Weekend Sales Tips
Become a Student of Change
As the world becomes more and more interconnected, events outside your particular real estate industry and your career have an inevitable impact on your business, your family and, ultimately, your pocketbook. Whatever your daily routine, it takes place in a larger context of constant social, technological, political, economic and cultural change. To be successful today, you must understand that world. Without that understanding, you won’t be prepared to innovate; you’ll only be able to react and to attempt to avoid whatever pitfalls come your way.
Some people will tell you, as hard as this is to image, that it doesn’t matter how well-informed you are. "You can’t do anything about it anyway," goes the refrain, "so why bother to find out about things?" Here’s a newspaper editorial I found that sums up this amazing and unfortunate attitude:
"The world is too big for us. Too much going on, too much crime, violence and change. Try as you will, you get behind in the race. It’s an incessant strain to keep pace, and still you lose ground. Science empties its discoveries on you so fast that you stagger beneath them in hopeless bewilderment. Everything in business and life is high pressure. Human nature can’t endure much more!"
This newspaper editorial seems so topical and reads as if it were written just last week, doesn’t it? But it actually appeared nearly 175 years ago on June 16, 1833 -- that’s back in the “good old days” -- in The Atlantic Journal!
How can you avoid becoming a casualty of these "bad new days?" Most important, take the offensive. Instead of "stewing," start "doing." Pay attention to the early warning signs of change all around you. Look for changes in the real estate industry, your family life and those occurring in your specific region of the country. You cannot innovate if your understanding of change is misinformed, incomplete or simply outdated.
Success in the new era is heavily dependent upon innovation, creativity and solving problems for which there are few or no precedents. While new technology is often the driver of economic and social change, the real opportunities are created by individuals who apply technology in new and unheard of ways. Fred Smith, operating outside of the airline industry, created Federal Express because he saw the trend of greater speed in delivery of goods and services.
Your success depends on how well you think, how well you confront challenges. You are not paid to collect, sort, store or retrieve information, although you do these things every day. You are paid to interpret that information and create and implement new ideas that will solve problems and create new opportunities for you.
Therefore, ask yourself:
* What can I offer that "they" aren’t offering? Where’s the niche that hasn’t yet been developed – and how can I work it? To become even more competitive, how can I add value to the service or products I already promote?
* Where is there market inefficiency? What would make this process more convenient? How can I do this less expensively and, yet, better?
* What would people pay for that isn’t available now? Which consumer groups and Internet communities are the most likely prospects who want what I provide? What trends will change my and their assumptions about the quality of life?
Breakthrough ideas often occur when you are calmly searching for opportunities. They rarely occur when you are anxious and frustrated. So, close your eyes and dream!
By: Denis Waitley, www.deniswaitley.com
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The Daily Communicator