Five Timeless Habits Every Real Estate Agent Should Know To Boost Sales And Retention

The first thing we ask in training sessions is for agents in attendance to raise their hands if they’ve ever had a friend, family member, past customer, next-door neighbor (or anybody they drove around in their car for three months) list or buy a home from someone other than them.

Inevitably, every agent in the room raises a hand.

The customer is not to blame for this phenomenon. We — the real estate industry and the agent — have to find a way to position ourselves as the best option for people at the moment when they are ready to act. If not, potential clients will go elsewhere. These five time-tested habits will help any agent, regardless of time spent in the business, stay at the forefront of people’s minds.

1. Redefine the sale.

Contrary to popular belief, the important thing “for sale” in real estate is not the home — it’s the agent. Agents should be constantly selling themselves to the customer as the person who can consult with them and serve them throughout the entire process of buying, selling and owning a home.

It seems so simple, but it often gets lost on the service side, especially once a critical milestone in the process has been reached.

Agents need to examine their expectations: “What happens once I get a listing and put it on the market?” A shift can occur at this point, and I’ve seen it personally with agents who have listed my homes. At first, they’re calling me, talking to me, walking me through everything, but once the sign goes up in the yard, I don’t hear from them until there’s an offer on the house. Then, during the homeownership experience, the only agents I hear from are the ones marketing the area. The piece that a lot of agents miss is that ongoing touch points with a client are absolutely critical.

2. Be proactive and pick up the phone.

Some agents make the mistake of being too reliant on technology. They have the ability to set their customers and buyers up on an automatic drip that will send them new listings as they come onto the market. It’s easy with this setup to fall into the trap of thinking that working with your customer occurs only when you’re driving around showing them homes, or that the customer will simply call you if they need something. Agents who succeed are the ones who are regularly checking in with current customers and regularly calling their past clients.

It really comes down to being proactive – about both communicating with clients and, more broadly, about structuring each workday with intention. Agents should think to themselves, “How much time per day do I spend prospecting for new customers, working with existing customers and reaching out to past customers?” While simple in theory, very few people carve out time in that way each day, which is why we see so many customers coming back several years later and using different agents. According to the 2018 National Association of Realtors Member Profile report (purchase required), 58% of new agents (in the business for two years or less) reported getting zero business through referrals from past clients. That’s a shame.

3. Focus on the three-quarters of the homebuying cycle that many others forget.

Mobility trends currently show that people tend to move every seven to 10 years. Still, more than half of all residential agents working in the business say that only 25% or less of their business comes from repeat clients. This is because agents tend to pool all of their energy into the two- to three-year portion of the cycle — the part of the cycle centered on closing a transaction.

Once the transaction is complete, there may be a few months of consulting and follow-up, but then there is that 7- to 10-year time frame before the cycle starts all over again. While seemingly an inactive period, those years make up three-quarters of the homebuying continuum. That’s a big chunk of it, and that’s where there’s opportunity.

Countless agents enter the market when it’s strong and business is finding them. But we see something every time there’s a downturn: A whole group of agents falls out of the business. The agents who stick around and thrive are the ones with a systematic way of following up with people.

4. Take advantage of networking opportunities and information sharing.

I believe information sharing among agents is a win-win: Agents do better, and brokerages do better, too. Even being active on an agent-focused Facebook group can help improve performance. Explore how you can join or organize networking events, promote social collaboration and meet with agents from all over to discuss experiences, challenges and strategies.

5. Think of yourself as an entrepreneur.

This is an industry where there are inevitable ups and downs, and agents have to make hay while the sun shines. However, an agent can easily be consumed with working in their business and forget to work on their business. It’s the agents who follow up with past clients, who go to conferences, who learn from other agents — that is, those who really work on how to improve their business — who make it over the long haul.

The most successful agents are independent entrepreneurs who view real estate as a business rather than a job. These are the industry leaders who take the long view and put the hard work into every facet of their business. They are also the people who, when the next downturn comes and goes, will be right where they always are: on the top of the sales charts.

See the original article at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesrealestatecouncil/2018/10/09/five-timeless-habits-every-real-estate-agent-should-know-to-boost-sales-and-retention/#5987b4cb71c4