I have learned that if I look at an idea, thought or phrase every day, there is a good chance I will internalize its essence and make it part of me. This is no great revelation, as evidenced by the market for motivational quotes in fancy frames found in offices across the country. The problem with these quotes, in my opinion, is that they don’t address the specific motivation required to be successful in the real estate business. My many years working with agents and brokers have allowed me to synthesize my favorite real estate-specific, motivational quotes to the following six. Put them up where you’ll see them every day, as they will have a positive and powerful impact on your business and your success.
1. Marketing Requires Repetition
Relevance is the key to successful marketing. While the average term of homeownership is about 5 to 8 years, most people are not in the market for real estate services on a regular basis and, as such, will probably not notice your marketing. Successful marketers put their message out there over and over again, hoping that at some point, the message will be relevant and the marketing piece will be noticed.
2. The Marketing You Do Today Will Create Your Business of Tomorrow
Any business you did today was probably the result of marketing you did yesterday. If you want a lot of business in the future, take every opportunity to market yourself, your services and your listings today.
3. Open Lines of Communication and Keep Them Open
Give away your phone number and email address to as many people as possible, as often as possible. Remember that your phone number and email address are assets of your business and provide a way for people who want to do business with you in the future to reach you. Make sure these lines of communication are always working.
4. Contacts Create Contracts
Sales is a numbers game. Since not everyone needs real estate services all the time, contacting more people (suspects) will increase the odds of reaching someone who currently needs real estate services (prospects); and if you can build a relationship with them, they’ll become customers or clients.
5. Be Different
Real estate sales is a “me, too” business. If the services and methods you provide are the same as those provided by all REALTORS®, then the differentiator becomes pricing. In the age of the Internet and technology, the number of things one can do to stand out increases almost daily. To find ways to be different requires that you think of differentiating yourself every day. A poster on the wall with these two simple words will change your entire business and help you move into the future.
6. Be Found
In the Internet Age, everyone wants to be at the top of the search engines. SEO (search engine optimization) is the buzz, and you can pay dearly for high placement. Why do people want high placement? They want to be found. With the growth of social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook and others, there is a new way to be found. Creating profiles on social networking sites may help you to “be found” in ways—and by those—you have not thought of before.
Saul Klein is senior vice president for Point2.
