, follow up routines, prospecting activities, and ultimately in our income… all of these successes can occur despite the market realities.

Here are some practical steps engage an accountability partner and process:

1. Determine what you want: Outstanding sales people frequently assess their current standing. Am I willing to really work on my problem with getting out the monthly postcard? Do I truly want to get better at my phone script to past clients? Am I willing to share my business struggles with a partner or coach? How will I take charge of the challenge?

2. Lay the groundwork: talk with your manager, pursue someone performing at a higher level in your office, or select a colleague at your own level. Each will bring an important perspective to your process. Explain the role that you would like them to play and determine a process for regular meetings. One of the best characteristics of an accountability partner is that they possess an encouraging nature. Make sure they possess that quality and commit your process to writing.

3. Keep It Simple: one of the most important components for accountability is keeping goals short term and small in scope. Build momentum in the direction of success by creating easy victories in your initial stages. For example, “By next Monday, I want to have twenty-five prospecting postcards in the mail.” Remember the S.M.A.R.T. acronym – specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, timely (think deadline).

Repeated failures in our business practices build mental grooves and barriers to our success. We can break those poor habits and replace them with the routines of success by working with someone to help us see our blind spots, clarify our objectives, and multiply the energy within us to achieve.