Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, was giving advice to Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google. He told him to be “great at five things.” In Steve Jobs’ autobiography, he received similar advice from both his father and his mentors.
We agree with them. Become great at a simple list of things, and that is what will bring you wealth in real estate.
In a world of distractions, how do you know what leads to a paycheck in real estate? Is it your website? Networking? Paying for leads? Tweaking your landing page? You’re probably busy enough just holding deals together.
What’s an agent to do? We recently discussed this topic on-air at Real Estate Coaching Radio, and we’d invite you to listen to the show below and read along with the points we cover:
6 things that will make you rich in real estate
Keep it simple. Become great at: lead generation, lead follow-up, prequalifying, presenting, negotiating and closing. When you are the best at each of these six critical things, it will be impossible for you not to meet or exceed your financial goals.
1. Lead generation rules
1. Maintain a minimum number of buyers and listings at all times. This is your No. 1 job in real estate — prospecting-enhanced marketing or marketing-enhanced prospecting.
2. Know where you will get your leads. What are your spokes? Past clients, center of influence, referrals, builders, open houses, unrepresented sellers, expired listings and withdrawns — the list goes on. Choose your sources, and become great at generating leads from them.
3. Follow a daily schedule that focuses on generating new business.
4. Embrace and internalize the fact that creating new business is the fuel for the engine known as your real estate business. Do you have a strong engine, or are you still walking to work? It’s a decision you make every single day.
5. Make the commitment to be the best at lead generation and stop “dabbling.”
2. Lead follow-up rules
1. Follow up on 100 percent of your leads daily — regardless of the lead source.
2. Follow up with the tightest urgency you possibly can. Leads do not get better with age, so shoot for five minutes or less unless you’re on a listing appointment.
3. Follow up relentlessly. Call until they list or buy with you, list or buy with someone else, tell you they’ll never list or buy, or get a restraining order against you because you’re so relentlessly following up.
4. Follow up using lead follow-up scripts, and leave compelling messages that make them want to call you back.
5. Get rid of your elaborate lead follow-up requirements — such as only emailing them because they emailed you or not leaving messages for invalid reasons.
3. Prequalifying rules
1. Prequalify 100 percent of the time, including repeat and referral leads. Prequalify your best friend as well as you do a cold lead.
2. Prequalify for motivation and time frame.
3. Use prequalifying scripts for both buyers and sellers. Never go on a listing presentation without knowing the answers to the following:
- Are they speaking with other agents?
- What price do they have in mind?
- Why are they selling?
- What is their timeframe?
4. Presentation rules
1. Actually have buyer and listing presentations. Make sure they’re powerful and proven.
2. Create and use a prelisting presentation. Make sure it’s powerful and proven.
3. Know your scripts, objection handlers and closes.
4. Develop a high level of versatility so you’re not just working with people who are just like you, who fall in your lap or are referred to you. Skill development is required to get you there.
5. Learn how to close to cut down on losing potential clients and wasting time on endless follow-up.
5. Negotiating rules
1. Understand that the definition of negotiating is “bringing two parties together to reach a mutual agreement,” not beating the other side.
2. Learn to be in control of your emotions, so you can do the best job for your clients. Be creative and flexible and maintain a mindset of being of service, even when the other parties don’t behave the way you desire.
3. Never, ever give up. If you have a buyer who wants to buy and a seller who wants to sell, your job is to figure out how to get them to close.
4. Some money is better than no money. Assess the situation before you say no to deals that you have the power to close. Don’t be part of the problem.
6. Closing rules
1. Understand that closing is the logical result of a great presentation. If you don’t have a great presentation, you’ll never close well.
2. Learn how to do soft closes, assumptive closes and direct closes.
3. Close at least five times before you give up.
4. Know and use the Sharpie Close.
If you aren’t the best in your market on the six critical skills outlined above, you have to work harder to master these skills. Look around and see what other people in the industry are doing, and ask how they accomplish it.
Tim and Julie Harris have over 20 years’ experience in real estate. Learn more about their real estate coaching and training programs at timandjulieharris.com, or tune in to Real Estate Coaching Radio every weekday at realestatecoachingradio.com.