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Takeaways:
- Two ways to use LinkedIn to grow your business.
- Only a fraction of online real estate searches are done in English.
- The questions you can ask yourself to help manage your time and achieve work-life balance.
Last month, 45 of real estate’s leading women met in Scottsdale, Arizona, for the ninth annual Awesome Females in Real Estate (AFIRE) conference. If you’re ready to improve your business, take a hint from the best and brightest women in real estate today.
This year’s AFIRE was packed with great content, including unique ways to use LinkedIn for lead generation, the hidden opportunity in global real estate search, how to avoid the lure of “shiny object syndrome” and a simple way to manage your time. Here are a few examples of what I learned at the conference:
1. Two top ways LinkedIn can grow your business
Sherry McCormack, a real estate technology trainer, shared many tips that can help you build your business by using LinkedIn. Her simplest suggestion was to put your name in all caps on your profile page. This tip is especially useful if you have a common name like Susan Smith or Mike Jones.
McCormack’s tip on how to use LinkedIn for building your referral database is pure gold. Each week she schedules a coffee meeting with a member of her LinkedIn network.
At that meeting, she and the contact review their LinkedIn network lists to determine three to five people to whom they can introduce each other.
McCormack thoroughly researches each person prior to making contact. She then focuses on building a relationship with these individuals rather than just aggregating a list of people she will never get to know.
2. London brokerages are missing half their potential client leads — are you?
Janet Choynowski, the CEO of Immobel.com, shared two surprising statistics. Only 27 percent of residential real estate searches are done in English. In fact, over 50 percent of the searches for London properties are conducted in languages other than English.
For all the press that the massive U.S. search sites such as realtor.com and Zillow receive, they serve only a portion of the global real estate search because they are English-only sites.
Whether you are an individual agent, a broker or run a major company, there are extraordinary opportunities to grab significant market share.
If you are only advertising in English, you are missing a big chunk of the market. Some options include translation sites such as Immobel.com/real-buzz.com and Proxio.com.
Other options include advertising in major international print publications, such as the Asian version of The Wall Street Journal or your local foreign-language newspapers.
Local advertising is usually inexpensive. Although you might need someone to help you with the translation, if you have a large community of people from other places in the world, the investment is well worth it. As an extra bonus, many of these clients are all-cash buyers.
3. How to avoid “shiny object syndrome” and make your clients love you
Nikki Beauchamp was unable to make AFIRE due to a family emergency; however, during our prep call, she had several pieces of advice that it would be wise for agents to follow.
Almost everyone finds keeping up with technology changes challenging. Right now, Periscope and other streaming apps are all the rage. The questions that Beauchamp asks to avoid becoming distracted by shiny object syndrome are:
“Am I willing to re-engineer my entire process, including my normal daily activities, to implement this app?”
Even more importantly, “Is this app or service even something that my clients want?”
Today, thousands of agents are so busy looking at their phones that they trample over the people they are working with. Beauchamp has discovered that what her clients want is her undivided time and attention. This fact is especially true if you’re dealing with people from other cultures. If you want their business, focus on them.
4. The secret to effectively managing your time
Sindy Ready, the 2015 president of the Women’s Council of Realtors, gave the Friday morning keynote. Ready shared two strategies that have helped her cope with her extremely hectic schedule.
The first approach addresses how she maintains time for herself. When someone asks her to do something, rather than giving a knee-jerk “yes,” she responds by saying, “Let me look at my schedule and see if that will work out.” She then uses the following filter in making the decision:
- If I say yes to something else, am I saying no to my family?
The second strategy Ready shared comes from Tami Bonnell, the CEO of EXIT Realty. Bonnell has implemented what she calls her 120-second rule.
In the morning, ask:
- What will my day look like?
- What positive things will happen?
In the evening, ask:
- What went right today?
- What am I proud of?
- What am I grateful for?
These are just a few of the takeaways from AFIRE. Any one of these strategies can help you improve your business — which will you choose?
Bernice Ross, CEO of RealEstateCoach.com, is a national speaker, author and trainer with over 1,000 published articles and two best-selling real estate books. Learn about her training programs at www.RealEstateCoach.com/