The other day, I was talking on the phone to an old friend whowas field training a new agent. Right in the middle of the call, hesaid, “Let me put him on the phone, and you tell him the No. 1thing he needs to do to succeed.” As he passed the phone to his newagent, I heard him say, “This guy was our best trainer, so payattention. This will be good.”

You ever have one of those moments when every muscle you havecontracts simultaneously? It's like being at a dinner party andyour friend introduces you as “the funniest person I've ever knownin my whole life,” and then says to you, “Go ahead, tell us ajoke.”

I pondered it for a second. The No. 1 thing this guy needed todo… not the Top 5 or Top 10. Just the one. Of all the things youneed to do to succeed in our business, which one would you pick?See lots of people every day? The value of following up? Worksmarter, not harder? Always be closing?

Let's be honest, for every person who says, “You must do this oryou won't last a month,” there's another who says, “If you do that,you'll be gone in a week!”

So, I opted for the only reply that made sense. “Hello? I'msorry, you're breaking up. Can you hear me now?”

I'll be the first to say that our “need to do” lists are asunique as we are. There are no wrong choices, really. It comes downto what works for you.

The one that works for me? Don't start the day until it'sfinished.

For years, I've taught new salespeople the first discipline theymust develop is the habit of making a cold-call list each nightbefore their head hits the pillow. (And the second one is callingit “cold calling” because you can put lipstick on that pig bycalling it “prospecting” or “canvassing,” but you're walking indoors where you don't know them and they don't know you—that's acall that's cold. Those cutesy labels ain't fooling anybody.)

Disciplines are interesting: Hard to develop, easy to drop.Sitting down to make your list for tomorrow is a pain. You're tiredand it's late. It's easy to say, “I'll do it in the morning.” Butwhat happens in the morning? We get bogged down with email or#wherewillpeytonplay or whether—after 16 tries—that girl on thattalk show will finally identify her baby daddy.

But when we wake up with the list already made, we have agreater sense of purpose for the day, and we get to it rightaway—no matter the weather or how bad we slept last night. It's alittle game we play with ourselves to create urgency. “I'm callingon Prospect X today,” we say. “Wish me luck!” Isn't that betterthan, “I'm cold calling today. Pray I don't drive off a cliff indesperation.”

If you were asked to give a rookie your No. 1, what would yousay? Are you still doing it, or did you drop it along the waybecause it was working so well? Let's do it again today, just forold times' sake.

And so you're not distracted, I'll go ahead and tell you. Thatgirl is still looking for her baby daddy.