In this Episode We’ll Cover: Why Memorializing Your Best Ideas Will Save Your Business!
WHEN YOU HAVE AN IDEA AND IT TRIES TO RUN AWAY
I can't believe the number of top producers who can't articulate how much Gross Commission Income they want to net. Set a number! This gives you a North Star, so you can adjust on the way. Good ideas immediately try to run away. I use mind-mapping software and some other techniques to ensure that good ideas don't run away from me.
WRITE YOUR IDEAS DOWN IMMEDIATELY
Get into the habit of writing your ideas down. Type them out in your phone or jot them down on a notepad but write them down immediately. You can "formalize" or hash it out in more detail later, but be sure to initially write it down, so you don't lose it due to a short attention span or a hectic life. If you have to come back to an idea later and you didn't write it down... it's gone.
CATEGORIZE YOUR IDEAS LIKE A MANAGER
Here's the real how-to: Learn to categorize your ideas like a manager. The manager has to figure out where that idea fits in the best in a real estate business. Is this a marketing idea? Where does this help me improve the strategy for marketing (or whatever module the idea fits into)? Thinking about an idea as a manager allows you to pull the idea up out of all the noise. Properly shuffling an idea into a module as part of a managed strategy is how an idea will save your business. Not every idea will work out perfectly, but if just a few of them are dropped into the proper locations -- Wow!
MEMORIALIZE THOSE IDEAS INSIDE YOUR PLAN
To recap: You have a great idea. Open up your phone or take out a notepad and write it down. (Even if you use a digital form of note-taking, you should still go through the physical act of writing it down using a good old-fashioned pen and paper.) Categorize the idea by injecting it into the proper area in your plan -- Marketing, Prospecting, Closing and so on. This all relates back to memorializing your ideas. The Manager in you will scream at the Technician, "Write this down! This is a good idea!"
WORK ON TACTICALLY IMPLEMENTING THOSE IDEAS
Testing can begin after you have memorialized the idea in your plan. You can master the Best Practices in your plan if you Manage them. Work on the ideas tactically after you've written them down. This process will force you to slow down, so an idea won't run away with your business. The best feedback will be from the consumer who responds to an idea. That will tell you whether the idea is a winner.