Constants amid the Chaos

The ability to find consistency as the days throw chaos at you is where you will find success, says Mark McLeod.

I OFTEN REFER to our day as being divided up into constants versus variables. This means that there are things that you have control over, the constants, and we can argue that the chaos is often the variables.

Often I see agents and offices desperately trying to control variables, rather than creating a razor-like focus on managing the constants. For example, a database of 1,000 homeowners may produce somewhere between 40 and 50 sales a year. We know that to be a constant, so you should build a system to maximise your return from this constant. Measuring this number and even finding solutions as to why vendors didn’t list with you will improve your return in this area.

Once listed, someone turning up to the open home who has a house to sell, or someone buying the home who has a house to sell, could be argued as a variable. If you spend all your time, efforts and process around the constant and control your processes once that constant is listed, then you will gain access and reap the rewards of the variables.

So a great way to improve your business is to make a list of all the actions that you believe to be constant. Then apply five rules that I believe will lead you to success in this area:

1. Frequency of action.
2. Cost. So often people don’t look at the cost of these actions and then, halfway through the process, find they can’t afford the action.
3. Have you created rapport? If you don’t measure it, you can’t grow it.
4. Monitoring. Have you sat down with someone to help you monitor your actions and outcomes?
5. Return. Is the juice worth the squeeze? Are you getting a return on the investment you’ve put into this area?

A sure-fire way to improve your business is to place these five rules of adaptation against the areas that we know will improve your business. Let’s look at some specific areas:

• Databasing: do we have enough volume, and is there enough contact?
• Pipeline: do we have channels of connectivity, and do we understand the difference between systemic contact and organic contact?
• Stock management: do we have systems for reporting information that allow the owner to be fully informed in order to make an educated decision?

These three areas are examples of constants in your business and demonstrate how you could go about expanding them.

I have no doubt that improvement in the development and depth of your constants will result in wonderful outcomes and allow you to take real advantage of the variables that come your way.