In the fast-paced world of real estate, productivity is the key to success. Real estate agents need to juggle many tasks and duties, from marketing properties to managing contracts, and the ability to get things done efficiently is vital for closing deals and making sales. Fortunately, there are steps that real estate agents can take to increase their productivity and maximize their efficiency. In this blog, we'll explore 7 proven strategies real estate agents can use to streamline their workflow, stay organized, and supercharge their productivity. If you're a real estate agent looking to take your performance to the next level, this blog is for you!

Motivation for Real Estate Agents

It seems that when we are selling real estate, there are always a million things going on and the to-do list never ends. Our days are filled with stress because there is no 9-5. There are so many things that need to be accomplished. When those things are done, we need to then repeat them. Prospecting, data entry, showing properties, CMAs, negotiating, emailing, calling, football magnets, baseball magnets, and holiday cards. It never ends…

There are some things that you can do to help you remove stress from your day, gain more time, and stay motivated. Leveraging time is so important, because it removes or reduces certain tasks and helps you stay focused on the high-yielding activities that keep money coming in. Some of these suggestions may seem rudimentary, but you should never stray from the basics. Since so much of what real estate agents do is an ongoing, repetitive process, it makes sense to identify new skills and modern software solutions that you can utilize to improve productivity.

Is Motivation Absolutely Essential For Your Success?

Motivation is certainly an important factor that can help you achieve success, but it is not absolutely essential. Success can also be achieved through other means, such as discipline, determination, hard work, and consistency.

Motivation is often seen as the fuel that drives people towards their goals. It is the spark that ignites the fire of passion, enthusiasm, and energy that propels them forward. Motivation can help you stay focused, overcome obstacles, and maintain a positive attitude even in the face of adversity.

However, motivation is not always present, and it can be difficult to sustain over the long term. It is not uncommon to experience periods of low motivation or even a complete lack of motivation, especially when faced with setbacks, failures, or other challenges.

In such cases, discipline, determination, and hard work become even more important. These qualities enable you to stick to your goals, even when you don't feel like it, and to keep moving forward, despite the obstacles in your path.

Continuous Improvement

In order to have higher productivity, the individual agent's performance must continually be reviewed and tracked. This can be everything in the production process, such as marketing tasks. Consider whether there are any tools or technology you can use, and make sure the ones you're already using are being utilized to their full capacity.

Top performers check these things at regular intervals to stay ahead of the competition. By doing this, you can identify areas that need improvement, create a course of action, improve efficiency, and provide the required resources to support your business.

High performers understand that you must schedule training sessions for your real estate business as well. We are moving so quickly that every day there seems to be a piece of technology or equipment, a new software, AI or tool that is brought to market. In order to keep an advantage over your competition, you must stay relevant, put in the hard work, and increase efficiency.

Another thing often not talked about when keeping the real estate agent or team motivated is physical health. It's very common for real estate agents to neglect their health as they work hard to build a new business. With so many lunches and learns, client meals, and fast food on the go, many agents experience what Johnny Mo calls "The New Agent 20." The 20 represents the newly found pounds. Yes, many agents experience this, and eventually, it will take a toll on your quality of life, and the quality you provide.

When you feel good, your performance goes up. When you don't, it goes down. Staying motivated starts with you. Below is a quick list of ideas to stay healthy while you grow your company.

Maintain A Healthy Routine

Sleep

Everything starts with getting enough sleep. Trust me, nobody needs to stay so busy or stressed that they lack sleep. This is the most important thing that you have 100% control over.

Water

Lack of water is one of the leading causes of just about everything that decreases efficiency. The cost of downtime due to being sluggish from lack of water is avoidable and should be taken seriously.

Walk

Another thing that is 100% in your control is to get out and go for a walk for 30 minutes. Just this simple thing will have a big impact on your mindset and overall effectiveness. If you can't get a walk in during the morning or evening, you drive by plenty of schools, locate one that is close that has a track and go for 4 laps. Leave your phone in the car and just listen to the birds, look at the clouds and trees, and unplug for 20-30 minutes.

Those three things will help you to stay positive and healthy, and they cost $0.

How to Increase Production Efficiency for Real Estate Agents

The next list is the main focus of this article: 7 Steps to Increase Productivity. This list is a collection of time and experience, plus talking with team leaders, coaches, and operators. Following these steps can help you bring clarity to your business and will help you keep agents motivated.

1. Make a To-Do List

Every evening (or first thing in the morning), make a to-do list. Move all the high-yield activities (activities that generate income) to the top. Throughout the day, focus on those highest-yielding activities, and move your way down the list from there. This is done daily.

I would suggest doing this in Trello. You can create several boards, and I encourage you to do so. It allows you to do a brain dump and categorize your many tasks and projects. It also allows you to track your progress and collaborate with team members. Implementing this new skill will have you improving the processes you have in place now, increasing efficiency and determining what resources are needed.

Have a board for personal goals, business goals, daily, weekly, and monthly rhythms, along with the never-ending to-do list of the busy real estate agent.

2. Review Expenses and ROI

Make a complete list of everything you're making and spending. Remove any expense that is not needed or that does not give you a good ROI. Keeping money is as important as making it.

An example of this can be seen in a story that I heard from a friend. He spent thousands on a direct mail campaign but had not received any results after several months. Instead of continuing to pour money into something that was not providing any returns, he decided to scrap the campaign and focus on other initiatives that were giving him a positive ROI. By doing so, he was able to gain greater productivity and achieve better results.

Ultimately, managing your finances and ROI is a crucial part of productivity. By taking the time to review your expenses and investments, you can identify areas you can improve on and make the necessary changes to drive success.

3. Know Your Numbers

Having a grasp on your numbers is so important. Numbers are the GPS to your success. You must make time to look at the numbers to determine whether you are on the right track, or perhaps need to make some changes. But to ignore them will lead you to failure and burnout. These numbers should include appointments, sales, contacts, and pending sales.

4. Time to Grow

You must set some time aside to learn to grow. I prefer first thing in the morning for this. But if you eat lunch, you can set up a video or webinar and eat while you learn. You must also take some time to think and reflect on everything. By doing so it will show you if you are on the right track or not. Increase your knowledge to increase everything else, personally and professionally. This also includes working out in some form. This gives you the energy that you need to dominate all day long.

5. Remove Negative People and Time Suckers

This is so important because negativity can drain you. Whether personal or business, these kinds of people are everywhere. I remember one kid in the office, full of ambition, who always wanted to talk and chit-chat. I would walk right by and say good morning, and he would follow me talking about all sorts of nonsense. I would reach my office and say, Hey I am really busy and need to get ready for a meeting, it was good to catch up. That happened a few times until he got the hint.

Removing negative people and time suckers from your life can open up space for positive influences. Surround yourself with people who encourage and support you, and who will help you achieve your goals.

By removing negative people and time suckers from your life, you can increase your productivity, improve your relationships, and increase your overall happiness. Remember that it is important to set boundaries, stay focused on your goals, and surround yourself with positive influences.

6. Follow Up

I cannot say this enough.. The Money Is In The Follow-Up. Look at your follow-up and pipeline every single day. Did you do everything possible to bring any of this to an appointment or sale?

Real estate motivation is as simple as having a passion for the business. The right skills can be taught, and showing the agent how to make money with quality training is easy. It does not matter the amount of leads you have if you're not following up.

We have worked with agents and teams across the country and I can promise you that the ones who are engaged in consistent lead generation and follow-up have a higher production than those who don't. No amount of technology will replace the money you can make by simply following up with the leads you have and your sphere.

7. Document Your Vision

I saved the best for last. If you truly want to become more productive you need to have your vision documented in several ways and look at it daily, even just for 30 seconds. Keeping it top of mind is so important, and it's also a secret to the Law of Attraction. It needs to be in a document and clearly defined. I am going to share two ideas that are powerful and will help you to formulate this vision.

First, create a vision board. Traditionally you would cut out pictures from a magazine and paste them on a poster board. However, I live in the digital world and do not have any magazines. But I do have Canva and Google. Google the exact thing you desire, whatever it is. Then upload to Canva and make your board. Send it off to be printed as an 18x24 glossy poster. Mine also had check marks. Watch this video to see how I did it.

Second, create a Mind Map. This is a process I learned many years ago when I saw Walt Disney’s Mind Map. I fell in love with the process! Mind Mapping allows you to do a brain dump on an idea. You connect ideas, steps, and stages, and before you know it, you have an entire vision on a page that is logical and makes sense. This helps when building automation and process flows too because it allows you to see the choke points.

We use MindMup almost every day to review, update and understand certain things, and determine the process flow.

There ya have it... 7 steps to increase productivity. I hope you enjoyed it.

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Til next time,

Johnny Mo