Training......

We have been to so many seminars and trainings the past several weeks that it has been difficult to go through and digest all of it. There are always things in a training session that you know won't fit into your style of doing business. That being said, there are almost always several good ideas to incoporate into your business plan, whether it's a technique to stay motivated while prospecting or a new way to stay organized, there are generally a few nuggets in each presentation.

One of the gems that I took away from a CE class on Business Planning taught by Rick DeLuca was the concept of not doing many things, but doing fewer and doing them very well. We all know that when we see something new or a client calls and asks if we would consider branching into something new, like commercial real estate or property management, our first inclination is to say something like "Sure!" That goes against what Mr. DeLuca taught.

His concept was to find a couple of ways to find or generate new leads that we're good at and master them. The same with listing presentations, marketing, and, in fact, all aspects of real estate. He did caution that when something new comes along, he used the Internet for example, we need to embrace it when it alters the way that business is done. We need to incorporate that into our business plans and use new technology to help our focus, not necessarily to alter it.

I really liked that concept. I don't know about anyone else, but it seems like each book we read, or seminar that we attend, there is a new thing that we're being shown that we could add to our way of doing business. I do believe that if there is an idea, technology, or concept that is better than what we're doing currently then we should replace the old with the new rather than add something else to what we are doing.

To illustrate what I am trying to say, imagine trying to hit and knock over a can by throwing a rock at it. You can fill your hand with a lot of small gravel and throw it at the can You will probably hit the can, but most likely won't knock it over. What I am saying is that if you pick up a larger rock, one that you can still easily throw and hit the can with it, you will have a better chance of knocking the can over.

You are still generating the effort, but in the long run hitting in once and knocking it over with the larger, more focused effort was more efficient than hitting it several times with a scattered effort that still did not accomplish the goal of knocking the can over.