Shift Happens

Shift Happens. Time to get back to basics and take control of this shift.

If you’re a veteran agent, you know that the ride over the last few years is nothing new – and the current market is nothing new either. Market changes happen…sometimes it’s a smooth ride, sometimes it’s a bumpy ride, and sometimes it’s a wild ride. But if you’re a newer agent, the current market shift may be giving you some anxiety and frustration. If so, here are some tips and ideas to help get you on track.

Get back to the Basics

If you’re a newer agent, it’s quite possible you never even had time to learn the basics. Deals were flying fast and furious over the past couple years and you didn’t necessarily need to learn how to prospect or market…now you do. It’s time to hit the reset button and get to work for the long haul. It’s time to go small in order to go big.

1. Prospecting and Lead Generation
Company leads are great but if you don’t learn how to generate your own leads, you will never control your own destiny…you’ll always have to rely on someone else.

Start by making purposeful phone calls and having conversations every day. Whether it’s a great market or a tougher market, people are buying and selling homes every day. Talk to people, ask if you can help them, ask if they know anybody you can help…people from church, people from school, your hairdresser, your plumber, people in your community. Focus on your sphere.

Reach out to past clients. Consistent communication with past clients is an important part of lead generation. Phone calls, texts, emails, newsletters, holiday greetings…these are all easy to do and effective in keeping your name (and your occupation) top of mind with your past clients.

Buying leads is sometimes necessary when you are just getting started and don’t have a big referral network. A couple months ago, Jeff Casterline did a presentation comparing Lead Sources to help you start the evaluation process. You can download his presentation here: https://brgonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Nuts-and-Bolts-Lead-Sources.pdf

2. Speed to Lead

Responding to incoming leads quickly has always been important but now, 5 minutes isn’t quick enough. To be competitive and effective, aim to respond to leads in less than 60 seconds. Yes, you read that right, 1 minute or less….which brings me to

3. Embrace the Technology

Responding to leads within a minute isn’t always possible so the quicker you get up to speed with the technology and automation that you have at your disposal within the kvCORE CRM, the bigger your advantage. Take the time to watch the videos and customize the campaigns for all your new leads.

Your CRM is a fantastic tool for keeping track of your prospects, and focusing your marketing on the leads who will need your services in the next few months, or even a year from now. This will keep your pipeline full, your business healthy, and save you time.

Think of a CRM as a sort of virtual assistant, reminding you of important dates and information about your current clients, past clients, and prospects. It will do all of the heavy lifting for you, and save you a lot of time by automating processes like lead nurturing and conversation management.

It’s time to learn how to use it effectively and kvCORE has tons of videos and documentation that show you how…along with advanced strategy videos every week.

4. Market Yourself

The last thing you want to do is go unnoticed in a market that is getting more and more competitive. For the last few years, agents haven’t needed to focus so much on the marketing aspect of their business because the opportunities were just landing in their laps. Now is the time to build brand awareness, leverage social media marketing, and (if you haven’t already) incorporate video in your marketing strategy through platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and even TikTok. Be consistent and ensure your prospects learn who you are and what you can do for them.

Join local Facebook Groups. You’d be amazed at how many people use them to find information about local Real Estate Agents. I recently read an interesting article about an agent who used this strategy. “$6M in 4 months: How to use this agent’s free Facebook lead strategy.” It’s a paid subscription so I’ve copied the text from it which you can read here: https://brgonline.com/6m-in-4-months/

5. Understand and Communicate Market Data

Now, more than ever, your customers, clients, and prospects need to know that you are on top of what is happening in the real estate industry, the economy, and your local market. It’s been an incredibly uncertain few years — low inventory, rising interest rates, inflation, layoffs, relocations, and more.

“As a real estate professional in 2022, it is imperative that you understand the local and global economic, political, social and business landscape. Don’t fight reality. Start playing in the market that is coming, versus holding on to where the market was.”

Educate yourself, subscribe to industry newsletters and online publications and take advantage of the free webinars…there are hundreds of them. Dig into the resources and market information/reports within your local MLS. And most importantly, learn how to communicate this information through social media, email, mailers, blog posts, and other marketing formats.

6. Start Farming

It’s time to engage in marketing to the local residents in the areas you service, but more importantly, be consistent in your efforts to reach out and be able to provide something of value. Identify and reach out to tenants in rental properties. Seek out a street, block, or neighborhood where you’ve already helped a buyer or seller, and work your way out from there using a combination of direct mail and targeted social media messaging to create consistent, ongoing impact.

7. Perfect Your Presentation

When you do find yourself in front of a prospective client, make sure your ducks are in a row. Your presentation needs to be clean, professional, informational, and include client testimonials. BRG provides you with the tools and templates to put all of this together. Pre-loaded Listing Folders are available along with a Listing Presentation template for you to customize and add to the folder (we actually had a recruiting meeting with an agent who told us ‘nobody wants to come in after a BRG agent because your package looks so professional.’) Take advantage of the things we offer to make you look like the professional you are! Additionally, you can use CORE Presents to send a digital presentation prior to your appointment. Take the time to learn how to use these assets.

It’s also a good time to learn how to put together an accurate CMA. Many sellers are not yet ready to accept the fact that the market isn’t what it was a couple years ago and there is most likely not going to be a bidding war where they end up with more than they originally listed at. Part of your presentation needs to set the right expectations of the current landscape showing them how your experience and skill set will help overcome these obstacles. If you’re not sure how to accurately do this, reach out to your Broker to get some direction.

Going back to basics is always simple, but not easy. Most people don’t want to admit how simple it really is. Real estate is not complicated, yet too often we complicate it because we have this idea that success needs to be hard and complex or we make excuses for not doing the tasks we know need to be done…the daily activities that are proven to produce results.

Most importantly, know that we have to the tools, the technology, the people, and the desire to help you succeed. We’re committed to you!