The numbers are what they are!
Numbers can be funny things to deal with, but regardless of what you think, you do need to pay attention to them as well as look into the logic they share. I bring this up in wake of those that are telling me that more and more of their real estate agents and coworkers are taking part time jobs because business has slowed down. While you can’t paint with a broad brush when talking about our industry because so much is hyper-local, we should just ask a few questions about some of the reasons behind these actions, and if the path taken makes any sense.
- How much is the total business off in your market, and is your loss of business proportional to that decline?
- Since we are largely a commission-based business, it is fair to say that while unit volumes may be down, transactional values are higher, so the loss isn’t as significant?
- What is the real value of taking a $15 - $20 an hour part time job when those hours could be used to generate higher value opportunities?
- With people leaving both mortgage and real estate, aren’t those that are remaining, there to do the business left behind?
When the low hanging fruit is gone, it’s time to climb the tree! Those that won’t climb the tree will have to go hungry!
I have a team that was facing a really weak fourth quarter. Many had excuses as to why the business wasn’t flowing and pointed to all sorts of reasons as to why, but none of those reasons were that they weren’t doing more to resolve the issue. I challenged them to make more calls, to present new strategies, share potential opportunities, and force themselves to see the possibilities of what could be. In four short weeks of specific effort, what looked to be disaster of a December, will become the fifth best month of the year, more than tripling the projected close dollar volume of business, and setting up the first quarter of 2024!
Sometimes you must know the numbers and then do the hard work to make them work for you and your business! As always, questions or comments: [email protected]
