According to Seth Godin, popular author on marketing: "The future is just like the past (but shinier)." He goes on to say,
"Of course, it's not true. . . . . . . .Your industry has been completely and permanently altered by the
connections offered by the internet. Your non-profit, your political campaign, your service business. Not a little different, not just email enabled or website marketed, but overhauled. Unfortunately, that's hard to embrace. But it's still true."
Then Seth asks the question:
"What are you going to do about it? If you were starting your business today, knowing what you know now, how would you do things (very) differently?"
The old-model agent: Even though the experienced agent has a career full of knowledge and skills that have been developed through time (and could be referred to as the "School of Hard Knocks"), some experienced agents have been slow to embrace the new business models. As Godin points out, the Real Estate industry has been overhauled. Yet, many agents have not overhauled their business techniques, goals and marketing strategies. This leaves some experienced agents' old business up for new grabs because the "old business" expects the agent to be as savvy or more savvy than the new agent who is fresh out of Real Estate school. The "old business" expects that the experienced agent has not only built his business on knowledge and skill, but that he has expanded his knowledge with new models - new sales and marketing techniques - and all that the technology world has to offer.
The new-model agent: Often our managers ask the agent (interviewee) sitting across the table, "Why do you want to go into Real Estate?" as he hands over his resume - one that would impress most CEOS on Wall Street. They may be JDs, MBAs or PhDs -- trading their posh offices for challenging sales careers. Because of their education and business acumen, they feel they have much to offer the public in the Real Estate arena.
What came first - the chicken or the egg? Does the highly educated agent feel that because he has the education, he must "save face" and succeed - no matter what career path he takes? Or it is because he had the fortitude to finish his education and succeed in Career No. 1, he has the ingredients and gumption necessary to succeed in Career No. 2 -- Real Estate?
The new-model agent takes a hard-line approach to time management and embraces the latest in technology. He tends to become irritated with old-model training and expects webinars and office meetings with point and purpose - getting the most information in the least amount of time - making the best use of his most precious asset -- time. He understands that prospecting is the backbone of the Real Estate industry; therefore, he attends functions that are not just "social" but networking events where he is constantly qualifying new prospects. He uses every tool available to display market facts and trends on his social networking sites, and he expects his "tribe" to follow and take hold of the knowledge and expertise he is dispensing (with one touch of the latest app on his iPhone).
The new-model agent is open to continuing education because he already embraces knowing it all and mastering his craft.
What the old can learn from the new: Listening to the circle of "older-model" agents, I too often hear the complaints of how their "old business" has either dried up or has been lost to a "Pied-Piper" agent who was either facebooking or twittering current market facts and trends. Had the "older-model" agent just left Real Estate school and jumped on the social networking strata, which is here to stay, would he be piping a different tune? If he were brand-new today, what would be his business model? How would he do things differently to build and maintain his business? What would be his best platform for prospecting?
What the new can learn from the old: One cannot dismiss experience or years of service and the "hard-knocks" that have allowed the older-model agent to make a good living in Real Estate. Even though the newer models include wirelessness, mobility, blogging and "all things tweet" in the social networking echelon, basic people skills and how an agent addresses his client, (avoiding a snooty, educated arrogance and even a perception of condescension), is a skill that the experienced agent has been practicing for years and is a permanent part of his skill pack. "Real Estate will always be a toe-to-toe, nose-to-nose business."
The old-model agent also knows that marketing other agents - treating other agents with the utmost courtesy and respect - is as important as prospecting new business. The old adage holds true even today, "buyers and sellers come and go, but once we leave the closing table, we real estate agents are stuck with each other."
Regardless of how book-smart and tech-savvy the new-model agent is, good people sense, personal connection, solid rapport and relationship skills as well as "being the best listener on the planet" will always be in style.
An agent who is a true blend of the old model and the new - is nothing short of amazing!
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