I have been on a rant lately. I'm sure those of you who have been following me are wondering, "What the #!%$ is she on about?"
Well - here's the thing: I have been selling real estate for 30 years. THIRTY YEARS!! And the reason I have been on such a rant is because...
...the day I stop selling real estate is the day I stop making money!
As much as I love selling real estate, I am fast approaching an age and a point where I can see that I won't be able to keep doing this forever- certainly not for another 30 years! (God help us!!)
After 30 years of selling real estate - I am beginning to see that, by learning to generate enough leads, I can turn my "S" quadrant "sole proprietorship" business into a "B" quadrant business (as in "Rich Dad - Poor Dad").
As independent real estate agents we MUST adapt - or perish. This market - the worst I've seen in my 30 year career - is forcing us to adapt to new technologies and new strategies.
The old strategies of generating leads are just not effective. I'm not saying they don't work at all. I'm just saying that they are expensive, time consuming and they don't work very well. I'm talking about things like ads in the newspaper, direct mail pieces, billboards, cold calls, sitting floor time, working open houses, holding client appreciation parties - and so forth and so on.
"So what DOES work?" I hear you ask.
I have been working on that answer for the past 4 years - ever since the market turned. Back in those halycon days of '03 and '04, it was EASY to have more leads than you can possibly handle. But nowadays... well, not so much.
Let's be honest: prior to the downturn, if we had enough brains to get a license, we could make a pretty good living selling real estate. We thought we were super-stars. We didn't realize it was just a factor of being in the right place at the right time. And we all got pretty lazy - as least as regards to prospecting.
So when the market turned, we all had to dust off some pretty rusty skills and get back to actually WORKING for a living.
I tried everything I knew: open houses, floor time, cold calling, direct mail, client parties, etc, so forth and so on. And then I tried REALLY HARD. I made MORE phone calls, did MORE open houses, held MORE client parties. I had to stop the direct mail because my broker didn't pay for that and I couldn't afford it anymore. Result? STILL nothing! (Stop me if this is beginning to sound painfully familiar.)
Napoleon Hill famously said: "Every adversity carries with it the seeds of an equal or greater benefit."
In November '08, a friend introduced me to Social Media, Web 2.0 and internet marketing. What he was explaining to me was completely foreign. Candidly, I didn't see how what he was telling me could possibly work.
"Social Media? FaceBook? Blogging? YouTube? Neil, what language are you speaking?"
But truth be told, I really didn't have a choice. I had to do SOMETHING. So, I decided to trust what Neil was telling me. I put my head down and went to work. It did take about 6 months - part of which was my learning curve. However, for the past 6 months (or maybe 9 now), I have seen see my business gradually begin to gather momentum, gain traction and start to generate more and more leads. Just like in the good old days!
To prove that this stuff WORKS, in Oct '09 - at a time when most small independent real estate offices are closing their doors and merging with the "bigs", I left my "big" and struck out on my own.
To have a BUSINESS that will continue to generate revenue even when you're not working is something that all of you deserve: my hard working colleagues who have continued to hang on in this crazy market!
And THIS is the reason I have been on a rant!
The only way we can generate so gosh darn many leads - so many leads you can't possibly even work all the A+ ones - is to learn how to utilize social media effectively.
I've saved the best part for last: my mentor and friend Neil Venketramen has made a TON of this information available absolutely free! All you need do is go to http://RealEstateMarketingResults.com now and start watching his videos. He lays out his entire program there step by step.
Let Neil share his brilliance with you. It won't happen overnight, but if you stick with it, I guarantee you that it will completely transform your business - as it has mine.
"To Your Success!"
mary!
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