Improve Your Real Estate Sales In Any Market

Business is simple.

It may not always be easy, but the principles of success remain the same.

Most people think economic conditions dictate how well they will do, economically – i.e. times are good, business is good. When times are bad, they just know that business will suffer.

I’m sure most of us hear this from agents we know. In fact, some of you reading this right now think it’s true.

It aint. The truth is whether your local real estate market is booming or seeing more challenging times, you should be focused on three things  consistently: Lead generation; giving phenomenal service; and becoming an expert.

If you commit to mastery in these three areas, you can gain market share regardless of the economic conditions.

Understand that you are in the Lead Generation business.

No matter what you provide or sell, your real business is Lead Generation. Your purpose in business is to find people to serve.

If you invented a widget that will change the world but you have no customers, you are out of business – and your widget won’t change the world.

The first key to improve your sales in any market is to get into the Lead Generation Business. Everyday spend time meeting new people and deepening relationships.

Most people love to help, but haven’t learned to love hunting for people to help. Ask for business, and be detached from the outcome.

Commit to lead generating every day, and you won’t care what part of the economic cycle we’re in.

Is your service and product the best they can be?

Often we think it’s all about price. Some companies slash prices to try to get more business.  Maybe it’s a local agent that is willing to take a listing for a smaller professional fee than you are.

What we need to remind ourselves it that people don’t want the cheapest price, they want the best deal. If we all wanted the cheapest thing, we’d all drive the cheapest cars available, and judging by the parking lot at my local Real Estate Board’s events, that isn’t the case.

People want a good deal – that means value for their money. You can tinker with either side of that equation: Lower your price or Increase your value proposition.

Instead of making your services & products cheaper and less profitable, what if you made them better and more useful?

If you improved the quality of what you did for your clients, would they refer more business to you? Probably; if you cut your prices, you are sure to attract some customers – but they’ll leave you as soon as a competitor cuts their prices a bit more.

The problem with competing on price is that someone can always undercut you – and you can’t make that up in volume.

If you focus on providing more and more value, you’ll be making your product or service increasingly attractive to consumers. Providing more value is the 2nd step to growing your market share in any economy.

Become an expert in your area

Are you an expert at what you do, or are you one of many selling the same services and homes? If you’re one of many, then you’re a commodity.

You become a commodity when people perceive that they can get the same experience from a variety of sources – ‘an agent is an agent regardless of the brand name on the sign’ – and usually it also means that they’ll make a selection based on price & marketing.

BUT, If you’re an expert, people will come to you for what you know and the experience you have.

Be the market expert & they will seek you out.

How do you become an expert? Simple!

1) Find your niche – what part of the real estate business are you passionate about? For me, it’s helping people build wealth through buying and selling income producing real estate.  Figure out what you enjoy selling, and focus on it. Specialist > Generalist.

2) Immerse yourself in the information you need, from people and books, to become an expert.  Study, apply, repeat.  Learn from those that have come before you, and you’ll save yourself years off of the learning curve.

3) Walk the talk. Show people that you can consistently produce the results you’re talking about, and you can do it for them.

That’s it! If you do that, and communicate to your target market that they should deal with you because you are the expert on helping first time homebuyers, or selling hotels, or whatever your particular niche is, they will want to deal with you instead of a regular agent. Why wouldn’t they?

I know some of our readers find themselves facing real estate markets that have seen large shifts, and the good news is that no matter what the market is like – whether its spring or winter, whether rates are going up or down – you can increase your sales by focusing on Lead Generation, Providing More Value, and Being your Market Expert.