If you’re anything like most agents, you’re interested in building a business that provides you with financial stability and predictable income flows. No more ups and downs - just a proven system to keep you profitable every single month!
The problem is…most agents actually get into real estate unprepared (mentally and financially), struggling to build their businesses in over-saturated markets, and brokerages have very few answers or tools that can help support those agents. Today, we’re going to give you some more insights to get you heading in the right direction.
Remember what we said yesterday?
“Narrow your focus, get in front of the right people, and make your day be all about having conversations with people to build relationships, and be of service to them.”
Well, here are today’s action items:
Stay in momentum.
The Law of Inertia states that “an object at rest stays at rest, and an object in motion stays in motion, unless acted upon by some other force.”
The same can be said about our businesses. Without a specific event or catalyst, our businesses will remain in their same, current levels unless something changes them, like, you choosing to take action or inaction.
Imagine that you’re riding your bike and you get to a big uphill section. Its obviously daunting and hard, but if you stop for a break halfway up the hill and then try to start peddling up the hill again later, it will take so much more energy to get your forward momentum back than if you were to have just kept going up the hill at a slow, steady rate in the easiest gear.
The same goes for our businesses. Keep every wheel of your business systems turning and generating constantly. Leverage your current listings to attract new listings and buyers, and pre-plan your social media posts to run while you're away on vacation. Ask for testimonials and referrals the moment you do a successful transaction with a buyer or seller. Automate your marketing campaigns, and keep going on appointments to land new clients, even if you're busy serving the current ones!
Take a hard look at your existing processes and determine which ones are essential to your business growth, BUT are also the processes that will grind to a halt without you! Those are the ones you need to outsource, or put on auto-pilot.
Business is often a war of attrition, and you want to outlast your competition. Slow and steady wins the race!
Be in the market.
It’s like they say, “showing up is half the battle.”
Your expertise will develop from being active in the market, and absorbing everything you are exposed to. Submerse yourself in your craft, preview properties, and stay in communication with top agents, even if you don't have active listings or buyers at the moment.
Have a sense of curiosity and seek out new information, new concepts, and answers to people’s questions, to the point where you can provide valuable insight to your client base that they’ll truly appreciate. Be involved in the things that your clients would be interested in so that you can bring them valuable information and content before they even know they needed it!
Make a list of the best ways for you to stay in the loop and at the forefront of your local real estate market. Go on listing tours, preview properties, attend agent open houses, take a seasoned agent out for lunch and pick their brain for an hour. Document your week, and be sure to communicate your interesting findings to your database.
Your core job is to build relationships.
Without a client, you aren’t an agent!
This sounds harsh, but it’s true. You need a client to serve in order to fulfill your prophecy as a successful real estate agent. If not, you're limited to being a real estate professional in theory only, but not in practice.
Imagine a restaurant with no patrons, an airline with no travellers, or an app with no users. They cannot tout their benefits or superiority without clients and customers to back it up. A business relationship requires both sides of the equation in order to work successfully. Even small clients can provide you with valuable experience and insights to propel your business forward.
Be all about conversations. Create conversations, schedule conversations, and make your entire day be about the next conversation that you’re going to have. Think of attention as currency, and the more attention your business gets, the more you’ve got in the bank. Your core job is only to build relationships. Selling houses is just a by-product of that.
Focus on appointments.
EVERY piece of business first requires a face-to-face, Zoom, or telephone appointment to discuss their needs, establish the working relationship, and get commitments from each side that they wish to work together. If you don’t have appointments, nothing else can move forward.
The worst thing that can happen at the end of a call is....you still haven’t secured an appointment. If you don’t ask for the appointment, you probably won’t get the appointment. And when they do decide to buy or sell, you better believe that some real estate professional will be going to that appointment. Will it be you?
Start small - take someone out for a simple coffee chat - and slowly build up your ability to “ask.” Challenge yourself to find opportunities to ask people for a casual appointment.
Converting leads into appointments is essential.
Here’s a pro tip: Have your available appointment time slots determined in advance before you even start prospecting or making follow-up calls. That way your objective is always top-of-mind. You’re telling yourself that you have two appointment slots to fill for tomorrow, now you just need to see which two prospective clients can be booked into those slots. And just like that, job done!
This simplifies your day, and helps to steer the calls and lead the conversations. Remember, they’re not hiring you to be bashful, shy and full of tentative language. They want you to lead!
When you know that you’re putting your energy into the right things, it’s easy to feel content and satisfied at the end of your day because you know that you’re making real progress.
Stay tuned!