Would You Like to Eliminate Your Resistance to Prospecting?

Nothing kills your ability to make more money like avoiding prospecting does. Yet, most people don’t enjoy it, so they avoid it, or make excuses like, “I’ll do it tomorrow.”

What if you had a mindset change that allowed you to enjoy prospecting? You could look forward to prospecting. Sounds good? Right?

I’ve got good news for you. I created a powerful mindset tool I call, “Think Your Way to Success.” It will take that negative self-talk and turn it into positive self-talk. This allows you to drop your resistance to prospecting (or anything else, for that matter.)

The How-To

Here’s how it works. Think about going out and talking to For Sale By Owners, Expireds, or any other group you want to prospect, but don’t. Next, identify the thought that makes you NOT want to do it. Examples might be, “People don’t want to be interrupted.” “I won’t know what to say.” “They might tell me no.” Whatever it is, keep it simple. Like you’re telling a four-year-old. If you have a long sentence or too many qualifiers, you need to simplify it. “I don’t want to.” Isn’t the true thought. There are reasons you don’t want to.

Those reasons are the key to what the true thought is that’s holding you back.

I’ve included a handy worksheet to help you. CLICK HERE to download it, and fill it out to complete this exercise.

Flip it!

Now I want you to take that thought and flip it around to its opposite. “People don’t want to be interrupted,” becomes “people want to be interrupted.” “I won’t know what to say,” becomes, “I will know what to say.” At first, it may sound preposterous, but let’s consider it. How could the opposite thought, be as true, if not truer, than the first, negative thought?

Let’s look at, “people want to be interrupted.” How could that be as true or truer than, “people don’t want to be interrupted?” The truth is, you don’t know what’s happening in another person’s life. If you were going to call a FSBO, it’s quite possible they just got some news that has changed their motivation to sell and they are ready to list. Or something happened that made them aware of their vulnerability to security risks as a FSBO and they want to list. Maybe they are simply tired of adding the tasks of selling their home to all the other things in their lives. Maybe they are dying to list with an agent, but they can’t seem to find the time to even look for one!

I want you to think of at least three, legitimate reasons your opposite thought can be as true, or truer than the original thought.

Here’s why this works

And it does. I’ve used it on myself and lots of clients. Your brain is always looking to prove itself right. It will look for evidence to prove it. That’s true of the negative thoughts and the positive ones. So, when you think, “people don’t want to be interrupted,” you remember a time someone told you that, or you had a FSBO slam the door on you, or another agent said it happened to them, etc. That’s the brain bringing evidence to the surface to prove that people don’t want to be interrupted.

The beauty of the brain is that when you change the thought, it will prove that the new thought is true! Keep thinking, “people want to be bothered,” and your brain will bring you evidence of that. You’ll read an article about an agent who’s crushing it with FBSOs, you’ll be at Starbucks and overhear someone saying they had a Realtor® reach out to them, and they were so grateful, or you’ll remember the time you reached out to a FSBO and they were happy to talk to you.

Don’t blame your brain

It just wants to be right. Give it something powerful to be right about!

Imagine how much easier it would be to prospect for FSBOs if you were thinking, “these people can’t wait to see me!” There’s no resistance to that thought! And I bet when you show up, the homeowner will be able to tell that you’re there because you want to be and because you care about helping them sell their house. If they do tell you, “no,” you aren’t discouraged. You don’t take it personally. You know there are lots of folks who want to talk to you, so you keep reaching out until you find them. No big deal.

I’d love to hear what your thought is and what the opposite is, in the comments below.

When you flipped it, were you able to find three ways it is as true, or more true than your negative thought? If you’re having a problem isolating your thought, flipping it, or finding the evidence that it’s true, put it in the comments and I’ll help you figure it out.