Fernando was asking the question, Does your Staging Business come in waves ? I have to say that certainly in the beginning it did for me. I remembered and followed the lessons that I learned as the administrative manager of a real estate office. There were successful agents, not successful agents and then those that rode the waves. They would have a great listing or sale and then there would be this lull where they had to market themselves like crazy to get business. Then there would be another great listing or sale (or even a series of them) then that slow time again where they had to market like crazy.
What made the difference between the successful agent and the wave rider? The truth is that the successful agent worked their business every single day. It didn't matter if they had a closing that day, if they brought in 3 listings the day before, or if they were going to spend the entire week with buyers. Every single day they did something to reach out personally to potential clients. Notice those words I underlined. This means they didn't spend all their time in front of a computer emailing, checking email or blogging. They were actively working their businesses.
What defines actively working your business? In some way specifically reaching your target audience. You should be out there pounding the pavement. You should have some time in your day set aside to prospect and market yourself... NO EXCUSES! The busy agent doesn't decide that they are busy enough that today they don't need to market themselves. On the contrary, they know that business next week, or next month depends directly on what they do today. Let me also be clear here that passive marketing isn't going to cut it! You can't just send emails, blog, put ads in newspapers, ads on TV, etc and expect to suddenly have a booming business!
If you decide that you want to work a campaign - let's say you've gotten a list of properties that have been on the market over 90 days and want to target either the agent or the homeowner. You could send a letter (which will end up in the trash most likely - it may or may not have ever been opened). You could send an email (which probably was read and deleted). OR you could call the agent/homeowner directly. Do you feel uncomfortable just picking up the phone and doing that, probably. You could soften the blow and send them an email with general information first AND THEN follow up with a phone call reminding them of the email. That might help you feel more confident.
This process doesn't take very long. You may be surprised at how many phone calls you could make in 30 minutes if you strictly kept it to work. I know most of you are uncomfortable with this. This is the behavior of most top producing real estate agents. They aren't all cold calls, many are referrals (which they asked for from agents they worked with) and many were from their COI (Center of Influence) lists. When those ran cold, however, they begin the cold call for the rest of their set aside time.
Because I could go on and on, but know you won't read blogs that are toooo lengthy... (I know I don't)... let me just sum this up for you. If you want to be out of the ebb & flow, set aside a specific amount of time every day (usually the morning works best - before email or you will find an excuse not to do it). Work that time every workday (whatever your weekly schedule is) without fail - even when you are already swamped with work and soon you will find that you will always have work waiting for you.
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