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2. What if You Could Never Prospect on the Telephone Again?

1. Have an Unyielding Drive to Succeed in Your Business

When you're in the real estate business you get accustomed to experiencing many emotional highs and lows. One day you're on top of one of the highest mountains you could ever imagine and another day you feel as if you're on the floor of the deepest valley. Such is the nature of this business you have chosen. But one thing is for certain....the more that you possess an unyielding drive to succeed in this business the more successful you will become throughout your career. And in order to succeed in this business you have to be willing to fail---over and over and over again.

The people who achieve the greatest success in real estate sales and leasing and make big money at it are the people who fail the most along the way. However, they don't take their failures personally. They look upon their failures as outcomes to obtain feedback from so that they can completely nail it and succeed the next time. Instead of being afraid to fail and then pulling back from constantly taking all the action that they possibly can, these agents are constantly putting it out there talking to many people and confidently asking for their business over and over and over again. While we notice that these agents consistently make more money than most of the other agents in our territory, what we normally don't realize at the same time is that these same agents are also rejected and turned-down for business more than any other agents in our territory too.

As a metaphor for all of this, being a fan of baseball I was curious and decided to do a little research on the batters who had failed more than any other batters in the history of the game. So I took a look at the names of the players who had more career strikeouts while batting than any other players in baseball history. In looking at the top ten list of batters with the most career strikeouts, three of them are currently in the Baseball Hall of Fame, two of them will be in the Hall of Fame when they become eligible five years after they retire, and all of the other five players on the top ten strikeout list are among the greatest, most famous players to ever play the game. The man with the most strikeouts in baseball history, Reggie Jackson, is considered to be one of the most thrilling, exciting players to ever play the game, and a player who could be counted on during the most crucial moments in the playoffs and World Series. And Reggie had a full 33% more career strikeouts during his career than his nearest competitor!

So what does all of this have to do with your real estate business? It's simple. Don't be afraid to fail. The agents who succeed the most and make the most money have been rejected by more prospects, have been refused more listings by owners, and have had more deals blow up in their faces than any other agents in your territory. But just like the baseball players mentioned above, these same agents achieve great long-term success by stepping-up to the plate over and over again and learning from their failures. And like Reggie Jackson they can be counted on to succeed almost each and every time when it really, really counts.

Just as in baseball when you do what will have you become hugely successful in your real estate career people will completely forget about your many other failures along the way. The quicker you embrace short-term failure as a vital component to great long-term success in your real estate career, the quicker you will see your results skyrocket to the next level.

2. What if You Could Never Prospect on the Telephone Again?

There's currently a bill moving through the state legislature in North Carolina ( Bill H1612) that aims to severely limit the amount of telephone prospecting that companies can do. And the local Herald-Sun newspaper in Durham reports that 26 states currently have similar laws already in effect.

So what does this mean to you as an agent? It means you'd better watch out! People are getting more and more frustrated at receiving unsolicited pitches on the telephone these days. I certainly know that I have had it with all the calls I constantly receive from long distance companies asking me to switch to their long distance service. 

Something you will definitely want to do also is check with your company's legal counsel and make sure that any telephone solicitation you are currently doing is within the guidelines outlined in the laws of your state. You don't want to subject you or your company to any potential liability if you can do a little proactive checking around in advance. And speaking of liability this new proposed legislation in North Carolina calls for fines of $5,000.00 per violation!

What may be even more important for you to do is make sure that your state and local real estate boards are monitoring any proposed laws in your state that deal with limiting telephone prospecting. And you definitely want to be fighting along with your real estate boards to maintain your right to prospect wherever you live! 

We both know that being on the receiving end of a telephone prospecting call can be a less than enjoyable experience. But when legislation like this is proposed special interest groups will be lobbying on both sides claiming that their opinion is the one that should become law. And in the end the side that makes the politicians the most afraid of losing their long-term support will probably be the one that wins. So why not do your part to make sure that the voice of the real estate industry is heard loud and clear on this? Your right to earn a living in the most effective way possible may depend on it.

Even if legislation like this is passed in your state there will almost always be exceptions written into the law before it it passed. As an example the proposed legislation in North Carolina exempts all newspapers from the restrictions on telephone prospecting. And several other states that have restrictions on telephone prospecting also exempt all newspapers from their laws, too. Now why, just out of curiosity, do you think this is so? Well, I'll tell you this: If I was a politician I would probably want to keep the newspapers very happy with my voting record on the issues that are very important to them, too.

Remember, the voices that yell the loudest will be heard! Make sure that both you and the real estate boards who represent you are on top of this!

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Delphi Business Properties

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