I have the honor of training two brand new agents that joined our team recently. I've always been somewhat of a coach, but to really train somebody to succeed in real estate is tougher than I thought.
When Amanda and I first started in real estate we didn't have anybody to learn from. We had a few people that taught us what NOT to do, but that's a whole other story for a whole other time.
We had each other, and we learned by trying different things.
We were in new construction open houses 2-4 times a month for the first year. Nothing. But we tried. Maybe we weren't doing it right, but we gave it a go.
We mailed to expireds and FSBOs for nine months. Nothing. Again, we probably weren't doing it right, but we tried.
We started our Active Rain blog and starting using Facebook and other social media sites to try to attract business. The first six months... nothing. Then we got a buyer. Then a seller. Then two more buyers. Then it just exploded for us. We found our niche.
Fast forward four years and guess what? Social media is still working, open houses (because we started doing them right and have more confidence in front of people) have started to work for us, and we just listed a home Friday that was one of our expired targets from a few weeks ago. Referrals from both Active Rain (THANK YOU!) and many past clients are pouring in as well.
One of my new agents is a little frustrated with her lead generation. She is two months in, has already closed two deals, and just got her third under contract. That's way better than my first two months!
Today we were talking about some different ideas for lead generation for her. She has a small sphere of people she knows since she isn't from this area, so we needed to get her in front of people.
I recommended that she signs up for more floor time and lets the girls in the office know that she will cover any open floor time. Being in the #3 selling Century 21 in the country armed with 150 + agents and hundreds and hundreds of listings... floor time here is a valuable thing. The phone is always ringing with curious buyers.
After hearing my suggestion, her direct quote was "I tried floor time. It didn't work."
After digging a little bit more, she told me that she did floor time on three different occassions and she got nothing from it. Zilch. Nada.
Obviously that conversation inspired this post.
If you are a new agent and you want to figure out how to bring in business, there are a TON of different ways to do it. Build a new website, social media, open houses, floor time, networking groups, and on and on and on. My suggestion: Pick one or two or three things, but STICK WITH IT. You don't become successful in this business overnight. It takes time. It takes rejection. It takes consistency. Keep trying. Oh. And get a mentor. That always helps.
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