Staying Strong Mentally in a Tough Market

How do we stay mentally strong in a tough market?

Fourteen years ago, I wrote Tough Market, New Home Sales. If you remember 2008, I don’t need to tell you that we were in one of the most challenging selling periods that most of us have ever seen.

It’s a much different market today, but we can all see what’s happening post-pandemic. Inflation, recession, and rising interest rates; it’s getting hairy out there. It sounds like a great time to publish an updated book version!

A solid commitment will be required to get the most out of your new perspective on the market. To paraphrase Victor Frankl, you cannot control your circumstances, but you can always control your response to your circumstances.

With that premise in mind, I can think of no more important aspect of success in a more challenging market than a dedication to a strong sense of goal clarity. Clear achievement goals are critical to success in any market, to be sure. But tough times have a way of sucking you into the hostile atmosphere surrounding the sales office. 

If you don’t have a high degree of goal clarity in a more demanding market, you’re likely to find yourself unwittingly playing the victim role. Goal clarity gives you purpose and direction every day. It provides a positive counterbalance to the negative influences that often take hold in a challenging market.

That goal clarity will focus you. It reminds you that there is a bigger picture, and that you have more control over your success than you’re often led to believe. Goals anchor you by providing something of a compass direction. You know where you’re headed despite the blowing of the sails office winds. And yet, goal setting remains a mystery to so many sales professionals.

Now in my career, I’ve met relatively few new home sales professionals who can show me their written goals or even describe their goals in abstract terms. But top performers are activity driven, and their activities complement their more critical goals. A tougher market might provide new motivation to rethink your goal-setting approach. If so, allow me to offer you just a few pointers here.

Break Your Sales Goals into Smaller Activity Goals

Your goal might be to sell four homes in your community this month. You can’t always control how many sales get written, but you can manage your efforts. So break down the goal into the specific activities that will lead you to the result. If you want four sales, how many times do you need to ask for the sale? How many people will you need to take on-site? Get the activity numbers right. And the results will then follow. 

Set a Goal to Change Your Circumstances

Let’s suppose that after you analyze your efforts, you realize that your traffic levels are just insufficient to meet your activity goals. Well, you have two options, both of which are under your control.

First, you can improve your efficiency in other areas of your sale to increase your conversion rates. As you become more effective in the model demonstration, for example, you can lower the number of model demos that you need to do to get to a plan close question.

Your second option is to set a goal to change the traffic circumstances. In this case, raise your initial numbers by prospecting for self-generated traffic. You only need to increase your traffic by a little bit if you increase your traffic quality. The good news is that self-generated traffic is always of higher quality than traffic generated by advertising. So you can expect to need a lesser amount of high-quality traffic to meet your goals.

Select a Skill Development Opportunity

Now, we can agree that output is a result of input. Correct? And we can further agree that the higher the quality of the input, the better the output. Yes? The difference between the London Philharmonic and the Warren G. Harding High School Concert Band is neither the music nor the instruments. It’s the quality of individual performances.

Think of your sales presentation as a concert in which you play every instrument. If your performance on any given instrument is weak, the concert itself will be less than optimal. When you nail down every part, you can expect success.

Set a Service-Oriented Goal

A service-oriented goal doesn’t have to be specifically related to sales skill; since customer care is such a high priority in the life of a new home sales professional, a goal involving customer care will go a long way toward both improving your sales performance and motivating you to provide outstanding service.

More than that, when you focus on this area, you will find that the positive energy it fosters will spill over into your conversations with new prospects.

Look, everyone’s looking for an edge in a tougher market. Focusing on your goals might be just the advantage you need to stay sharp to protect your sanity and get more sales.

But this doesn’t happen by commitment. It doesn’t happen by decision. It happens by action. 

Keep your eyes peeled for Tougher Market, New Home Sales coming soon, and until next time, learn more to earn more!


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About the Author: Jeff Shore

Jeff Shore is the Founder and CEO of Shore Consulting, Inc. a company specializing in psychology-based sales training programs. Using these modern, game-changing techniques, Jeff Shore’s clients delivered over 145,000 new homes generating $54 billion in revenue last year.