- What is that feel-good work for you? What difference do you desire to make for people? How can you add value even if it has nothing to do with real estate?
When people just call you to work with them, that’s a lead you love. When people call you to work with them because they have followed you and respect you for the value you’ve added to their life — that’s as good as it gets.
Marguerite Giguere
With the advent of the internet, IDX and big teams with big websites that generate tons of internet leads, it’s easy to think you have to play that game to succeed.
But it’s not.
“What I really want is for people to just call me and work with me. And people will tell you ‘that’s not how this works,’ but that’s totally how this works,” said Marguerite Giguere from Windermere Real Estate in Tacoma Washington.
There are others out there in real estate who are succeeding by being genuine, adding real value and making real connections. There’s a way to build your business that is in alignment with your values. There’s a way to attract the right people — the perfect people — to your business and have a business you love.
This interview with Marguerite Giguere is an amazing example of this other approach to authentic lead generation.
There were five themes that stood out, and if you embrace these steps, your lead generation in real estate will feel congruent with who you are, and you’ll create leads you love.
Find your way
First, you must find your way (that’s right, your way).
“It can be painful to look around and see others succeeding and not understanding why you’re not succeeding. In hindsight, I was doing things like other people, and I’m not like other people. I need to do things in my own way,” Giguere said.
To find your way in real estate, it’s helpful to look for other real estate agents who are doing it the way you want to do it. You have to dig a little. But once you have a template you can follow, things get a lot easier.
Conferences, coaches and webinars can all be helpful in finding out how others are doing this business. If you don’t like how you’re currently generating real estate leads, begin to look in these places to find alternatives.
It may require that you try out different methods. But a little self-awareness goes a long way.
There are patterns in your life that point to how to do this business in a way that feels genuine to you. But if you don’t look for them and look inside yourself for answers, you won’t trust your intuition, and you’ll be left with templates that don’t feel good to you and produce less than desirable leads.
Find your voice
Your voice is found in your convictions and passions. It’s the thing that others follow you for. They don’t follow you because you write about market stats. Anyone can do that.
They may follow you because of your conviction or passionate perspective about those market stats.
When you start with your convictions and point of view, attracting the perfect people gets a lot easier. Creating a blog post or a video gets a lot easier.
It’s when you feel like you have to do it like everyone else is doing it that you lose your voice.
In Giguere’s case, she posts from her point of view about real estate, politics and her community.
The key in finding your voice is having conviction about your point of view.
Find your tribe
When you find your voice, your tribe will follow. As Giguere began posting from her point of view, people started reaching out to her. Those who liked how she said things liked her.
This is the magic of tribes. We are drawn to those who are like ourselves.
“People do business with people that they like,” Giguere said. “Your job is to get people to like and trust you. Always keep your ideal client in mind, and ask ‘do I seem likeable, trustworthy and am I good at my job?’ … And that doesn’t have to look like what we’ve been taught it has to look like.”
Too many agents are trying to be all things to all people. And you can tell in the way they post on Facebook or their blog. They don’t say anything with any real conviction, and so they don’t earn anyone’s attention.
I believe the further we move down the road of technology, the more people will filter based on whether your information is “tribal,” whether it’s a match for their worldview and whether they like and trust you.
When you find your voice and begin posting from that perspective, like a smoke signal, your tribe will find you through the content you create.
Find your value
One of the foundational principles to to adding value is “Youtility.” (See the book by Jay Baer called Youtility: Why Smart Marketing Is about Help Not Hype). Youtility is about being useful to your tribe, even if being useful has nothing to do with what you sell.
When you’re useful, helpful and inspiring, people find value in you. Giguere pointed to some great examples she used including FAQs about real estate, helping people find jobs and simply connecting her community with one another.
“We’re important when we have value. So cultivate your value. Your connection with your community is your real value,” Giguere said.
A transaction happens in a moment. Here today, gone tomorrow. But the value you provide in the years between transactions is how you create loyalty and increase referrals.
Find your resolve
When you take a path less traveled, you will have moments where you question your decision. You’ll see others in your office having great success and doing it in ways you’re not.
But you’re different.
You’ve tried the more traditional ways, and they didn’t feel right.
This is where you need to find your resolve. You have to dig deep and continually affirm your choices to build a business that is authentic to who you are and that adds real value to people beyond just selling them a house.
Aligning your work with your purpose can give you the conviction to see it through. Without purpose, you may not have a big enough “why” to stick with it.
“I need to feel good about the work I’m doing. I didn’t want to just be a Realtor to people,” Giguere said.
What is that feel-good work for you? What difference do you desire to make for people? How can you add value even if it has nothing to do with real estate?
These are the questions you need to answer if you want people to call you and ask you to work with them.
Chris Angell is an author, speaker and coach with Groundswell Business Consulting. You can connect with him on Facebook or Twitter.
