“Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”
-Carl Jung

Customer demands are constantly increasing; the amount of pressure a salesperson encounters is also going up. Today, there are an overwhelming amount of things that a salesperson must battle to cater to ever increasing customer expectations, conflicting pressures, and office demands.

Salespeople are now expected to collect more information about their clients, research their needs, advertise in more sophisticated ways, use more complex computer programs, learn about iPad and Smartphone applications, get into the “Now” with social networking, and figure out how to get the attention of the millions of young-and-hip social networkers that spend billions of hours on the internet every year. Oh, right – you also have to secure listings, post, meet clients, show apartments to clients, make deals with landlords and co-ops, research neighborhoods, read Curbed, Real Deal, 1MonthOP.com, Real Estate section of the New York times for the latest on real-estate talk-of-the-town, and oh – you forgot, your wife / kid / girlfriend / boyfriend is waiting for you to take them out. Salespeople can often feel like the weight of the world is literally on their shoulders – and they often feel like there is too much to do and too little time to do it in. Because salespeople work more hours, they tend to feel more stressed.

However, superstar salespeople are effective time managers. You like juggling ten balls at once, running around, being independent – but it all comes with a hell of a lot of responsible time management and a laser focused business plan.

You need to effectively manage your time by creating a BUSINESS PLAN.

Your business plan is your blue print for the year. It is the basis of every action. You stay focused on accomplishing the tasks you have set yourself to do in the plan. You do not jump on every exciting opportunity you hear about. You need to make your manager or broker part of the plan as well. Sit with them from time to time and review it. Make adjustments. But stay focused.

Read the plan every week. Your business plan sets you towards the TRUE NORTH of your life. Making one can be easy, follow thru is the essential ingredient. In PART II of the book, I have enclosed a one year BUSINESS PLAN for both a new and experienced agent. Its broken down by month to month for an agent that wishes to achieve the below figures. Please go to part two and take a brief look before reading further.