As a broker and office manage, I often find myself in the position of having to answer the question “How do I become a successful real estate agent?’

Over the years my answer has changed.  But these days I believe there are five steps to mastering real estate as a career.

Over the next five weeks I will expand on each step in the hopes that, if you have that question, you will find the answers in my posts.

But, for now, here are the five things that you HAVE to master to ensure success. Each of them is important, but I have listed them in the order that I think they they belong.  In other words, master step one before moving on to step two, and so on.

First, you HAVE to have a prospecting plan in place.  You have to prospect every day that you work and your plan has to produce results.  You also need another prospecting method as well as the main one.  Here is why, if you get too busy to prospect actively, you need a prospecting method that works when you can’t. You need at least two methods of prospecting.  The active method and the passive method.  Next week I’ll give you some examples.  For now, just know, that if you have no one to to work with, you can’t make any money.

Second, you have to have a plan to stay in touch with everyone that you know.  Many people will tell you that you need to know a lot of people in order to be successful, while there is some truth to that, I believe that it is more important to have a lot of people who know you and what you do,  In order to get to that position, you need to stay in touch.  Regularly and meaningfully. Two weeks from now I’ll give you some ideas.

Third, you need a killer listing presentation.  Your prospecting will turn up people who want to sell their homes.  You need to be prepared for that.  Your presentation needs to be on paper, on your phone, on your iPad, on your computer and on your website as you don’t know how your latest home seller want to see it!  And, you need to have practiced this so many times that it becomes second nature.  More on this in three weeks.

Fourth, as you get busy finding new listing and buyer opportunities some of them will sell.  Now you’ve got listings to manage, homes to show, contracts to write and escrows to manage!  How are you going to deal with all of the demands on your time?  This is where time management comes into play.  Four weeks from now we’ll cover that.

Fifth, you must learn something new every day.  Take courses at your local association.  Get your GRI, SRES, CRS and ABR designations/certifications.  Do you REALLY know all there is to know about your MLS software?  On your phone too?  How about zipForms?  Are you up to speed on your electronic signature platform?  What about your Transaction Management platform?  If your broker supplies you with a suite of tools do you know how to use them?  This business is constantly evolving and you need to evolve to keep up!  Five weeks from now we’ll wrap this up with ideas on how to stay current with all that you need to know.

So there you have it.  The answer to the question on how to be successful in real estate sales.  If you randomly received this, and you want to be sure to get the next five installments, be sure to sign up for the newsletter!