Success in Q4 Begins with a Solid Plan Now

As kids, many of us likely felt September was more of a fresh beginning than the January New Year. The start of the school year meant new clothes, school supplies, promotion to a higher grade and more opportunities. As a real estate professional, September should still create that same type of sensation as you plan for success by reviewing your fourth quarter business plan.

Realtor 4th Quarter Planning

Pull out the business plan you began the year with.  Assess how you’ve stuck to it, and make the adjustments needed to close out your year with success.

1. Review your past nine months. As you review your annual plan, go over the goals you listed in January. If you’ve not met them, now is the time to reset your intention with specific and achievable goals for the final 90 days of the year. Be realistic about whether you can have success in meeting your financial targets. If you’ve stuck to your game plan, you may just need to stay the course.
2. Get granula Should you be running behind your intended aims, you must create a granular blueprint for getting out of your rut. This means being as detailed as plotting goals for every week Oct. 1-Dec. 31. You may plan to make a list of prospects on Week 1 and narrow your focus until you are closing transactions the last two weeks of the year.  Remember to consider how the holidays affect scheduling.
3. Prioritize. The clock is ticking so start by calling your best referrals and clients first. A no-brainer? It should be. Organize your list, start at the top, and work your way down. This means looking back to your summer prospects to see who was 90-120 days from deciding and revisiting them.
4. Practice accountability. An accountability partner is always beneficial and if you don’t have one, waste no more time.  No matter how ambitious you may have been at the outset of the year, even the best of us can be pulled off track. An accountability partner will help us stay focused and support our success. If you are working with a colleague with whom you aren’t clicking, don’t be afraid to make a change that will benefit you both.
5. Condition yourself. Take care of yourself. The latter part of the year is typically the most hectic, fraught with multiple holidays, family occasions and parties. While festive, these can also be stressful, so continue to practice a healthy lifestyle.

Don’t underestimate the importance of a strong fourth quarter: Not only will you meet the goals you set for yourself at the start of 2019, but a solid finish sets you up to begin 2020 at the top of your game.

You can find more about success in this earlier post.

Doug Spak

Doug Spak has over four decades of experience as an advertising copywriter, agency creative director, blogger, and content creator. He joined Vulcan7 as a Content Specialist in 2016. In addition to ongoing website copy refreshes, Doug has produced over 300 blog posts while developing content for Vulcan7’s social media platforms.