There’s a rumor that professional baseball is coming back for an abbreviated season. What do you do when you have fewer opportunities to get in the game? How does the change impact the stats for your team and yourself? In new home sales, we’ve also experienced a change in the selling season. I thought I’d offer a few tips from the new home sales playbook. Here are 7 ways to improve your batting average for sales success.
#1. Get specific in goal setting.
Get rid of vague ideas. Determine exactly what you want to achieve and set a firm goal. “Increase sales” is not specific. If you sell one more home, you’ve achieved that benchmark. Think about your batting average. How about targeting an improved conversion rate?
“Invest in personal development” is equally nondescript. What are the areas where you need and want to improve? Being specific creates accountability, which keeps you motivated.
#2. Seize the moment to act on your goals.
Grab hold of opportunities before they slip through your fingers. You can’t hit it out of the park if you don’t get up to bat. Seek out prospects, go after referrals. Revisit those leads who have been sitting it out for a while. With everything going on in the world, they might just be ready to move. Remember, success isn’t luck. It’s the result of your choices and actions.
#3. Measure your progress.
Where are you in the process of attaining your established goals? Know exactly how far you have left to go before reaching your goals. If you don’t know how well you are doing, you can’t adjust your behavior and strategies accordingly. This perspective might be exactly what you need to push you to the next step.
#4. Focus on being better than good.
Many of us believe that our intelligence, personality, and physical aptitudes are fixed—that no matter what we do, we won’t improve. As a result, we focus on goals that are all about validating who we are instead of setting goals that develop and acquire new skills. Start the success journey by accepting you’re already good. Then aim higher.
#5. Cultivate grit.
This little four-letter word encompasses effort, strategic planning, persistence and a ton of resilience. Grit is your ability to take a hit and bounce back without breaking. It allows you to retreat, repair, recover and reposition yourself.
#6. Build your willpower muscle.
DIscipline and self-control are powerful tools in personal growth. You need them to achieve your goals and stay on track. When you find yourself wanting to give in or give up—don’t stop. Once you open that door to giving in, it’s hard to close it. Shut down that negative self-talk. Square your shoulders, dig in, and put more power in your swing.
#7. Be a realistic optimist.
Stay positive. Believe in yourself. There will always be setbacks. They’re a necessary component of growth. Just remember that obstacles can be managed, as long as you maintain a successful mindset. Don’t underestimate how challenging it is to get where you want to be.
In baseball, the batting leaders are often the strike-out leaders, too. You have to swing in order to hit. If that means you miss some, well, it’s a game of numbers, right? If being great were easy, there would be nothing great about it.