How to Create a Powerful Pre-Prospecting Routine

INTRODUCTION

The importance of routine

Top-producing real estate agents embrace the importance of a pre-prospecting routine. Of course, the foundation of this routine is  a commitment to lead generation every morning without fail. These high-production agents believe that honoring their daily prospecting schedule is the best, most proven way to keep their pipeline full.

Maintaining a daily routine is essential because it provides structure and consistency in your life, which can lead to improved mental and physical health, better time management, reduced stress, enhanced focus, and a greater sense of control over your day, allowing you to prioritize important tasks and activities while minimizing decision fatigue; essentially, a routine helps you live a more balanced and productive.

In today’s post, we will provide important tips on building a pre-prospecting routine that can set you up for lead generation success ever day.

REAL ESTATE AGENT DAILY ROUTINE

Strategies for success before 8 AM

Are you one of those agents who always say: “I am not a morning person?” Do you “burn the candle” at both ends and constantly find yourself dragging throughout most of the day? Do you find it hard to focus on essential tasks, especially in the afternoon? Do you pound that snooze button every morning to squeeze out a few more minutes of shut-eye?

Most people answer yes to one or more (or maybe all) of these questions.  Surely you’ve heard the 17^th-century English proverb: “The early bird catches the worm.” The author of this proverb knew a thing or two about the link between early preparation and success.

If you are not a morning person today, you should re-calibrate your lifestyle to become one.  There is extensive research on the value of creating an early morning routine.  Much of the research indicates that your first waking 2-3 hours can be the most productive of your day.

If you don’t currently have a morning strategy, here are TEN steps you can take today that will transform your business and your life:

1. Start your mornings the night before. Your cognitive capacity fades as bedtime approaches, so you might be kidding yourself about the quality of the work you think you’re producing.  Get into the habit of crawling into bed early. Before you do, create your to-do list for the next day. Be prepared when you wake up.  And NO electronics in bed; they can disrupt your sleep waves. Oh, and NO reading work documents or reports. Shut work down at least three hours prior to getting to bed.
2. Don’t hit the snooze button. The snooze button is not your friend. Avoid it at all costs. We become used to the extra 3-5 minute reprieve from starting our day. But you will benefit much more by forcing yourself to jump out of bed, splash some water on your face, and start focusing on the day ahead.
3. Create a morning ritual. We are creatures of habit. Develop simple rituals for your initial awake hours.  Drink at least 16 ounces of water to counteract your natural morning dehydration. Take a few minutes to sit quietly in meditation or prayer or whatever works for you to quiet your mind and center you. Perhaps you can take a few minutes to read something spiritual or uplifting to center and quiet the mind.
4. Get in a workout. Morning exercise has been shown to increase energy and production for the day. But you may not be the kind of person who can get to the gym so early. If that’s the case, a few pushups, sit-ups, and dips can pump your blood and move you into the rest of the day. Our post, THE BENEFITS OF AN EARLY MORNING WORKOUT, has a lot of excellent tips to get you started… and sweaty!
5. Get admin out of the way. Once you’ve completed your morning ritual, review your to-do list from the night before and handle your initial email work.  Research by YesWire shows that 45% of emails sent between 6-7AM and around 8AM elicit a response.  You don’t need too much time on email, just enough to share important information.
6. Organize your work area: Study after study confirms that a cluttered workspace restricts your brain’s capacity to focus and process information. A messy desk can be distracting and produce guilt, shame, and anger.
7. Eliminate distractions during prospecting time: Once you’ve recommitted to prospecting as your path to success, ensure you have a Do Not Disturb sign on your office door during prospecting hours. Turn off your computer, turn off your phone and get to it.
8. Be clear on your commitment: The facts are irrefutable-top performing real estate agents are committed to active, and daily, prospecting. It might help your clarity to have a dream board near your un-cluttered desk as a reminder of what’s important to you. And time to review your short, and long-term business plan.
9. Set your mind on progress, not perfection: It’s easy to get discouraged and feel overwhelmed if you fall short of your goals. Set your focus on making small gains each day, and build from there. Embrace failure as part of your journey to success.
10. Fire-up Vulcan7. The next and most crucial part of your pre-prospecting routine is to sit at your desktop and log onto your Vulcan7 account. Vulcan7 delivers the BEST REAL ESTATE LEADS in the business to your desktop every morning, including expireds, FSBOs, FRBOs and pre-foreclosure leads.

DAILY ROUTINE FOR REAL ESTATE AGENTS

Partner-up!

One of the things that top-producing agents often add to their pre-prospecting routine is collaboration with other agents. This collaboration can include:

Working with an accountability partner

If we’re being honest, it’s not always easy to hold ourselves accountable. That’s why there is value in having a partner with whom you mutually agree to coach and provide feedback regularly. Our post on CHOOSING AN ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNER outlines several benefits to working with a partner, including:

• Improved performance: Research from the Association for Talent Development indicates that when someone publicly shares their goals, they have a 65% chance of success. More importantly, having a specific accountability partner boosts that chance to 95%.
• Constructive feedback: You need brutal honesty from your accountability partner. Otherwise, the process will not deliver the results you are looking for. In fact (as we highlighted above), it may be worth having monetary consequences for any lapse in accountability performance (calls, listing presentations, etc.)
• Consistent progress: An accountability partner can keep you on track, especially during a cold spell. It’s sometimes a natural reaction to take a break (or give up) when we feel discouraged. An effective accountability partner can empathize with your frustration but will push you to get back on the horse post-haste.

Role-playing

In addition to having an accountability partner, many top agents include role-playing with fellow agents as part of their pre-prospecting routine. Role-playing helps you:

• Get your head in the game before you start working the phones.
• Familiarize yourself with your real estate prospecting scripts.
• Practice handling homeowner objections (which may be the most valuable aspect of role-playing).

If you don’t already have a role-playing partner, Vulcan7 can help connect you with someone. CONTACT US.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

Join the Vulcan7 community

Since its launch in 2011, Vulcan7 has helped countless agents build six-figure (plus) businesses. In addition to our industry-leading leads mentioned above, agents gain the following benefits by being a Vulcan7 client:

1. Vulcan7’s best-in-class CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software makes it easy to stay on task during lead follow-up.
2. We know how challenging it can be for a new agent to make their mark in our highly competitive industry. That’s why Vulcan7 is heavily invested in building community, so you are never alone as you march toward achieving your goals. Long-running weekly webinars like Roadmap provide real-world advice from the industry’s top earners.

If you’d like to learn more about Vulcan7, CONTACT US HERE.

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.