10 Resolutions that Will Help You Win More Clients in 2015

When it comes to building a bigger, better business in 2015, it's important to set goals around the things you want to change, whether you're trying to fix something that's not working or just move to the next level of success.

Your ability to level-up your business is limitless, but it's easy to get worked up and excited into setting goals so big and so nebulous that they provide no direction for how to get started or, more importantly, how to get finished. As a result, many agents set wildly ambitious resolutions, flail about doing scattershot efforts for a few weeks, and then spend the rest of the year continuing to do what they have always done. And as a result, their businesses continue to run just the way they always have: up when the market is up, down when it's down.

Top agents are those who have thriving, sustainable businesses that are not 100%-dependent on market dynamics. Let's have a little straight talk for a moment. You can get out of that feast-and-famine cycle in your mentality and in your income, but that it requires setting resolutions —goals, objectives, targets—that are well-calculated to drive smart strategy, targeted tactics and a year full of fruitful actions.

Before embarking upon the exercise of setting more granular resolutions, set some high-level objectives for your business. Use a business plan, like Trulia's "2015 Bigger, Better Business Plan," to set high-level business targets—three or four for the year is plenty.

Then, you'll be ready to set some more granular "resolutions" like those on the next page.

As you read this list for inspiration, remember that the following list is meant to be a menu of sorts, and you should only commit to maybe three of them. Max. Remember! Success takes focus!

1. Increase success rate of listing appointments to X.

2. Respond to incoming online leads within 20 minutes or less, on average. Need help with lead engagement? Familiarize yourself with these fundamentals of engaging online leads.

3. Increase marketing spend to 10% of desired gross commissions.

4. Host at least two in-person events for past clients and frequent referral sources in 2015.

5. Work no more than X hours per week.

6. Take one professional training session or webinar about leads once a month. Hint: Trulia hosts free, live and online agent training sessions about once a week. Check out and sign up for upcoming sessions here.

7. Increase average transaction price point to X.

8. Set three primary business-building priorities every night for the next day, and complete them every workday before checking email or social media.

9. Refresh your marketing materials (including logo, photos, website, online profiles, ads and social media pages) with updated, cohesive branding and messaging by January 31st. If you're unfamiliar with branding strategy, check out these three essential real estate branding tips.

10. Visit every home listed in X zip code(s) or neighborhood(s) this year.

This article was originally published on the Trulia Pro blog. You can find the original version of this article and more tips for planning for 2015 here.