What Your Production Isn't Telling You

What signals do you look for to indicate you have hit your stride in the business? What is the moment that you think, 'Ah, here it is. The hard work is paying off!'

Is it when you have listings and buyers you are working with?

Is it when you have closings lined up?

Is it when the bank account gives you some breathing room after a few closings?

Because if it's any of those things, what you have identified are outcomes.

Production tells you where you've been. Momentum tells you where you're headed.

The Space Between Action and Outcome

The challenge for all of us is that there is a gap between action and outcome. This is the period where your work creates movement, often long before the commission check or closing arrives.

Most of us spend far too little time paying attention to the space between. We don't focus on the early signals of a shift in momentum.

Farmers don't harvest the seed they planted yesterday. They understand that growth takes time, cultivation, and care. And yet in real estate, there is a desire for immediate proof that our efforts are paying off.

How many times have you left an open house and thought – "Well, that didn't work" because you didn't meet a new buyer? Or you have felt disappointed by a mailer that didn't create a come-list-me call?

These are surefire ways to set ourselves up for disappointment and significant frustration. Because these are outcomes.

Long before production increases, there will be signs of movement. Signals of momentum. Your execution is consistent. Conversations increase. People ask more questions. Referrals become more frequent. Database contacts begin responding. Appointments start filling the calendar.

These are the signals of a momentum shift and the very conditions that produce the results we seek.

Decisions From Where You Stand

Most people don't miss momentum because they aren't paying attention. They are simply looking in the wrong place. Dangerously, the same is true for decline.

With the wrong focus, you will celebrate momentum or diagnose decline too late. The listings, the closings, the revenue are important, but these are the rearview mirror metrics of the business. These are indications of where you have been, not where you are headed.

Importantly, business decisions made solely from today's production are often based on conditions that no longer exist. Your decision making, business planning, and forecasting need to be informed by the place you are standing in today, the more subtle indicators of direction or momentum.

Where Momentum Lives

Momentum lives in the space between action and outcome.

It lives in the conversations before the appointment. The connections before the commitment.

The challenge we all face is that these signals are far quieter than the visible results - the signs in the yard, the closings, the paycheck in your bank account. They require us to look beyond the production we are so trained to focus on and instead pay attention to the direction of movement.

Momentum may be building or declining. If we focus on the outcomes as the barometer, we are always going to feel like we are missing the mark.

So what does it look like when we pay attention to momentum? It's not a new report (you're welcome). It's not another number to track. It's mindfulness. A different question to ask yourself. Move from "What is going to close this month?" to "What is changing in the conversations I am having this month?" Instead of only reviewing your production, review what is showing up in this week's calendar that wasn't showing up last month.

This is the space in between. This is where momentum lives. This is where the shift happens first.

And that's where your next decision should be made.