Came across this amazing book the other day. Jia Jiang, the international bestselling author of Rejection Proof and the founder of Rejection Therapy, dreamed of being an entrepreneur. What held him back was the same thing that stops most real estate agents — his crippling fear of being rejected. Want to 10X your listings? He did some research at a local real estate company for 60 days. Check this out.
While some trainers tell agents to prospect up to eight hours per day, Jiang decided to try a different approach. Agents were instructed to do three things:
• Do something that will move you toward your goals for one hour per day. Just do your work for one hour, with no distractions from social media and no negativity from the news.
• Repeat that action for a period of time. Actions that are repeated over time become habits. Habits build character.
• Instead of doing it alone, do it together. A great example of this would be to have an accountability partner.
Working together turned out to be extremely important. Agents started getting better and smarter very quickly. They asked themselves: “How can I use that hour more effectively? Maybe it would be better to call my sphere of influence or my past clients.”
Rather than calling to ask when the person would be selling their house, many shifted their focus to building a relationship and offering to help if the person needed something. This creates trust and also goes back to something Jiang learned since Rejection Proof — the best way to “get” is to help others without expecting something back.
Almost 90 percent of the agents finished the 60 days, and there was an 80 percent improvement in the number of sales the agents made.
This was an individual effort in a team setting. Everyone was doing it together. They weren’t faced with a number or quota. Instead, they all had the common goal of getting out of their comfort zone and overcoming their own inertia.
Most real estate training and accountability programs dictate the activities the agents should use to prospect. Accountability is measured in how many transactions or dollar volume the agent achieves. Here are several reasons Jiang’s approach works so well:
• Back in 2015, RedX conducted a study that compared $250,000-per-year producers with those who make $70,000 per year. Those who made $70,000 prospected an average of 3.5 hours per week. Those who made $250,000 prospected an average of 6.9 hours per week. The agents in Jiang’s study were prospecting seven hours per week.
• Numerous studies have documented the “observer effect.” When people know others are watching what they’re doing, they are more likely to engage in behaviors that make them look good.
• Rather than rewarding the outcomes, which can be highly variable, everyone was reinforced for engaging in the behavior that led to the outcome. When the prospecting behavior itself is rewarded, it’s much easier to develop a consistent habit.
This methodology is totally in line with what we practice in the Collective!