Whether you’re a new or veteran agent, it’s easy to bury yourself by working “in” your business instead of  “on” your business. When you work “in” your business, your working on deals,  prospecting, negotiating contracts , engaging in all of the everyday tasks of a real estate agent.  What most agents forget to do is work “on” their business by fixing, sharpening their sales skills. Here are 36 Reasons why you’re losing money by not working “on” your business:

Preparing for the Sale:

1. Insufficient market knowledge – Not spending enough time previewing property, studying home prices, market trends etc.

2. Agent’s lack of confidence – If you don’t believe in yourself, why will someone else?

3. Agent’s sloppy personal appearance – From having you shoes buffed to wearing a tie, guys, take the extra time making sure you look good. Ladies, the same applies for you, looking professional is key.

Greeting the Customer:

4. Waiting for the customer to greet the agent – When you hold an open house,  do you wait for  to people to come to you?  When you go to networking events, do people line up to come and talk to you? Probably not.

5. Using a closed-end greetings , i.e. “May I help you?” – “NO” is the answer you’ll get 99% of the time, so why not ask better questions?

6. Forgetting to smile – If you needed to ask someone a question and they were scowling, would you approach them?

7. Lack of enthusiasm – You cannot be both compelling and lack enthusiasm.

8. Lack of energy – like Enthusiasm, energy is contagious. If you don’t have energy to do something, how can you expect your clients to?

Moving into the sale:

9. Not listening -“Can you repeat that, I wasn’t listening…”

10. Failing to hear the customer’s “Wants” and Needs” – Your customer’s wants and needs are the most important part of the transaction. If you don’t know them your clients may not be motivated enough to close.

11. Inability to gain and hold the customer’s attention – people like to be entertained and to learn, does your presentation achieve both?

12. Not taking into account fears/concerns regarding the sale – Not addressing your clients’ fears and or concerns ahead of time can lead to objections that may  be difficult to handle later.

13. Leaping to conclusions – Doing so can lead you into trouble; be patient.

14. Knocking your competition – Talking down on your competition really just makes you look bad.

15. Admitting failure too easily – Don’t give up.

16. Inviting bargaining on price too soon – Have you ever discounted the price of something without anyone suggesting it in the first place?

Objections:

17. Insulting the customer’s intelligence – This instantly takes you out of rapport.

18. Inability to answer technical questions – You may have one fantastic presentation, but if the technical stuff slows you down, you will lose your clients’ trust.

19. Getting too technical – There is a lot of real estate jargon that many people either don’t understand or don’t care about. Boring your clients with technical information or assuming they understand it is a turn off and a rapport killer.

20. Losing patience – Sometimes people take a bit longer than you would expect to decide. Buying or selling is  a big decision, be patient.

21. Ignoring objections – You can only ignore objections for so long. Objections are really  a question your clients have in their mind, answer it.

22. Talking too much – Telling isn’t selling

23. Not having an answer – Not having the answer to clients’ questions makes you look unprepared

24. Failing to press for a close after an objection was handled – If you don’t close or ask for the sale, don’t expect them to sign anything

25. Failing to turn objection into a customer benefit – failing to respond to an objection will allow it to become a problem and in the way of your close.

26. Getting sidetracked by an objection – Sometimes an objection can lead the conversation into a direction that’s unfamiliar to you or something that will just turn the customer off.

Closing:

27. Not asking for the order – If you don’t ask, don’t expect to receive

28. Failing to recognize a buying signal – More often than not, your buyers will be waving a flag in the air, don’t miss it.

29. Failure to spark customer’s desire to take advantage of the opportunity – Even when you think they’re sold, you need to re-sell them.

30. Falling in love with the sound of our own voice –  You will end up talking yourself out of the sale.

31. Lacking confidence in the offer or the listing price – You play a huge role the process, submit what’s necessary.

32. Poor choice in open-end questions – Asking the wrong questions leads to the wrong answers and vice versa.

Follow up

33. Not following-up enough – 70% of all sales happen on follow up

34. Not timely responding to a request for information – You’re making several thousands off every deal, each client needs to be treated like they’re your only one.

35. Over promising and under delivering – This will cause your clients to become utterly disappointed and places you at risk of losing them

36. Not closing for the sale on the follow up call – It takes a minimum of 5x, you need to close in order to get a deal.

Think of each item on this list as one transaction. If 8 of these apply to you, than that’s 8 transactions. If you’re average commission check is $10,000, that’s $80,000. Ouch! What are 2-3 actions you can commit to doing to prevent this from happening in 2011?