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Ok, the title might be a bit misleading. These aren’t actually ‘new’ ideas, but perhaps you haven’t heard some of them
Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash
before.
I recently watched a Tom Ferry video podcast on this topic wherein he had a number of top producers from across North America share what’s working for them right now to continue to get new listings. If you want to watch the whole thing, it’s here: https://youtu.be/l7ZoiVO1cJ0
Most of what I heard was: it’s time to go back to basics! What’s old is new again: calling your sphere, open houses, direct mail, circle marketing around other listings, etc. When the market shifts, agents go looking for new ideas to help them in hopes of finding ‘the next big thing’ that will make it easy for them to continue to grow their businesses, but in reality, it’s the old things that work in every market and especially when it gets tough.
There were, however, a few ideas that really stood out to me. They were either new to me or they were twists on the tried and true.
So here’s 5 (plus a bonus tidbit) things you can do right now to grow your business in any market:
Up Your Listing Presentation Game!
Are you a new agent? Like every agent ever, you need to have a killer listing presentation. When a seller is considering entrusting you with their home sale, you’d better be able to articulate your value. The best way to do that is a presentation that covers all of the things you’re going to do to get them the best price and to answer all of their other questions in a simple to follow plan. The only way to get good at your presentation is to practice. So here’s what you do:
Call your friends and family and ask them for help. Don’t ask them for business! The goal should be to speak with 5 per day and set 2 appointments. Here’s what you say: “Hey, Aunt Janet. I could use a big favour…are you busy tomorrow evening? …. I need to practise my listing presentation, and I could use your critique so I can get better at it. In exchange, I’ll give you an evaluation of your home. What do you say, can you help me practise?”
The idea isn’t that Aunt Janet is actually going to sell her house. You’re going to get some practice in and get better at what you do. The side benefits are that you get to practise doing CMA’s (evaluations), and you’d be surprised how many times your contact will say to you, “Wow! I didn’t know you did all of that! I actually know someone who’s thinking of selling…you should talk to them!”
Do Something Good for a School in Your Farm Area
If we’ve spoken before about geographic farming, you know I think this is a great way to grow your business for the long term. It’s a long process, but one that has a potential for massive returns if done well.
Here’s an idea to add to your efforts. If there’s a school in your area, offer to buy their sports teams new jerseys. Don’t put your logo on them! You heard me, this is not a promotional opportunity. This is an opportunity for you to do something great for your local community. The person who talked about this idea on Tom’s video said that it returned business in spades BECAUSE they weren’t pushy about their branding. The school took it upon themselves to put up a plaque thanking the team for their contribution and the parents took note. Then the phone started to ring. I like this one!
Stop Selling!
This one isn’t so much a tactic as it is advice to tone it down a bit. The market isn’t so hot right now, so stop bragging about your successes or how you’re yet another #1 Agent. Stop it.
Aren’t we all a little tired of seeing posts like: Call me, I’m the #1 agent in Peterborough! Or Just Sold for WAY over the asking price! What does that even mean; that you don’t know how to accurately price properties?! Consumers are wise to this (they always were), so it doesn’t help.
Ugh. Enough.
Instead, be genuine, be yourself, talk about the truth of the market and how you’re continuing to support your clients. Don’t brag, but give folks an insider’s look at what you do. Stop selling, and start showing how you help.
Just Sold Cards
You heard me, postcards to the neighbourhood where your listing just sold. This tactic has been around for, literally, decades and it still works! Let’s ramp it up though.
Let’s ramp it up a lot.
Instead of the same old boring postcard you sent before, add a QR code to the back that goes to a property specific page for that sale. Now, the reason that QR codes are sometimes looked at as useless is that they point to pages that just say the same thing as the mailer or flyer that directed the user there in the first place. That’s just dumb. What you should be doing is using the QR code to provide access to something they can’t get elsewhere. Some sort of additional and useful content like video or extra links.
In this instance, you send them to a site specific page with a video of you talking about that particular sale. Talk about what the challenges were in marketing that property and how you solved them. In the video, encourage visitors to read the article you’ll place below the video.
In the article below the video, talk about your process for marketing a listing. Talk about the unique challenges that you and your clients are facing in today’s market and how you’re overcoming them. Educate – don’t sell.
Be sure you get written permission from the parties to the transaction if you’re going to use anything that would identify the property, the details of the transaction, or the parties involved of course. But even if you can’t get that permission, do your best to talk about your process in general terms. Be authentic and help people understand how you added value to the deal.
Add a contact form to the bottom of the page and encourage people to reach out if they know anyone who could benefit from your unique process and insight into their local market.
Equity Check
This is a twist on another great old idea. You’ve probably heard of the ‘Home Check’ or the ‘Updated Market Evaluation’ tactic of setting appointments with your past clients to update them on the price of their home and to see if there’s anything you can do for them. It’s a great way to stay in touch with folks in a very personal way and I think it’s a vastly underutilised method of business building.
What this method relies on, is appealing to the owners’ healthy greed around the increased (hopefully) value of their home. Lots of people who aren’t ‘in’ the real estate market just don’t know what the value of their property is, and are often pleasantly surprised to see that they may be sitting on a lot of untapped cash. When the market is rising, this works very well.
When the market drops a little, even if overall they would make money when they sell, sellers are often disappointed to learn that the house may have sold for more a few months ago. This new twist tries to take that ‘loss’ out of the equation.
Instead of looking at what the house will sell for, why don’t we simply address the increase in equity the seller might realise if they were to sell – regardless of what the market is doing. This way, you can use the Equity Check in any market to stay in touch.
Here’s what I mean.
Let’s say they bought the house, a bungalow in the west end of Peterborough, 7 years ago for $350,000. In February of 2022, the house may have been sold for $1,000,000. Yeah, it was that crazy. Now, that same house in June of 2022, may sell for $850,000. On paper they ‘lost’ $150,000. This isn’t the case, of course. Since they didn’t sell the house, they never had that money to begin with so they didn’t lose anything.
In fact, they’re UP $500,000! $850,000 – $350,000 = $500,000 in additional equity. If you add this to the amount of existing equity they have in the home, you can arrive at their total equity position which is actually far more meaningful than the potential sale price anyway.
Original sale price less down payment and total principal repaid plus increase in value = total equity.
Really, the most important metric should be total equity since this represents their actual real estate wealth at the time. So give this a try – call your past clients and set some appointments for Equity Checks.
Bonus Idea
Photo by Martin Katler on Unsplash
And finally, a bonus idea. A tag-on idea, if you will.
Holding an open house at a luxury listing? Why not see if the local luxury car dealer would bring some of their finest product to the open house and do a joint venture? Have them set up several models of cars at the open house and you both promote the event in advance.
Imagine pulling up to a luxury listing and finding some well dressed sales reps from Mercedes or Ferrari there showcasing the lifestyle associated with living in a home like this? Dynamite!
