Developing a “$harp-$hooter” Real Estate $trategy

Developing a “$harp-$hooting” Real Estate $trategy

Successful agents know that when things get quiet as they will do every now and then, they need to always GBTB – Get back to basics! Although selling real estate is not easy it is deceptively simple. We all know as salespeople that there are few professional problems in our life that a good sale won’t fix.

Often I have a meeting with an agent who is ‘down in the dumps’ and really looking for a little sympathy and to be frank, I am just not big on sympathy. If however, the meeting is about analysing what is wrong and how to solve a problem, well then I am your man – I am a problem solver.

If you start a sales meeting with such an agent with the question; “if you had a good sale this morning – would we still be having this meeting,” then answer may be “probably not”. Then there’s really not much more to be achieved from further discussions as the issue at hand is probably more an emotional issue that has to be dealt with. Of course, it is reasonable to expect that we will be affected emotionally by the ups and downs of the real estate business and as long as we are not making it someone else’s problem in the office, we must all be fair on ourselves and just accept sometimes this job is just bloody awful.

BUT, what if you are in a rut and the “nothing happening” is happening for too long, then there are four steps I suggest you follow, arm yourself, and ready, aim and fire!

STEP ONE: ARM YOURSELF

Find some quiet time in a pleasant place with a pen and paper and ask yourself some questions. By the way somehow the notebook computer does work as well and scribbling ideas and making written notes has its own magic!

Ask yourself a simple power question; Why am I a GREAT agent?
Maybe you want to jot down five to ten ideas but focus those answers on your qualities not those of your company or brand. If you want to record the great points about your company or brand do that in another list parallel to your own.

Next, ask yourself another power question; What have I done previously that has worked well for me in respect of making sales?
Again, jot down about five to ten ideas.

After you have given yourself answers to these two questions you will be in a positive frame of mind and ready to move on to the next step, which is to ask yourself; What five things could I do more of and what five things can I do less of, to get back my mojo?
Sorry I was born in 1960 so if you don’t know what your ‘mojo’ is you had better Google it together with the word ‘groovy’.

You will now have a very good frame of reference for developing a strategy for action because the right weapon is your positive mindset!

STEP TWO: READY…

There is no point shooting what you don’t want to kill! So the next step is ADD FACTS – you could call it research!

Look critically at your marketplace. You really need to even discount your own opinion as psychologically we start thinking of our own opinion as factual. You want to know if your area is viable. You want to see how many sales are taking place and yes how many are yours. Within a given time frame (minimum six months maximum two years) are you gaining or losing market share? It is all about market share in my opinion because you can’t control the market but you can control your market share. Take care; it is very easy to now start getting negative with facts and allow those limiting beliefs to get back into your clear positive space you have just created. This is not a judgmental exercise it is about facts.

Now make coloured dots on a black and white photocopy of a map of your area. Put red felt tip pen dots where there have been sales for the period (one dot per sale). Put blue felt tip pen dots where there are listings and hey presto you have a bird’s eye view of reality in your marketplace. I guarantee you are going to get a few surprises but take a note where the ALIVE areas are (RED) and where the DEAD areas are (no dots). What other points come out of looking at this map? Note them all down.

STEP THREE: AIM…

This “map” is now used to create a strategy. You probably have limited time in the day like everyone else so you want to focus on the ALIVE areas (I like to call them the watering holes) so now take it one step further. If you could get to know every house in the ALIVE area over a period of time could you put the owners all into five targets?

Target A: Currently Selling
Target B:1 Will be Selling With Me Soon
Target B:2 Will be Selling With Me A Little Later
Target B:3 Will be Selling With Me One Day
Target C: Gone with the wind (Never Likely to Sell with Me and ‘frankly my dear I don’t give a damn!’)

Everything above except A depends on the big R in Real Estate which is RELATIONSHIPS.
The reason why we are ultimately more or less successful over time in real estate will always be governed by how well we are taking care of RELATIONSHIPS because we do not sell a product we sell a service that requires that others CHOOSE US in their best interests so unless we are investing in good relationships we are not focussing on the solution to whatever problem we think we have!

Your Strategy however you personalise it has the same objective. Spend your priority time on A and recognise your limitations and be realistic about your expectations; you have not EARNED any right to list those people’s properties because you have not invested in relationships with them otherwise they would have listed with you. Don’t be a sore loser – they are not your clients. That does not mean you cannot implement a strategy for listing their property but be realistic.

The main focus in your strategy is B:1 because when a person indicates or the stats reveal that a person belongs to B:1 you need to give them the RoyalYou treatment. People will often give subtle indications that they are going to be selling by commenting on their life-changing events both positive and negative; Marriage, Divorce, New Baby, Death, Crime Experience, Promotion, Debt, Emigration, Lottery Win, A Successful Bank Robbery – whatever you can pick up on through them and their neighbours.
Another way a person goes into B:1 is how long have they been in their houses because statistically after X number of years in your area people sell. You need to discover your X!

What makes a person a B:1 or a B:2 should be clear. B:1 has TOLD YOU or INDICATED (or someone else has told you or indicated) that a move is on the cards. Listen to your common sense in this regard.

B:2 are those who you have no reason to believe are imminent changes. But they or someone else gave you SOME INDICATION of a life-changing moment in their future.

B:3 is simple, everyone else plus those who say we are never selling. Add to this all those who bought less than 24 months ago – statistically, they are not worth worrying about now!

C: In this business, I don’t believe we are anybody’s doormat. When you come across a person who you do not like or does not like you, just accept it and invest in other people. There are a lot of people out there so don’t take it personally just add them to the C “IF-I-CARE” and just move on! Don’t get distracted or let them take your energy. It is not realistic to expect that you are going to have a positive relationship with everyone.

STEP FOUR: FIRE!

To be a sharpshooter work smart and work strategically because without a plan you are choosing to just strike out wildly hoping you are going to hit something! If you blast away with a shotgun you just cause pain everywhere! A sharpshooter knows how to aim and focus measure distance wind speed and shoot the trigger at the right time to hit the target in the kill zone. The red dots on the map show you where to start focussing and where to prioritise the above process. Over time expand the same process to less prioritised areas.

So what was all that about getting back your mojo? The five things could I do more of and what five things can I do less of to get back my mojo is all about recognising that the activities you decide to focus on should be invested in the right people. A sharpshooter real estate strategy is implementing those activities with the right people the right way. To put it another way, it is about taking ACTION in an EFFECTIVE way with the RIGHT people.

Now … Let’s talk ammunition!
Want to know how to guarantee success with your B:1 Category and B:2 Category?
Subscribe to this blog (top right) and I will send you a link to my latest two videos;
“B:1 to B the Best”
“B:2 to remain the best”

Only you can work out who the RIGHT people are to create relationships with!
I can help you work out how to do this cost-effectively and time effectively, and help you avoid common and costly mistakes.
With relationships you often only get one chance to create the right impression and it is very difficult to change a perception that you have created unintentionally. So do it, but do it properly!