I started selling real estate six years ago, and just like anyone opening up a new business, I automatically expected people to start contacting me. For the first six months, I did no transactions and was basically sitting around waiting for family, friends, and neighbors to contact me. Then I ran into a mentor of mine by the name of Mike Ferry. Mike coaches a lot of agents here in the marketplace, and he told me that there are three ways to grow any type of business.
The first way is to pay for it yourself. This means marketing yourself as the expert of whatever you’re selling. Unfortunately when I was starting my business, I didn’t have the resources to invest in marketing myself. The second way is to sit back and wait for it. This is the most common way for people just starting out - they assume everyone will come to them. This is more or less what I expected in real estate. The third way is to go out and earn it. This means picking up the phone and building relationships with people.
Focus on how to generate new business.
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After hearing this, I built a list of names and phone numbers of everyone I knew and started contacting them on a quarterly basis. Gradually, these original contacts started referring new customers to me. After that, I began searching for influencers (important people within the community) and adding them to my database.
How does this apply to you? It means if you want to build your business, reach out to your contacts and offer your services. I’ve continued to grow my business by continually prospecting every single day and looking for new ways to reach out to people and help them with their real estate needs. If you’re just starting out as I once was, focus on how to generate new business. You can have the greatest service out there, but if nobody knows about it, what good does that do?
If you have any questions, or you know anyone who needs a good real estate agent, please reach out to us. We’d be happy to help.
