Being a Real Estate Sales Manager for almost a decade now it is absolutely clear to me that success in Real Estate, as well as in many other professions and industries, comes down to being productive on a daily basis.  It may seem easy to an outside eye looking in, but being consistently productive is actually extremely difficult.  It literally takes practice and a fair amount of focus to achieve.  Here are 5 keys to becoming a highly productive Realtor.

1)  Stay Healthy – To many of us health is something we take for granted.  In fact many times we don’t even consider health to be an important part of our lives until something goes wrong.  Being in the Real Estate Industry for over a decade now I can verifiably state that being healthy and having a tremendous amount of energy day in and day out is the foundation for success.  I am neither a nutritionist, nor a physical trainer, but I can tell you that health success comes down to a nutritious diet and consistent exercise.  About 8 months ago my wife Laura took charge of our diet by reading a great book titled, “Eat to Live”.  This is an exceptional book that will not only help you understand how important nutrition is to our bodies, but the author Dr. Joel Furhman, will actually teach you how to cook.  Since my wife opened the book about 8 months ago I have lost 20 pounds and have never been hungry.  In fact I eat more now they I ever have.  The difference is that I am consistently eating nutritious food.   If you don’t have your health in check, then it makes every other aspect of your life and business much more difficult.

2) Work in time blocks – In the age of smart phones, free wi-fi, hd television, skype, youtube, facebook, and all the rest of the reasons to waste time there has never been a more compelling time in history to develop the habit of working in time blocks.  As I am writing this blog I am sitting in the waiting room of my car dealer as my oil is changed on my car.  Not only do I have to block the time, but I have to physically remove myself from my house and my office to truly focus.  Let’s face it at home there are sometimes kids, spouses, laundry, dirty dishes, etc. .  At the office there are phones ringing, co-workers talking, “emergencies” to be handled.  All of this “stuff” will always be there, the question is are you going to take charge and shut everything off so that you can actually work and be an effective sales person?  Many studies show that 90 minute time blocks work best.  Go ahead and try it out, shut off the smart phone, and go somewhere quiet so that you can get that critical task done.

3) Eliminate distractions – Along with timeblocking is the simple elimination of distractions.  There are many ways to tackle this one, but allow me to give you a real life example of what we do in our Real Estate office in Warwick, NY.  About a year ago I completely reconfigured the interior of our office.  The point was to create a more productive work space for the administrative assistants and the Realtors alike.  Here has been the key: Get the Realtors out of the office and infront of their clients.  What we did was get rid of every desk in the office except for the reception desk.  What we installed are smaller, and more efficient “work stations”.  No one owns a work station, so this means that the Realtors need to clean up before they leave.  The benefits of our “no desk solution” are less distractions because our office is free of random paper all over the place, and more productive Realtors because they are not sitting at desks all day long. The Realtors are out on the streets with their clients doing deals.

4)  Learn to Say No – Our office location at 7 Main St, Warwick, NY is the perfect location for solicitation.  Even though our receptionist is very good at screening sales people there are many other solicitors that don’t look or talk like solicitors. Some of them are our kids, church members, family members, chamber of commerce members, friends, etc. . . The point here is as sales professionals not only are we highly visable, we are also much too quick to say “yes”.  Let’s face it, we are the competitive type and think we can break any concrete wall that is put in front of us.  Because of this we have a really tough time saying no to any legitimate request of our time and resources.  So here is a quick dialogue for everyone out there that struggles with saying no.  “I thank you for considering me for this (donation, position, request, etc. . .) but I have to respectfully decline.  I hope that you can understand that I have similar requests brought to me almost every day.  I do the best I can to accomodate everyone and be the best person that I can be.  However, if I were to say ok to all of them I would be out of business and unable to help anyone.  Of course no one wants that.  Perhaps I can help out next time.”   The point here is to first understand that you can’t be everything to everyone.  Secondly, we  just simply need to learn how to say no.  I can promise you that the last few times you have let people down it was most likely because you over extended yourself.  You would have been better served by saying no up front.  If you don’t say no, you put strain on yourself, and also on the person that you let down.

5)      Rejuvinate – The Realtors in our industry are probably the highest ranked “work aholics” in the world.  Not only are we extremely competitive and unrelenting sales people, but we as a community see taking time off from work as a weakness.  For the most part Sunday’s are a family day for me.  I simply shut off the phone, and computer and play husband and dad for a full 24 hours.  I can’t tell you how many fellow Realtors have huffed and puffed about the fact that they can’t reach me on Sunday.  The simple fact is that I have many support systems in place that allow me to take the time off, but it is still a challenge each week.  However, my thought process is this, “If I can’t take one full day off per week, then I won’t last another 20 years in the business.”  For me, my vision is long term.  It’s not about my success right now, but rather about all of the success that I want to achieve over the next 30 years.  Being that I am unwilling to allow my health to play second fiddle to my business I know that time away from the business will ultimately help me be more effective in the long term.  If you are a Realtor ask yourself “When was the last time that I COMPLETELY disconnected from the business?”  Sadly most people will say, “The day before I got in”.  Don’t allow your life to pass you by. Try a 24 hour period of time with absolutely no Real Estate Business.  I guarantee you are more fresh after the 24 hour break then you were before you entered the business.  Now do that at least once per week, and watch how your productivity grows.

This blog post was written by Geoffrey Green, Founder and Broker/Owner of The Green Team Home Selling System. Click here to read Geoff’s full bio.