The way I see it, there are two truths at play in today’s market:
- The demand for housing means there’s tons of opportunity for enterprising agents.
- The lack of inventory means it’s tough out there for those who are getting lost in the crowd.
So, how do we fix this? How do you move from that second group to the first?
At my upcoming BluePrint event, one of the topics I’ll be discussing is how to GROW your business in today’s tough market which finds many agents’ businesses shrinking instead. I’ve got eight points I’ll cover at the event, but for today’s blog, I want to give you insight into the first – and potentially most important – of all eight, which is to…
Create a repeatable and scalable process for attracting new clients every day.
That’s right… We’re talking about your marketing! If you want your growth to be geometric, I want to see you doing five things. We call them the…
Five to Thrive
These are:
- Marketing Directly to Your Database for Direct Transactions and Referrals
- Crushing Your Geographic Farms
- Mega Open Houses
- Invest in Online Advertising (Zillow, Google, Realtor, etc.)
- Building Awareness and being the Trusted Advisor on Social Media
Each is good on its own, but when you do all five, that’s when you thrive (okay… that was bad, but seriously, do all five).
Because I’m breaking each one down in detail to provide you as clear a road as possible, this blog is going to be broken up over two weeks. For now, let’s focus on the first two, starting with…
Marketing to Your Database
Never underestimate the power of trust. Your database is full of people who already know you, like you, and trust you. But even if not a single one of them is looking to buy or sell a house, they each have their own databases full of people who know, like, and trust them.
It’s no surprise that agents who actively seek out referrals make 4X to 5X as much money as those who don’t.
Stay in contact with your database, but never in a way that feels like you’re just prospecting for leads. The best way to do this is to be both a friend and their local educator.
Start by getting their attention with a personalized video. This goes so much further than a generic text or phone call. When they can see your face, they’re so much more likely to respond. Ask if they’re interested in receiving updates on the value of their house every three to six months. Who doesn’t want that?
Show that you appreciate them. Send gift cards to anyone who gives you a referral, or just offer up gift cards to the first few people who reply to your Facebook post. If you love on your sources, they’ll love on you.
And if you feel like offering a little more of an incentive, try setting up a formalized referral program.
Geographic Farming
Geometric growth takes working a farm of 500 to 10,000 homes.
But if you haven’t even started a farm yet, that’s okay! When done right, it’s easy to grow your farm quickly or pick up adjacent ones. Your first step is to choose your area wisely. Look at the trends over the last few years (not just the last 12 months) and try to see if you can find a farm with a 6% to 8% turnover. If that’s out of the question, try looking back even further in the data. History has a way of coming back around.
Make sure you have enough money saved up to do several mailers a month. Obviously, they’re going to need to look pretty, and mailing out a thousand or more papers every month isn’t cheap – though it is worth it. Try identifying some of the kickouts – those people who are absolutely not interested in working with you (whether it’s because they have another agent or whatever else). If they’re not interested there’s no point in wasting your money or bothering them.
A great mailer strategy is to send out proof pieces that show exactly how you sold a home. Too many agents simply say “SOLD” without including all the interesting details showing the creative work that went into it.
As your farm grows, it has the potential to become a lot of fun. Monica Carr focuses her business on community events. Several times a month she’ll rent out food or ice cream trucks for her community, throw sushi and sake nights, or some other kind of party. The neighborhood gets free food and wine, Monica gets listing appointments, and everyone gets to know each other better. What you’re mainly doing is leveraging these events for emails. Mailers are expensive, emails are free.
Now here is a key thing to remember… The entire point of geographic farming is to get listing presentations. It all comes down to that, so you better have your presentation prepped and ready to go.
Looking Towards the Future
If your business isn’t headed the right direction and you know you would benefit from a deeper exploration of the 8 Drivers of Geometric Business Growth (and a whole lot more), consider joining me and hundreds of success-minded agents in Anaheim for BluePrint.
See you next week for part two!
