To be successful especially in a slow market you have to be willing to beat every bush and eventually something will jump out.

What does beating the bushes mean? It means staying in the game or being in the game.

Ask yourself are you in the game or are you on the sidelines watching the game. Do you think you have to stay on the bench until your phone rings to be called into the game?

You Have To Make a Decision To Be in the Game.

There have been many times I have asked fellow agents how's it going and you get a negative answer, then I ask what have you been doing and the answer is nothing.

We try to do something every day to be in the game or beat the bushes.

Here are some of the things we do to beat the bushes, everything counts for today or tomorrow's business.

•1)      Hand out your card, make a call or send out a card to a past or present client or even someone you don't know.

Clean up your desk or clean up your files, you may find a note or jog a memory of a past client or lead you never got around to following up.

•2)      Go over your open house visitors list you may have missed someone. What's that you don't do open house? If you have nothing to do, DO IT. It gives you opportunity to talk to neighbors.

•3)      Drop a friend or family member a note.

•4)      Are you Up on the market and the inventory? Go visit listing to preview homes and prepare for a future buyer.

•5)      Meet up with other agents and exchange ideas, Don't go into negatives. BRAIN STORM.

•6)      Go to lunch with a lender, title officer or businessman. Pick their brain for ideas. See what they have to offer for marketing.

•7)      How about new markets? Visit new home communities 1 or 2 a week to get familiar with inventory and sales agents, you never know what you run into at these communities. Create a relationship with the salesman so they will call you when a good deals come up. (. I picked up a buyer/seller at one of these visits)

•8)      Here in Las Vegas Hi-Rise living is on the rise ( I know). We really didn't take the time to get familiar with those projects because we didn't have clients looking for that. But now that it is slow we visit one or two a week. Now I can talk about them and try to do some marketing towards that type of buyer.

•9)      Visit a garage sale, ask if they are moving.

•10)   Ask kids in the neighborhood if they know if anyone is moving, they know a lot.

•11)  Read a book or a magazine on business or marketing or search the web for ideas. I like Fortune Small Business put out by American Express.

•12)  Write or design a marketing piece regardless if it will ever be used.

•13)  Pick up a pie or muffins and stop by an old client's home.

•14)  Design a flier for an open house, just pick a listing and do it.

•15)  Review your listing presentation. You need to be telling a story about the seller's house and the market.

•16)  Send a letter to an expired listing.

•17)  Obtain from your title co a mailing list of your target subdivision. Study the list and take note where the owners live? Are they owner occupied?  If their mailing address is not in that subdivision there must be a renter there, knock on their door. Mail out a flier to that farm with neighborhood stats.

•18)  Carry around a binder of current listings ( they don't have to be yours).  Sit in a busy café at lunch and flip through the listings slowly (picture,pictures,pictures). You may catch someone's attention. Wear your name tag. Leave your card on the table when you leave.

•19)  Keep track who you talk to. We keep a seller/buyer profile on each person, a 1 page form.  Although we do have them on computer, I like to flip through those pages when things are slow it will motivate me to make a call or send an email. I can do this while sitting on an open house. We have gotten listing from neighbors because they see how many open house we do.

•20)  Design a sales piece marketing you. Do it over several weeks and keep changing it until it's what you want.

Put picture, bio, what makes you special. Who you work with and why you work with them. (lenders, title co ect.). Explain the advantages and why they should work with you.

•21)  KNOCK ON A DOOR.

•22)   Attend a CE class

•23)  Try to network with businessmen

•24)  Try to mix with tourist who may be thinking of making a move.

•25)  Hang out at the office.

•26)  Write a blog like I did today to help gather your thoughts.

•27)  DO SOMETHING!

Please feel free to add to the list it will be helpful to all.

Now we're off to go beat a bush!

RALPH