{"id":129,"date":"2020-09-16T20:08:16","date_gmt":"2020-09-16T20:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/?p=129"},"modified":"2020-09-16T20:08:16","modified_gmt":"2020-09-16T20:08:16","slug":"the-follow-up-conundrum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/?p=129","title":{"rendered":"The Follow-Up Conundrum"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Can you spare 14 minutes and 24 seconds?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s 1% of the 1,440 minutes you get every <\/em>day, so don\u2019t say \u201cno.\u201d There is literally NO-ONE who can\u2019t find an extra 14:24 in their day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most people toss more time into the garbage \ufe0f before breakfast. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re willing to dedicate 14:24 every day to a specific task, it can change your life. But you\u2019ll need to read this entire article to fully understand why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019ll take 2-3 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

——————–<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most Real Estate agents have the \u2018Salesperson\u2019 mindset. They\u2019re better at reacting <\/em>than they are at planning<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why yes! I AM speaking directly to you!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t feel bad!  Like a bloodhound, you\u2019ve got the instincts to sniff out a deal and pursue it. Your instincts and quick reaction time are good things!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, if you depend solely <\/em>on your instincts, you could spend way too much time chasing your tail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, you need to rely on your instincts, <\/strong>AND<\/strong> you need to purposely schedule time to Follow-Up.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I call these scheduled times \u201cAppointments with Yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

——————–<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, you\u2019ve got several good prospects in your pipeline. You\u2019ve worked hard to get them, but you often forget to Follow-Up when you know you should. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, here\u2019s a strategy to ensure you never <\/em>neglect The Follow-Up:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schedule 1% of your daily time (let\u2019s round it up to 15 minutes) for an Appointment with Yourself to Follow-Up with your prospects and clients, every morning, Monday to Friday.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

——————–<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are the two crucial steps you must incorporate to ensure success:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Commit to honoring every appointment 100% of the time. That means you show up on time every day,  just as you would if you had a daily 15-minute appointment with your #1 Referral Source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you can honor an Appointment with Your #1 Referral Source, you can honor an Appointment with Yourself. Right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Ted! How am I going to follow-up with ALL my prospects in 15 minutes?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re not. But when you do this every<\/strong> day, and you\u2019ve got a good system (keep reading), you\u2019re going to develop a habit of using your limited time wisely. For most agents, 15 minutes every day is enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHere\u2019s my list. Who needs a follow-up TODAY, and who can wait until another day?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consistency is the key to keeping your prospects and clients top-of-mind, which is the real purpose of this system. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

——————–<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Book a \u201cbuffer time\u201d of 15 minutes before <\/em>and 15 minutes after <\/em>every Appointment with Yourself, and for every Appointment with Someone Else for that matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This ensures that you will show up and begin your appointment on time, even if stuff happens, as it always does. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re running a bit late on a previous appointment, you can simply use up your \u201cbefore\u201d buffer to complete that task and still begin your Follow-Up appointment on time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conversely, if your Follow-Up appointment takes a bit longer than 15 minutes, it\u2019s no big deal. Just use up your \u201cafter\u201d buffer time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, Ted! Now you\u2019re saying this is a 45-minute appointment?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No. Your buffer time is neither an extension of your appointment nor is it \u201csit around and do nothing\u201d time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before and after your appointments, your scheduled buffer time is when you do regular stuff like checking and responding to messages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s important to honor your appointment start and end time as much as possible to develop a habit. Building in a buffer just makes this easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

——————–<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You still think 15 minutes isn\u2019t enough time?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you go for several days in a row without doing any follow-up, you\u2019re right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consistency is the key. Commit to 15 minutes every day, Monday to Friday, and you\u2019ll be amazed at how quickly you become a master at short, concentrated, scheduled Appointments with Yourself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, you also need a good system to keep you organized, so check out the Ridiculously Uncomplicated Follow-Up System<\/a> (RUFUS) to avoid chasing your tail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

——————–<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the beginning of this article, I said that your willingness to dedicate 14:24 of time every day could be life-changing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps you\u2019re rolling your eyes and thinking:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s a massive overstatement, Ted!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wrong! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you see for yourself the huge positive difference this simple system has on The Follow-Up, I guarantee you will start incorporating Appointments with Yourself into other <\/em>areas of neglect in both your business and personal life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You are developing a critically important life skill and HABIT that <\/strong>every <\/em><\/strong>business person who wants to be successful needs.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

——————–<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take it one step at a time. Making important changes is a process. For now, just commit to 14:24 every day. Use it for The Follow-Up or for a different task that you know you\u2019ve been neglecting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Start tomorrow morning. Write an Appointment with Yourself into your schedule and be sure to honor it. Remember: Every journey begins with a single step. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

_____________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article was inspired by Module #4 – The Follow-Up – part of the Agent Skills Master\u2019s Program<\/a>. If you like these short articles, imagine what you\u2019ll get out of the entire course!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can you spare 14 minutes and 24 seconds? That\u2019s 1% of the 1,440 minutes you get every day, so don\u2019t say \u201cno.\u201d There is literally NO-ONE who can\u2019t find an extra 14:24 in their day.  Most people toss more time into the garbage \ufe0f before breakfast. If you\u2019re willing to dedicate 14:24 every day to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-4-the-follow-up"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}